Adieu, Ojukwu, The Ikemba of Nnewi – By Dr. Kunle Ojeleye

Posted by admin Articles, Columnists, Kunle Ojeleye, NNP Columnists Saturday, November 26th, 2011

By Dr. Kunle Ojeleye, London, UK, – Nov. 27, 2011 – Earlier on today, the sun set on one of the most enduring personalities that has ever come out of the nation now known as Nigeria, as I received with sadness the news of the transition of Chief Odimegwu Chukwuemeka Ojukwu to eternity.

Here is a man whom history has been very unkind to. Known all over the world as the protagonist of the Nigerian civil war of 1967-70, he has severally been blamed for fanning the embers of secession to further his personal ambition of ruling over an empire.

However, when the history of Nigeria is properly examined without any emotions, it becomes apparent the secession of Biafra and the emergence of the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970 is not the fault of Ojukwu. As I have previously posited, “Ojukwu, just like kinsman Ironsi, was a child of faith and circumstances. The only difference between the two of them is that while Ironsi was thrust into a position he had not bargained for and could not deal with, Ojukwu found himself in a position that furthered his own expectations and personal ambitions. He knew what to do with the position he found himself in, and events that occurred acted in a symphony of fate to spur him along the way”.

Igbo leaders had already decided earlier than Ojukwu that given the socio-economic and political environment of 1966 to 1967, to remain in a Nigerian federation would not augur well for the Igbos. As such, the massacre of Igbos residing in Northern Nigeria only served to ripen an atmosphere of secession. Christopher Okigbo, the famous playwright who lost his life during the war is noted to have emphasised that “if Ojukwu does not declare secession we will organise 20,000 market women to lynch him”. The naivety of the federal government of General Gowon to the deep sense of grievance the Igbos had is very much reflected in the declaration in August 1967 that its response to Biafran secession is a “police action” to arrest Ojukwu.

Yet, 41 years after the end of the Nigerian Civil War, what most Nigerians remember about the name Ojukwu is as a leader of a failed secession. No one remembers the fateful events of January 1966 onwards and the massacre of the Igbos in the Northern Nigeria which snowballed into the declaration of the independent state of Biafra with Ojukwu as leader. No one asks the question if the factors that led to the war of brothers have been addressed and removed from the polity of Nigeria.

“Today, Nigeria continues to hover on the brink of another civil conflict. The precarious situation the country is in can be likened to that of a man sitting on a pile of gunpowder, toying with matches. The causal factors of the 1967 civil war have not been radically addressed and claims of marginalisation, dispute on resource control and distribution, blatant hold onto political power by some parts of the country, mutual distrust of each other by the major ethnic groups, rampant election malpractices, lack of trust and confidence between the governed and governors, and threats of secession continue to plague the nation. The recent tension created by the absence of President Yar Adua from the country for almost three months, failure to abide by constitutional provisions by those in power and flagrant misinformation of the nation by the trustees of political power have made it apparent that the country has become a hostage to some forces who for selfish reasons would prefer to set the nation on fire and push it into the abyss of disintegration. The result is the emergence and multiplication of ethnic militias, resource control movements, cries of marginalisation, cries for confederation, cries for secession, the shout for a sovereign national conference, and an increase in religious and political riots against ordinary people going about their daily means of livelihood which have not only enraged nations, but questioned the effectiveness of Nigeria’s internal security apparatus.”

In my short soul searching, I could not but think of current Nigeria as a place: where you remain a non-indigene in another state regardless of the number of years you have spent in and sowed into the state; where the infrastructures of the 1960s have not been improved on but rather are no longer in existence; where no one feels safe anywhere as murder, assassinations, kidnapping and insecurity is the order of the day; and where Boko Haram is incensed against western education but using western technology to terrorise Nigerians. I could not but muse to myself if I would make a different choice from that which Ojukwu made in 1967 if I am faced with such a dilemma in present day Nigeria.

Ojukwu has played his own part, and he has played it as best as he could regardless of how posterity may judge him. As I sat and pondered on the life of a man that various acts of fate prevented me from meeting in the course of my academic research work, I could not prevent myself from concluding that present day Nigeria is not what Dim Odimegwu Chukwuemeka Ojukwu (The Ikemba of Nnewi) wished had metamorphosed from the ashes of the bitter civil war that he fought.

In offering my deepest condolence to his family and close associates, and in consonance with my reflection on the current state of Nigeria, my epitaph for a man like him would be that “He Fought To Ensure The Nightmare Which Nigeria Presently Is, Did Not Become A Reality”.wp_posts