Francis Akanu Ibiam

Sir Francis Akanu Ibiam KCMG KBE
Governor of Eastern Region, Nigeria
In office 15 December 1960 – 16 January 1966
Preceded by	Sir Robert Stapledon
Succeeded by	Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu
Personal details
Born	29 November 1906 UNWANA, Ebonyi State, Nigeria
Died	1 July 1995

Sir Francis Akanu Ibiam KCMG KBE (29 November 1906 - 1 July 1995) was a distinguished medical missionary who was appointed Governor of Eastern Region, Nigeria from December 1960 until January 1966 during the Nigerian First Republic. From 1919 to 1951, he was known as Francis Ibiam, and from 1951 to 1967, Sir Francis Ibiam.

Ibiam was born in Unwana, Afikpo, Ebonyi State on 29 November 1906, of Igbo background. He was the second son of Chief Ibiam Aka, a traditional ruler of Unwana. He himself later became traditional ruler, Eze Ogo Isiala I of Unwana and Osuji of Uburu. He attended Hope Waddell Training Institute, Calabar, and King's College, Lagos, and then was admitted to the University of St. Andrews, graduating with a medical degree in 1934. He was accepted as a medical missionary of the Church of Scotland, in which role he established Abiriba hospital (1936–1945) and later superintended mission hospitals at Itu and Uburu.

Ibiam was never ordained as a minister, but he was elected and ordained as an elder of the Presbyterian Church. He was appointed an honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1949 New Year Honours for his work as a medical missionary of the Church of Scotland, and was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 1951 New Year Honours, which was later made substantive. Ibiam was president of the Christian Council of Nigeria (1955–1958). In 1957 he was appointed principal of Hope Waddell Institution. In 1959 Ibiam was president of the University College of Ibadan. On a visit to Northern Rhodesia, he was refused service at a café reserved for whites, an affair that became notorious. In 1962, he was chairman of the committee that established the Protestant Chapel at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka Campus.

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