Chukwuemeka
Odumegwu Ojukwu, Ikemba Nnewi has died in a London hospital after a protracted
illness following a stroke. He was 78. The ailing leader of the defunct Biafran
Republic and leader of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) Dim
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was born on 4 November 1933 and died on the 25th
of November, 2011.
At
13, his father sent him overseas to study in Britain, first at Epsom College,
in Surrey and later earned a Masters degree in history at Lincoln College,
Oxford University and returned to colonial Nigeria in 1956. In 1957 the Ikemba
Nnewi joined the Nigerian Army as one of the first and few university
graduates. Ojukwu was among the 15 Nigerians officers out of the 250
officers the Nigerian Military Forces had then. After serving in the UN
peacekeeping force in the then Congo under Maj.-Gen. Johnson Thomas
Aguiyi-Ironsi, Ojuwkwu was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1964 and was
posted to Kano, where he was in charge of the 5 Battalion of the Nigerian Army.
On
July 6, 1967, the then military Head of State, Col. Yakubu Gowon declared war
and attacked Biafra in a bid to stop Ojukwu’s secessionist attempt. The war
lasted 30 months and ended on Jan. 15, 1970. As the war was wearing out, Ojukwu
went on exile and stayed away for 13 years. He was granted state pardon by
President Shehu Shagari, a decision which was trailed by the deceased’s
triumphant return in 1982.
Ojukwu's
rise coincided with the fall of Nigeria's First Republic, formed after Nigeria,
a nation split between a predominantly Muslim north and a largely Christian
south, gained its independence from Britain in 1960. A 1966 coup led primarily
by army officers from the Igbo ethnic group from Nigeria's southeast shot and
killed Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, a northerner, as well as the
premier of northern Nigeria, Ahmadu Bello.
The
coup failed, but the country still fell under military control. Northerners,
angry about the death of its leaders, attacked Igbos living there. As many as
10,000 people died in resulting riots. Many Igbos fled back to Nigeria's
southeast, their traditional home.
Ojukwu,
then 33, served as the military governor for the southeast. The son of a
knighted millionaire, Ojukwu studied history at Oxford and attended a military
officer school in Britain. In 1967, he declared the region — including part of
the oil-rich Niger Delta — as the Republic of Biafra. The new republic used the
name of the Atlantic Ocean bay to its south, its flag a rising sun set against
a black, green and red background.
But
instead of sparking pan-African pride, the announcement sparked 31 months of
fierce fighting between the breakaway republic and Nigeria. Under Gen. Yakubu
"Jack" Gowon, Nigeria adopted the slogan "to keep Nigeria one is
a task that must be done" and moved to reclaim a region vital to the country's
coffers. Despite several pushes by Biafran troops, Nigerian forces slowly
strangled Biafra into submission. Caught in the middle were Igbo refugees
increasingly pushed back as the front lines fell. The enduring images, seen on
television and in photographs, show starving Biafran children with distended
stomachs and stick-like arms.
Despite
the efforts of humanitarian groups, many died as hunger became a weapon wielded
by both sides.
"Was
starvation a legitimate weapon of war?" wrote English journalist John de
St. Jorre. "The hard-liners in Nigeria and Biafra thought that it was, the
former regarding it as a valid means of reducing the enemy's capacity to
resist, as method as old as war itself, and the latter seeing it as a way of
internationalizing the conflict." The images fed into Ojukwu's warnings
that to see Biafra fall would see the end of the Igbo people.
"The
crime of genocide has not only been threatened but fulfilled. The only reason
any of us are alive today is because we have our rifles," Ojukwu told
journalists in 1968. "Otherwise the massacre would be complete. It would
be suicidal for us to lay down our arms at this stage."
That
final massacre never came. Ojukwu and trusted aides escaped Biafra by airplane
on Jan. 11, 1970. Biafra collapsed shortly after. Gowon himself broke the cycle
of revenge in a speech in which said there was "no victor, no
vanquished." He also pardoned those who had participated in the rebellion.
He
later wrote his memoirs and lived the quiet life of an elder statesman until he
unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Olusegun Obasanjo for the presidency in
2003. Obasanjo served as a colonel in the Biafran war and gave the final
statement on rebel-controlled radio announcing the conflict's end. He leaves
behind his Wife, Bianca Ojukwu (Onoh) and children.
Tribute
by Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu, Widow Of Late Dim Chukwuemka Odumegwu-Ojukwu
How
do I sum up 23 years in one page? I don't know. How do I describe you? I
cannot. Not in any depth. Not for anybody else - you were my husband, my
brother, my friend, my child. I was your queen, and it was an honour to have
served you.
