Odumegwu-Ojukwu: Kalu lauds Jonathan

A former Governor of Abia, Chief Orji Kalu, on Tuesday commended President Goodluck Jonathan for giving a five-star treatment to the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, even in death.

Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the Ikemba of Nnewi, who led the now defunct Biafra Republic during the Nigerian Civil War, died in a London hospital on Nov. 26, 2011 at the age of 78.

Ahead of his burial on March 2, his corpse arrived the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on Monday where a full military parade, attended by the top echelon in government, was held in his honour at the Presidential Wing.

In a statement signed by his Media Manager, Mr Emeka Obasi, Kalu stated that Jonathan’s position that Odumegwu-Ojukwu deserved a national burial was a soothing balm.

“President Jonathan is in the right office at the right time. I do not think any other sitting Nigerian president would have honoured the great Ikemba like Mr President.‘ ‘Jonathan eschewed politics, shoved aside ethnic considerations and went ahead to change the course of falsified history by treating Odumegwu-Ojukwu as a hero and nationalist,” he stated.

Kalu said that the full military honours accorded Odumegwu-Ojukwu and the presence of top government functionaries in Abuja to eulogise the late Ikemba was highly commendable.

“The vice-president was there, so was the senate president. First Lady Patience Jonathan turned out in mourning dress. I just wished Odumegwu-Ojukwu could open his eyes for one second to see his beloved country lifting him. “At that point, it dawned on me that perhaps historians should take another look at this man and give him a new appellation – Father of Modern Nigerian Unity,” he stated.

Kalu pointed out that the death had shown that what Odumegwu-Ojukwu got into was a war of unity, which defined to a large extent, a new Nigeria where anybody could lay claim to the top, irrespective of background.

Meanwhile, Gov. Theodore Orji of Abia yesterday led other prominent indigenes to pay their last respects to the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, during his lying-in-state at the Enyimba Stadium, Aba.

“Ojukwu was a detribalised Nigerian, who was born in the North, studied and lived in the West and domiciled in the South and is of South Eastern parents,’’ he said.

He further described him as a charismatic, dedicated and focused leader, who looked beyond his time.