Lest We Forget Dim Ojukwu

Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, a man of reputation and influence, warlord, people’s general and leader died in a London hospital on November 26, 2011 after he was struck with a complicated stroke. He was given a state-cum-military burial on March 2, 2012 by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, former President of Nigeria. It is now eight years since he took a bow, bade us goodbye and departed this mortal world after he had played his parts in the affairs of the Igbo nation and Nigeria.
Ojukwu was an exceptionally intelligent, dauntless and courageous leader. He was the first Nigerian to be enlisted in the Nigerian military with a Master’s degree, the first African to pass the Joint Services Course at Latimer, England. He was the first military instructor of the Nigerian Army, the first Nigerian Quartermaster-General of the Nigerian Army, the first Military Governor of the Eastern Region and the first regional leader in Nigeria to confront, challenge the Federal Government of Nigeria and prosecuted a war that held Nigeria captive for 30 months over the perceived injustice meted on Ndigbo and the massacre of people of Eastern Nigerian extraction nationwide.
He was a defender, a crusader and advocate of justice, people’s rights and good governance in Nigeria. So, his absence for the past eight years is seriously felt by all who admired his doughty spirit, especially now that the issue of Biafra, a country he attempted to create out of Nigeria, is fully resurrected and is making wave in the world. Who knows what would have been his contribution and moral support to Biafra and its agitators. What would have been his stand on controversial issues such as rural grazing areas (RUGA), restructuring, Ibo presidency in 2023, Python dance which is reported to have claimed many innocent lives of Ndigbo in Umuahia. We missed all that. Infact, we are short-changed by his death.
Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, Ojukwu’s bosom friend and a man who kept the spirit of Biafra alive, said few days after the death of Ojukwu that when he heard that he was stricken with the dreaded stroke, he and some members of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) went to his Casabianca residence in Enugu to see him, to commiserate and wish him speed recovery. He said when they got there and saw Ojukwu, he was really in a bad state. He said he hailed him (Ojukwu) as usual with all his intimidating chieftaincy titles, such as Ikemba Nnewi, Dike Dioranma Ndigbo, Eze Igbo Gburugburu and other titles, he did not respond to any. He said he was alarmed. He then joked and told him that he was a handsome man. It was then he responded by asking whether he would be handsome in the coffin. Uwazuruike said that he was shocked and devastated by such a response. Thereafter, he asked Ojukwu what he meant by being handsome in the coffin, there was no response. The MASSOB leader said it was then he knew that Ojukwu would not survive. Ojukwu eventually died in the United Kingdom where he had gone for a medical treatment on November 26, 2011.
Truly, Ojukwu became handsome in the coffin. As a historian, what was paramount in Ojukwu’s mind in his sick bed was how people and history would place or perceive him as regards his involvement in the civil war that claimed millions of lives and destroyed properties worth billions of naira. That was why he asked his friend Uwazuruike whether he would be handsome in the coffin. However, people and history proved kind to him. He was eulogized, idolized, honoured and dramatized while in the coffin. Ojukwu was, indeed, handsome in the coffin.
There was an unprecedented outpouring of affection and admiration for him. There were celebrations everywhere in Nigeria and beyond. Even the truth about the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War and the patriotic roles he played to avert it was told for the first time in 42 years after the end of the war. Everyone who spoke unanimously agreed that he was a man of peace, vision and foresight. They consented that his postulations as enunciated in the Aburi Accord was the finest and the greatest for the unity and development of Nigeria.
They averred that if the then Federal Government had abided by the accord, there wouldn’t have been a civil war and that Nigeria would have been a better place to live in today. The restructuring of the country which Nigerians are clamouring today was a major menu in the Aburi Accord. So, what Ojukwu saw many years back is what Nigerians are seeing and agitating today. What a visionary and foresighted leader? Again, they agreed that he was an enigma, the people’s general and a leader whose exemplary leadership virtues should be emulated by all Nigerians.
He was exonerated from being among the coup plotters nor supported the January 1966 coup that shutdown the corrupt First Republic and led to civil war. He was the commander of the Fifth Battalion of the Nigerian Army stationed in Kano where he succeeded in ensuring that the coup plotters and their cohorts did not infiltrate the. That remarkable achievement earned him the respect and admiration of the then Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, and his subjects. It also earned him an enduring friendship with the Emir and people of Kano.
Ojukwu was honoured by the Nigerian military during his burial. They carried his lifeless body from Abuja to Owerri, Aba, Enugu, Awka and kept vigil throughout the burial. Ojukwu, no doubt, deserved the honour. He brought dignity, honour and prestige to the Nigerian military. Apart from being one of the few Nigerian military officers that built the Nigerian military, Ojukwu brought respect to the force when as a Master’s degree holder (obtained from the prestigious Oxford University in England) and son of a millionaire he joined the military as a lowly ranked soldier.
Before then, the military was largely seen as an institution for school dropouts and wayward children. But Ojukwu’s enlistment erased that erroneous notion and encouraged many educated Nigerians to join the military. So, he deserved whatever honour and respect the Nigerian military accorded him during the burial. He was a great man in all ramifications.
Ojukwu, a charismatic leader, was born in Zungeru, now in Niger State in 1933 to Sir and Lady Louis Philip Odumegwu Ojukwu, the first African millionaire. In 1944, at the tender age of 11, Ojukwu was admitted into the prestigious Kings’ College, Lagos after completing his primary education at St. Patrick’s Primary School, Lagos. And in 1946, two years after, and at the age of 13, the brilliant boy was sent to England where he enrolled in Epsom College, Surrey, to continue and complete his secondary education.
On completion of his secondary education, he was admitted into an elitist Oxford University, United Kingdom. Strong and determined, little Ojukwu shunned the comfort of his millionaire father’s home, ignored the devastating British cold weather, strange environment and ubiquitious white faces, persevered and graduated with a Master’s degree in Modern History.
He returned to Nigeria in 1956 and joined the civil service of the colonial government of the then Eastern Region as a district officer. A year after, precisely in 1957, the restless Ojukwu left the civil service and joined the Nigerian Army; thus becoming one of the first university graduates to be enlisted in the Nigerian military. There, he made a super and brilliant military career and left a unique imprint on the sands of time.
Ojukwu was an elder statesman and politician. He was the founder, political leader and presidential candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in 2003. His party came third among the 30 political parties that participated in the elections. Former President Goodluck Jonathan honoured him with a state-cum-military burial. By that, he partially ended the civil war and equally endorsed General Yakubu Gowon’s famous declaration of No victor, no vanquished. The final fulfillment of all this will, indeed, be when an Igbo man is elected as president of Nigeria, 50 years after the end of the civil war.
Former Nigerian leader, General Ibrahim Babangida, in his tribute to Ojukwu, said that the election of an Ibo man as president of Nigeria would gladden Ojukwu’s spirit. No doubt, Ojukwu’s death marked the end of an era in Nigeria.
Ogbuehi, a freelance journalist, wrote in from Eagle Island, Port Harcourt.