Nigeria’s first Aviation Minister and prominent member of the Zikist Movement, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi is dead.

He died Tuesday morning at his Ukpor home town in Anambra State, aged 93.

A statement said the politician who was popularly known as The Boy Is Good, recently led a delegation of prominent Igbo leaders to Aso Rock where he made a case for the release of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

Amaechi had said repeatedly that Kanu’s release would end the spate of insecurity in the Southeast.

He believed that most criminals claiming to be agitating for Kanu would go into hiding if the IPOB leader is released.

“There is only one key to the solution to killings in Igbo land now, and that is the release of Nnamdi Kanu,” the Statesman had maintained.

The nonagenarian had during the visit to the president in Abuja in November last year, described the situation in the South-East as “painful and pathetic,” lamenting that businesses have collapsed, education is crumbling, and there is fear everywhere.

He pleaded for a political, rather than military solution, requesting that if Kanu was released to him as the only First Republic Minister still alive, “he would no longer say the things he had been saying.”

He stressed that he could control him, “not because I have anything to do with them (IPOB), but I am highly respected in Igbo land today.”

Chief Amaechi said twice he had interfaced with Nnamdi Kanu in the past, and the latter rescinded orders earlier given on civil disobedience.

He concluded: “I don’t want to leave this planet without peace returning to my country.

“I believe in one big, united Nigeria, a force in Africa. Mr President, I want you to be remembered as a person who saw Nigeria burning, and you quenched the fire.”