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Chief Emeka Anyaoku-Former Commonwealth Secretary General
Eleazar Chukwuemeka (Emeka) Anyaoku was born on 18 January 1933 in Obosi, Nigeria. He attended the Merchants of Light School in Oba and (as a College Scholar) the University College of Ibadan, at the time a college of the University of London and from which he obtained an honours degree in Classics. Chief Anyaoku later attended specialist courses in Britain and France.
In 1959, Emeka Anyaoku joined the Commonwealth Development Corporation. Following Nigeria's independence, he was invited to join his country's diplomatic service and, in 1963, was posted to Nigeria's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.
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In 1966, shortly after the establishment of the Commonwealth Secretariat, he was seconded to the new organisation at the request of the first Secretary- General, Arnold Smith of Canada, as Assistant Director of International Affairs, later becoming Director and, in 1975, Assistant Secretary-General.
In 1977, Commonwealth governments elected him Deputy Secretary-General with responsibility for international affairs and the Secretariat's administration.
Nigeria's civilian government of 1983 called on Chief Anyaoku to become Nigeria's Foreign Minister. On the overthrow of the Government by the military, he returned to his position as Deputy Secretary- General with the support of the new government in Nigeria and the endorsement of all Commonwealth Governments.
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At the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting at Kuala Lumpur in 1989, Chief Anyaoku was elected the third Commonwealth Secretary- General. He was re-elected at the 1993 Limassol CHOGM for a second five year term, beginning in July 1995.
Amidst his international commitments, Chief Anyaoku continues to fulfil the duties of his office as Ichie Adazie of Obosi, a traditional Ndichie chieftaincy title. In 1990, the Heads of all 19 communities of the Idemili Clan in his home State of Anambra accorded Chief Anyaoku a unique honour by investing him with the title of Ugwumba Idemili.
His wife, Bunmi, is a chief - Ugoma Obosi and Idemili - in her own right, with a long
involvement in welfare work in Nigeria and through Commonwealth
organisations.
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