In Nigeria and, indeed, many societies all over the world, it is not normal for bad things to be said about the dead. The simple reason which many lawyers also echo is that the dead is lifeless and can no longer be in a position to respond to the things said about him or her.

This is the current fate of Ikemba Nnewi and Biafran hero Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu. In death, so many good things have been written and spoken about Ojukwu, a man the Nigerian nation loved to hate.

We are today satisfied that Ojukwu and indeed pro-democracy martyrs have been vindicated following the events after his death. Therefore Ojukwu represents in our time, the brightest star that shines in the firmament once in many generations.

National show of sympathy and events around Ojukwu’s burial show that majority of Nigerians and their elites are mere hypocrites and selfish. This is the singular reason why the nation is not growing despite the enormity of human and natural resources available at her disposal. The avalanche of bad eggs in the system has completely emasculated progressive voices.

Backwardness in several areas of national development in Nigeria has reached a dangerous crescendo, forcing many to consider the option of a revolution as the only way out of this quagmire.

If Nigeria had listened to Ojukwu while he was alive, if Nigeria had absorbed the message Ojukwu donated to this nation even as a young officer in the Nigeria Army; if our leaders, past and present, would be more patriotic and confront the issues of national development head on the way Ojukwu pursued his quest for a just society, our nation would be a paradise today.

Present and future generation of Nigerians would not consider Ojukwu a greedy man because his alleged sins have been forgiven by those who didn’t want him. He wore a military rank of general to the grave. The honour that he never enjoyed while alive, Ojukwu got it as he lay lifeless before interment. The message of peaceful co-existence as a nation based on justice and fairness which Ojukwu’s life and travails

represent are the new national compass.

While those who have contributed to bring shame to this country were shedding crocodile “tears” that Ojukwu was gone, the truth remains that inwardly, they are happy that like Gani Fawehinmi, this “troublesome man” is dead and gone forever.

Ojukwu represents Biafra. Biafra, like June 12, represents an idea and no human force can wipe that idea away until Nigeria and Nigerians resort to the path of moral rectitude. If it does not come today, surely tomorrow is another day.

Nigeria is a nation deeply rooted in injustice and inequity. Poor and lack of visionary leadership, corruption, poverty and disease have taken over the entire fabric of our nation and the centre can no longer hold. While other nations that were poorer or at par with Nigeria at some point even after Ojukwu had spoken and acted, are richer today. Meanwhile, our limping giant of Africa is still battling to define itself. If it is not Niger Delta militancy, it is Boko Haram or fuel subsidy removal and epileptic refineries, or National Assembly’s endless and spineless probes of one monumental fraud or the other, etc.

At Ojukwu’s time were notable leaders like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Alhaji Ahmadu Bello and their contemporaries who were older than him and called the shots in Nigeria. Our minds have been agitating as to what went wrong with visionary leadership at that time. How come these great minds and nationalists did not see what Ojukwu, at a relatively younger age saw? Even after that era, our leaders have failed to follow that path of glory till today.

While Ojukwu was in exile, it was good for those who did not want him alive and they are numerous in all the geo-political zones of Nigeria. At a time, the fear of Ojukwu was the beginning of wisdom. When the government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari granted him pardon and Ojukwu returned from Ivory Coast where he was in exile, hatred trailed him.

Ojukwu joined the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) instead of Zik’s Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP), a move many saw as betraying the cause of the Ibos. He explained that it was better to navigate the Ibos into the mainstream than be at the periphery of national politics. This was a time that the NPN had perfected strategies of rigging the 1983.

Former Communications Minister Alhaji Ibrahim Tahir was detailed by the NPN to handle the elections in Anambra State where unfortunately Ojukwu was an NPN Senatorial candidate. The North did not hide their distaste for Ojukwu and his presence in the senate would have been a threat to Shagari and the Northern interest. It was for that reason that after the NPN had swept the other elections in the South East using a sophisticated machine, Tahir cleverly withdrew his machine a few days to the senatorial election and in anger, the Ibos voted for the NPP candidate and Ojukwu again failed.

At that time the same NPN rigging machine also enthroned Chief C.C. Onoh as the new governor of Anambra State as incumbent Governor Jim Nwobodo was rigged out.

It was the same commando style of election rigging as well as the colossal mismanagement of the national economy that paved the way for the overthrow of the Shagari administration by Major General Mohammadu Buhari and Major General Tunde Idiagbon on December 31, 1983.

So the point here really is that many of those who are speaking in glowing terms about the ideals of Ojukwu are merely being hypocritical. They hated Ojukwu and his ideals. His message was an anathema to them.

Unfortunately, no matter how many years it takes, Nigeria must address the issues that Ojukwu’s life and time represented to us. Questions relating to how Nigerians will live happily together in a progressive nation where equality will be respected and no one will be oppressed must be addressed. There is no other option to point the way forward.

