Biafra War

In July 1966 northern officers and army units staged a coup. The Muslim officers named thirty-one-year- old Lieutenant Colonel (later Major General) Yakubu "Jack" Gowon, a Christian from a small ethnic group (the Anga) in the middle belt, as a compromise candidate to head the Federal Military Government (FMG). A young and relatively obscure officer serving as army chief of staff, Gowon had not been involved in the coup, but he enjoyed wide support among northern troops who subsequently insisted that he be given a position in the ruling body.
Throughout the remainder of 1966 and into 1967, the FMG sought to convene a constituent assembly for revision of the constitution that might enable an early return to civilian rule. Nonetheless, the tempo of violence increased. In September attacks on Igbo in the north were renewed with unprecedented ferocity, stirred up by Muslim traditionalists with the connivance, Eastern Region leaders believed, of northern political leaders. The army was sharply divided along regional lines. Reports circulated that troops from the Northern Region had participated in the mayhem. The estimated number of deaths ranged as high as 30,000, although the figure was probably closer to 8,000 to 10,000. More than 1 million Igbo returned to the Eastern Region. In retaliation, some northerners were massacred in Port Harcourt and other eastern cities, and a counterexodus of non-Igbo was under way.
The Eastern Region's military governor, Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, was under pressure from Igbo officers to assert greater independence from the FMG. Indeed, the eastern military government refused to recognize Gowon's legitimacy on the ground that he was not the most senior officer in the chain of command. Some of Ojukwu's colleagues questioned whether the country could be reunited amicably after the outrages committed against the Igbo in the Northern Region. Ironically, many responsible easterners who had advocated a unitary state now called for looser ties with the other regions.
The military commanders and governors, including Ojukwu, met in Lagos to consider solutions to the regional strife. But they failed to reach a settlement, despite concessions offered by the northerners, because it proved impossible to guarantee the security of Igbo outside the Eastern Region. The military conferees reached a consensus only in the contempt they expressed for civilian politicians. Fearing for his safety, Ojukwu refused invitations to attend subsequent meetings in Lagos.
In January 1967, the military leaders and senior police officials met at Aburi, Ghana, at the invitation of the Ghanaian military government. By now the Eastern Region was threatening secession. In a last-minute effort to hold Nigeria together, the military reached an accord that provided for a loose confederation of regions. The federal civil service vigorously opposed the Aburi Agreement, however. Awolowo, regrouping his supporters, demanded the removal of all northern troops garrisoned in the Western Region and warned that if the Eastern Region left the federation, the Western Region would follow. The FMG agreed to the troop withdrawal.
In May Gowon issued a decree implementing the Aburi Agreement. Even the Northern Region leaders, who had been the first to threaten secession, now favored the formation of a multistate federation. Meanwhile, the military governor of the Midwestern Region announced that his region must be considered neutral in the event of civil war.
The Ojukwu government rejected the plan for reconciliation and made known its intention to retain all revenues collected in the Eastern Region in reparation for the cost of resettling Igbo refugees. The eastern leaders had reached the point of ruptive in their relations with Lagos and the rest of Nigeria. Despite offers made by the FMG that met many of Ojukwu's demands, the Eastern Region Consultative Assembly voted May 26 to secede from Nigeria. In Lagos Gowon proclaimed a state of emergency and unveiled plans for abolition of the regions and for redivision of the country into twelve states. This provision broke up the Northern Region, undermining the possibility of continued northern domination and offering a major concession to the Eastern Region. It was also a strategic move, which won over eastern minorities and deprived the rebellious Igbo heartland of its control over the oil fields and access to the sea. Gowon also appointed prominent civilians, including Awolowo, as commissioners in the federal and new state governments, thus broadening his political support.
On May 30, Ojukwu answered the federal decree with the proclamation of the independent Republic of Biafra, named after the Bight of Biafra. He cited as the principal cause for this action the Nigerian government's inability to protect the lives of easterners and suggested its culpability in genocide, depicting secession as a measure taken reluctantly after all efforts to safeguard the Igbo people in other regions had failed.
Initially the FMG launched "police measures" to restore the authority of Lagos in the Eastern Region. Army units attempted to advance into secessionist territory in July, but rebel troops easily stopped them. The Biafrans retaliated with a surprise thrust into the Midwestern Region, where they seized strategic points. However, effective control of the delta region remained under federal control despite several rebel attempts to take the non-Igbo area. The federal government began to mobilize large numbers of recruits to supplement its 10,000-member army.
By the end of 1967, federal forces had regained the Midwestern Region and secured the delta region, which was reorganized as the Rivers State and Southeastern State, cutting off Biafra from direct access to the sea. But a proposed invasion of the rebel-held territory, now confined to the Igbo heartland, stalled along the stiffened Biafran defense perimeter.
A stalemate developed as federal attacks on key towns broke down in the face of stubborn Biafran resistance. Ill-armed and trained under fire, rebel troops nonetheless had the benefit of superior leadership and superb morale. Although vastly outnumbered and outgunned, the Biafrans probed weak points in the federal lines, making lightning tactical gains, cutting off and encircling advancing columns, and launching commando raids behind federal lines. Biafran strikes across the Niger managed to pin down large concentrations of federal troops on the west bank.
In September 1968, Owerri was captured by federal troops advancing from the south, and early in 1969 the federal army, expanded to nearly 250,000 men, opened three fronts in what Gowon touted as the "final offensive." Although federal forces flanked the rebels by crossing the Niger at Onitsha, they failed to break through. The Biafrans subsequently retook Owerri in fierce fighting and threatened to push on to Port Harcourt until thwarted by a renewed federal offensive in the south. That offensive tightened the noose around the rebel enclave without choking it into submission.
Biafran propaganda, which stressed the threat of genocide to the Igbo people, was extremely effective abroad in winning sympathy for the secessionist movement. Food and medical supplies were scarce in Biafra. Humanitarian aid, as well as arms and munitions, reached the embattled region from international relief organizations and from private and religious groups in the United States and Western Europe by way of nighttime airlifts over the war zone. The bulk of Biafra's military supplies was purchased on the international arms market with unofficial assistance provided by France through former West African colonies. In one of the most dramatic episodes of the civil war, Carl Gustav von Rosen, a Swedish count who at one time commanded the Ethiopian air force, and several other Swedish pilots flew five jet trainers modified for combat in successful strikes against Nigerian military installations.
Biafra's independence was recognized by Tanzania, Zambia, Gabon, and the Ivory Coast, but it was compromised in the eyes of most African states by the approval of South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, and Portugal. Britain extended diplomatic support and limited military assistance to the federal government. The Soviet Union became an important source of military equipment for Nigeria. Modern Soviet-built warplanes, flown by Egyptian and British pilots, interdicted supply flights and inflicted heavy casualties during raids on Biafran urban centers. In line with its policy of noninvolvement, the United States prohibited the sale of military goods to either side while continuing to recognize the FMG.
In October 1969, Ojukwu appealed for United Nations (UN) mediation for a cease-fire as a prelude to peace negotiations. But the federal government insisted on Biafra's surrender, and Gowon observed that "rebel leaders had made it clear that this is a fight to the finish and that no concession will ever satisfy them." In December federal forces opened a four-pronged offensive, involving 120,000 troops, that sliced Biafra in half. When Owerri fell on January 6, 1970, Biafran resistance collapsed. Ojukwu fled to the Ivory Coast, leaving his chief of staff, Philip Effiong, behind as "officer administering the government." Effiong called for an immediate, unconditional cease-fire January 12 and submitted to the authority of the federal government at ceremonies in Lagos.
Estimates in the former Eastern Region of the number of dead from hostilities, disease, and starvation during the thirty-month civil war are estimated at between 1 million and 3 million. The end of the fighting found more than 3 million Igbo refugees crowded into a 2,500-square-kilometer enclave. Prospects for the survival of many of them and for the future of the region were dim. There were severe shortages of food, medicine, clothing, and housing. The economy of the region was shattered. Cities were in ruins; schools, hospitals, utilities, and transportation facilities were destroyed or inoperative. Overseas groups instituted a major relief effort, but the FMG insisted on directing all assistance and recovery operations and barred some agencies that had supplied aid to Biafra.
Because charges of genocide had fueled international sympathy for Biafra, the FMG allowed a team of international experts to observe the surrender and to look for evidence. Subsequently, the observers testified that they found no evidence of genocide or systematic destruction of property, although there was considerable evidence of famine and death as a result of the war. Furthermore, under Gowon's close supervision, the federal government ensured that Igbo civilians would not be treated as defeated enemies. A program was launched to reintegrate the Biafran rebels into a unified Nigeria. A number of public officials who had "actively counselled, aided, or abetted" secession were dismissed, but a clear distinction was made between them and those who had simply carried out their duties. Igbo personnel soon were being reenlisted in the federal armed forces. There were no trials and few people were imprisoned. Ojukwu, in exile, was made the scapegoat, but efforts to have him extradited failed.
An Igbo official, Ukapi "Tony" Asika, was named administrator of the new East Central State, comprising the Igbo heartland. Asika had remained loyal to the federal government during the civil war, but as a further act of conciliation, his all-Igbo cabinet included members who had served under the secessionist regime. Asika was unpopular with many Igbo, who considered him a traitor, and his administration was characterized as inept and corrupt. In three years under his direction, however, the state government achieved the rehabilitation of 70 percent of the industry incapacitated during the war. The federal government granted funds to cover the state's operating expenses for an interim period, and much of the war damage was repaired. Social services and public utilities slowly were reinstituted, although not to the prewar levels.

