Maverick Politician, Arthur Nzeribe Dies At 83

Marverick politician and founder of the defunct Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), in the aborted Nigeria’s Third Republic, Senator Arthur Nzeribe is reportedly dead.

Nzeribe, who has been bedridden for some years now is believed to have died on Sunday morning at the age of 83years at a foreign hospital following an undisclosed ailment.

A family source who does not prefers anonymity confirmed the death saying; “I can confirm that he died this morning in a hospital abroad. The family will soon issue a statement”.

Senator Nzeribe, who was a multi-billionaire business mogul, was born in Oguta, Imo State on November 2, 1938 and was elected a Senator to represent the Orlu Senatorial District of Imo State in 1999.

His father, Chief Oyimba Nzeribe, was a lawyer and former state counsel while his grandfather, Akpati Nzeribe, held the traditional title of Ogbuagu, Oshiji, Damanze Oyimba of Oguta.

He attended Bishop Shanahan College, Orlu and Holy Ghost College, Owerri. In 1957 before he traveled to Lagos where he obtained employment with the Nigeria Ports Authority as an engineering cadet, and a year later, he received a scholarship from the NPA to study marine engineering. He took courses at Portsmouth College of Technology and later attended Chesterfield College of Technology in England.

By 1960 he was selling life insurance to black immigrants in Britain. Returning to Nigeria in 1961 he was briefly an employee of Shell, then for a few months an Air Force cadet. Thereafter, he worked for Gulf Oil at the firm’s Escravos facility.

Nzeribe soon left Gulf Oil and returned to London, where he opened Jeafan, a public relations firm, with one Ghanaian and two English partners. The firm worked with a number of African diplomatic missions in London including the Ghana High Commission. The well-dressed and mannered Nzeribe was able to gain the confidence of a few notable clients.

Through the Ghana Commission, he met Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and started to work for him in public relations. Nkrumah also introduced him to other African leaders. In 1966, when the National Liberation Council (NLC) overthrew Nkrumah, Nzeribe and Jeafan briefly lost influence in Ghana but the NLC leadership soon turned to Jeafan to help improve the public image of their administration. Nzeribe developed a working relationship with Joseph Arthur Ankrah, head of the liberation council, but when Ankrah left office in April 1969, Nzeribe lost influence in Ghana.

In 1969, Nzeribe started up the Fanz Organization based in London, dealing in heavy construction, arms, oil brokerage, publishing and property investment, with much business in the Middle East and Gulf states. By 1979, Fanz had an annual trading turnover of £70 million. He is believed to be worth over 1.5 billion dollars as of 2018.

In Nigeria, Nzeribe built up Sentinel Assurance and other companies. His country home in Oguta is called Heaven of Peace, an estate that contains multiple mansions. In 1983, he spent N12m to win a Senatorial seat in Orlu. Ten years later, he was a prominent supporter of the Association for a Better Nigeria, which backed General Ibrahim Babangida.

• June 12 Election Annulment

On June 10, 1993, Nzeribe tried to stop the election, relying on a court order, which his group, Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), got from a midnight ruling from late Justice Bassey Ikpeme of Abuja High Court. ABN was known to be pro-Babangida.

• Senate Career

Arthur Nzeribe was elected Senator for the Imo Orlu constituency in 1999 and was reelected in 2003. In November 2002, Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim indefinitely suspended Senator Nzeribe due to an allegation of a-N22 million fraud. Nzeribe was said to be planning an impeachment motion against Anyim.

In April 2006, the Orlu People’s Consultative Assembly, sponsored by the governor of Imo state Achike Udenwa, staged what it called “One million March” to drum up support for Nzeribe’s recall from the Senate. In the December 2006 PDP primaries for the 2007 Senatorial candidates, he was defeated by Osita Izunaso.

• Later Career

In August 2007 Nzeribe was appointed a member of the Board of Trustees of the PDP.