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The Death Of A Nigerian Icon – The Ikemba
Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu
By
Akintokunbo A Adejumo
Newsdiaryonline
Sat Nov26,2011
Ojukwu
Prior to the 1966 coup which ushered in General JTU
Aguiyi-Ironsi, very few people in Nigeria had ever seen soldiers
before. They were mostly confined to the barracks. Most of us in
those days did not even know that Nigerians soldiers were sent
to the Congo. Even now, most history books never recorded the
exploits and bravery of Nigerian soldiers in the West African
Auxiliary Force who distinguished themselves in the First and
Second World Wars on the side of the British colonial masters in
Burma and East Africa. That is another story.
Then came the first time I saw soldiers
in 1966 on TV, and one of them was the face of a young Colonel
called Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who at the time was named
the Governor of the Eastern Region. The name, Ojukwu, itself
connotes some kind of force, some authority, some discipline and
romanticism to me, at least. To make it more intriguing to me, I
had never before seen a soldier who has a full beard as this
man. The perception then, to us civilians, was that soldiers are
not allowed to grow beards as part of their service; and that
Ojukwu was given special dispensation by the Nigerian Army to do
so because the beard just wouldn’t go.
This further reinforced my belief that this was a hard,
stern, disciplined man, and to me as a Yoruba man, further
confirmed to me that the Igbo were a tough and hardy people.
Throughout his tenure, and before and during the civil war, I
never saw Ojukwu smile. He was always taciturn, serious, stern,
and hard-faced, another feature that convinced me of his being a
man of sterner stuff; a man not given to trivialities or
nonsense. It was therefore no surprise to me, even at that very
young age of mine, after the large scale massacre of his people
and his disaffection with the Military Government of General
Yakubu Gowon, who was his (Ojukwu’s) junior in the Army, that he
felt he had to secede from the Nigerian nation to save and
protect his people.
With the benefit of hindsight, and considering the current and
increasingly violent fractious situation of Nigeria, who can
blame him? I feel in fact that the Ikemba, as Ojukwu’s title is
called, is now wholly vindicated.
I do not need here to recite a long biography; his birth,
school; army career and his infamous war with Nigeria are well
documented. Suffice it to say he was born into a rich family,
well educated both in Nigeria and in the UK and
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). (Wikipedia)
His popular background and sound education guaranteed his
promotion to higher ranks. Besides, as at 1956, 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 he is N/29 (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)
Odumegwu-Ojukwu has an understandably fast rise in the military,
eventually becoming the Quartermaster General. (Wikipedia)
Ojukwu served in the United
Nations’ peacekeeping force in the Congo,
under the legendary Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe
Aguiyi-Ironsi, and was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1964
and posted to Kano, where he was in charge of the 5th Battalion
of the Nigerian Army. He was in Kano, northern Nigeria, when
Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu on January 15, 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.
(Wikipaedia)
General Aguiyi-Ironsi took over the leadership of the country
and thus became the first military head of state. On Monday,
January 17, 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. (Wikipedia)
By May 29, 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 July 29, 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, Ojukwu, to his credit, 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.
They ended up in Aburi, Ghana in January 1967 for a peace
conference hosted by General Joseph Ankrah. Three days later on
May 30, 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."
(Wikipedia)
The rest is history. Of course, as we know, Ojukwu was
officially pardoned by President Shehu Shagari and after 13
years in exile, returned in triumph to Nigeria. At the time, it
was felt that Ojukwu was used as a political pawn used by the
ruling NPN of Shagari, to get the Igbo vote and was then dumped
unceremoniously. A political naivety for the Ikemba, I’d say.
I have always felt that this hard, intelligent and well-educated
Nigerian eventually succumbed to the Nigerian disease called
sycophancy and flattery. He was severally mis-advised and fed
wrong information as to the real vagaries of politics in
Nigeria. Of course, being a military man, he would always be
found wanting when it comes to immersing himself in that deadly
unique Nigerian partisan politics, and it was no wonder his name
was smeared several times, not only by the rest of Nigeria but
significantly by his own people, the Igbos.
To me, Ikemba (Dim) Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu remains a
Nigerian icon. He might not necessarily be seen as hero to many
Nigerians, but he was one of those leaders, worthy, who shaped
Nigeria. Methinks it was unfortunate he was born in this era,
and probably a younger Ojukwu today, or in the last decade would
have made very significantly positive contributions to the
progress of this country.
To me, I will never lose respect for him. It is often the case
that when people like Ojukwu die, all kinds of encomiums and
eulogies will be written. Nobody will ever see him in a bad
light.
To me he was a Liberator of his people; to me, he was the “Rebel
Leader of Biafra”, as we used to hear in those days of the Civil
War; but he was not a tribal leader, never a tribal leader. The
man was too liberated, too intelligent and too educated to
descend that low. This I hope we will all agree on. He did all
he could to keep Nigeria one but under a very different and
difficult circumstance when he could no longer see any
alternative.
A privileged upbringing and best education with one of the then
richest men in Nigeria as a father, Odumegwu, rather than rely
on the wealth of his father, chose to enter the common workforce
by joining the Civil Service and was then inclined to join the
Army, all against the wishes of his father. This, even at the
early beginnings, show
Mind you, Ojukwu was not a Hero, but an Icon; the reason being
that it is difficult and not appropriate to label him such
because, ultimately, he should take and share the blame for the
millions of Igbos and other Nigerians who lost their lives as a
result of the Biafra War. This is purely my opinion, and I am
sure others will not agree with my use of those nouns, but one
thing is that I have never perceived him as a villain of the
piece. He will always be my hard-faced, bearded, strong and
intelligent leader. He did what he felt he had to do then.
I have no doubt that in a different age; Ojukwu could have been
the type of leader we yearn for in this confounded country of
ours. Not only to the Igbos but to all who call themselves
Nigerians.
When we look back and forward to the present day Nigeria and how
it is being run to the ground by the corrupt, hypocritical,
religious and tribal fanatics, then perhaps it is time we
started looking at Dim Ojukwu in a new light.
I am never one to heap praises and eulogies on our leaders, but
this is a time I have to change my stance.
A true Nigerian Icon has gone.
May his soul rest in perfect peace.
akinadejum@aol.com
Th
This is the document referred to in the Witness
Statement on Oath of Clifford O. Kokogho as
“Exhibit
COK.2”
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