Indian study proves that fluoride consumption causes brain, neurological damage

(NaturalNews) Consuming sodium fluoride, a toxic chemical commonly added to US water supplies to allegedly help prevent tooth decay, definitively causes neurodegenerative damage in the brain, spinal cord, and sciatic nerve. These are the findings of a recent study published in the Journal of Medical and Allied Sciences, and ones that, by all scientific standards, put to rest the failed myth that fluoride consumption is in any way safe.

Conducted by K. Pratap Reddy of Osmania University in India, the study confirms that fluoride chemicals "cross the blood-brain barrier and alter the structure and function of neural tissue." Repeated exposure to fluoride chemicals in test rats was found to lower body weights; reduce the organic somatic index of their brains; and contaminate their hippocampus, neocortex, cerebellum, spinal cord, and sciatic nerve tissues with persistent fluoride chemicals.

The blood-brain barrier is the body's natural way of protecting the brain and central nervous system from damage by harmful toxins. In other words, it is meant to allow only nutrients and other beneficial metabolic products access to the brain, while filtering out all other materials.

But fluoride chemicals possess uniquely harmful characteristics that allow them to bypass this protective barrier and lodge themselves within brain tissue. The end result is a cascade of neurodegeneration throughout the brain and central nervous system, which in turn can lead to a host of severe and potentially deadly conditions, some of which are irreversible.

Compared to rats not given sodium fluoride, those given the chemicals as part of the study experienced "vacuolation of Schwann cells with enlarged axons and disrupted myelin sheaths" in their sciatic nerves; "irregular nuclei with normal nucleoli, vacuolated cytosol and axons with split myelin," in their spinal cords; and altered morphology in cerebellar tissue that resulted in "dumbbell shaped and [crenulated] nuclear membrane."

Ignore Warren Buffett On This

Alice Schroeder, Warren Buffett's biographer, once said that he works harder at investing than anyone she has ever known.
Similarly, ultra-successful fund manager Peter Lynch retired in his forties, not because he hated the job, but because it took so much out of him to maintain his success. Readers of his books will recall tales of family holidays peppered with company visits, for example!
A different path
They worked punishingly hard to create the outstanding returns achieved, but the workload required it: Warren Buffett is in charge of a large conglomerate in Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A - news) as well as his various investment portfolios, and Peter Lynch once declared that he held in excess of 400 shares in his Fidelity Magellan Fund.
Luckily, most private investors have smaller funds to manage and, therefore, the choice of doing things differently by devoting less time to investing. That's a choice worth taking to preserve a healthy work/life balance, and what's more, it could actually improve your returns. It's one area where taking a different path to the investment greats makes sense.
Less is more
I think that in the world of investing, as in other areas of life, less is more. Compressed periods spent researching and managing a share portfolio can result in more focussed effort of a higher quality, compared to endless periods spent glued to the computer screen, where return for effort can diminish in proportion to the length of the session.
Mercifully, our two mentioned gurus advise us not to follow their actions but to do things differently. Peter Lynch once said, "There don't have to be more than five companies in a portfolio at any one time," and Warren Buffett said, "If you really know the businesses you have bought, six wonderful ones is what you need to make you rich. Your seventh investment will dilute your returns." Both super-investors reckon a concentrated portfolio may produce better returns and the great secondary pay off to such a strategy is that it can potentially consume less time.
Small is beautiful
Most of us are not investing billions as private investors so we don't need a vast portfolio of shares just to achieve enough capacity for our funds. So, just a few shares on the watch list, and a few in the portfolio, can make for a much reduced workload managing and researching investments.
Working long hours on investment might produce more ideas, but the best investment opportunities are often the most obvious -- if you have to work too hard to identify them, it could mean that the ideas are lower quality.
As an example, I decided to sell my holdings in Tesco (LSE: TSCO.L - news) and Aviva (LSE: AV.L - news) to buy more BP shares when the share price fell to about 300p in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil blow-out disaster in 2010. To me, the shares were face-slappingly cheap, as I believed the company could survive the crisis because of its cash flow and the potentially drawn out timing of costs.
So far, that investment is working out well, but there is also a big secondary advantage in time saving, because the position now constitutes more than 30% of my investment funds.
Compare that to holding, say, six 5% positions: that's six news flow streams to monitor, six lots of buy and sell decisions to make, six investments to research replacements for when the investments mature and are sold, and potentially five times longer at the computer.
Last thought
Despite this articles catchy title and the undesirability of following Buffett's extreme work ethic, he often dishes out great advice; for example he once said, "Diversification may preserve wealth, but concentration builds wealth."
Although I think that it's important to work hard keeping abreast of the holdings that we do have, that's a powerful endorsement for the 'less is more' school of investment. To me, it suggests the potential for more free time and greater investment reward -- the perfect blend of success!

Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, is dead

Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu File copy

Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, has died at 78 in London.

Ojukwu, who was the National Leader of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, died on Saturday morning at Hammers-field Hospital, London between 1am and 2am local time.

 

Prior to that trip, he was on admission at the Intensive Care Unit of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu following a cerebra-vascular accident otherwise called stroke.
There had been rumours of his death since then but they were always dispelled by the Anambra State Government and his family.
The secretive nature with which his family treated his health condition fuelled regular speculations about his state.
He is survived by his wife, Bianca; two children from the former beauty queen; and many other children from previous marriages.
At the celebration of his 78th birthday at his Forest Crescent, Enugu GRA residence, a number of personalities gathered to celebrate the former Biafran warlord.
His wife had told the gathering that Ojukwu was recovering from his ailment and was positive he would return home soon.
According to wikipedia, "Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu was born on November 4, 1933 at Zungeru in northern Nigeria to Sir Louis Phillippe Odumegwu Ojukwu, a businessman from Nnewi in south-eastern Nigeria. Sir Louis was in the transport business; he took advantage of the business boom during the Second World War to become one of the richest men in Nigeria.
"Emeka began his educational career in Lagos, southwestern Nigeria. In 1944, Emeka was briefly imprisoned 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. 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 He returned to colonial Nigeria in 1956.
He joined the civil service in Eastern Nigeria as an Administrative Officer at Udi, in present-day Enugu State. In 1957, within months of working with the colonial civil service, he left and joined the military as one of the first and few university graduates to join the army: O. Olutoye (1956); C. Odumegwu-Ojukwu (1957), E. A. Ifeajuna and C. O. Rotimi (1960), and A. Ademoyega (1962).
"Ojukwu's background and education guaranteed his promotion to higher ranks. At that time, the Nigerian Military Forces had 250 officers and only 15 were Nigerians. There were 6,400 other ranks, of which 336 were British. It is not surprising that at N/29 the army found in valuable training resources in the young man. [W.U. Bassey was N/1, while JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi was N/2; the first Nigerian to be commissioned as an officer, Lieutenant L. V. Ugboma, left in 1948].
"After serving in the United Nations’ peacekeeping force in the Congo, under Major General Johnson Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, Ojuwkwu was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1964 and posted to Kano, where he was in charge of the 5th Battalion of the Nigerian Army.
"Lt.-Col. Ojukwu was in Kano, northern Nigeria, when Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu on 15 January 1966 executed and announced the bloody military coup in Kaduna, also in northern Nigeria. It is to his credit that the coup lost much steam in the north, where it had succeeded. Lt. Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu supported the forces loyal to the Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Armed Forces, Major-General Aguiyi-Ironisi. Major Nzeogwu was in control of Kaduna, but the coup had flopped in other parts of the country. He surrendered.
"General Aguiyi-Ironsi took over the leadership of the country and thus became the first military head of state. On Monday, 17 January 1966, he appointed military governors for the four regions. Lt. Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu was appointed Military Governor of Eastern Region. Others were: Lt.-Cols Hassan Usman Katsina (North), Francis Adekunle Fajuyi (West), and David Akpode Ejoor (Mid West). These men formed the Supreme Military Council with Brigadier B.A.O Ogundipe, Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, Chief of Staff Army HQ, Commodore J. E. A. Wey, Head of Nigerian Navy, Lt. Col. George T. Kurubo, Head of Air Force.
"By 29 May 1966, things quickly fell apart: There was a planned Pogrom in northern Nigeria during which Nigerians of South-Eastern Nigeria origin were targeted and killed. This presented problems for the young military governor, Colonel Odumegwu-Ojukwu. He did everything in his power to prevent reprisals and even encouraged people to return, as assurances for their safety had been given by his supposed colleagues up north and out west.
"On 29 July 1966, a group of officers of Northern origin, notably Majors Murtala Ramat Rufai Muhammed, Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, and Martin Adamu, led the majority Northern soldiers in a mutiny that was later tagged “counter-coup.” The Supreme Commander General Aguiyi-Ironsi and his host Colonel Fajuyi were abducted and killed in Ibadan.
"First, he insisted that the military hierarchy must be preserved; in which case, Brigadier Ogundipe should take over leadership, not Colonel Gowon. But Ogundipe no longer had the stomach to deal with the army; he was easily convinced to step aside and was posted to the Nigerian High Commission in London.
"Leader of Biafra "General Ojukwu"In January 1967, the Nigerian military leadership went to Aburi, Ghana for a peace conference hosted by General Joseph Ankrah. The implementation of the agreements reached at Aburi fell apart upon the leaderships return to Nigeria and on 30 May 1967, Colonel Odumegwu-Ojukwu declared Eastern Nigeria a sovereign state to be known as BIAFRA:
"Having mandated me to proclaim on your behalf, and in your name, that Eastern Nigeria be a sovereign independent Republic, now, therefore I, Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, by virtue of the authority, and pursuant to the principles recited above, do hereby solemnly proclaim that the territory and region known as and called Eastern Nigeria together with her continental shelf and territorial waters, shall, henceforth, be an independent sovereign state of the name and title of The Republic of Biafra."
"On 6 July 1967, Gowon declared war and attacked Biafra. For 30 months, the war raged on. Now General Odumegwu-Ojukwu knew that the odds against the new republic was overwhelming.
"Most European states recognised the illegitimacy of the Nigerian military rule and banned all future supplies of arms, but the UK government substantially increased its supplies, even sending British Army and Royal Air Force advisors.
"After three years of non-stop fighting and starvation, a hole did appear in the Biafran front lines and this was exploited by the Nigerian military. As it became obvious that all was lost, Ojukwu was convinced to leave the country to avoid his certain assassination. On 9 January 1970, General Odumegwu-Ojukwu handed over power to his second in command, Chief of General Staff Major-General Philip Effiong, and left for Côte d'Ivoire, where President Felix Houphöet-Biogny—who had recognized Biafra on 14 May 1968—granted him political asylum.
"After 13 years in exile, the Federal Government of Nigeria under President Shehu Aliyu Usman Shagari granted an official pardon to Odumegwu-Ojukwu and opened the road for a triumphant return in 1982. The people of Nnewi gave him the now very famous chieftaincy title of Ikemba (Power of the people), while the entire Igbo nation took to calling him Dikedioramma (or beloved hero). His foray into politics was disappointing to many, who wanted him to stay above the fray. Afraid of his supposedly overbearing and enigmatic influence, the ruling party, NPN, rigged him out of the senate seat, which was purportedly lost to a relatively little known state commissioner in then Governor Jim Nwobodo's cabinet called Dr. Edwin Onwudiwe.
"The Second Republic was truncated on 30 December 1983 by Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, supported by Generals Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida and Sani Abacha. The junta proceeded to arrest and to keep Ojukwu in Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison, Lagos.
"In 1985, General Ibrahim Babangida overthrew General Buhari and reviewed Ojukwu's prison term and charges. The charges were reviewed and many were dismissed or drastically revised. After the ordeal in Buhari's prisons, Dim Odumegwu-Ojukwu continued to play major roles in the advancement of the Igbo nation in a democracy because, "As a committed democrat, every single day under an un-elected government hurts me. The citizens of this country are mature enough to make their on choices, just as they have the right to make their own mistakes." He played a major role in the 1995 Constitutional Conference, which gave birth to the present geopolitical structure."

