- K. O. Mbadiwe
Kingsley Ozuomba Mbadiwe (born 1915) was a
Nigerian politician, statesman and former minister for Commerce and Industry. He was born in the Orlu division of present dayImo State and attended theHope Waddell Training Institute , Calabar for primary education. He then proceeded to the Aggrey Memorial College, Arochukwu, of present dayAbia State Igbobi College, Lagos and the Baptist Academy Lagos for further studies. He left the Nigerian shores and went to study at Columbia and theNew York University for collegiate education. After returning from the U.S., he started his own business and also established a research institute on African Arts. He soon entered the Nigerian political scene and joined theNational Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons . In 1951, he was elected into the Eastern Region House of Assembly, he was re-elected in 1954, and made minister for Lands and National Resources. In 1957, he was made the minister for Commerce. However, his political success was to undergo a great challenge when he andKola Balogun attempted to removeNnamdi Azikiwe as the leader of N.C.N.C.. Both of them failed and were removed from the party. However, he re-joined the party in 1961 and was appointed as a special adviser to the prime minister.He had six children, the oldest Greg Mbadiwe who has six children of his own: Identical twins, Oc and Oz, closely followed by Og, OD Ot and the only girl Yazmin.
References
*Rosalynde Ainslie, Catherine Hoskyns, Ronald Segal; Frederick A. Praeger, Political Africa: A Who's Who of Personalities and Parties. Frederick A. Praeger, 1961
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.