You were the lion of my history books, the leader of my nation when we faced extinction, the larger-than-life history come to my life - living, breathing legend. But unlike the history books, you defied all preconceptions. You made me cry from laughter with your jokes, many irreverent. You awed me with your wisdom. You melted my heart with your kindness. Your impeccable manners made Prince Charming a living reality. Your fearlessness made you the man I dreamt of all my life and your total lack of seeking public approval before speaking your mind separated you from mere mortals.
Every year that I spent with you was an adventure - no two days were the same. With you, I was finally able to soar on wings wider than the ocean. With you I was blessed with the best children God in heaven had to give. With you, I learnt to face the world without fear and learnt daily the things that matter most. Your disdain for money was novel - sometimes funny, other times quite alarming.
It mattered not a whit to you. Your total dedication to your people - Ndi-Igbo - was so absolute that really, very little else mattered. You never craved anybody's praise as long as you believed that you were doing right and even in the face of utmost danger, you never relented from speaking truth to power - to you, what after all, was power? It was not that conferred by the gun, nor that stolen from the ballot box. No. You understood that power transcended all that. Power is the freedom to be true to yourself and to God, no matter the cost.
It is freedom from fear. It is freedom from bondage. It is freedom to seek the wellbeing of your people just because you love them. It is the ability to move a whole nation without a penny as inducement nor a gun to force them. When an entire nation can rise up for one person for no other reason than that they love him and know he is their leader - sans gun, money, official title or any strange paraphernalia - that is power.
To try to contain you in words is futile. You span the breadth of human experience - full of laughter, joy, kindness and sometimes, almost childlike in your ability to find something good in almost everyone and every situation. You could flare up at any injustice and in the next instant, sing military songs to the children. You could analyse a situation with incredible swiftness and accuracy. In any generation, there can only be one like you. You were that one star. You were a child of destiny, born for no other time than the one you found yourself in.
Destined to lead your people at the time total extinction was staring us in the face. There was no one else. You gained nothing from it. You used all the resources you had just to wage a war of survival. You fought to keep us alive when we were being slaughtered like rams for no reason. Today, we find ourselves in the same situation but you are not here. You fought that we might live. The truth is finally coming out and even those who fought you now acknowledge that you had no choice. For your faithfulness, God kept you and brought you home to your people.
You loved Nigeria. You spent so much of your waking moments devising ways through which Nigeria could progress to Tai-Two!!! You were the eternal optimist, always hoping that one day, God will touch His people and give us one Vision and the diligence to work towards the dream. It never came to pass in your lifetime. Instead, the disaster you predicted if we continued on the same path has come home to roost. You always saw so clearly. Your words are indelibly preserved for this generation to read and learn and perhaps heed and turn. You always said the dry bones will rise again. But you always hoped we would not become the dry bones by our actions. Above all, you feared for your own people, crying out against the relentless oppression that has not ceased since the end of the war and saddened by the acceptance of this position by your own people. In death, you have awakened the spirit that we thought had died. Your people are finally waking up.
At home, you were the father any child would dream of having. At no point did our children have to wonder where you were. You were ever at their disposal, playing with them, teaching them of a bygone era, teaching them of the world they live in and giving them the total security of knowing you were always present.
In mercy, God gave me a year to prepare for the inevitable. I could never have survived an instant departure. In mercy, God ensured that your final week on earth was spent only with me and that on your last day, you were back to your old self. I cannot but thank God for the joy of that final day - the jokes, the laughter, the songs. It was a lifetime packed into a few hours, filled with hope that many tomorrows would follow and that we would be home for Christmas. You deceived me. You were so emphatic that we would be going home. I did not know you meant a different home.
The swiftness of your departure remains shocking to me. You left on the day I least expected. But I cannot fight God. He owns your life and mine. I know that God called you home because every other time it seemed you were at death's door, you fought like the lion that God made you and always prevailed. In my eyes, even death was no match for you. But who can say 'no' to the Almighty God? You walked away with Him, going away with such peace that I can only bow to God's sovereignty. Your people have remembered. The warrior of our land has gone. The flags are lowered in your honour. Our hearts are laden with grief.
But I will trust that the living God who gave you to me will look after me and our children. Through my sadness, the memories will always shine bright and beautiful.
Adieu, my love,
My husband,
My lion,
Ikemba,
Amuma na Egbe Igwe,
Odenigbo Ngwo.
Eze-Igbo Gburugburu,
Ibu dike.
Chukwu gozie gi,
Chukwu debe gi.