My friend Ignatius Chukwu is a journalist of Ibo extraction with a national character. He is one of those we classify as truly Nigerian. Recently he examined Ojukwu’s death as it affects the South East and South-South coalition and the abandoned property issue. We find it relevant here. He said in part: “Today, the face of Ikemba Nnewi adorns two strategic places he could hardly have been free to touch while alive, the Brick House and Isaac Boro Park. Many believe that most of the south-southerners and south-easterners can hardly go to the larger Nigeria in one voice. The politics of the South-south seems to be shaped by a fierce opposition to what the Southeast stands for. The mantra in the South-south is that the Southeast maltreated them and so must be rejected and resisted. This message seems to pass from father to son.

The contrast in the two zones came to a head in the civil war period when Enugu fought for Biafra but Port Harcourt stood for Nigeria. Ojukwu’s desire to fight for one region, one destiny, and one voice in Nigeria was therefore punctuated. The Igbo man views Nigeria as a symbol of oppression, Port Harcourt political club views the Igbo as symbol of oppression. This perception seems to rule the inter-zonal relationship.

Isaac Boro himself confessed in his autobiography that he launched his 12 days revolution because an Igbo man (Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi) became Nigeria’s head of state, and probably because Ojukwu became Military governor of the east. When a northerner took over from Aguiyi-Ironsi, Boro said he dropped his agitation and rather joined the federal effort to keep Nigeria one, a cause he died for. Ojukwu never got Boro’s endorsement while both lived.

Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Niger Delta hero and icon, never spared a pint of love for Ojukwu and whatever he stood for. Ojukwu was to tell reporters in Port Harcourt about seven years ago during his reception that it was Wiwa that always attacked him literally, and never did he (Ojukwu) once attack Wiwa. And when Ojukwu died and the nation, both friend and foe, rose in unison of salute to a misunderstood hero, the only voice that still insulted the Ikemba came from Wiwa’s enclave, one Ben Ikari, who also insulted President Goodluck Jonathan for condoling the Ojukwu family.

The most striking achievement Ojukwu recorded at death is ability to sit atop the Garden City and at the gate of the seat of power in Port Harcourt, the Brick House, from where he must be peeping at his father’s houses. Those who think they know everything say part of the Brick House was Louis Ojukwu’s house, some point at a building at Education Bus Stop as one belonging to him too, but these are all classified as ‘abandoned property’. So, if Ojukwu could not enter into them while alive, his pictures at least got close to them at death.

When he was alive, Ojukwu was regarded as a secessionist-coupist and blood-thirsty aristocrat but now at death, many said he hated the idea of divided Nigeria or using bloodshed to solve the Nigerian problem and so had to handle Kano without bloodshed during the January 1966 coup.

Alive, many said he hated ‘One Nigeria’ but now at death, they say he loved Nigeria and had put forward a sound ideological foundation for a stronger unity through confederacy. In fact, the entire south-south that joined to fight against his vision is fighting for it; confederacy or at least true federalism, resource control, fiscal federalism, or else secession. For the larger Nigeria, Ojukwu put forward a formula for free enterprise, citizenship instead of indigeneship, freedom of movement or freedom of business domicile, respect for capital and reward for enterprise. These were snubbed at or rejected. Today, the federal government is pushing all or some of

This. And social engineers are saying these must be the foundation for a new Nigeria, or nothing.

Ojukwu: Biafra And The “Abandoned Properties” Question  —Charles Ugwuanyi

Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu meant different thing to different people. To the authorities of Kings College then, he could have been a stubborn student. But the venom which gave young Ojukwu the push to beat up a white tutor for molesting a black female staff, was not stubbornness but abhorrence for injustice and unquenchable desire to fight for the less-privileged. Ojukwu was a human rights activist who could not describe himself.

To his influential father, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu could have passed as a disobedient child for refusing the course his father chose for him and opting for another. But Ojukwu may just have shown leadership in the pursuit of independence of mind, clear vision and sense of responsibility. After all, the right to say no, it is said, is the first condition of freedom. A freedom that carries responsibility for the consequences. Ojukwu’s father, wherever he is today, must be proud of his son. Just as, coincidentally, the Chairman of Ojukwu’s burial committee, Rtd. Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, is, today, proud of his son, Charlie Boy, who also disobeyed him in the choice of career.

To the Nigerian military, Ojukwu was a surprise entrant, being the most educated recruit into the military at that time. But Ojukwu’s mind was focused. He wanted to imbibe the discipline that the military offered and stood for and to make a success of it, without allowing the more mouth-watering opportunities his big certificate could offer him to distract him.

Ojukwu fought against indiscipline in the military when he insisted on the right person, Brig. Samuel Ogundipe, the most senior military officer then, succeeding the late Gen Aguiyi Ironsi. The person Ojukwu insisted on was not an Igbo. He was a Yoruba. Ojukwu wanted to maintain esprit de corps in the military which was supposed to stand as an example of a disciplined force. Ojukwu was overruled without a convincing reason, and he refused to take orders from one he conceived as not being the next in command, Gen Gowon. The ghost of that indiscipline in the military which was allowed to stand, is still haunting Nigeria as a nation today. It laid the foundation for the culture of impunity and the rule by cabals. Who were those cabals? Are they still very much around today, or are we battling with their long shadows? Before President Jonathan contested the last election, some prominent Nigerians, most of them already adults at the break of the civil war, threatened to make Nigeria ungovernable if Jonathan dared declare his interest or goes on to win the election. They wanted him to be disciplined and stay on line. How soon can we forget? Well, could that truly be why there are explosions everywhere?

