Francis Arthur Nzeribe was a renowned arms dealer whose influence stretched across Africa. During the 30-month Nigerian Civil War, he supplied weapons to both Nigeria and Biafra, establishing a reputation for operating in every conflict zone on the continent.
In the 1960s, Nzeribe served as a speechwriter for Kwame Nkrumah. However, following a military coup that forced Nkrumah and his aides into exile in Conakry, Nzeribe returned to Ghana clandestinely, aligning himself with the new government that ousted his former employer.
His involvement in Ghana’s political turbulence deepened in April 1969 when he was implicated in a bribery scandal alongside Ghana’s Head of State, Joseph Arthur Ankrah.
The scandal’s fallout led to Ankrah’s resignation. A decade later, in 1979, J.J. Rawlings deported Nzeribe from Ghana to the United Kingdom, where he continued his arms-dealing operations.
After the Nigerian Civil War concluded in 1970, Nzeribe returned home and established his first enterprise, FANS Holdings Limited. His political influence persisted into the 1990s; in 1993, his organization, the Association for Better Nigeria, challenged the electoral process, contesting the legitimacy of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, which was ultimately annulled.
By May 2000, now serving as a Nigerian Senator, Nzeribe called on the National Assembly to impeach President Olusegun Obasanjo. He cited unresolved issues surrounding Sharia law, claiming it threatened Muslim communities.
This stance sparked shock among many Igbo, his ethnic kin, especially considering the violent Kaduna riots earlier that year, where the victims were mostly Eastern Nigerians, but the violence was fueled by Islamic extremists.
Arthur Nzeribe passed away on Sunday, May 8, 2022, after battling a long illness. He was 83.
𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘀𝗔𝗽𝗽 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗧𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗔𝘀 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗗𝗿𝗼𝗽!
