Matilda Omonaiye/
CLEEN Foundation founder, Civil Society activist and former Director of Ford Foundation in West Africa, Mr Innocent Chukwuma is dead.
He reportedly died in Lagos last night after battling with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. He was 55.
His death was announced by Edetaen Ojo, a freedom of expression advocate and executive director of the Media Rights Agenda.
He said, “With profound shock & sadness, I regret to inform you that Innocent Chukwuma passed away a few hours ago, in the evening of April 3. May his soul rest in peace.”
Also reacting to the death, Senator Shehu Sani, a former federal lawmaker from Kaduna central senatorial district, tweeted: “Innocent Chukwuma; another tragic loss of a patriot. Death hath taken away one of the brightest. May his Soul Rest In Peace.”
Chukwuma drew public attention first as a student union activist at the University of Nigeria, in the early 80s when his voice sounded loud during the campaigns against military autocracy.
Before he joined the Ford Foundation in 2013, Chukwuma had led his CLEEN Foundation to promote public safety, security, and accessible justice in West Africa. CLEEN was the first African nongovernmental organization to receive the MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. He also held various posts within the Civil Liberties Organization, one of Nigeria’s first human rights organizations. He was the chair of the Altus Global Alliance, a global network of nonprofits.
Chukwuma won several honours, including the Reebok International Human Rights Award. He served as visiting lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he designed and taught a course on the management of nonprofits in the Global South. He holds a master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Leicester and a bachelor’s degree in religion from the University of Nigeria.
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