Ojukwu showed what good leadership and accountable government are all about. After the fall of the First Republic, Ojukwu was appointed the Administrator of the Eastern Region. In all the constitutions of advanced countries, the primary duty of government is the protection of lives and properties of its citizens. When it became obvious to Ojukwu that the protection of lives and properties of people from Eastern Region was no longer guaranteed in Nigeria under the watch of the Federal Government, he weighed the options he had – gather his people together and show leadership, or abandon ship and seek personal safety. He exhibited courage and chose the former. He gathered the survivors of his people and declared a state of Biafra, which was the only way he could go if he had to save the lives of his people, who were no longer secure in Nigeria. He never declared war against Nigeria. Ojukwu, like Moses, only asked to let his people go. But Nigeria, like Pharaoh, said no. Ojukwu wanted to be a true Nigerian, but he was forced into a secessionist. He wanted to be a true leader, but he was forced into a warlord.

Notable dramatis personae of the period are still very much with us – the persons of Generals Yakubu Gowon, Danjuma, Obasanjo, etc. And what is more, many of them profess the Christian faith. Which brings me to the Bible and the issue of Nigeria Prays, a pet project of Gen Gowon. To this writer, Gen Gowon epitomises the quintessential of courage garnished with humility. Humility, according to Roberts Dilts and Judith DeLozier, “involves knowing your limits and having appreciation for the intentions, strengths and perspectives of others”. Gowon had the courage to prosecute the civil war. At the end of it, and with his appreciation of the cause, coupled with his experience on the field, he knew the war was over and won, but not the battle. The battle is not over because the sins that led to the civil war are still with us. These are sins of impunity, indiscipline, injustice and bad governance. These are the sins Ojukwu fought against and died fighting. He never gave up and the battle is on. It just needs a new arrowhead. Gowon, nevertheless, had the wisdom to proclaim “no victor, no vanquished” and to launch his post-war three-pronged programme of the famous 3Rs – reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation.

Embedded in humility, of course, is the recognition of a higher force. So it is not surprising that out of power and with the addition of a doctorate degree to his cerebral prowess, it was time for him to launch his innate quality of humility. That, to me, came out as a finished product in Nigeria Prays.

The efficacy of prayers, for believers, is not in doubt. But no one can mock God. The Bible prescribes procedure. In sum, it says that if people can humble themselves, confess their sins and pray, God, in turn, will hear their prayers and heal their land. Right now, Nigeria prays. But has Nigeria first confessed her sins? This writer doesn’t think so. Which, perhaps, is why the more Nigeria prays, the more Nigeria boils. Though some positivists can argue that it could have been worse.

In the continued but obviously reluctant implementation of Gowon’s 3Rs post-war programmes, an offshoot of his “no victor, no vanquished” stand, a lot of rehabilitation and reconstruction have been done. Today, rising from the ashes of the civil war and the imposition of the limit of twenty pounds on ex-Biafrans – irrespective of the value of Biafran currency possessed at the end of the war – Biafrans, and Igbos in particular, have moved on and gradually played themselves back into the mainstream of Nigerian socio-economic and political life. Of recent, Igbos have been IG, Senate President, Chief of Army Staff, etc. Today, an ex-Biafran is the President of Nigeria. I understand that some ex-Biafran fighters who were enlisted in the Nigerian military before the civil war were recently recalled and retired with benefits. So, yes, in the area of rehabilitation and reconstruction, post-war Nigeria has moved on. But same cannot be said in the area of reconciliation.

In a capitalist economy, like Nigeria, the most prominent signpost of wealth and power is land. It is argued that the Gowon’s regime created the 12 states out of the then existing four regions to principally break the rank and bond of Biafra, by taking a larger chunk of the oil-bearing lands out of Ojukwu”s control. Gowon had every right as a soldier to employ any strategy that could help him win the war, provided such does not amount to war crime. So Gowon, one could argue, prosecuted the war as fair as he could – with the exception of being accused in some quarters of using starvation as a weapon of warfare based on advice by some rehabilitated opportunists – won it, and exhibited his humility by the pronouncements he made and the programmes he instituted and tried to implement.

It appears, however, that those who succeeded Gowon were not happy that Biafra and, in particular, the Igbos, were not pronounced “conquered” by Gowon. They felt that the strategy of creating more states, though a good one, was not enough guarantee to ensure that Biafra did not regroup. There was the further need to create permanent enmity between Peter and Paul so they don’t form a tag-team anymore. And the best way, they thought, was to rob Peter to pay Paul. So, either out of sheer wickedness or as a strategy for winning the minority Biafrans to Federal side and bequeathing to the incoming civilian administration a self-destruct ex-Biafran region, the Obasanjo-led Federal Military government did what has never been done in any civilised nation – appropriation of private property by state without compensation for reallocation to private new owners. Such an act of state is against the Bill of Rights in all the constitutions used by all the governments in all the civilised world. It is a crime against humanity. The Obasanjo-led Federal Military government, as a parting gift to Nigeria, took away the properties of Igbos in Port Harcourt, called them Abandoned Properties, and appropriated same to the Federal government without further assurance, via Decree no 90 of 1979. The Decree, made on 28 September 1979 – two days to Obasanjo’s handover of power – is herein reproduced, for effect and accuracy:

CHAPTER 1

ABANDONED PROPERTIES ACT

An Act to make provisions for the sale, registration and maintenance of abandoned properties by the Implementation Committee set up for the purpose.