Anyi ga afu na omesia.
You were the lion of my history books, the leader of my nation when we faced extinction, the larger-than-life history come to my life - living, breathing legend. But unlike the history books, you defied all preconceptions. You made me cry from laughter with your jokes, many irreverent. You awed me with your wisdom. You melted my heart with your kindness. Your impeccable manners made Prince Charming a living reality. Your fearlessness made you the man I dreamt of all my life and your total lack of seeking public approval before speaking your mind separated you from mere mortals.
Every year that I spent with you was an adventure - no two days were the same. With you, I was finally able to soar on wings wider than the ocean. With you I was blessed with the best children God in heaven had to give. With you, I learnt to face the world without fear and learnt daily the things that matter most. Your disdain for money was novel - sometimes funny, other times quite alarming.
It mattered not a whit to you. Your total dedication to your people - Ndi-Igbo - was so absolute that really, very little else mattered. You never craved anybody's praise as long as you believed that you were doing right and even in the face of utmost danger, you never relented from speaking truth to power - to you, what after all, was power? It was not that conferred by the gun, nor that stolen from the ballot box. No. You understood that power transcended all that. Power is the freedom to be true to yourself and to God, no matter the cost.
It is freedom from fear. It is freedom from bondage. It is freedom to seek the wellbeing of your people just because you love them. It is the ability to move a whole nation without a penny as inducement nor a gun to force them. When an entire nation can rise up for one person for no other reason than that they love him and know he is their leader - sans gun, money, official title or any strange paraphernalia - that is power.
To try to contain you in words is futile. You span the breadth of human experience - full of laughter, joy, kindness and sometimes, almost childlike in your ability to find something good in almost everyone and every situation. You could flare up at any injustice and in the next instant, sing military songs to the children. You could analyse a situation with incredible swiftness and accuracy. In any generation, there can only be one like you. You were that one star. You were a child of destiny, born for no other time than the one you found yourself in.
Destined to lead your people at the time total extinction was staring us in the face. There was no one else. You gained nothing from it. You used all the resources you had just to wage a war of survival. You fought to keep us alive when we were being slaughtered like rams for no reason. Today, we find ourselves in the same situation but you are not here. You fought that we might live. The truth is finally coming out and even those who fought you now acknowledge that you had no choice. For your faithfulness, God kept you and brought you home to your people.
You loved Nigeria. You spent so much of your waking moments devising ways through which Nigeria could progress to Tai-Two!!! You were the eternal optimist, always hoping that one day, God will touch His people and give us one Vision and the diligence to work towards the dream. It never came to pass in your lifetime. Instead, the disaster you predicted if we continued on the same path has come home to roost. You always saw so clearly. Your words are indelibly preserved for this generation to read and learn and perhaps heed and turn. You always said the dry bones will rise again. But you always hoped we would not become the dry bones by our actions. Above all, you feared for your own people, crying out against the relentless oppression that has not ceased since the end of the war and saddened by the acceptance of this position by your own people. In death, you have awakened the spirit that we thought had died. Your people are finally waking up.
At home, you were the father any child would dream of having. At no point did our children have to wonder where you were. You were ever at their disposal, playing with them, teaching them of a bygone era, teaching them of the world they live in and giving them the total security of knowing you were always present.
In mercy, God gave me a year to prepare for the inevitable. I could never have survived an instant departure. In mercy, God ensured that your final week on earth was spent only with me and that on your last day, you were back to your old self. I cannot but thank God for the joy of that final day - the jokes, the laughter, the songs. It was a lifetime packed into a few hours, filled with hope that many tomorrows would follow and that we would be home for Christmas. You deceived me. You were so emphatic that we would be going home. I did not know you meant a different home.
The swiftness of your departure remains shocking to me. You left on the day I least expected. But I cannot fight God. He owns your life and mine. I know that God called you home because every other time it seemed you were at death's door, you fought like the lion that God made you and always prevailed. In my eyes, even death was no match for you. But who can say 'no' to the Almighty God? You walked away with Him, going away with such peace that I can only bow to God's sovereignty. Your people have remembered. The warrior of our land has gone. The flags are lowered in your honour. Our hearts are laden with grief.
But I will trust that the living God who gave you to me will look after me and our children. Through my sadness, the memories will always shine bright and beautiful.
Adieu, my love,
My husband,
My lion,
Ikemba,
Amuma na Egbe Igwe,
Odenigbo Ngwo.
Eze-Igbo Gburugburu,
Ibu dike.
Chukwu gozie gi,
Chukwu debe gi.
Anyi ga afu na omesia.
