The Ikemba Nnewi - Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Biafran Leader is dead: Our Magazine Pays Tribute

By Chris Ezeh - Publisher EuroAfrica Magazine Online
T Ojukwu1967 he leader of the All Progressive Grand Alliance party (APGA), and former leader of the defunct Biafra, Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu has been confirmed dead. The Ikemba, who suffered a stroke in December 2010, died in London in the early hours after a long illness at Royal Berkshire Hospital in the UK. . It will be recalled that Ojukwu's 78th birthday was celebrated in absentia on November 5. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu born on November 1933 at Zungeru in northern Nigeria to Sir Louis Phillippe Odumegwu Ojukwu, a businessman from Nnewi in south-eastern Nigeria.

He was educated CMS Grammar School, Lagos, King's College, Lagos, Epsom College, Surrey, England, and Lincoln College, Oxford University, England where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Masters degree in History. At 13, his father sent him overseas to study in Britain, first at Epsom College, in Surrey and later earned a Masters degree in history at Lincoln College, Oxford University and returned to colonial Nigeria in 1956.

In 1957 the Ikemba I of Nnewi joined the Nigerian Army as one of the first and few university graduates. Ojukwu was among the 15 Nigerians officers out of the 250 officers the Nigerian Military Forces had then. After serving in the UN peacekeeping force in the then Congo under Maj.-Gen. Johnson Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, Ojuwkwu was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1964 and was posted to Kano, where he was in charge of the 5 Battalion of the Nigerian Army.

He was appointed Military Governor of defunct Eastern Nigeria by Military Head of State, General Aguiyi Ironsi on January 17, 1966. By May of the same year, Nigeria was facing a serious crisis. In a planned pogrom in Northern Nigeria, Southeasterners were the target of killing and abuses. The attacks were said to be in retaliation for the killing of Northern politicians who were killed in the first Military coup in the country.

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In the declaration and during his public address to the people of Biafra, he said: “Having mandated me to proclaim on your behalf, and in your name, that Eastern Nigeria be a sovereign independent republic, now, therefore I, Lt.-Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, by virtue of the authority, and pursuant to the principles recited above, do hereby solemnly proclaim that the territory and region known as and called Eastern Nigeria together with her continental shelf and territorial waters, shall, henceforth, be an independent sovereign state of the name and title of The Republic of Biafra.’’

On July 6, 1967, the then military Head of State, Col. Yakubu Gowon declared war and attacked Biafra in a bid to stop Ojukwu’s secessionist attempt. A civil war ensued. The war raged on for another 30 months. An attempt at peace during a meeting at Aburi, Ghana did not stop the war. . As the war was wearing out in 1970, Ojukwu handed over power to his deputy Major-General Phillip Effiong and left the country on exile and stayed away for 13 years. He was granted political asylum in Cote D'Ivoire by the then President Felix Houphöet-Biogny. He was granted state pardon by President Shehu Shagari, a decision which was trailed by the deceased’s triumphant return in 1982.

On his return, he joined the then ruling National party of Nigeria. Ojukwu who celebrated his 78th birthday early in the month was an active member of APGA until his death. Odumegwu-Ojukwu was married to Miss Intercontinental 1989 Bianca Onoh. They have children.