Biafra leader Ojukwu dies at 78

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu passionately believed his homeland in eastern Nigeria deserved to be its own country, a new nation free of the borders imposed by foreigners as colonialism lifted across Africa in the 1960s.

That hopefulness, seen in the rising-sun flag of the Republic of Biafra, descended into hellish reality as Nigeria's many ethnic groups fought over whether to remain unified during a bloody three-year civil war that killed 1 million people.

Instead of pan-African pride, it brought the first television images of starving African children with stick-like arms into homes around the world. And even today, the oil-rich nation still violently struggles with its identity.

Ojukwu, a millionaire's son who became the military leader of the breakaway republic, died in a London hospital Saturday after a protracted illness following a stroke. He was 78.

Maja Umeh, a spokesman for Nigeria's Anambra state, confirmed Ojukwu's death Saturday. Anambra state, in the heart of what used to be the breakaway republic, had provided financial support for Ojukwu during his hospital stay, Umeh said.

In a statement Saturday, President Goodluck Jonathan praised Ojukwu for his "immense love for his people, justice, equity and fairness which forced him into the leading role he played in the Nigerian civil war."

"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 statement read.

Leaders said the war's end would leave "No Victor, No Vanquished." However, that claim has yet to be fulfilled as ethnic and religious tensions still threaten Nigeria's unity more than 40 years later.

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.

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 finances.

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 region, long reliant on other regions of Nigeria for food, saw massive food shortages despite international aid.

The enduring images, seen on television and in photographs, show starving Biafran children with distended stomachs and stick-like arms. 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 after the conflict. "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.

Ojukwu spent 13 years in exile, coming home after he was unconditionally pardoned in 1982. He returned to politics, but lost a race for a senate seat. Authorities sent him to a maximum-security prison for a year when Nigeria suffered yet another of the military coups that punctuated life after independence.

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.

Despite the long and costly civil war, Nigeria remains torn by internal conflict. Tens of thousands have died in riots pitting Christians against Muslims in a country of more than 160 million people. Militant groups attack foreign oil firms in the oil-rich Niger Delta while criminal gangs kidnap the middle class. Poverty continues to grind the country.

The Igbos, meanwhile, continue to suffer political isolation in the country. While an Igbo man recently became one of the country's top military officers, others say they've been locked out of higher office over lingering mistrust from the war.

Some in the former breakaway region still hold out hope for their own voice, even their own country despite the cataclysmic losses.

As did Ojukwu himself.

"Biafra," Ojukwu told journalists in 2006, "is always an alternative."

Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu (1933-2011) The last patriot

YESTERDAY, November 26, 2011, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the number one Igbo citizen and a Nigerian patriot said goodbye to this world after a protracted illness. I was privileged to accompany Gov. Obi (his 9th visit) to see him in London on the 25th of November, on our way to Nigeria from France, where he accompanied the president to the meeting of Honorary Investors Council of Nigeria’s meeting. Our plane hardly touched ground at 5:30 am when the Governor received a text message from Ojukwu’s son that the father had passed on.

He was momentarily lost as he kept shouting Oh noo ad infinitum. He immediately made some calls, including to Ojukwu’s wife, Bianca who is in London. He called his wife, Margaret who was in France with us, but had to stop in London to immediately go and stay with Bianca and make sure everything was in order. Mrs Margaret Peter-Obi had tried in vain to persuade her husband to spend the night in London, but the Governor said that he had so many things to do in Anambra that he could not afford one minute of rest.

Turning to me, he told me to call his travel agent for the next available flight to London for himself, myself and Emeka, Ojukwu’s son. The agent got back with the news that British Airways was fully booked. Thereafter, we went to fetch the son in town and raced back to the airport for the next flight to Lagos to catch the Virgin flight to London. Since only two economy class were available, I could not make it; Gov. Obi and Emeka did.
While we were in London, Gov. Obi had audience with the President. After the meeting, he told me how nice our president is, his concern for the good of the country and how he showed deep-rooted concern for Ojukwu. The issue arose because Obi discussed with him the possibility of naming the dual carriage road from Head bridge after Dim Odumegwu-Ojukwu.

He had written to him on that but Mr. President was of the opinion, and rightly too, that it would be after the rehabilitation of the road, which is on-going now. Even while the President spoke to our people in France, he said that his SSA in Diaspora (Bianca) would have been in the meeting but for special permission granted her to appropriately look after her husband. As all this took place, nobody knew that death was hovering over him.
But why this unusual reactions to Ojukwu’s death? The reason is simple, he was a great man. Shall we sample him?
By the standard of today, his father, Sir Louis Odumegwu was a Billionaire. With his wealth, he reared the little but charming Emeka with all the affection that parents lavish upon their children in ever y age. He was determined to give him the best education. Consistent with Sir Louis’ vow, the child, Emeka, was almost crushed with education. The first school he attended was St. Patrick’s Primary School, Idumagbo, Lagos.

There, during break hours, he relished sham battles in which, time and again, he and his friends were nearly killed. Because of this, only few pupils could dare play with him. Later, he attended Church Missionary Grammar School (CMS) and King’s College, both in Lagos.
While in King’s College, his father had already discovered that his child, Emeka, was intellectually precocious and keen, well endowed with good judgment and restless with ambition. How best could a man develop his potentialities? In those days, as it is today, it helped to attend good schools. King’s College was in fact, one of the best secondary schools in Nigeria. Since education was still developing in the country, Sir Odumegwu wanted for his son a country where education has reached advanced stages, for effective intellectual insemination. It is a fact of history that when one grows among advanced people, he is more likely to imbibe their civilization with great ease. After discussing the idea of a British education with some of his enlightened Nigerian friends, they settled for Epsom on the understanding that at thirteen he would transfer to Eton, Britain’s most exclusive public school.

As planned, Emeka, 12, was admitted into Epsom College, in the county of Surrey.
His English education began in earnest. Epsom thenceforth became a formative ordeal for him in a strange environment. The college inspired the talented Emeka with a great love for history. He came to know and admire English civilization. Like any child with his disposition, he equally learnt a great deal of the virtues and vices that go with growing up..
Emeka later gained admission to Lincoln College, University of Oxford in 1952. Oxford, as expected, was full of the frolic of students, the odour of learning and the excitement of independent thought. There, his father was anxious that Emeka should study Law saying, “I think there is the material of a good lawyer and legal director of my business in him.”11 This was in line with the prevalent disposition among Nigerians, where, till today, fond parents always want their children to read Law which they regard as an open sesame to wealth and high social status.

The insistence of the father that Emeka studied Law was the first serious conflict between father and son. In filial compromise Emeka took up the studying of Law; but as a student of Law, the prospect of studying modern History and observing the lives of heroes held a secret fascination for him. At a stage, having studied Law for a year, he burnt his law books, forgot Jurisprudence and followed History as if under a spell.
In 1955 he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree. Back to Nigeria, he soon returned to Oxford to receive his Master of Arts degree. With all these, and while in the flower of his maturity, he inwardly felt satisfied that he was now well armed with the weapon of education. His desire to contribute to the development of his country could now begin. Silently, he resolved to begin in earnest.

