At long last, after series of unfounded rumours and insinuations about his death, especially within the past one year, revered ex-warlord, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Ikemba of Nnewi, finally bowed out of the earth yesterday. It was after eventful 78 years, 22 days.
It was without doubt, the end of an era in the annals of not only Nigeria in its entirety, but that of the Igbo people for whom he lived and toiled until the cold hands of death finally caught him pants down after a protracted illness.
The ex-warlord did not just rise one day to become an enigma. At a tender age of 11, he had begun to exude elements of a steely personality that later turned a template of his lifestyle. It was in 1944, when he reportedly gave one of his school masters, an English man, a dirty slap.
In 1952, his father, Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, a Hope Waddell Institute educated-parliamentarian in Nigeria’s First Republic, who obviously wanted the best for him, sent him to Oxford University to study law. Of course, he must have chuckled within him. He left. But rather than heed his father’s instruction, he opted for History!
Not a few in his ilk would jump at an offer to take over his father’s vast businesses. But no; Ojukwu embraced administration in the Civil Defence. It was at Udi in the present Enugu State where he was District Officer. From there, in 1957, he sprang another surprise as he joined the Nigerian Army and was posted to the Army Depot, Zaria. Thus, he became the first graduate soldier in the country. Then, all his father could do was to siddon look, hoping that some day, young Ojukwu would come back to his senses.
However, he had barely spent four years when he scored another first. Having been promoted a Major, he became the first Nigerian soldier to attend the Joint Service Staff College (JSSC), England. And in 1964 as a Lieutenant Colonel, again he made history as the first indigenous Quarter Master-General of the Nigerian Army. His duty was to command the fifth Battalion in Kano till 1966 when he became the military governor of the old Eastern Region.
The patriotism in him came to the fore in the fallout of the January 15, 1966 coup de tat that consumed the former Premier of the North, Sir Ahmadu Bello and Prime Minister Sir Tafawa Balewa. Then the Ibos were being ruthlessly killed in the northern part of the country.
Naturally, the spirit of Ojukwu revolted against the development. He therefore asked his embattled people to leave the North for safety back home. Consequently, he declared a state of Biafra over the Eastern Region on July 30, 1967 and became the ‘Head of State and Commander-in-Chief.’
The evolving scenarios made finding urgent solution to the crisis a desideratum. Consequently, meetings were held upon meetings in and outside the country. Such efforts later led to what is now known as the Aburi Accord in Ghana. But Ojukwu, a man of principle, remained intransigent owing to a misconception by the federal government. “On Aburi we stand,” he had proclaimed.
Ensuing developments later precipitated the civil war that upset the entire nation between 1967 and 1970. At a point, Ojukwu could not stand the pressures being mounted by the federal troops who succeeded in capturing some areas in the Eastern region. Eventually, he fled to Cote d’ Ivoire where he was in hibernation for 13 years.
His sojourn in exile came to a close on June 18, 1982 when he returned into the country amid heroic welcome. It was after earning a state pardon from the Alhaji Shehu Shagari-led government.
Observers were quick to read political meanings to the pardon. Alas, they were proved right when Ojukwu joined the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). Not a few who had thought he would pitch his tent with the Nnamdi Azikiwe-led Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP) were shell-shocked.
Those who had expected him to join the NPP to give the East an electoral advantage went indignant, pouring all sorts of vituperations on the warrior. To them, NPP was enjoying absolute loyalty of Igbo people. However, such virulent tongue-lashing meant nothing to him. He firmly stood his ground.
It did not take eternity for him to find himself in a maze of intrigues in the party. His enigmatic influence failed to work for him as he was rigged out in an election where he lost a senate seat to a relatively obscure Dr. Edwin Onwudiwe. Onwudiwe was then a commissioner in Governor Jim Nwobodo’s cabinet.
Even back home, troubles continued to mount for him. For instance, he was not allowed access to his father’s house located at 25, Queens Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos. His offence: Waging a rebellion against the government.
With unflinching support by Nigerians and the series of legal battles that followed, he got the property back. His military pension which was also among of the conditions for the state pardon he was given didn’t come until 41 years after the end of the civil war.
