Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala announces mother's death at 96, says she lived a quality life till the end

• Prof Kamene Okonjo, mother of WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has died at the age of 96.

• Her daughter paid tribute to her, saying she lived a quality life until the end and that the family was grateful to have had her for so long.

• The late professor was a respected sociologist, women's rights advocate and royal matriarch.

Prof Kamene Okonjo, a sociologist and the mother of World Trade Organisation Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has died at the age of 96.

She died on Friday, and the Umu Obi Obahai Royal Family of Ogwashi-Uku announced her death on Sunday through the Palace Secretary of the Kingdom, Ifeakanachukwu Emordi. 

She was the matriarch of the royal family and the widow of Obi Prof Chukwuka Okonjo, the immediate past traditional ruler of Ogwashi-Uku, to whom she was married for 66 years. She was also the mother of the reigning monarch, Obi Ifechukwude Anishi Okonjo II.

In a post on X on Sunday, Okonjo-Iweala thanked friends and followers for the condolence messages that had poured in. It was her first public comment since the loss. She said her mother "lived a quality life till the end," adding that the family was "very grateful we had her for so long."

The family's statement remembered Prof Okonjo as a woman of exceptional intellect who was also gentle, humble and graceful. It said her academic work and lifelong advocacy for women's rights and empowerment earned her respect in scholarly circles well beyond Nigeria. 

She was also described as a devoted mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, and the family said that while it mourned her, it was celebrating "a life exceptionally well lived."

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President Bola Tinubu also sent condolences on Sunday through his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, to the royal family, Okonjo-Iweala and the people of Ogwashi-Uku. He praised her scholarship and her example of combining professional excellence with devotion to family, community and traditional institutions.

Among her best-known writing is a 1976 chapter titled "The Dual-Sex Political System in Operation: Igbo Women and Community Politics in Midwestern Nigeria," published in the volume "Women in Africa" by Stanford University Press. The "dual-sex" idea, which describes parallel political roles for women and men in some Igbo communities, has been widely cited by later scholars.

Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister, has led the WTO since 2021. No burial arrangements had been announced in the reports seen.