On his return and excited and happy with his son, Sir Odumegwu took Emeka to a lavishly furnished office complex, and handed him the keys. On getting home that day, Emeka had a vision or something close to that; he was offered a choice of life of ease, pleasure, plenty and vice, or one of hardship, danger, glory and virtue. He followed wise counsel and chose the more difficult but virtuous life. Thereafter, he rejected the cosy path cut for him by his father, gave him back the keys and decided to cut his own path.
This crave for individualism made him join the Eastern Nigerian Public Service as an Administrative Officer. Sir Louis was not pleased at all that his son took what he considered the ridiculous job of an administrator. Exhausting all persuasion, the father upbraided the son for trying to make his family a public jest. Rather than budge, the son showed ever less interest in the father’s business, ever more in administration.

The dust generated by Emeka’s administrative work had hardly settled down when, in search of an organization that would escape his father’s influence, he generated another controversy that threatened to separate him from his father for good. He joined the Army! This was in 1957, when the Nigerian Army was merely a part of an all-embracing British West African army called the Royal West African Frontier Forces (RWAFF). These forces included the armies of Nigeria, Gold Coast (now Ghana), Sierra-Leone and Gambia.

Thinking the task of bringing his son to his “senses” had gone beyond him, Sir Odumegwu enlisted the help of his friends; Zik and others were contacted. Zik called Emeka and advised that if he were Emeka, he would accept his father’s offer and avoid the hazard of joining a brutal force. Emeka remarked that he would do so if he were Zik. Being Emeka, he maintained that his father’s offer would make him perpetually delineated as Ojukwu.
After the drama of being forced to enter the force as a recruit, the new Cadet went to Teshie in Ghana, thenceforth to Officer Cadet School at Eaton Hall in England,. He later attended Infantry School at Warminster and Small Arms School at Hythe and Joint Services Staff College (JSSC) at Latimer.

In Nigeria, Ojukwu served with the First Battalion, Kano, before his appointment as an instructor, Royal West African Frontier Forces Training School, Teshie, Ghana, 1958-60. Ojukwu returned to fatherland in 1961 and served as staff officer in the ‘A’ Branch of the new Nigerian Army Headquarters in the Defence Ministry building in Lagos. He had no problems carrying out his assigned duties. Six months as a Captain, Ojukwu was promoted to a Major. Because of the respect Emeka’s father had for the rank of a Major, he broke the silence with his son and celebrated his promotion with him. Father and son drank a bottle of champagne between them as a gesture of re-union. Very soon he was transferred to Kaduna as a Staff Officer with the First Brigade. While there, like his contemporaries, he served with the United Nations Peace Keeping Forces in Congo in 1962. Between 1964 – 66, Ojukwu was the commander of Fifth Battalion, Kano. The period of his command can be described without tongue-in-cheek, as the most gruesome time in the history of Nigeria. While he was in the Fifth Battalion, the first attempted coup took place. He did not, like most commanders, abdicate his command. He opposed the coup and was later appointed the governor of the Eastern Region.

His tenure as governor portrayed him as a master in the art of governance, and an eloquent public speaker. None who heard him speak could forget the cadence of his speeches, his mellifluous tones, the eloquence of his words, the geniality of his spirit, the charm of his courtesy, the vivacity of his wit, the poetic sensitivity of his mind. Both in his prepared and impromptu speeches, he made use of all the faculties he had, natural or acquired, such that he far surpassed in force and strength all the orations of his contemporaries. He has the rare capacity for dramatic poses. Clenched fist, jutting jaw and theatrical action, were part of his fiery speeches.

The regime of General Ironsi, which Ojukwu was part of, tried to save Nigeria within the limits of their vision and creed. With the death of Ironsi, an organized pogrom was carried out. An eyewitness told how orders were given to some Northern soldiers to kill all Easterners. The terrified soldiers at first refused to obey the command. They were however induced to kill a few. The heat of the murder inflamed them and it passed into massacre. This spread to the barracks and Igbo quarters with fluid readiness. Ojukwu and other concerned Igbos raised horrified protests, even as soldiers of Northern region congratulated one another.
Igbos then came to the belief that the security of the Easterners was in their own hands. The courage of their leader, Ojukwu, gave dignity and splendour to their survival cause. Thousands of onlookers must have been disturbed as millions of Igbos left the North in a prolonged and melancholy exodus.

This was the genesis of the civil war crisis. As the crisis deepened, Ojukwu’s resistance grew, but Lt. Colonel Yakubu Gowon wanted to retain him in the army. In an attempt to placate him, the prospect of being the Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters was dangled before him with enticing conditions. However, Ojukwu, who would not support indiscipline, spurned the dangled carrot. Were he different, he says: “I would not have chosen to resist Gowon instead of the easy way of acquiescence chosen by my colleagues.”
As one of the means of seeking peace, the actors in that conflict needed a meeting.
Ojukwu knew that his security and that of the Easterners was not guaranteed. Likewise neither Gowon nor Lt. Colonel Hassan Katsina was prepared to go to the East. A compromise would have been Benin City, the capital of the Mid-Western region, but for the presence of Northern soldiers, it was unacceptable to Ojukwu. In sum then, a meeting could only be held in a neutral territory that would be willing to host such. Finally, the meeting was held at Aburi, Ghana, under the auspices of General Ankrah. The two warriors and their lieutenants, as expected, flew off to Ghana well armed with the problems of the country as if to a decisive battle.

The Aburi meeting was held on the 4th and 5th of January 1967, at Peduase Lodge, a luxurious hilltop retreat built by late President Kwameh Nkrumah. The serenity of the place could bring wandering souls back to their senses. It was an ideal place for sober reflection.
At Aburi, for the first time in Nigerian history the problems of the country were faced honestly and honest solutions sought. From that bitter moment, Ojukwu the Administrator receded into history, and Ojukwu the General, aged 33, turned his soul to war. He went to war not because he liked war, but because he had no option. The problems he faced seemed to have defied a peaceful solution. After the war, he went to exile where he stayed for 12 years.
With the end of the war, Ojukwu was granted political asylum by the Late President of Ivory Coast, Houphuet Boigny. Thus, from 11 January, 1970, Ojukwu’s exile started. He needed a secluded place that would be conducive to sober reflections and contemplation. He needed to be away from the prying and prancing eyes of many that sought to see that powerful man of Biafra. He needed a place that would be inaccessible to assassins. The search for a good place finally ended at Yamoussoukoro, which also houses the Ivorian Summer Palace. Its imposing Catholic basilica now enhances the pride of the city. Later, when tension reduced, he moved to the capital, Abidjan.

