Nigeria mourns as Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu's death at 78

Dim Chukwuemka Ojukwu

Nigeria Mourns as Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu’s Death at 78
By Hajia Sani

News spread like wild fire across Nigeria and around the world on Saturday, 26th November, 2011, of the death of one of Nigeria ’s iconic political and military leaders, former Biafran warlord who held the traditional title of ‘Ikemba Nnewi,’ Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.

Odumegwu Ojukwu, who had been bed-ridden for 11 months by stroke, was an Oxford-educated Nigerian colonel who proclaimed the Republic of Biafra in 1967. He died at the age of 78 in his bed at Bupa Nursing Home in Kensington, London.

At his bed side as he took his last breath were his wife Bianca, daughter Ebere and son, Okigbo.

Official statement

His political son and governor of Anambra state, Ojukwu’s home state, Mr. Peter Obi, later formally broke the news in what he called the Igbo tradition.

The statement entitled ‘Our Father has Gone’ read:

“Amuma na Egbeigwe edelu juuuu; Udo eji akpu Agu agbabie; Odenigbo Ngwo anabago; Ikemba Nnewi a gaba goo; Dikedioranmma nweru ka osi noru kitaa, Ezeigbo Gburugburu, enwooooo! Obu inaba ka anyi mezie gini? Onye ga na-ekwuru anyi? Onye ga abamba ka Agu ma oburu na ana emegbu anyi? Enwoooooooo! Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, enwoooooo!”

(Translation):"In the traditional Igbo society, the death of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu would be announced by the famous Ikoro Drum, reserved for outstanding people in the society once in a century.”
"This is what I have just done in the foregoing. We hereby, in consultation with the immediate family of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, announce his death which occurred in the early hours of today (yesterday), November 26, 2011.”

"With Ojukwu’s death, the entire Igbo race, at home and in the Diaspora as well as Nigerians have lost a treasure.

"He was one of the most forthright personalities Nigeria has ever had. He believed in a Nigeria where justice and equity reign and devoted his life to their pursuit of that ideal as if he was under a spell.”

"While alive, Ezeigbo Gburugburu, (as he was fondly called) was such a subject of history that it makes little sense to start contemplating how history will remember him.

"He is worthy of Julius Ceaser’s own summary of his victory in Pontus (former Asia Minor ), Veni, vedi, vici, (I came, I saw, I conquered). Ojukwu came, saw and conquered, leaving for us vital lessons in patriotism and nationalism.

"With his death, part of every Igbo man has also died. We shall continue to remember him in our prayers as we work out further details in consultation with his family and other stakeholders." Governor Obi wrote.
Governor Peter Obi and another of Ojukwu’s sons, Emeka, have since left for London .

Tributes pour in

Already, news media have been awash with eulogies and tributes to the memory of Chief Ojukwu.
Special Adviser on Media to the Nigerian President, Dr. Reuben Abati, in one of the early tributes said: "President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has received with much sadness and a deep feeling of great national loss, news of the passing away of Chief Chukwemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in the United Kingdom.”

He said: “President Jonathan joins Chief Ojukwu’s family, the government and people of his home state, Anambra, the entire Igbo people of Nigeria and his friends, associates and followers across the country in mourning him.”

The President urged them to be comforted by the knowledge that Chief Ojukwu lived a most fulfilled life and has in passing on, left behind a record of very notable contributions to the evolution of modern Nigeria , which will assure his place in the history of the country.

According to Abati, President Jonathan believes that “the late Chief Ojukwu’s immense love for his people, justice, equity and fairness which forced him into the leading role he played in the Nigerian civil war, as well as his commitment to reconciliation and the full reintegration of his people into a united and progressive Nigeria in the aftermath of the war, will ensure that he is remembered forever as one of the great personalities of his time, who stood out easily as a brave, courageous, fearless, erudite and charismatic leader.”

The President called on Chief Ojukwu’s family, his associates and followers to make his rites of passage a celebration of his most worthy and memorable life spent in the service of his people and the nation.

He also prayed that God Almighty would grant Chief Ojukwu’s soul eternal rest from his earthly labours.

Everyone mourns

Anambra State and indeed, the commercial city of Nnewi , were thrown into deep mourning when news of Ojukwu’s death filtered in.

At the palace of the traditional ruler of Nnewi, Igwe Kenneth Orizu, the monarch was said to have gone to Amichi, a nearby community to attend a ceremony. But the secretary of the palace, Prince Joseph Ikeotuonye (known as Azubuenyi) confirmed Ojukwu’s death.

According to him, "when I called Igwe, he told me that he was overwhelmed by shock that he has no comment at least for now I called him again, and he repeated same. "The news is shocking. We have no option than to take it like that. "We heard the news about 11am and being an icon and a symbol of Igbo nation (Ezeigbo gburugburu), we are going to sit, deliberate on it and decide what to be done and that is all for now" he said.

Ojukwu’s younger brother, who runs an eatery business in Nnewi, Emmanuel Somto Ojukwu, said it was sad news but philosophically summed his take on the matter as: "God giveth and God taketh.”

Also, the member representing Anaocha, Njikoka, Dunukofia Federal Constituency in Anambra State , Chief Uche Ekwunife, said that the people of Anambra State had lost the finest of Igbo extraction.

According to her, "A rare gem, a selfless and patriotic Nigerian, a nationalist whose principles are unequalled, Dim Ojukwu would be remembered for his brevity, commitment, sincerity of purpose and most importantly his undiluted love for his people."

