Anthony Ukpabi Asika, standing

One man’s saboteur is anther’s helper! That was the case of Anthony Ukbabi Asika, a man who walked on a tight rope as the civil war in Nigeria raged. He was Igbo, yet he worked for the federal government of Nigeria. Monday, 28 October was the 52nd anniversary of his appointment as the Administrator of East Central State. That was in 1967 during the Nigerian civil war. Gowon made him to fill that position after the Eastern Region governor, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, declared a break-away Biafra from Nigeria

According to his biographers whose writings were compiled by Wikipedia, below are 17 facts about him:

-Asika was born in Onitsha in modern-day Anambra State on 28 June 1936.

– His father was Edward Obiozo Asika of the Ijelekpe Dynasty in Ogbeoza Village, Onitsha.

-He was educated as St. Patrick’s College, Calabar, Edo College and University College, now the University of Ibadan.

– He worked as Clerk of Onitsha Town Council (1953),

Anthony Ukpabi Asika, standing

– Clerk in the Department of Marketing and Export, Lagos,

-Clerk at the Northern Nigeria Marketing Board, Kano.

– Asika studied at the University of California in the US from 1961 to 1965

-He became a lecturer in Political Science at the University of Ibadan between 1965 and 1967.

-He was appointed administrator of East-Central State on 28 October 1967 at the start of the Biafran civil war

– Biafran radio used the nickname for “Lord Haw Haw” for Asika, who was a pro-federal Igbo intellectual.

– After the war ended in 1970 he was responsible for administering a large part of the former Biafran territories.

– While governor, he was also a member of the Technical Committee on the Review of the National Census from 1973 to 1975.

-Asika later was Team Leader of the Presidential Delegation to Niger, Chad and Cameroun which negotiated re-opening Nigeria borders in 1985.

– Asika suffered a stroke in 1996, requiring extensive medical care, and was incapacitated from then on.

– He died on 14 September 2004.[8]

-Asika was married to late Chief Mrs. Chinyere Asika,

-Survived by three children: Obi, Nkiru and Uju.