After his pardon by the then President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Ojukwu came home on board a chartered Boeing 727 Nigeria Airways Flight WT 700. Soon after the plane touched down on Nigerian soil, the welcome song rent the air. Work at the airport was almost paralysed, as all airport officials who got wind of his arrival abandoned their posts for hours to catch a glimpse of Ojukwu, the returning hero. There was hardly anybody in the country that had not the curiosity to come and see the formidable and indefatigable freedom fighter. There was what seemed like mass movement of Easterners, Westerners and Northerners to the airport. The airport was partly destroyed.

AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH CHIEF EMEKA OJUKWU “I Keep the Alternative Alive” - Ikemba

AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH CHIEF EMEKA OJUKWU
“I Keep the Alternative Alive” - Ikemba

t 67, the revolutionary blood is still pumping through his veins. In the wake of disappointing performance by various unprincipled and unskillful politicians of Igbo extraction at the state and national level, Ojukwu is engaged in the Herculean task of keeping the Igbo spirit alive and well. Every word from his mouth is a cavalcade of commitment to his passionate goal of elevating the lot of the Igbos. In an era when politicians seeking favor are afraid of being tagged enemies of one Nigeria, Ikemba unabashedly expounds his perception of issues, not minding whose feathers are ruffled. With a profound intellect, Ikemba presents distinctive perspective on most issues.
Ojukwu, a good student of history, is constantly reinventing himself and giving himself roles that will continue to keep him relevant in the scheme of things. He always finds a potent viewpoint and he expresses it in such eloquent manner that it resonates across the board. His philosophical musings have the capacity to linger and gather moss as it rolls across the political landscape. He goes deeper than any of his contemporaries and always remains a source of wonderment to the younger generation to whom his legend is material for all times.
Ojukwu is his own action figure. He is a kind of creature a nation receives as a gift once in a generation. Never boring, always spectacular, Ojukwu has built for himself grandeur that is beyond the reach of the weathering storm. Whatever might be his perceived shortfall, Ojukwu continues to hover far and above the political pedestrians of Nigeria. He continues to update himself within the trajectories of the pendulum that oscillates from a solid reality to a final fantasy. Ojukwu has a penchant for symbolism. He has a highly abbreviated embellishment and an underrated sense of humility. He is hardly distracted by the sheer repertoire of his towering mythological image. Ojukwu’s interpretation can only be found in the man himself. In this exclusive interview with Nigeriaworld at his Boston Marriott Hotel suite on Monday the 9th of July 2001, Ojukwu revealed to Rudolf Okonkwo, in a splendid style, the spirit within.
Here are extracts:
NIGERIAWORLD: “The Federation of Nigeria is today as corrupt, as unprogressive and as oppressive and irreformable as the Ottoman Empire was in Eastern Europe over a century ago. And in contrast, the Nigerian Federation in the form it was constituted by the British cannot by any stretch of imagination be considered an African necessity. Yet we are being forced to sacrifice our very existence as a people to the integrity of that ramshackle creation that has no justification either in history or in the freely expressed wishes of the people.”
That was you speaking in 1969. Do you still believe in those sentiments or have they changed?
OJUKWU: Regretfully, they haven’t changed. The worst thing about Nigeria is that here is a nation that has so much potential but the only problem is that everybody seems unprepared to face the problems or the realities of the Nigerian situation. There is absolutely no way you can look at the Nigerian federation, the way it was conceived, and say it is a good federation. One of the federating units is bigger than the other units. The other thing is that everything that has worked in Nigeria, or appears to have worked, seems very much to have been an imposition. The idea that sovereignty belongs to the Nigerian people is all fiction as far as Nigeria is concerned.
I was talking to somebody earlier on today, and I said that one of the problems we have is that we have refused to define our union. Yet, Nigeria is one place that, because of the many, many disparate units in the country, needs to work together. This imposes on us the need to define every step of our being so that every body knows his rights but, unfortunately, this is one thing that Nigerians are not willing to do. I don’t know why. If America says to you today that they are proud of the fact that, for two hundred years, they have been trying to make their union more perfect, it sounds very reasonable. But, in Nigeria, you are not even allowed to question your union, which is ridiculous. Even if Nigerians at a certain point, say ten years ago, thought one way, what right have we got to think that new thoughts, new brains, haven’t emerged that can work out something different. This idea of considering a national conference, an idea only put out to make Nigeria breakup, is one of the most ridiculous concepts Nigerians have.
It is the same thing that we are going through over resource control. Somebody says I want to control my resources and automatically everybody takes up arms, saying no, no, you mustn’t talk about it. Why mustn’t you? It is yours. If you say it isn’t then simply declare that nobody owns any resource. At that point I would ask you, who owns the northern landmass? Isn’t the land a natural resource? Why does it belong to the North alone? Why don’t we march up there and take our own share? If it’s land, the North can have it; if it is oil, then, of course, Nigeria must have it, not the people who found it under their soil. In any case, that you want to control it doesn’t mean that you want to take it all. No. The idea of all resources is to know who owns the resource and allow that person to negotiate his own place within the federation with the resources that he has. We the Igbos, whatever we have under the ground, will negotiate, and I make this quite boldly, our place in Nigeria using our own rather high-level manpower.
In Nigeria you say you have a democracy but you don’t allow parties to spring up as parties normally would anywhere in the world. What is INEC? Registering a party? Why? They can take note of the existence of a party but they haven’t got any executive right over its functions. There is nothing wrong with me personally setting up a party purely for the interest of the people of Umudim in Nnewi. I wouldn’t win a national sort of mandate, I am sure, but if I choose to safeguard the right of a minute group, why shouldn’t I? If I choose that my political party should be one that protects four-legged animals, why shouldn’t I? Why can’t I go into politics determined that culture is essentially religion or that religion is essentially culture and determined to protect the culture of our people, why not? Even today, they have a Christian Democratic Union of Germany. In Nigeria, because of that word Christian, it will be banned. You cannot have a Christian Democratic Union in Nigeria. Why? So, generally, I say that I would like to see a more mature approach. Stop treating Nigerians all over, across the board, as children.
I don’t know who decided on a structure of 36 states, but I say, if we decide to review it, why shouldn’t we? Those states, you and I must understand, were mainly punitive creations rather than a need for economic advancement of Nigeria or Nigerians. Let us stop burying our heads in the sand. We have had national emergencies and managed to get out of it. Let us look at each other eyeball to eyeball and decide the type of country that we want to live in. I believe that is essential.
NIGERIAWORLD: For over a year now, you have been calling for the formation of an Igbo political party where Igbos would be majority, rather than the current situation where Igbos are minority in a majority party. You have argued consistently that it is the only way for Igbo agenda to receive the attention it deserves. What progress has been made towards the establishment of such a party? And following the same reasoning, why are you not supporting the formation of a country where Igbos would be majority?
