Former Commonwealth Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, has lamented the death of eminent diplomat and publisher, Ambassador Ralph Uwechue, describing it as a huge loss. Uwechue, a one-time President General of apex Igbo group Ohanaeze Ndigbo, died yesterday at 80, with the news of his death being broken by News Express.

Mourning him this morning, Chief Anayoku said in a statement issued in Lagos: “Chief Ralph Uwechue was an uncommon Pan-Africanist and a true Nigerian patriot. He loved his people Ndigbo and his country Nigeria in equal measure. He was an embodiment of the qualities of good leadership and devotion to public service.

“Ralph Uwechue’s career stretched from unblemished period in Nigeria’s diplomatic service until, driven by his strong sense of equity and common humanity, he reacted to the mass killing of Ndigbo in Northern Nigeria in 1966 by sympathising with Biafra at the beginning of the civil war.

“He later went into journalism by publishing for a while the widely read Africa Magazine and ultimately producing the tome, Know Africa, a major historical work on Africa’s story and its leaders which continues to be reference books of inestimable value to students and the reading public.

“Ralph Uwechue’s unsupressible passion for service and democracy in Nigeria led him into politics where he was not only a stalwart in the opposition to Abacha’s dictatorship through NADECO, but was subsequently chosen to be the Presidential candidate of his party in the Delta State. His last foray into major public service was his leadership of his people as the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

“Chief Ralph Uwechue’s death is a huge loss in the rank of our not so many citizens who have genuine passion and ideas for a stable and progressive Nigerian nation.”

•Photo shows late Ambassador Ralph Uwechue.