Ever since, on national issues, his voice had always been that of the entire Igbo people who saw in him a dependable leader.
Spurred by his readiness to contribute his quota to national development, Ojukwu threw his hat into the nation’s political ring again in 2003 with the birth of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). He became the party’s flag bearer and his bid was to become the president of the country through the presidential election held that year. He lost the bid.
Those that are close to the ex-Biafran leader are always quick to mention contentment as one of his cardinal virtues. When an interviewer once addressed him as Chief, he reportedly replied, emphasising: “I am not a Chief; it rhymes with thief.”
Ojukwu’s father, Sir Ojukwu, was not only a business mogul, he was reportedly the richest man in Nigeria while he lived. History has it that he was also pioneer president of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE).
Besides being the president of the African Continental Bank (ACB), Ojukwu senior was said to be on the boards of most of the big British companies in Nigeria in his time. But all that did not get into younger Ojukwu’s head because he believed in himself. as a Master‘s Degree in History. But Ojukwu would downplay these academic acquisitions, and tell you that “Education is not elitism, education actually, to me, is more a question of sharpening one’s choices and consciousness. The value in it is the effect one has on one’s people.”
A multilingual, Ojukwu is a hugely talented being who can speak various Nigerian languages. Renowned English author Frederick Forsyth once recollected his encounter with him on air en route Nigeria that Ojukwu freely cracked jokes and interacted with all the delegations sent to receive him in Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo languages. He also reportedly interacted fluently in French language with the Ivorian delegation sent by his host, the late President Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Ivory Coast. Perhaps not many know that Ojukwu learnt how to speak Yoruba language first before his own native Igbo.
How did little Ojukwu grow to the defender of the weak against injustice and oppression the like? Reports say it dates back to when he was only 11. He paid dearly for it as he was briefly imprisoned by the colonialists for assaulting a British colonial teacher, who had humiliated a black woman at King’s College, Lagos. Local newspapers fed fat on the incident.
Again, at age of 13 at Epsom College in Surrey, United Kingdom, where a naughty white boy caused Ojukwu’s African accent to amuse his colleagues who burst into wild laughter.
One day, he was on his way to the chapel when he heard one of them call him “monkey’. Another student shoved him, making his books to scatter on the floor. Little did the boy realise that he was scratching his nose with cobra’s head. Ojukwu beat him black and blue, forcing the boy into a three-day tenancy on the hospital bed.
Quite unbelievably, Ojukwu was among his colleagues who were ultimately at the boy’s bedside to wish him quick recovery. Alas, they later became friends again!
Ojukwu, who was born on November 4, 1933 in Zungeru, thus sharing the same month and home town with the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, first Nigerian president, tried unsuccessfully to ensure a better Nigeria, especially all in the interest of his kinsmen – the Igbo people.
His delectable wife, Bianca, a University of Nigeria Nsukka-educated lawyer and daughter of a former Anambra State governor, the late Christian C. Onoh, once attested to his love for Igbo people in an interview.
“Ojukwu does nothing other than live and breathe the Igbo cause. Sometimes he would hear of some injustice somewhere and he would stay awake all night, trying to find how it can be redressed…. Any time an Igbo man suffers any form of injustice, it makes his blood boil, even in situations when he feels helpless,” Bianca, an ex-beauty queen was quoted as saying.
Also, Anambra State Governor Peter Obi once described him as “a unique personality that will always advise on what will be for the good of the Igbos without seeking, as many other people do, his entitlements or any form of gratification.”
“The last thing he said to me was to remain an Igbo man in all its ramifications and to continue to do whatever is possible for the ultimate good of Igbo people without expectation of payment, but out of love for the Igbos.”
Before boarding the Biafran-built aircraft that took him to exile then, the American Newsweek quoted him to have sworn thus: “Whilst I live, Biafra lives.”
Now, the falcon has finally flown away, thus putting the lid on his eventful life which for long, will remain a human reference point for historians.
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Rebel, soldier, leader