OJUKWU: You caught me short there. The formation of a country where Igbos would be majority? I have never opposed it. If the Igbos feel that things are best for them in a country of their own, why shouldn’t they have it? If after all we have been going through in Nigeria we feel that Biafra is best, we have every right to seek to re-create Biafra or any other place. Let us not make the mistake of thinking that this world is a prison. You are what you are for as long as it is comfortable for you. That is how I see it. I have continued to say that in Nigeria what we require is a nation that we can build together. You will understand where I am coming from better if you understand that I was brought up in the Pan-Africanist tradition. I believe that, not only would it be better for the Black man anywhere if we in Africa find a way of joining hands, all of us - Ghanaians, Nigerians, Basotho, Sierra-Leoneans, etc. - it would be wonderful. Now, with that at the back of my thoughts you can understand that the only problem that will not permit that is man becoming beast to his fellow man because of the accident that puts power into the hands of somebody.
NIGERIAWORLD: You seem to be traveling across the globe searching for someone to take the baton from you. Is there nobody at home who is capable? What attributes are you looking for in the potential leader you are searching for?
OJUKWU: To start with, it is clear to me that I can’t suddenly wake up one morning and say, here, I have found him. It doesn’t ever work that way. More than anything else, what I am trying to do is to wake up the youths of our society. That power, the way I see it, is not my personal preserve. I think that more people should come forward and when they do, very simply, one day, another leader would emerge. I would like also to stress, in the context of this, that whatever it is that people admire in what I have done, let them remember also that I did most of them when I was 33. So, I don’t want a group of people laid back, always waiting for something to be served them on a platter of gold. Come out; show your hands, struggle; take over the baton, I wouldn’t fight you.
NIGERIAWORLD: You once said that whoever wants this baton should snatch it if it wasn’t given to him or her. Some observers think that Chief Ralph Uwazurike is fighting to snatch the baton from you but rather than receive the support of the king makers, he is being persecuted by the governments of Imo and Abia States in conjunction with the Obasanjo’s administration, making laws aimed at keeping MASSOB down. How does this hostile environment help your search for the emergence of a new Igbo leadership?
OJUKWU: There is absolutely no question of MASSOB or Ralph Uwazurike not being received by me. I like Ralph. We get on very well. He even saw me to the airport when I was leaving. That close we are. When you talk about the establishment, what you find is one of my problems about the Nigerian structure. What the governments of Abia or Imo are doing; whatever positions they have taken about Ralph Uwazurike are not Igbo positions. They are reflecting what they imagine would be pleasing to Obasanjo and his government. That’s all.
NIGERIAWORLD: Once again, Nigeria is seeing an upsurge in ethnic violence. There is a total breakdown of law and order. Large quantities of arms are being imported into the country. Is Nigeria a failed State?
OJUKWU: It is always difficult to know which is rumor and which is fact, more so in a place like Nigeria. Certainly, it is clear that the forces of law and order have tended to fail the citizenry. It is equally true that under Obasanjo’s government, though called democratic, more people have been killed for various reasons; that life has not been secured under his government. It is equally true that throughout his government in the two years, Nigeria has had ethnic problems. These are factors, I suppose, with which one can judge the success or failure of Obasanjo’s government. And it is also the factors that would indicate to you that there are underlying problems of Nigeria that need to be looked into and that if Obasanjo is not looking well into them, then he is not doing his job. That’s how I see it.
NIGERIAWORLD: Revisionist historians and their political friends are tearing apart the History of Nigeria. You are a major player in those years. It could safely be said that the history of Nigeria from 1966 to 1970 is nothing but the biography of Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. Why have you remained silent on this?
OJUKWU: I do not remain silent. No. And I am happy that you asked this question. When you are not vested with authority, it is always difficult to get your voice heard in Nigeria. I say this, and it is not being big headed, singularly, I am probably the most popular politician in the country. Proof: I only have to step out on the roads and you see what happens. In fact, I amuse myself and I laugh also, very often finding myself in a position where I introduce the “successful” ones who side by side with me waged the struggle. They succeeded; I “failed”, but when we get to Nigeria today, it would be expected of me to introduce them. That is the position. But the other thing that you might be alluding to, is this question of writing a book about the war. I must confess that my attitude is slightly different from yours on that matter. I am more preoccupied with the immediate future. When I came back from exile, I was asked something nearly the same as you are now asking, and I said God in his infinite mercy gave us two eyes and both of them are facing forward. He could have given us one eye in front and one behind, but he didn’t. All that he has done that for, in my view, is always to remind us that the future is more important than the past. And that, indeed, is my own feeling. The other thing is that Generals who have delusions about their earned professionalism spend years and miles and miles of paper trying to tell the world how they waged a struggle and without help won it single handedly. So, those who think they are brilliant Generals let them write. I am a historian, social scientist; I am more preoccupied with what would happen to this unit called Nigeria tomorrow, the next day, and the day after. Whenever I get down pen and paper, and I will be getting them more and more, it will be an effort to help Nigerians discover themselves, not to glorify a past that really didn’t exist.
NIGERIAWORLD: How did you receive the news that you fought the civil war over resource control? When you hear statements like the one which said you sent Biafran troops into Midwest with the sole aim of taking over Nigeria and making it an Igbo dominated country, how do you react? What does such rewritten history tell you about the people who make such statements?
OJUKWU: I laugh because it is most unintelligent. The people who say this sort of thing are people who remain fixated at a certain point in history. What they are repeating ad nauseam is the propaganda with which they fought a war that ended full 30 years ago. I urge them to wake up and look at the new situation. Nobody went across the Niger to loot banks. All the banks that have been looted till today, were looted by prominent servants of the Federal Government.
NIGERIAWORLD: Modern day analysts have opined that the Ojukwu that died in 1970 would have been more powerful than the living Ojukwu of this day. Why didn’t you stay and fight until the end?
OJUKWU: Consider committing suicide? I am asking. What I considered was to fight the war to the best of our ability and give a leadership to our people for as long as I could. If you remember, when I left Biafra I went in search of peace. I went trying to get hold of Houphouet-Boigny, the president of the Ivory Coast. He happened to be in Cameroon. By the time he came back and we had a discussion, my number two, General Effiong, had surrendered. That was the way it came about. But all that notwithstanding, I know many people would have loved a dead Ojukwu but I would not oblige them. I intend to live for very, very, much longer and I intend also to be quite vocal in politics for as long as I can.
NIGERIAWORLD: Some agitators for a New Biafra are signaling their intention to establish a government in exile if it could not be achieved at home. Did you ever consider doing so when you left Biafra?
OJUKWU: Consider? Yes, but I dismissed it.
NIGERIAWORLD: Why?
OJUKWU: Because I didn’t see what good it would do. Oh, it would do me personal good because some people would still look upon me as a Head of State and they would certainly, in certain places, give the red carpet receptions. But, is that what life is all about? Life is about the betterment of the lot of the millions of people at home. I had to consider very seriously what possible reaction a government that, for three years, had intent on genocide would have on such situation vis-à-vis our people who are still captive within the Nigerian situation.
NIGERIAWORLD: Your critics think that you came back from exile, fought and recovered your father’s properties but you have not done enough to help other Igbos to recover their so-called abandoned properties. Is that a fair judgment?
