Pioneer Chairman of Nwangele Local Government Area, Imo state, Sir Sidney Obasi is dead. He passed on at the Imo State University Teaching Hospital Orlu aged 85.
Born on July 10, 1930, Sidney Nmasi Ndukwe Obasi was orphaned at five having lost both parents Eze Obasi Onukwuire and Ugoeze Ufonze. Raised in the Royal Court by an uncle, the boy later journeyed to Port-Harcourt where he obtained London Tuition Certificate. Much later in life he benefitted from the International Institute of Public Management [IIPM], Washington DC in the United States.
He joined oil giants, Shell in1959 and was posted to Benin from where he was transferred to Kaduna as the company’s representative in the Northern region. Among his contemporaries were Alhaji Abu Gidado, former Minister of State Finance under the Sani Abacha regime and Mr. Mobolaji Ajose Adeogun, first minister of the Federal Capital Territory [FCT]. Sir Sidney had to resign in 1966 following the pogrom in the North.
At the end of the Civil War in 1970, he set up a Shell Filling Station in Orlu. He also worked with R.T. Briscoe Motors Aba until 1977 when he opened an auto sales shop.
As a politician, he pitched camp with the Nigeria Peoples Party [NPP] in 1978 and was appointed Chairman of Nkwerre/Isu Local Government Council by Governor Sam Mbakwe from 1979-1982. Following the creation of Nwangele Local government in 1982, Sir Sidney became its first chairman and was in that position until Gen. Muhammadu Buhari struck on December 31, 1983.
He was a Knight of St. Christopher [KSC] and Ihechidere of Dim-Na-Nume.
He is survived by a wife, Lady Josephine Obasi , eight children and several grandchildren. They include Chinaka Obasi, an architect based in the United States, Emeka, of the New Telegraph newspapers, Chukwunonye, a Security Consultant in Germany, Mrs Ada Alaribe of NAMA, Mrs. Chinwe Anorue of Zenith Bank, Mrs. Ezii Ijeomah of Zinny Couture, Uchechi of NIMASA and Chigbo of the Presidency.