Senator Chris Ngige of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) representing Anambra Central said he was short for words.
He described Ojukwu as the leader of all leaders whose love for Ndigbo was unquantifiable.

Ngige said that the people of South East had lost another person in the mould of the late South-west Yoruba leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

He said: “Ojukwu would be hard to replace not only in Igbo land but the entire Nigeria .”

Ojukwu’s early life

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was born on November 4, 1933, in Zungeru , Niger state, in northern Nigeria . From modest beginnings, his father, Sir Louis Phillipe Odumegwu Ojukwu, had made fortunes in transportation and real estate and was Nigeria ’s wealthiest entrepreneur when he died in 1966.

The boy nicknamed Emeka, attendedKings College in Lagos, Nigeria’s most prestigious secondary school; Epson College, a boys’ prep school in Surrey, and Lincoln College, Oxford, where he graduated with honors in history in 1955. Classmates said he was popular, dressed stylishly, drove a bright red MG sports car and loved discussions of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Louis XIV and Shakespeare.

He had three wives. His first, Njideka, a law student he met at Oxford and wed in 1962 who died in 2010. His second, Stella Onyeador, died in 2009. He married Bianca Odinaka Onoh, a former beauty queen and businesswoman 34 years his junior, in 1994. Mrs Bianca Ojukwu is currently President Jonathan’s Senior Special Assistant on Diaspora Matters.

Upon his return to Nigeria in 1956, the sports-car-driving son of one of Nigeria’s richest men, an urbane student of history and Shakespeare, who read voraciously, wrote poetry and played tennis, rejected his father’s business overtures and worked on development in remote villages.

In 1957, he joined the army, calling himself an amateur soldier but rose rapidly in the ranks after Nigeria gained independence in 1960. In 1966, he became military governor of the Ibo region.

Biafra era

At 33, he found himself at the vortex of simmering ethnic rivalries among Nigeria ’s Hausas in the north, Yorubas in the southwest and Ibos in the southeast. The largely Christian Ibos were envied as one of Africa’s best-educated and most industrious peoples, possessed of much of Nigeria’s oil wealth. Tensions finally exploded into assassinations, coups and a massacre of 30,000 Ibos by Hausas and federal troops.

While he denounced the massacre and cited other Ibo grievances, Colonel Ojukwu for months resisted rising Ibo pressure for secession. He proposed a weak federation to separate Nigeria ’s three tribal regions politically. But Colonel Yakubu Gowon, leader of the military government in Lagos , rejected the idea. A clash over federal taxation of the Ibo region’s oil and coal industries precipitated the final break and he declared Biafran independence.

“Long live the Republic of Biafra ,” Colonel Ojukwu proclaimed on May 30, 1967.

Five weeks later, civil war began when Nigerian military forces invaded the breakaway province. It was a lopsided war, with other nations supporting federal forces seeking to unify the country and Biafra standing virtually alone. Nigeria was Africa ’s most populous nation, with 57 million people, of which 8 million to 10 million were Ibos.

Poorly equipped and outnumbered four to one, Biafra ’s 25,000-member army held its own for 31 months, supported by a citizenry that donated food, clothing and supplies. Colonel Ojukwu ran Biafra as a wartime democracy, fought alongside his troops and was said to be revered by his people.

He gave orders in a slow, deliberate baritone: native Igbo with an Oxford accent. Fond of Sibelius, he chose “Finlandia” as Biafra ’s national anthem. And he read Shakespeare. “Hamlet was my favourite,” he told a New York Times correspondent. “I wonder what the psychiatrists will make of that.”

Over a battle map he looked like a brooding Othello, with solemn eyes and a luxuriantly bearded countenance. He slept irregularly, sometimes working nonstop for days, taking a meal now and then, rarely touching alcohol but chain-smoking English cigarettes.

Tanzania, Zambia , the Ivory Coast and Gabon recognized Biafra . France and other nations provided covert aid. However, the former Soviet Union , Egypt and Britain , supplied weapons and advisers to Nigeria . The United States provided diplomatic and relief coordination aid. After 15 months of war, Biafra ’s 29,000 square miles had been reduced to 5,000, and deaths had soared.

As crops burned and refugees streamed away from advancing federal forces, much of the population was cut off from food supplies. The 30-month civil war moved onto the world stage as one of the first televised wars, millions around the globe were stunned by pictures of Biafran babies with distended bellies and skeletal children who were succumbing to famine by the thousands daily in the war’s final stages.

Colonel Ojukwu appealed to the world to save his people. International relief agencies responded, and scores of cargo planes ferried food in to the encircled Biafrans but airlifts were woefully inadequate. Deaths from starvation were estimated at more than 6,000 a day, and post-war studies suggested that a third of Biafra ’s surviving pre-schoolers (nearly 500,000) were malnourished by the end of the war.

War end reconciliation

In January 1970, secessionist resistance was crushed and the region was rebuilt over 20 years as its oil-based economy prospered anew. Biafra’s leader at the end of the war, then a general, fled into exile in Ivory Coast and London .
Nigeria reabsorbed Biafra and granted a presidential pardon to Ojukwu. 13 years later, he returned to Nigeria in 1982 and was welcomed by enormous crowds. He became a Lagos businessman and ran unsuccessfully for president several times but remained a hero in the eyes of many of his countrymen.

Ugo