Remembering Nigerian secessionist leader Ojukwu

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was born on 4 November 1933 in Zungeru, Niger State. He grew up the son of one of Nigeria’s earliest millionaires, Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, and attended the best schools in Nigeria before going to Britain where he studied at Epsom College and Lincoln College, Oxford. Upon returning to Nigeria, he took up a job with the civil service, refusing to work for his rich father. He eventually went on to join the military believing that it was the best place to be, saying ‘[i">t seemed to me that the only truly federal organisation in Nigeria that appeared likely to remain intact was the Army.’

But as predicted, things fell apart. Unfortunately for Ojukwu, the very military in which he placed his trust also imploded when in 1966 a military coup by junior officers resulted in the death of then prime minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and other politicans as well as some senior army officers. The murders of these men, primarily from the northern part of the country, was seen by northern elites as a tribal attack. An interim government, led by an easterner, Aguiyi Ironsi, placed Ojukwu as the head of the Igbo dominated eastern region, which his family called home.

A retaliatory coup in July led by northern military officers resulted in Ironsi’s murder. Despite the change in leadership, Ojukwu remained in his role as head of the east, maintaining order. Two months after the second coup, however, 20,000 of his fellow Igbos were brutally murdered across the north in acts of tribalism and over two million fled to the east for protection. Ojukwu declared the pogroms ‘fratricide’ and his demands for compensation for the families affected were ignored. By the end of 1966, he had announced that taxes from the Eastern province should not go to the federal government.

Negotiations in January 1967 failed and by 30 May 30 of that year, Ojukwu had declared the secession of the eastern states from the larger republic. The proclamation was made in a radio address and included a gun salute and celebrations. The Democratic Republic of Biafra, named for the Bight of Biafra, which is now commonly referred to as the Bight of Bonny, was born on that day. Renowned author Chinua Achebe supported the secession, saying that ‘[a"> state that failed to safeguard the lives of its citizens has no claim to their allegiance.’ Biafra only comprised an area of about 30,000 square miles, but with its creation came three years of civil war that left over a million people dead, many more starving and a fractured nation that some still believe is irretrievably broken.

The war was one-sided from the beginning with the Nigerian military receiving weapons, artillery and planes from Britain and Egypt. Television programs and news reports carried the story of Biafra’s starving children, resulting in humanitarian aid from around the world, including the United States, which chose to remain neutral in the conflict. Five countries, however, recognized Biafra during its brief three year existence: Gabon, Zambia, Haiti, Tanzania and the Ivory Coast, to which Ojukwu later fled into self-exile once it became clear that the war was lost in 1970.

Twelve years later he received a full pardon from the Nigerian government and he soon returned to the country. Ojukwu co-founded the All Progressives Grand Alliance party but failed at repeated presidential attempts. In a July 2007 BBC interview, he again insisted that the original reasons for Biafran secession: lack of true federalism and second-class treatment remained, and that ‘the only alternative is a separate existence.’

On 26 November 2011, just three weeks after his 78th birthday, Ojukwu passed away in London. Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan said of the late general that it was Ojukwu’s ‘immense love of his people, justice, equity and fairness which forced him into the leading role he played in the Nigerian civil war.’ He was married three times, and is survived by his last wife, former Nigerian beauty queen, Bianca Ojukwu, nee Onoh, to whose marriage was thought scandalous. She was the daughter of his childhood friend and 30 years his junior. Ojukwu is also survived by several children.

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* Funmi Feyide-John is a lawyer, political commentator and aspiring author. She is a director at ExecAide LLC, a US based management consulting company, and a 2010 Associate of the Nigeria Leadership Initiative.
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