Friday, March 14, 2014

SAD: Ex-Ohaneze Leader, Ralph Uwechue Is Dead


A former President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, publisher and scholar, Ambassador Ralph Uwechue, is dead.
Uwechue, 79, died in Abuja on Thursday.
The President-General, Ogwashi-Uku Development Union, Emmanuel Okafor, confirmed the death.
Uwechue was born at Ogwashi-Uku, Delta, in 1935.
He attended St. John’s (Rimi) College, Kaduna from 1949 to 1954 and was retained as a teacher in the school for 18 months before he proceeded for further studies.
Continue reading after the cut..

Uwechue holds a bachelor’s degree in history of the University College, Ibadan, 1960 and a Diploma in International Law and French language from the Geneva African Institute, Switzerland in 1964.
A career diplomat, Uwechue joined the Nigerian Foreign Service at its inception in 1960, and served in a number of countries, including Cameroun, Pakistan and Mali. He was Nigeria’s first envoy to France and opened the Nigerian Embassy in Paris in 1966.
Uwechue also served with UNESCO in Paris as Consultant on “General History of Africa” project between 1967 and 1970.
He retired into private business in 1970 as Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of magazines and books on Africa, published in both English and French.
He is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the renowned KNOW AFRICA books – a three-volume encyclopaedia comprising Africa Today, Africa Who’s Who and Makers of Modern Africa.
For 10 years (1980-1990) Uwechue lectured on African Affairs at the Royal College of Defence Studies, London, United Kingdom.
As Ambassador Extraordinary and plenipotentiary, Uwechue in 1999, became the Special Presidential Envoy on Conflict Resolution in Africa to former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He brought his international experience, connections, immense knowledge and passion for Africa, to bear on his assignment.
He played a key role in the peaceful settlement of the decade-long Sierra Leonean civil war, which culminated in free and fair elections in 2002.
As Obasanjo’s envoy on Conflict Resolution in Africa, Uwechue also heads the ECOWAS Mission in Cote d’Ivoire, charged with coordinating and monitoring peacekeeping operations toward the resolution of the crisis in that country.
He was appointed chairman of the Accra III International Monitoring Group, which reported regularly on the situation in Cote d’Ivoire to the ECOWAS Authority, the African Union and the United Nations.
 May His Soul Rest In Peace!

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