[28th September, 1979]

1.(1) Every sale or disposition of abandoned properties conducted by the Abandoned Properties Implementation Committee (hereinafter in this Act referred to as “the Committee”) set up by the Federal Government shall be deemed to have been lawful and properly made and any instrument issued by the Committee which purports to convey any estate or interest in land, shall be deemed to have been validly issued and shall have effect according to its tenor or intendment.

(2) Any abandoned property sold pursuant to subsection (1) of this section shall vest in the purchaser free of all encumbrances without any further assurance apart from this Act.

(3) The Registrar or any other person in charge of registration of land, instruments, deeds or rights affecting land shall, upon presentation to him of any contract of agreement signed by or on behalf of the Committee, expunge from the relevant register the name of any person in whose name any interest is registered in respect of any property affected by this Act and substitute therefore the name of the new owner.

2. Any person who contravenes or fails to comply with any of the provisions of section 1 of this Act shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for one year without the option of a fine.

3. (1) Any member of the Committee or any person acting on its behalf shall stand indemnified and no suit or other proceedings shall lie at the instance of any person aggrieved in respect of any property sold by the Committee or anything done in compliance with the direction of the Federal Government in respect of abandoned properties.

(2) The question whether any provision of Chapter IV of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has been, is being or would be contravened by anything done or purported to be done by the Committee shall not be inquired into in any court of law, and, accordingly, sections 40, 42 and 220(1)(b) of the Constitution shall not apply in relation to any such question.

(3) Any proceedings against the Committee or members of the Committee or any person acting on its behalf (whether criminal or civil) commenced before the date of commencement of this Act shall cease and any order or ruling already made shall be null and void and of no consequence whatever.

4. This Act may be cited as the Abandoned Properties Act.

•Ugwuanyi, LLM, Bl, is a Lagos-based legal practitioner. 08033269501

President Goodluck Jonathan Paid last Respect to a great African Hero and leader Dim Ikemba

"President Jonathan said that the achievements that set Ojukwu apart and which had made him  subject of “edifying posthumous commentaries”, though undeniably solid were far from personal.  “They were solid altruistic achievements of a man whose life epitomized love and self sacrifice.  For only such love could explain  his preference for the great risk involved in the leadership role he assumed in his lifetime to the privileged background into which he was born,” he said. Recalling how Ojukwu sailed to leadership limelight and how “he reluctantly accepted the role that perhaps most critically defined his place in the history of our country”, the president also noted how the late Biafran leader, “despite his reluctances, he acquitted himself quite historically, heroically while fulfilling that role, not withstanding the difficult odds that stood against his side” during the civil war. “We are also aware of how after the dust of hostilities had settled, he became strong advocate of a united Nigeria.  All these governed by the same ideals of justice and fairness to all which were the hallmark of his vision as a patriot of humanists,” the president said."  -  Vanguard

DIM CHUKWUEMEKA ODUMEGWU-OJUKWU'S BURIAL IN NNEWI FROM LEFT: FIRST LADY, DAME PATIENCE JONATHAN; PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN; SON OF THE LATE DIM CHUKWUEMEKA ODUMEGWU-OJUKWU, EMEKA JNR, AND GOV. PETER OBI OF ANAMBRA, AT THE BURIAL OF DIM CHUKWUEMEKA ODUMEGWU-OJUKWU AT NNEWI, ANAMBRA, ON FRIDAY (2/3/12).  NAN

PM

•President Jonathan, his wife, Patience, and Chukwuemeka Ojukwu Jnr, paying their last respect to Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu at Nnewi.

IKemba's 10-year old daughter pays respect to his late father

Ikemba's wife and First Lady (far right)

THE BURIAL OF THE GREAT DIM IKEMBA

"Mourners gathered Friday in Nnewi, a city in Nigeria's eastern Anambra state, for the funeral and burial of Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, who led Biafra during the three-year civil war. His body lay inside a closed gold coffin draped in the Nigerian flag with an officer's black dress shoes, cap and sword laying atop it. Soldiers stood guard by a man who once rejected the idea of a united Nigeria, a multiethnic nation now home to more than 160 million people." - Associate Press

Ogbonnaya Onu (left); Emeka Anyaoku; Prof. Wole Soyinka, Haliru Mohammed; and Onyebuchi Chukwu, at  Ojukwu's funeral rites

Jerry Rawlings (left); Ike Ekweremadu; Namadi Sambo, Sullivan Chime at the funeral rites for Ojukwu

Chief Jim Nwobodo (left), Senator Uche Chukwumerije, Gov. Godswill Akpabio and Admiral Ebitu Ukiwe at the funeral rites

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu (Jnr.) introducing his sister to Patience Jonathan during the funeral rites in Abuja

From right, Enugu State governor, Mr Sullivan Chime; Vice-President Namadi Sambo; Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu; former Ghanaian head of state, Flight-Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings and the Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Honourable Emeka Ihedioha, during a national inter-denominational funeral programme for former Biafran warlord, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, at the Michael Okpara Square, Enugu, on Thursday. On the front row are members of Chief Ojukwu’s family.

