Agunwa Anakwe, former speaker of the House of Representatives, is dead.
He died on Saturday.
Law Mefor, commissioner for information in Anambra,
confirmed his passing in a telephone conversation on Monday.
Although the cause of his death is unclear, the former
speaker was said to have been nursing an ailment for sometime.
Anakwe led the third house of representatives at 36 under
the interim civilian government of Ernest Shonekan in 1992 until Sani Abacha
seized power the following year.
He opposed the agitation for creation of more local
governments at the time, which though a legitimate aspiration, was pushed as a
disguise to elongate the transition to democracy.
“He steered the House with a lot of dexterity, wisdom and
patience, a situation that saw the House having more stability than its Senate
counterpart before the military led by General Sani Abacha struck on November
17, 1993, after the annulment of the presidential election won by MKO Abiola of
the SDP,” Chris Ngige, former governor of Anambra, where Anakwe hails from,
wrote in a statement.
Ngige described Anakwe as a close friend and trusted
political ally.
“As Governor, he stood with me in the fight to behead the
god-fathers that held Anambra hostage under Gov Mbadinuju resulting in ‘years
of the locusts’ situation with unpaid salaries and gratuities for workers,
teachers resulting in closure of schools for one academic session; a situation
we quickly reversed with restoration of payment of salaries and gratuities as
and when due,” he added.
The former labour minister noted that his last visit to the
ex-speaker was in late March “when I heard he was sick and was billed for a
major surgery”.
“The camaraderie we shared that night and his happiness at
seeing us after many months, lifted our spirits not knowing that death, ‘the
biggest thief in the night’ was lurking around to steal our friend and brother,
Ide Anaocha,” he said.
Ngige said Anakwe’s death has left a “very big void,
difficult to fill because of the dearth of principled, accountable and truthful
persons in the murky and dirty waters of Nigerian politics”.
TheCable could not immediately reach Anakwe’s family for
comments.
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