A former minister and Nigerian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Maitama Sule is dead. He passed away at a Cairo hospital in Egypt after a brief illness. He was aged 88.
Sule had being flown to the Egyptian hospital on Saturday after doctors at Kano’s Nasarawa Hospital diagnosed him of pneumonia and chest infection.
His remains would be flown into the country on Tuesday while funeral prayers would take place at the Emir of Kano’s Palace by 4 p.m.
Sule was minister of mines and power during the first republic administration of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, and was minister for national guidance in 1983.
In 1976, he was appointed to head a newly established ombudsman body, Public Complaints Commission.
Born in 1929 in Kano, Sule was famous for his oratory and flamboyance.
In the 1979 transition to civil rule, he vied for the presidential ticket of the National Party of Nigeria, losing to his opponent, Shehu Shagari, in a re-run.
Afterwards, he was appointed ambassador by the then President Shagari and posted to the United Nations. While at the UN, he chaired the United Nations Standing Committee Against Apartheid then ravaging South Africa.