Ojukwu's son and wife Biaca

Gov. Obi

Emir of Kano Ado Bayero, Jerry Rawlings

Burial for Nigeria Civil War Leader Recalls Biafra

The late leader of Nigeria's breakaway Republic of Biafra received final honors Friday from a nation he once fought bitterly against in a war that saw 1 million people killed.

Mourners gathered Friday in Nnewi, a city in Nigeria's eastern Anambra state, for the funeral and burial of Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, who led Biafra during the three-year civil war. His body lay inside a closed gold coffin draped in the Nigerian flag with an officer's black dress shoes, cap and sword laying atop it. Soldiers stood guard by a man who once rejected the idea of a united Nigeria, a multiethnic nation now home to more than 160 million people.

Okeke Ngozika Theophilus, a 77-year-old poet who remembered Ojukwu from childhood, said he came to give his last respects.

"Like every other hero, including the kings of England, they were buried. I have come to accord him a bye-bye," he said "On my own in 18 months I will be as old as him. I am watching how I will be buried myself."

Soldiers load the coffin with the late Biafran leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu in an ambulance in Nnewi, Nigeria on Thursday, March 1, 2012. The city where Ojukwu lived is preparing for the burial of the civil war leader at his home here on Friday. Nigeria's 1960s civil war, between the federal government and Ojukwu's breakaway Republic of Biafra, killed 1 million people.(AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Ojukwu died in a London hospital on Nov. 26 after a protracted illness following a stroke. He was 78.

His funeral, already once delayed, has seen a revisioning — or at least a remembrance — of Nigeria's bloody civil war in a country where an almost collective amnesia about the event still exists. President Goodluck Jonathan has repeatedly mentioned Ojukwu and his legacy, something previous unheard of. Ojukwu's coffin also has been transported around the country under a military honor guard.

For his family, that honor means a lot after seeing much of the family's wealth confiscated at the end of the civil war and Ojukwu living in exile for more than a decade."He was a passionate man who wanted very much to leave his footprints in the history of his country," his brother Lotanna Ojukwu said.

The roots of Biafra came from a 1966 coup in Nigeria, a former British colony that had gained independence only six years earlier. The coup, led primarily by army officers from the Igbo ethnic group from Nigeria's southeast, saw soldiers shoot and kill Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, a northerner, as well as the premier of northern Nigeria, Ahmadu Bello.

The coup failed, but the country still fell under military control. Northerners, angry about the death of its leaders, attacked Igbos living there. As many as 10,000 people died in resulting riots. Many Igbos fled back to Nigeria's southeast, their traditional home.

Ojukwu, then 33, served as the military governor for the southeast. The son of a knighted millionaire, Ojukwu studied history at Oxford and attended a military officer school in Britain. In 1967, he declared the largely Igbo region — including part of the oil-rich Niger Delta — as the Republic of Biafra. The new republic used the name of the Atlantic Ocean bay to its south, its flag a rising sun set against a black, green and red background.

The announcement sparked 31 months of fierce fighting between the breakaway republic and Nigeria. Under Gen. Yakubu "Jack" Gowon, Nigeria adopted the slogan "to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done" and moved to reclaim a region vital to the country's finances.

Despite several pushes by Biafran troops, Nigerian forces slowly strangled Biafra into submission. Caught in the middle were Igbo refugees increasingly pushed back as the front lines fell. The region, long reliant on other regions of Nigeria for food, saw massive food shortages despite international aid.

The enduring images, seen on television and in photographs, show starving Biafran children with distended stomachs and stick-like arms. Many died as hunger became a weapon wielded by both sides.

Nigeria's Igbo people have since been largely marginalized in the country's politics, despite being one of the nation's top ethnic groups. Many hope for that to change in the upcoming 2015 presidential election, as there's been discussion about the nation's ruling party picking an Igbo as its candidate.

Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellap.

A Tribute To Dim Ikemba Ojukwu

One of the best things about the passing of Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu is the kind of tributes which the news of his passing has elicited across the country. The former leader of Biafra has enjoyed the distinction of being eulogised across the political, ethnic and religious spectrum. From every part of Nigeria, Nigerians, high and low, prominent and ordinary, old and young have stepped forward to honour him with moving tributes. For a man whose life was defined by the role he played in the turbulent three years of the Nigerian Civil War, a man for whom the prefix “rebel” was once de rigeur, this was quite an achievement.   The praise is also very well deserved because the life of Ojukwu exemplifies what can happen when principled courage meets patriotism. Here was a man who went to war out of conviction but who also, out of conviction, decided to stop fighting and come home to contribute to achieving the purposes for which he went to war, this time through civil and democratic means. The Eze Igbo Gburugburu was indeed a rare man who without giving up his principles, made peace with his enemies and joined hands with other patriots to seek solutions to the challenges of nationhood.

