Background
He was born on November 26, 1924, at Umuahia-Ibeku in Eastern Nigeria (now East Central State) the son of Chief Johnson Okezie.
He was born on November 26, 1924, at Umuahia-Ibeku in Eastern Nigeria (now East Central State) the son of Chief Johnson Okezie.
Educated locally and then at Achimota College, Ghana, in 1943, at Yaba College of Medicine 1944-7, and University College, Ibadan, 1948-9.
In 1950, he became an assistant medical officer in the Nigerian civil service. He left in 1954 to build a 65-bed hospital in his home town Umuahia-Ibeku and was the hospital medical superintendent from 1958 to 1969. He was also Secretary of the Eastern Nigeria Medical Association and of the Science Association and associate editor of the journal “The Nigerian Scientist”, from 1961 to 1962. He felt he needed also to make a political contribution and became an independent member of the Eastern Region House of Assembly between 1961 and 1966 and was actually leader of a small dissident group, called the Republican party, which did not go along with the ruling NCNC government. He abandoned politics at the time of the Nigerian coups in 1966, and during the civil war continued to serve as medical superintendent at his hospital.
At the end of the war, he was appointed Senior Medical Officer in charge of the Queen Elizabeth hospital at Umuahia-Ibeku. Later in 1970, he was made a member of the Federal Executive Council and Commissioner for Health. Then, in the reshuffle on October 20, 1971, he was moved to Agriculture and Natural Resources.