Pulse.ng : FG mourns former Amb. Ukume who returned Ojukwu from exile

By Philip Yatai

The Federal Government has described late Amb. Denis Ukume as a “distinguished” Nigerian diplomat and a strong proponent of Nigeria’s global outreach in the second republic.

Ukeme was Nigeria’s Ambassador to Côte d’Ivoire between 1981 and 1984, died on Oct. 18, 2023, at the age of 85 following a brief illness.

Born in 1938, Ukume started his early education in Gboko and Katsina-Ala and was admitted into the prestigious Government College Keffi in present day Nasarawa State in 1948, though spent six years at the school in its temporary site in Kaduna State.

He later studied Journalism at the London Fleet College in the United Kingdom where he married a Briton and was blessed with two children, Terna and Juliet.

Ukume remarried and had three other children, Ukume Junior, Igba and Susan.

For his service and love for Nigeria, the late Ambassador was conferred with the National Honour of Member of the Federal Republic, MFR.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr George Akume, in his condolence message to the bereaved family recalls how Ukume had a unique experience while on tour of duty in Côte d’Ivoire, when the former Biafran leader, Chukuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was on exile.

Akume said that Ukume chaperoned a remorseful arch-secessionist, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, back to his fatherland after he was pardoned by President Shehu Shagari.

It will be recalled that Ojukwu who was granted asylum on January 11, 1970, by then President of Côte d’Ivoire, Félix Houphouët was in exile for 12 years until he received a state pardon on May 18, 1982.

Ojukwu returned to Nigeria as a private citizen on June 18, 1982.

For his love for reading and writing while alive, Ambassador Ukume published a number of books including “I Believe” in 2021, in which he captured his encounter and relationship with Ojukwu in Côte d’Ivoire.

Before his appointment as a diplomat in 1981, Ukume had a successful public service career. He served as Secretary of the Publicity Committee of the War Council during the country’s civil war between 1967 and 1970.

Earlier, he had worked with the Northern Nigerian Ministry of Information under Ahmed Joda, as Permanent Secretary and was privileged to travel with the late Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello.

With the creation of Benue-Plateau State in 1967, the young Ukume was deployed to its Ministry of Information as Principal Information Officer before leaving to join the Nigeria Airways as Advertising and Public Relations Manager and worked both in the United Kingdom and Nigeria.

Ukume took up a job as National Administrative Secretary at the National Secretariat of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and at the end of the 1979 General Election, President Shehu Shagari appointed him as Ambassador to Cote d’ Ivoire where he served until the military coup of 1984.

Similarly, the elder statesman and former NPN National Publicity Secretary, Simon Shango in his tribute says “the death of Ukume “came as a big shock to me.

“Two days before he passed on, he came to visit me at my office in Abuja, and we heartily discussed the past and the future of this country”.

Shango added that the late Ukume served as Chairman of the Mbakor Community Development Association for many years during which a lot of projects were initiated and executed.

He added that the projects included the construction of more school blocks of Mbakor Community Secondary School, and provisions of transformers and transmission lines in Wannune Town.

Ukume will be buried on Saturday, November 25, 2023, in his hometown in Tarka LGA of Benue State.