By The founding General Manager of News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Professor Onuora Nzekwu OON has been announced dead by a Family source. The writer and editor passed away at the age of 89 on Friday, April 21st, 2017.
Nzekwu worked as Protem general manager of News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) until July 1, 1979, when he then took over the position of substantive general manager.
He retired from the Nigeria Public Service in 1985, after presiding over the affairs of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) for nearly eight years and servicing his country’s government for 39 years.
He handed over to Adefela as the pioneer General Manager of NAN.
Nzekwu was born to Mr. Obiese Nzekwu and Mrs. Mary Ogugua Nzekwu (née Aghadiuno). In January 1956, he joined the Federal Civil Service as an editorial assistant at the Nigeria Magazine Division of the Federal Ministry of Information.
Nzekwu worked as an editorial assistant from 1956 to 1958. In 1958, he took over the position of editor-in-chief of the magazine. Nzekwu continued to run the Nigeria Magazine Division of the Federal Ministry of Information until 1966, when the Nigerian Crisis compelled him to transfer his services to the Eastern Nigeria Public Service.
Nzekwu began as a senior information officer at Eastern Nigeria, a post that the combined the roles of Information Ministry and Cultural officer. In 1968, he was promoted deputy director of the newly created Cultural Division.
At the end of hostilities in January 1970, Nzekwu returned to the Federal Ministry of Information in May and was assigned to the information division as senior information officer.
On August 8, 2006, NAN observed its 30th Anniversary during celebrations at Abuja. The Agency presented a plaque to with the engraving “Maker of NAN,” to Nzekwu. In December, 2008, Nzekwu was conferred with the Nigerian National Honor of the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON).
Nzekwu also received the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in 1961, which enabled him to study American Methods of Magazine Production with Crafts Horizons in New York. In 1964, Nzekwu was awarded an UNESCO Fellowship which allowed him to study Copyright Administration for three months in Geneva, Prague, Paris, London, New York and Washington.
Nzekwu was a master story teller and famous writer of best-selling novel,Eze Goes to School Nzekwu had some works to his credit, among them are Wand of Noble Wood (1961), Blade Among the Boys (1962), Highlife for Lizards (1965), Troubled Dust (2012), and “Ahmad Daggash (Story of the True)”
