Chukwuemeka Ezeife (20 November 1937 – 14 December 2023) was a Nigerian politician who was the governor of Anambra State in Nigeria from January 1992 to November 1993 during the Nigerian Third Republic.^[1]

Ezeife was born at Igbo-Ukwu, Anambra State on 20 November 1937. He did not attend secondary school, but taught himself through correspondence courses, qualifying for university admission. He gained a BSc in Economics from the University College Ibadan, then attended Harvard University on a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship where he obtained a master's and then PhD degree in 1972.^[2] He became a School Headmaster, a lecturer at Makarare University College, Kampala, Uganda, a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University, and a Consultant with Arthur D. Little in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ezeife joined the civil service as an Administrative Officer and rose to the position of Permanent Secretary.^[3]

Ezeife was elected governor of Anambra State on the Social Democratic Party (SDP) platform, holding office from 2 January 1992 to 17 November 1993, when General Sani Abacha took power after a military coup. As governor, he was said to be more interested in planning than in addressing immediate developmental needs and achieved few tangible results.^[4] He transferred Nnamdi Azikiwe University and Federal Polytechnic, Oko to the federal government, which helped ensure that they survived in the ensuing military regime.^[5]

During the Nigerian Fourth Republic Ezeife, who described himself as a social democrat, was appointed presidential Adviser on Political Matters to President Olusegun Obasanjo.^[2]

Ezeife was appointed a member of the board of the Centre for Development & Empowerment of Commercial Motorcyclists.^[3] In February 2006 the Federal Capital development Authority bulldozed his house in Abuja on the grounds that the plot of land and those of adjacent houses had been acquired improperly.^[6] In January 2010 he was among thousands who demonstrated in Awka calling for credible and violence-free governorship elections on 6 February.^[7] In April 2010 one of Ezeife's wives, Onyedi, was kidnapped by hoodlums who had earlier killed four policemen. The kidnappers demanded a high ransom.^[8]

Chukwuemeka Ezeife died on 14 December 2023, at the age of 86.^[9]