Chief Emeka Anyaoku (), GCON, GCVO, CFR (born 18 January 1933) is a Nigerian diplomat. He was the third Commonwealth Secretary-General. Born in Obosi, Anyaoku was educated at Merchants of Light School, Oba, and attended the University College, Ibadan, then a college of the University of London, from which he obtained an honours degree in Classics as a College Scholar. Aside from his international career, Chief Anyaoku continues to fulfil the duties of his office as Ichie Adazie of Obosi, a traditional Ndichie chieftainship.
Eleazar Chukwuemeka "Emeka" Anyaoku was born on 18 January 1933 to Emmanuel and Cecilia Anyaoku in Obosi, then a very large village in the eastern part of Nigeria. Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Anyaoku had been educated to middle-school level after his primary education at the CMS school in Onitsha under the guardianship of Reverend William Blackett, a Christian Missionary. After his education, he worked first with the railways and later in a hospital in Kaduna in the Northern part of Nigeria before becoming a catechist. After serving for a number of years, he went back to his village to farm. He became Ononukpo (Head) of Okpuno Ire, a quarter in Ire, the largest village in Obosi.
Cecilia, née Adiba Ogbogu, was married as second wife by Emmanuel when he returned from Kaduna following the death of his first wife. Cecilia hailed from a family in Ugamuma quarter of Obosi. She grew up at the home of Rev. Ekpunobi, her guardian, who was the first Obosi citizen to be ordained as an Anglican Priest. He was regarded as one of the most enlightened and educated in the community then. Cecilia stayed with the Ekpunobi family as a ward. Rev. Ekpunobi, on learning of the death of Emmanuel's wife, invited him to his home and subsequently convinced Emmanuel and Adiba to marry each other. Their first child, a girl, did not survive. Thereafter, Emeka was born along with five siblings.
At the age of seven, Emeka Anyaoku was sent to live with his father's only brother, Egwuenu Anyaoku, at Umuahia to begin his education at a rural school. At the time, the highest class at the school was standard four. The colonial administration then generally did not encourage pupils to go beyond standard four or standard six. At the age of 10, in 1943, Emeka was sent to stay with his father's cousin, Nathaniel Enwezor who was Headmaster at CMS Central School at Agbor, 75 km from Obosi.
For his secondary education, Anyaoku attended Merchants of Light School (MOLS) in Oba, joining the school's second intake of 60 boys. The boarding school was founded by his father's friend, Dr. Enoch Oli, a London- and Oxford-trained educationist who emphasized hard work and character. Anyaoku excelled academically, ultimately taking 10 subjects in his Cambridge School Certificate examination and earning a first-grade pass.
During holidays in Obosi, Anyaoku actively participated in debates organized by the Obosi Students Association. Contemporaries like Chief Godfrey Eneli noted his early leadership qualities and logical approach to arguments, earning him the nickname "lawyer" among his peers. Classmate S. I. Metu described him as highly studious and sociable, noting his natural diplomacy and interpersonal skills..
From 1952 to mid-1954, Anyaoku taught mathematics, Latin, and English at Emmanuel College in Owerri. Inspired by his Latin teacher at MOLS, he developed a deep interest in the classics and subsequently enrolled at the newly established University College of Ibadan, an overseas college of the University of London..
While an undergraduate in the mid-1950s, Anyaoku became actively involved in national politics. As a student union leader, he and his peers campaigned for a unitary state over a federal structure during Nigeria's pre-independence debates. The union sent delegations and petitions to the era's major political figures: Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe in the East, Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the West, and Sir Ahmadu Bello in the North.. .
In 1959, Anyaoku graduated as a college scholar with a London University Honours Degree in Classics. He then joined the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) in Lagos. After serving as an Executive Trainee at the CDC headquarters in London, he completing a course at the Royal Institute for Public Administration in London. He was posted back to the CDC's West Africa regional office in Lagos following Nigeria's independence in October 1960.
In December 1961, Anyaoku then a CDC Executive Officer came in contact with a 20-year-old Yoruba lady, Princess Ebunola Olubunmi Solanke, at a bachelor's eve party which he and his flatmate hosted for a friend of theirs in Lagos. The princess, familiarly known by the diminutive "Bunmi", was educated in England at a Christian girls boarding school, St. Mary's School at Hastings. She thereafter attended Pitman College, London. Emeka and Bunmi were married at the Anglican Cathedral Church in Lagos on 10 November 1962.
In 1959, Emeka Anyaoku joined the Commonwealth Development Corporation. In early 1962, Anyaoku came in contact with the then Prime Minister of Nigeria, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. He had accompanied his visiting boss, Lord Howick, Chairman of the Commonwealth Development Corporation, to a meeting with the Prime Minister on the activities of the corporation in Nigeria and the West African region. The Prime Minister, impressed by Anyaoku's answers to some of his questions on the projects supported by the CDC in West Africa, took an interest in Anyaoku's future and persuaded him to consider joining the Nigerian Foreign Service. After a gruelling interview by the Federal Civil Service Commission, he was offered an appointment in the Foreign Service in April 1962. Within a month of his entry, he was appointed Personal Assistant to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry for External Affairs. There he was closely involved in the process that led to the establishment of the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) in May 1963. Following Nigeria's independence, he joined Nigeria's diplomatic service, and in 1963 was posted to its Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.
In 1966, he joined the Commonwealth Secretariat as Assistant Director of International Affairs. In 1968–69 there was a campaign by the Nigerian military government for the recall of Anyaoku; which said he was not a suitable Nigerian nominee, and they were anxious about his loyalty "to the country of his birth". But "Emeka had resigned from the Nigerian Foreign Service and Arnold had no difficulty in turning aside the demand".
In 1977, the Commonwealth Heads of Government elected him as Deputy Secretary-General. In 1983, Nigeria's civilian government appointed Anyaoku to become Nigeria's Foreign Minister. After the overthrow of the government by the military later that year, he returned to his position as Deputy Secretary-General with the support of the new government in Nigeria and the endorsement of all Commonwealth governments.
At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Kuala Lumpur on 24 October 1989, Anyaoku was elected the third Commonwealth Secretary-General. He was re-elected at the 1993 CHOGM in Limassol for a second five-year term, beginning on 1 April 1995.
In July 1963, at the age of 30, he was posted to Nigeria's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. His first child, Adiba, was born in the New York Lying-In Hospital on 20 November 1963, two days before President John F. Kennedy of the United States was assassinated. A few weeks previously, Nigeria had become a Republic, with Nnamdi Azikiwe as the first President. At his duty post at the United Nations, Anyaoku as Nigeria's alternative representative in the United Nations special committee on Apartheid drafted the resolution – presented to the General Assembly by Nigeria in 1965 – that established a trust fund to enable governments to contribute to the defense of political detainees in South Africa.
He became embroiled in the crisis triggered by the Ian Smith administration in the then Southern Rhodesia in Southern Africa, who announced Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from Britain. Anyaoku spoke at various forums to condemn this development. It was during one of these occasions that the news of Nigeria's first military coup d'état of 15 January 1966 reached him. The Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the powerful Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, and a number of other leaders of the post-independence state were assassinated during the coup d'état. The coup d'état had taken place just one day after the Prime Minister hosted other Commonwealth leaders including the new Secretary-General, Arnold Smith, to a meeting in Lagos where they discussed the issue of Rhodesia.