Towns that made Ojukwu speak Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, French, English

The late Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu spoke Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, English and French fluently. He might have achieved this feat through his sojourn in Nnewi, Zungeru, Lagos, London, Enugu, Yamoussoukro and Bingerville, writes OLUKOREDE YISHAU

Zungeru, a town now in Niger State, had its trappings. It was the capital of the British protectorate of Northern Nigeria from 1902 to 1916. Colonial administrator Frederick Lugard chose the town as capital of Northern Nigeria over Jebba and Lokoja owing to its central location. The British cleared the forest in the area and established a market, military barracks, and hospital, among other things. Seven years after Zungeru became a capital city, Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu was born. Years later, even though Zungeru was no longer the capital, it still held a lot of promises. Ojukwu, an Igboman from Nnewi, made it a home and from there he operated a transport business, which soon made him Nigeria’s first millionaire. He gave birth to his first son, Emeka, in this town on November 4, 1933. He was 24. 

By the time Emeka, who later became head of the defunct Biafran Republic, was to start school, his father took him to Lagos. In 1944, he was briefly put in jail for assaulting a white British colonial teacher who was humiliating a black woman at King’s College in Lagos, an event which generated widespread coverage in local newspapers. 

London was his next port of call, the town where he died last weekend. At 13, his father sent him overseas to study in the United Kingdom; first at Epsom College and later at Lincoln College, Oxford University, where he earned a Master’s degree in history. He returned to colonial Nigeria in 1956. When he took ill early this year, he was flown to London for treatment. He eventually died after months of anxiety. 

He returned to Enugu after his sojourn in London. The late Odumegwu-Ojukwu joined the civil service of the defunct Eastern Nigeria as an Administrative Officer in Udi. In 1957, he left the colonial service and joined the military. He was, by then, the second university graduate to join the Nigerian Army.

He served in the United Nations’ peace-keeping force in the Congo, under Maj-Gen. Johnson Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi. In 1964,  he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and posted to Kano, where he took charge of the 5th Battalion. He was in this position when the 1966 coup took place. His support for the forces loyal to Major-General Aguiyi-Ironisi paid off as he was later made the military governor of Eastern Region. 

The counter coup of July 1966 resulted in pogroms in the North. Many Igbo were killed. The late Odumegwu-Ojukwu led talks to  end hostilities by seeking peace with then military head of state Gen. Yakubu Gowon. The military leadership met in Aburi, a town northeast of Accra, the capital city of Ghana. But on their return to Nigeria, the agreements reached were  not implemented to the satisfaction of all parties to the talks. This failure to resolve the issues amicably, creation of states in the Eastern Region and continued massacre of Igbo in the North led Ojukwu to announce a secession of the Eastern Region from Nigeria under the name Biafra in 1967. The sequence of events sparked the Nigerian civil war. 

Aburi, where the failed talks to prevent the war took place, is famous for the Aburi Botanical Gardens. It is home to Aburi Presbyterian Technical Secondary School, which is linked to The Sixth Form College, Farnborough in Hampshire, England. Aburi has a relatively small population and is headed by the Aburihene (chief of Aburi). The journey from Accra to Aburi is about 45 minutes (less when the dual carriage road from Tetteh Quarshie Circle to Adenta Barrier is completed next year.) Due to the altitude of Aburi, the climate is a lot cooler than neighbouring Accra.

Aburi is host to one of the finest wood markets not only in Ghana but in Africa. It has been rumoured that goods manufactured at the Aburi markets are being sold to tourists in South Africa.

Before the defeat of Biafran forces, the late Odumegwu-Ojukwu proclaimed the Ahiara Declaration on June 1, 1969 in Ahiara in the present Imo State. This was one event that has shaped the history of the town. 

On realising that the battle for  secession had been lost, he gave instructions to his second-in-command, Philip Effiong, and rode into exile for 13 years in Cote D’Ivoire. He was in Yamoussoukro, the political capital of Cote D’Ivoire and home of his host, the late President Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who named it the federal capital in 1983. Yamoussoukro is also the site of what is claimed to be the largest Christian place of worship on Earth: The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, consecrated by Pope John Paul II on September 10 1990.

Ojukwu also stayed in Bingerville, an old capital of Cote D’Ivoire. While in Cote D’Ivoire, he was supplying granite to construction sites. He returned to Nigeria after he was pardoned by second civilian President Shehu Shagari. He stayed in his father’s Villaska Lodge, Queen’s Drive, Ikoyi home. But three years after, the military administration evicted the Ikemba Nnewi from his home on the grounds that it was an Abandoned Property. The late Odumegwu-Ojukwu challenged this, all through to the Supreme Court. He won his home back. 

The late Odumegwu-Ojukwu lived the greater part of his life in Enugu after his exile. Shortly after  his return, he was crowned the Ikemba Nnewi in Nnewi, his hometown. Nnewi, a metropolitan city, encompasses two local government areas, Nnewi North and Nnewi  South. Nnewi North is commonly referred to as Nnewi central, and comprises four autonomous quarters: Otolo, Uruagu, Umudim, and Nnewi-ichi. Nnewi North also includes Ichi, an autonomous neighbouring town.

Nnewi, the second largest city in Anambra State, has an estimated population of over 391,227 (census figures). The city spans over 1,076.9 square miles (2,789 km2). Nnewi has an edge over all other units, recognised by the 1953 figures as the largest inland town in the eastern states.

Besides Ojukwu,  other key political players from are: Dr. A.A. Nwafor Orizu, president of the Senate in the First Republic and  Acting President before the 1966 coup d’etat; M.C.K. Ajuluchukwu, nationalist, anti-colonial fighter and First Republic lawmaker; as well as  Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu. 

His journey through some of these towns made him multilingual. He picked up Yoruba in Lagos before learning to speak his native Igbo. His mastery of English language was as a result of good education at home and in London. Hausa became one of the languages he spoke fluently because he was born in Zungeru and he served in the North. His exile in Bingerville and Yamoussoukro added French to his chain of languages.

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Towns that made Ojukwu speak Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, French, English