For me, and I am sure many other Nigerians of my generation on the Biafran side who are old enough to remember the cataclysmic events of the Civil War which largely defined our youth, the wave of tributes triggered by Chief Ojukwu’s passing has evoked a sense that things have come full circle. Many young Nigerians do not know that the Nigerian Civil War was one of the most tragic landmarks of the 20th century, a conflict whose horrendous human suffering inspired the founding of one of the most important humanitarian organisations in the world, Medecins san Frontierres (Doctors without Frontiers). In all, an estimated one million persons perished in the war; some estimates cite double that figure.

The response to Ojukwu’s passing has, simultaneously, recalled the nightmare years of war and also acted as a balm of healing for those deep pains of yesterday. The memories are many. I remember helping my mother and a collective of other women in Port Harcourt cook for Biafran soldiers, making “dry packs” of preserved foods to feed soldiers at the war front. I remember my father, a Brigadier in the Biafran Army and head of the Biafran Organisation of Freedom Fighters (BOFF) in his uniform. I remember young men relatives, friends, and neighbours – who waved goodbye as they went off to war – and never came back.

It is against this background that one can best appreciate the balm  the overwhelmingly positive reaction to Ojukwu’s death. The man whose name some saw as a symbol of division has, in death, done so much to unite Nigerians. That is the spirit that I want us to celebrate and share with our children. It is the positive spirit of renascent Nigeria, a spirit that acknowledges the problems and the pain, yet refuses to give up on the shining possibilities of a brighter future. It is the spirit that refuses to be defined by glib negatives, a spirit that insists on  doing the difficult but necessary work of building a strong foundation for a better future, even as we learn from the mistakes of the past. It is this kind of spirit that inspires hope for Nigeria. It is the spirit of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.   Thank you, Ikemba, Eze Igbo Gburugburu, thank you for sharing your strong but resilient spirit with us. Thank you for teaching us how to fight and how to make peace while standing strong. Thank you, Bianca for being there till the end, thank you Odumegwu-Ojukwu family for your great gift to Nigeria. And thank you Nigeria for celebrating and honouring our remarkable brother and son.

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala  is the present Nigerian minister of finance and co-ordinator of the President's Jonathan economic team.

Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Body Arrives International Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja

PROMINENT Igbo leaders and Nigerians thronged the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, to pay their last respect to the ex-Biafrian warlord, Chief Chukuwemeka-Ojukwu, whose corpse arrived in Nigeria on Monday morning.

The body arrived at 5.09 a.m in a British Airways plane, accompanied by his wife, Bianca; Anambra State governor, Mr Peter Obi and other prominent Igbo sons and Ojukwu’s friends. A military parade was held in honour of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) national leader by the Guards Bridage, while the pall bearers were senior army officers.

In attendance at the ceremony were the First Lady, Mrs Patience Jona-than; Vice-President Na-madi Sambo; the Senate President, David Mark; his wife, Helen; Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Honourable Emeka Ihe-dioha; Defence Minister, Dr Bello Haliru; the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Bala Moha-mmed and the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Terence Mcculley.

AFP

First Lady address at Abuja Airport

Other disgnitaries were Chief Tom Ikimi; Senator Chris Ngige; Secretary to the Federal Government, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim; Senator Uche Chukwumerije; Professor A. B. C. Nwosu; Lieutenant-General Chris Obiakor (retd); Dubem Onyia; Dr Kema Chikwe; Chief Jim Nwobodo and others. In an interview with the Nigerian Tribune at the airport, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Azubuike Ihejirika, said the late Ojukwu was one of the first few Nigerian officers to enlist in the Army with a degree. According to him, his death was a big loss to the nation and the Nigerian Army, adding that because of his love for the service to his fatherland, he enlisted and started his military career at the Army Depot, Zaria, notwithstanding that he was a graduate.

General Ihejirika noted that when the Army had five battalions, Ojukwu was one of the commanders, while his training with a degree helped to show up the image of the military which was then regarded as a profession for drop-outs. In his remark, Senator Ngige noted that Ojukwu’s popular thinking was against regional arrangement and that was why he joined APGA. Ngige said Ojukwu was a national and detriba-lised leader, who thought of others more than himself.

In his remark, the chairman of APGA, Chief Chekwas Okorie, said Ojukwu was a selfless leader who identified with the poor and the downtrodden in the society and never had a house of his own until 2008. The house, at Queens Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos, belonged to his father and that was where he always lived. Other speakers who eulogised the Ikemba of Nnewi were Mrs Jona-than, Senator Mark and Vice-President Sambo. A requiem mass was organised in his honour with the Archbishop of Abuja Diocese, John Onaiyekan, officiating. His corpse was later flown in an Airforce Hercules C130 plane in company with his family to Owerri, the Imo State capital, for another funeral ceremony.

The body of Ojukwu arrived at the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport, Owerri, at about 3.00 p.m from Abuja. The body was received by prominent Igbo leaders, among whom were the Imo State governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha; Governor Peter Obi, while the wife of the deceased, Bianca, accompanied the body form Abuja to Owerri.

