DISCLOSED: Mbazulike Amaechi Was Hiding Mandela In Nigeria For 6 Months

One of the
few
surviving
nationalists
and
former
Minister of
Aviation in
the first
republic, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi has revealed
how he was hiding the former South Africa
President, Chief Nelson Mandela, for six months in
Nigeria to evade his arrest by officials of the
apartheid regime in that country.
Amaechi said in his interview to the Vanguard
journalists, that people like Mandela are great
assets to humanity and should not be going through
the pains of life.
The former minister, popularly known as ‘the boy is
good’, said it was a privilege to him being asked to
live with Mandela when he ran away from the
apartheid regime and came to Nigeria in 1963,
adding that they shared great moments during the
six months plus Mandela lived in his house.
Moreover, Amaechi said that even when Mandela
returned to South Africa and was imprisoned, he still
wrote him letters from prison.
The former minister mentioned that during the
apartheid time in South Africa the British
government was chasing Mandela in order to
imprison him, which forced him run away from SA
and take refuge in Nigeria.
That was when the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was the
President of Nigeria and late Dr. Michael Okpara the
Premier of the Eastern Region.
When Mandela came to Nigeria, Zik as the leader of
the nationalist group in Nigeria in consultation with
Okpara decided that they should find a nationalist of
Mandela’s caliber who would accommodate him.
Thus, they turned to Amaechim who was at that
time the parliamentary secretary and also a
member of the parliament. SA leader moved into
Amaechi's house and stayed for about 6 or months
with him and his wife.
"We used to go out together and both the British
intelligence and the South African intelligence
services knew that he was with me, but there was
nothing they could do about it because I was in
government."
Six or seven months later Mandela made decision
to return to South Africa. When he went back, he
was promptly arrested, charged and sentenced to
life imprisonment. He went to prison, but the
nationalism in him did not depart from him.
"He continued doing his best for some of his
colleagues. He wrote me a letter from prison asking
me to find employment for one Dr. Barange.
Barange’s father was a lawyer who defended the
nationalists in a previous case, while Barange
himself was a geologist."
Later, after having been freed, Mandela came to
Nigeria and specifically requested to see Amaechi
and Dr. Azikiwe. In happened in 1993.