Lagos — Senator Polycarp Ogbonna Nwite, senior special assistant to the President on political matters is dead.
According to a press release signed by his media adviser, Mr. Edward Dibiana, Senator Nwite's first son, Mr. Michael Nwite said his late father passed on at the National Hospital, Abuja on Wednesday, where he was receiving treatment due to the complications that arose after treatment at Columbia Asia Hospital, Bangalore, India in April to restore his failing sight.
Nwite who resumed work two months ago after recuperating in his village, Odageri Edda, in Ebonyi State travelled back to his village three weeks ago for the New Yam festival and was said to have slumped hours after his arrival. He was subsequently rushed back to Abuja and was admitted at the private wing of the National Hospital.
A frontline politician and industrialist, Senator Nwite was an activist, who at the height of the regime of the late General Sani Abacha was one of the arrowheads of the pro-democracy group, National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), which insisted on the validation of the June 12, 1993 presidential election result which was voided by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida's regime.
For his audacity, Nwite was arrested and detained with some of his colleague- senators such as Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State, Ameh Ebute and late Mark Nwulu, on allegations of being involved in the spate of bombings that rocked parts of the country then.
Twice, he contested the governorship election in Ebonyi state and lost.
He was chairman, Senate committee on national security and intelligence, while he was a senator. In 2008 he was appointed the Nigerian high commissioner to Botswana by former President, the late Umaru Yar'Adua. He was, however, recalled in 2009 and was made senior special assistant to the President, a position he retained under President Goodluck Jonathan until he passed on..
As a true believer in the principles of democracy, Senator Nwite had at different fora canvassed for internal democracy in the parties, supremacy of the rule of law and violence-free politics. He is survived by six children.
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