It was observed by the Nigerian Tribune that security agencies were finding it difficult to control crowds that besieged the airport to receive the corpse of the late Ojukwu. The body left the airport in a motorcade and accompanied by the host governor and others to the Government House, Owerri. The Hero Square, where the body is expected to lie in state, had been decorated as a mark of honour to give him a befitting burial. Reports reaching the Nigerian Tribune from Owerri had it that Ojukwu would remain in the state until today, before proceeding to Aba, Abia State, before the final burial at Nnewi.

Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has extended his condolences to the family of late Igbo warlord. Jonathan, on Monday, said the late Ojukwu lived a humble life, despite being the son of one of the wealthiest men in Nigeria, adding that on his return from the United Kingdom, he was at the civil service and later joined the Nigerian Army, where he began his rise in the military.

According to President Jonathan, after the Biafra war, Ojukwu was in exile for 13 years until former president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, granted him official pardon and open the road for his return in 1982, adding that it was then the people of Nnewi gave him the popular title of Ikemba, meaning “the strength of the people.” According to President Jonathan, no word could adequately describe the nature, character, legacy and lessons left behind by this soldier and gentleman, adding that he believed the outpouring of encomium could not stop coming.

“Let it be said that Ojukwwu died when the country needed his service most, let it be said that he lived and served with all his might when the Igbos and Nigerians needed him most,” Jonathan said. Speaking at the reception for the remains of the former Biafran leader, held at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja, Jonathan, who was represented on the occasion by Vice-President Sambo said “the legacy bequeathed to the Nigerian Army by Ojukwu as its first Quartermaster-General are now the hallmark of military processes and procedures which, till date, are in use.

” Also speaking on the occasion, Mrs Jonathan noted that late Ojukwu, whom she described as an accomplished Nigerian, was not only an icon, but also the pride of his people. The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Emeka Ihedioha, said Nigeria lost a political treasure in the death of Odumegwu-Ojukwu. Speaking while paying tribute to the late Ikemba Nnewi during the lying-in-state at the presidential wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Ihedioha described Ojukwu as “an avatar that comes once in a generation,” adding that “his place in Nigerian history is already assured.

” According to the deputy speaker, “with his death, the nation has been robbed of the services of a great legend and charismatic patriot.” Ihedioha said with the demise of Ojukwu, Africa had lost a statesman of uncommon abilities, adding that “the death of this eminent soldier-statesman, on Saturday, November 26, 2011 in a London hospital has brought to an end an exciting career and life that were intricately intertwined with the history of modern Nigeria.

” Tracing his career trajectory and political contributions to the evolution of the Nigerian nation, Honourable Ihedioha said Ojukwu would be “remembered for his fearlessness, courage, outspokenness and stoic belief in justice, equity and fairness. And I strongly believe that history will be fair and kind to Ikemba for standing up against injustice of his contemporary times.

” Meanwhile, leaders of the South-South geopolitical zone, at the weekend, stormed Nnewi, Anambra State, to Commiserate with the Ojukwu family and the entire community over the passage of Chief Dim Odimegwu-Ojukwu, the leader of the Igbo nation. Under the aegis of South-South Peoples Assembly, the leaders described the late Ikemba Nnewi as “a man of prodigious intellect and of great courage, who chose a path of honour to protect his people as well as fighting injustice.

” The group, led by former governor of Edo State, Chief Odigie Oye-gun, was received into the expanse Ojukwu family compound by Senator Onyeabo Obi, where members signed the condolence register and used the occasion to see the tomb of Chief Lewis Odumegwu Ojukwu, father of the late warlord. Speaking at the palace of the Igwe of Nnewi, Chief Oyegun noted that what Ojukwu stood for had continued to hunt the nation unresolved which, if ignored, could be at great peril.

He recalled that Oju-kwu tried to accomplish what the nation was still struggling for at Aburi, Ghana, during the civil war, to allow the component parts of the nation enough “elbow room so that each can develop at its own pace, at its own way, while choosing its own priorities.” According to him, it was when Aburi failed that Ojukwu was forced to stand up and fight to defend the honour, integrity and dignity of his people. Responding on behalf of the traditional ruler of Nnewi, Obi Orizu and the chiefs-in-council, the Okosisi Nnewi, Chief Dan Ulasi, recalled the cooperation between the South-East and the South-South regions, which manifested in the election of President Jonathan. Chief Ulasi also gave an insight into how Oju-kwu had, in his military and political life, tried to unite the country.

Also, the Igbo Community Association (ICA), Kano State chapter, said injustice and other vices, which the late Ojukwu fought for in the 60s, were still bedeviling the country’s socio-economic and political development. Making the assertion on Sunday during the celebration of life of Ojukwu, held at the Nnewi hall, Kano, the Eze Ndigbo of Kano, Chief (Dr) Boniface Ibekwe, said the late Ojukwu fought against all these problems then, but the country was still at a cross road because of injustice , marginalization and other vices In another development, the leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, has said Biafran flag and other insignias would not be displayed during the burial of Ojukwu.

