Emeka Anyaoku: The Diplomats’ Diplomat

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Chief Emeka Anyaoku, GCVO, CON was the third Commonwealth Secretary-General. Born in Obosi, Anyaoku was educated at Merchant of Light School, Oba and attended the University College of Ibadan, then a college of the University of London, from which he obtained an Honours Degree in Classics. - By Dapo Olaosebikan

Chief Emeka Anyaoku, GCVO, CON  was the third Commonwealth Secretary-General. Born in Obosi, Anyaoku was educated at Merchant of Light School, Oba and attended the University College of Ibadan, then a college of the University of London, from which he obtained an Honours Degree in Classics. In 1959, Emeka Anyaoku joined the Commonwealth Development Corporation. Following Nigeria’s independence, he joined Nigeria’s diplomatic service, and in 1963 was posted to its Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.
In 1966, he joined the Commonwealth Secretariat as Assistant Director of International Affairs. In 1968-69 there was a campaign by the Nigerian military government for the recall of Anyaoku; which said he was not a suitable Nigerian nominee, and they were anxious about his loyalty “to the country of his birth”. But “Emeka had resigned from the Nigerian Foreign Service and Arnold had no difficulty in turning aside the demand.”
In 1977, the Commonwealth Heads of Government elected him as Deputy Secretary-General. In 1983, Nigeria’s civilian government appointed Anyaoku to become Nigeria’s Foreign Minister. After the overthrow of the government by the military later that year, 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.
At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Kuala Lumpur in 1989, Anyaoku was elected the third Commonwealth Secretary-General. He was re-elected at the 1993 CHOGM in Limassol for a second five-year term, beginning on 1 April 1995.
Referred to as a ‘diplomat’s diplomat,’ Anyaoku worked for over 35 years in diplomacy and international affairs.  He promoted the Commonwealth’s role in the democracy movement of the 1990s, with the formulation of the Harare Declaration on Human Rights and Democracy in 1991. It was in Anyaoku’s own country that the Declaration was first seriously tested in 1997, when General Sani Abacha’s regime executed Niger Delta activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others. Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth but Anyaoku stayed on as Secretary General. He has turned down invitations from several politicians to enter politics and contest the presidency. In 1997 he organised the first African Commonwealth Heads of Government Roundtable to promote democracy and good governance in Africa.
As a true test of his looming stature as a international figure, Professor Ali Mazrui, Vice-Chancellor of the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, in 2009, said a foreigner should chair Kenya’s newly created Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission because many suspected the government will use the TJRC to exonerate any culpable senior politician in the issue of justice and fairness and suggested Chief Emeka Anyaoku, former Commonwealth Secretary General, for the post.
In 1998 he received the freedom of the city of London, the highest honour the ancient capital of Britain can bestow. The former secretary general had a $1.8 million chair in Commonwealth studies named after him at the University of London. He was decorated by Queen Elizabeth as an Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, GCBVO.
The former Secretary General of the Common Wealth of Nations Chief Emeka Anyaoku was the Chairman of the Nigeria Leadership Summit 2013which held on the 11th and 12th of December 2013, at the prestigious Intercontinental Hotel in Victoria Island Lagos.
Chief Anyaoku who is one of Nigeria’s most respected Statesmenwas expected to lead discussions and deliberations on the future of youth development and empowerment in Nigeria. The Summit was focused on Job creation and its theme is “LETS GET TO WORK”. The choice of Chief Anyaoku was regarded as most appropriate as he is one Nigerian whose reputation for National Development and youth Empowerment is without question. Chief Anyaoku’s recognition is truly global having received the highest national civilian honours of several Nations including but not limited to Cameroon, Lesotho, Madagascar, Namibia, Republic of South Africa and Trinidad & Tobago’s Trinity Cross, TC as well as one of the highest honours in Britain the Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, GCVO from Her Majesty The Queen of the United Kingdom in 2000. He has also received hundreds of awards, degrees and recognition for outstanding service to humanity from over 55 universities, institutions and organizations all over the World. He is currently, Chairman, Presidential Advisory Council on International Relations in Nigeria. The Nigeria Leadership Summit 2012 was termed by the media as one of the most successful conferences ever held in the history of Nigeria. The event recorded over 3000 delegates, over 35 high quality speakers, and it was the very first Summit, Conference or seminar in Nigeria to be streamed live to an audience of over 35,000 people in different parts of the World
Aside from his international career, Chief Anyaoku continues to fulfill the duties of his office as Ichie Adazie of Obosi, a traditional Ndichie chieftainship. In 1990, the heads of all 19 communities of the Idemili Clan in his home state of Anambra accorded Anyaoku a unique honour by investing him with the title of Ugwumba Idemili. His wife, Bunmi, is also a chieftainess - Ugoma Obosi and Idemili - in her own right, with a long involvement in welfare work in Nigeria and throughout the Commonwealth.
From 2001 to 2010, he was president of the World Wide Fund for Nature. He is also a Vice-President of the Royal Commonwealth Society.
The Ichie Anyaoku has been married to Princess Bunmi Anyaoku since 1962. Princess Anyaoku is an Omoba (Princess) of Abeokuta, Nigeria. Of their marriage, it was written in the Nigerian Sunday Times, then the widest circulating newspaper in the country, that “it was a wedding of one of Nigeria’s most eligible bachelors and a beautiful young Princess educated in an English boarding school and Pitman College, London.”
They have four children, Adiba; their daughter, and three sons; Oluyemisi, Obiechina, and Emenike. Emeka has two grandchildren, born to Adiba and her husband; Irenne Ighodaro and Osita Ighodaro. Emeka Anyaoku is an Anglican, his father having converted to that faith. He writes that he is, “very comfortable being an Anglican, comfortable with the beliefs that Anglicanism represents.”