OJUKWU: I will always have critics and whatever it is, they have every right to their opinion. I am satisfied in my mind that I have done as much as I can, and I am continuing to try to do more to help as many of my compatriots as I can. What am I expected to have done? What did I do even for my father’s properties, my inheritance? I went to court. If I am going to court for Ndigbo, I think the very first thing that I would have to prove is my locus. I believe that Nigeria’s concept about my locus does not permit me to assume certain national responsibilities. That’s just one thing. There are many others but in any case, I am satisfied that I have led delegations, talked about our people who lost their jobs, retired army officers and so on. Slowly, we are getting a hearing and I shall continue doing what I can. But that wouldn’t stop anybody from criticizing me.
NIGERIAWORLD: Until recently, the Biafran veterans and the dead Biafrans have been neglected. The same is being said about those who financed the war. The fear out there is that failure to appreciate those who made sacrifices in the past would not encourage others to help when such a need arises. Have you been able to say thank you? And when will Igbos do the same?
OJUKWU: We do what we can in a circumstance that we are in control of. Even this morning, I thanked Israel for whatever help they had given us. I am constantly thanking other people whenever I meet them. I take it upon myself to maintain the symbolism of Biafra. I thank them. But that is not the issue here. The true issue is that people gave us sympathy. But financing the war? That is an odd concept. Nobody financed any war. What happened was that Nigerians decided that they would like to put a final solution to Igbo problem. They unleashed a massacre. We tried to contain them; they unleashed a second wave more vicious than the previous one. I looked upon the situation, did the best I could for our people who were scattered all over Nigeria. I said okay, this is our boundary. If you can find your way back to within this area, whatever there is within this area would be shared amongst all of us. You have as much right here as anybody who happened to be here. That actually is another way of seeing the declaration of Biafra and they had a goal and aim in their flight. The other thing to bear in mind is that we didn’t really wage a war. What we did was resist Gowon’s coup d’état and I hope that he would enter the Guinness Book of Records as the person who has waged a coup longer than any body else because the whole three years, he was actually trying to legitimize his coup.
NIGERIAWORLD: A common trend in Igbo political discourse has been the labeling of those with dissenting opinion as saboteurs. It was prevalent during the war and continued till this day. Does it mean that there will always be Ifeajunas and Banjos in Igbo socio-political life and must they always be killed?
OJUKWU: During the war, there were saboteurs. I understand that historically. Our people didn’t fully understand the enterprise of saying no to Nigeria. A lot thought, in fact, that it would end much quicker. A lot thought that perhaps, even, it would be less painful. But in the course of our propaganda, they were labeled saboteurs. After the war, I am not aware of dissenters that have been labeled saboteurs. Perhaps, some people with loose sort of language might have, but I am not very much aware of that. Since the end of the war, there have been dissents, but then, that is the essence of democracy. There will always be dissenters. I don’t expect every Igbo man, woman, and child to agree with me. No. If they did, I would probably pull out, wondering what had gone wrong. There would be dissent but my aim is that amongst the Igbos, there should always emerge clearly an Igbo agenda to which the majority of Ndigbo would find adherence. I don’t think Ndigbo would all be in one political party. No. Forgive me if I use this as an example, the Jewish National Congress is an umbrella organization that encompasses all the Jews, but you now go from Likud to Labor and all that. They are different parties. America, for strength, is poised more closely than any other place at 50:50, those who agree and those who don’t. This is the strength of democracy. Therefore, when you say some of these things, I say, look at it less sentimentally. There is no way Igbos would all speak with one voice. But let one be more slightly strident than the others. That is what I look for.
NIGERIAWORLD: I overheard two Igbos talking about your marriage to Bianca. They were of the opinion that the marriage of the greatest Igbo man alive to the most beautiful woman ever produced by Igbo land, was a reward for all the sacrifices you made for Igbos. Do you feel adequately compensated?
OJUKWU: I can never be compensated enough on this matter. If, indeed, the question is my wife, she is the greatest thing that has happened to me. I don’t know what I have done to deserve so much compensation, but, if you call it compensation, I dedicate myself much further to the service of Ndigbo who in their wisdom gave me such compensation.
NIGERIAWORLD: There is a big debate going on in the Internet over whether Awolowo said to you that if the East should secede, the West would secede. The conversation supposedly took place in Enugu on May 6, 1967 and was pulled from what was titled, Ojukwu and Pa Awo Conversation and Speeches during the War in 1967. The information was claimed to have been classified but now declassified. Is this information authentic?
OJUKWU: Let’s stop fooling ourselves, please. When any Nigerian gets up and say, this is classified information that has recently been declassified, I say, classified by whom? Declassified by whom? Do you think we are in America where you have these things? In Nigeria nobody classifies anything and nobody has declassifies anything. So, once it starts with that you know there is deception.
NIGERIAWORLD: They said you were the one that recorded this conversation.
OJUKWU: And then I declassified it recently?
NIGERIAWORLD: Prof. Aluko, Prof. Eni Njoku, Dr. Nwakanma, Dr. PNC Okigbo, Lt. Col. Imo, Chief J.I Onyia and many others supposedly attended the meeting.
OJUKWU: I find it quite amusing also that all the Igbo participants are dead.
NIGERIAWORLD: That is true.
OJUKWU: How come? Is it the death of Pius Okigbo that declassified the information?
NIGERIAWORLD: Did the meeting take place, and was there such an agreement?
OJUKWU: We’ve said this over and over again, so many times, and people don’t understand; they don’t want to actually. If you remember, I released Awolowo from jail. Even that, some people are beginning to contest as well. Awo was in jail in Calabar. Gowon knows and the whole of the federal establishment knows that at no point was Gowon in charge of the East. The East took orders from me. Now, how could Gowon have released Awolowo who was in Calabar? Because of the fact that I released him, it created quite a lot of rapport between Awo and myself and I know that before he went back to Ikenne, I set up a hotline between Ikenne and my bedroom in Enugu. He tried like an elder statesman to find a solution. Awolowo is a funny one. Don’t forget that the political purpose of the coup, the Ifeajuna coup that began all this, was to hand power over to Awo. We young men respected him a great deal. He was a hero. I thought he was a hero and certainly I received him when I was governor. We talked and he was very vehement when he saw our complaints and he said that if the Igbos were forced out by Nigeria that he would take the Yorubas out also. I don’t know what anybody makes of that statement but it is simple. Whether he did or didn’t, it is too late. There is nothing you can do about it. So, he said this and I must have made some appropriate responses too. But it didn’t quite work out the way that we both thought. Awolowo, evidently, had a constant review of the Yoruba situation and took different path. That’s it. I don’t blame him for it. I have never done.
NIGERIAWORLD: How does it feel like knowing that you are one of the world’s historical figures?
OJUKWU: I don’t know whether I am or not. But certainly, I do know that I am probably the most Nigerian of Nigerians alive today. I also know that the failure of Nigeria has created a reflex and that reflex can be called Biafra. I know that in the context of Biafra that existed, I am very important. Having said that, I feel that I have a responsibility to always point out the deficiencies of Nigeria and to keep alive the alternative. That’s why I say that there will always be, if not the Biafra of territory, Biafra of the heart.
NIGERIAWORLD: What does that mean?
OJUKWU: It is an attitude, a revolution, and a rejection of all the corruption and all the terrible things that you find in Nigeria. That will be always around, no matter where; in a little corner, people who want to change things and change them for the better and I am proud to be one of those.
NIGERIAWORLD: Thank you very much, Ikemba.
OJUKWU: Thank you.