MASSOB members were also directed to wear only the specially-designed mourning dress, procured by the leadership of the movement, on the burial day. Rising from the national executive meeting of the movement, held at the MASSOB Freedom House, Okwe, Imo State, Uwazuruike said there would be no badges, caps and other uniforms bearing the Biafra logo on the burial date. Also commenting on the development, the Ogirishi Igbo, Chief Rommy Ezeonwuka, said apart from giving Ojukwu the last respect he deserved, the MASSOB leadership was comfortable with the decision of the Federal Government to give Ojukwu a state burial, adding that utmost cooperation would be given to the authorities.

Nigerian Tribune

DIM IKEMBA OJUKWU FUNERAL IN LAGOS

"THEY came in superlative terms.  They were all comments used to qualify the late Biafran leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, as a man whose courage, excellence, patriotism and selfless service were beyond compare.  The event was at the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), Lagos and it was organised by the Lagos State government in conjunction with Igbo in Lagos as part of the funeral activities for Odumegwu-Ojukwu. The roll call of eminent personalities at the event chaired by renowned lawyer, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite included Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, his predecessor, Bola Tinubu, former governor of Ekiti State, Niyi Adebayo, governor of Imo State, Chief Rochas Okorocha, governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Oko monarch and professor of music, Laz Ekwueme and professor of political economy, Pat Utomi.

Others were Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu (rtd), former Chief of General Staff,  Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe (rtd), distinguished economist, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu, Prof. Anya O. Anya, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, Special Adviser to the President on Inter-party Affairs, Senator Ben Obi, Prof. A.B.C. Nwosu, a member of the Odumegwu-Ojukwu Burial Central Committee, Chief Martins Agbaso, Ambassador Musiliu Obanikoro, Gen. Adeyinka Adebayo (rtd), Lagos State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Mr. Ben Akabueze, former President General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prof. Joe Irukwu, Eze Ndigbo Lagos, Eze Raphael Ohazuluike and Chief Christopher Eze. The list included the former Chairman of Diamond Bank, Chief Pascal Dozie, Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Joe Igbokwe, the Chief Executive Officer of Chisco Transport Ltd., Chief Chidi Anyaegbu, Senator Chris Ngige and Chie."  - THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER

Source: naijanedu

Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan Praises Former Biafra Military Chief of State

Nigeria presidential spokesman Reuben Abati has issued a statement on the death of former Biafra military chief of state Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, characterizing Ojukwu’s death as “a great national loss.” The statement also recalled Ojukwu’s leadership of Biafra and subsequently “his commitment to reconciliation and the full reintegration of his people into a united and progressive Nigeria.”

More than forty years after the civil war, ethnic and religious tensions persist in Nigeria, though the fault lines are somewhat different from those in Ojukwu’s time. Now, it is the North that is discontented and the locus of radical Islamic groups such as Boko Haram, not Ojukwu’s East.

Jonathan’s praise of fellow Christian and southerner Ojukwu can be seen as an effort to “let bygones be bygones” with respect to the civil war. On the other hand, Jonathan’s critics in the North are likely to see it as a presidential effort to consolidate the South and East against their region. In any event, Nigeria’s friends hope that Jonathan will demonstrate similar sensitivity and outreach to the predominately Muslim North that he is showing toward former supporters of Biafra.

Ojukwu was military chief of state of Biafra during the 1967 civil war. The predominately Igbo Biafra sought to establish itself as an independent state following a series of military coups and ethnic and religious pogroms in the North, especially against Igbo Christians. While the U.S. government favored the preservation of Nigerian national unity, many American college campuses hosted fervent Biafra supporters. Among American youth, the cause of Biafra was often linked with support for the civil rights movement in the United States and opposition to the Vietnam war. Nigeria went “over the brink” during the civil war, with deaths predominately from hunger and disease likely numbering more than one million. For many Americans, a starving Biafra child became the poster for the suffering caused by African civil wars.

After the defeat of Biafra, Ojukwu spent thirteen years in exile, returning only when he was pardoned by civilian president Shehu Shagari. Oxford educated and from the late colonial elite, Ojukwu’s critics accuse him of needlessly prolonging the civil war in part to gratify his own ego. Nevertheless, after his return from exile, he re-established himself as an important leader of the Igbo people, though never a national kingmaker.

Following the civil war, the Nigerian federal government pursued a policy of national reconciliation called “no winners, no losers.” Among the major Nigerian ethnic groups the Igbo have done well in business and professional occupations. However, they have never held the presidency and there is a pervasive sense of grievance that they have been de facto excluded from the highest political and military positions in the federal government. The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) reflects Igbo nostalgia for what an independent Biafra might have been, and its specter on occasion can still keep federal officials in Abuja awake at night, resulting in heavy-handed crackdowns.

John Campbell is Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies at Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)

Images of a GREAT African- Ojukwu

"The death at the age of 78 of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, former leader of the breakaway Republic of Biafra, removes a charismatic, larger-than-life figure from the Nigerian political scene. Although deeply controversial in his lifetime, he will be missed in Nigeria far beyond his own Igbo people. President Goodluck Jonathan's tribute spoke of 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".  -  Guardian UK

AP

Ojukwu, as military governor of Biafra, inspecting some of his troops in 1968. Photograph: Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy