His place in history
By Obi Iwuagwu, PhD
Friday March 02, 2012
The history of Nigeria will definitely not be complete without adequate mention of the person of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. That his place in that history is assured is not in doubt, however, the role he played will forever remain a subject of controversy. Indeed, the life and times of Chukwuemeka Ojukwu have continued to raise multiple questions among different people, whether as nationalist or separatist warlord, frontline politician or eminent statesman, thus, making him one of the most controversial Nigerians that ever lived.
In any case, his early life also gives insight into the fearless and outspoken personality that Ojukwu eventually became. Born on November 4, 1933 in Zungeru, Niger State, to Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, foremost billionaire businessman from Nnewi, Anambra State, he attended King’s College, Lagos; Epsom College; Lincoln College; and, then Oxford University, all in the United Kingdom, from where he earned a first-class as well as a Master’s degree in History, before returning to Nigeria in 1956.
The range of his extra-curricular activities: sprint, rugby, javelin, boxing and discus, immediately presents him as a sportsman in spite of his wealthy background. He was indeed a dogged and strong-willed person, refusing a much more tempting offer to join his father’s booming business consortium, rather preferring to join the Nigerian Colonial Civil Service at the time.
Civil Service and the Nigerian Army
Once he enrolled in the Civil Service in 1956, Ojukwu was posted to Udi in the present-day Enugu State. In fact, his love for his people could be said to have taken roots those days at Udi, where his knowledge of the Igbo language and customs became stronger even as he mixed freely with people at the grassroots. But once he perceived interference by his father, especially with his posting in the Civil Service, and determined to chart a course of his own, as against living under his father’s overbearing influence, he took a radical decision, which would eventually change the course of his life, by joining the Nigerian Army.
His father again tried to frustrate his effort by attempting to prevent him from joining the army as a Cadet Officer, prompting him to rather join as a Private in 1957. In fact, it was only after the British military officers recognised the futility and dysfunction of having a Master’s degree holder from the famous Oxford University joining as a Private in the army, with illiterate persons as contemporaries and even superiors, that his entry was regularised and his father’s wishes overturned.
In spite of this, there is an opposing view that Ojukwu ab initio was in love with power and sought to acquire it by all means and at all costs, having been exposed by his career in history. However, this is not substantiated by available evidence. For instance, it is not in doubt that he would have stayed in the Civil Service, which he appeared to be enjoying, but for his father’s interference with his posting. Again, his actions during the 1966 coup are not consistent with those of a military officer seeking political power. It is equally on record that his early military career was essentially that of a pro-establishment officer who may have seen the army as the only authentic national institution in the midst of Nigeria’s multiethnic and multi-religious divisions.
Once he joined the army and, perhaps, owing to his enviable academic background coupled with his manifest intelligence, he rose fast and by 1963, was already appointed the Quartermaster General of the Nigerian Army. In 1964, he was promoted Lt. Colonel and posted to Kano, where he was put in charge of the 5th Battalion of the Nigerian Army. In fact, he was in Kano when Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu on January 15, 1966 executed and announced Nigeria’s first military coup in Kaduna. It is also to Ojukwu’s credit that the coup lost much steam in the north. He, in fact, supported the forces loyal to the Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Armed Forces, Major-General Aguiyi-Ironisi. Given the circumstance, Major Nzeogwu who was in control of Kaduna, realising that the coup had flopped in other parts of the country, finally surrendered.
Subsequently, General Aguiyi-Ironsi took over the leadership of the country, thus becoming Nigeria’s first military Head of State. Next, he appointed military Governors for the four regions: Lt. Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu (Eastern Region), Lt.-Col. Hassan Usman Katsina (Northern Region), Lt. Col. Francis Adekunle Fajuyi (Western Region), and Lt. Col. David Akpode Ejoor (Mid-Western Region).
The first Coup and the Nigerian Civil War
Ojukwu’s critics are also quick to label him a rebel, a tag he was not in a hurry to dismiss either, as he argued that it is only rebels that change the trajectory of history. However, these critics turn a blind eye to his doggedness in the face of death to keep Nigeria under one government, especially once it became clear to him that it was mainly officers of Igbo extraction that carried out the coup. He, however, stood his ground and refused to relinquish command of the 5th Battalion in Kano. Who knows, if he had, maybe Nigeria’s history would have been written differently for good or bad.
His critics have also blamed him for his role in making Ndigbo unpopular in national politics, several years after the civil war was fought, owing to his actions following the first coup in 1966. Again, a critical assessment of the events before the civil war would show that it was indeed the first coup, which was perceived by Northern soldiers as a calculated effort by the Igbo to eliminate Northern rulers, that ignited the flame of ethnic suspicion and fanned the embers of war. In a way, General Ironsi may have been culpable as he was perceived to have turned deaf ears to all the signs and warnings of a possible counter-coup, which was essentially targeted at the Igbo.
The counter-coup of July 1966 eventually led to the death of Ironsi as well as several other Igbo officers and people, with the authorities almost turning a blind eye to this apparent massacre. Many have argued that the only reasonable thing to have been done in the circumstance would have been to fight back, if only to protect themselves, as it became obvious that no help was forthcoming from the national government. Even Ojukwu, in his position as Governor of the Eastern Region, tried to mediate at least to foster peace, but going by the several accounts as at September 1966, it was obvious that the pogrom, which had now left the barracks into the streets where the Igbo were massively hunted and killed, had destroyed whatever was left as trust and unity in the polity, given that the Igbo were embittered by the humiliations they received from their supposed countrymen.
Expectedly, Ojukwu was vehemently against the counter-coup just as he was against the first coup of January 1966. Neither did he agree with Colonel Yakubu Gowon becoming the Supreme Commander, arguing that it was against established military tradition. According to him, the most senior military officer, in this case Brigadier Ogundipe, should rather fill the vacant position of Head of State following the assassination of Gen. Aguiyi-Ironsi. Many indeed suggest that Ogundipe could not contend with the riotous soldiers; hence he was easily convinced to step out and into the Nigerian High Commission in London. On September 29, the final phase of the planned pogrom was executed, marked by its brutal bestiality. While coping with the mass return of Ndigbo from Northern Nigeria, many of whom were maimed and bruised, Ojukwu still persevered; even when it became obvious to majority of his people that the basis for the continued unity of the country had been irreparably damaged.
The life of Ojukwu in the Nigerian Army did not in any way depict a man with centrifugal tendencies; rather he was every inch a Nigerian nationalist. For instance, he completely rejected colonialism and quite early in life, indeed at the age of 13, was known to have publicly challenged a British colonial teacher who had maltreated a black woman. He equally helped to quash the January 1966 coup essentially because it challenged the Nigerian federation. As a person, he was born in the north; his childhood was in the west, while most of his adult years were spent in the east. He was by every standard a well-rounded Nigerian. Moreover, Ojukwu was also fluent in the country’s three major languages – Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba. Perhaps, it was because of these reasons that many still wonder why he still sought to destroy the very union which he stood for even in the face of death four years before the civil war.
Nevertheless, his tenure as Governor of Eastern Region also portrayed him as a master in the art of governance as well as an eloquent public speaker. As a matter of fact, none who heard him speak could forget the cadence of his speeches, his mellifluous tones, the eloquence of his words, the geniality of his spirit, the charm of his courtesy, vivacity of his wit and in fact, the poetic sensitivity of his mind. All this indeed made him a rare gem.
Some commentators on the civil war that later broke out as a result of further breakdown of law and order are quick to accuse him of being anti-Nigeria, especially for declaring a war against the state. However, critical evidence seems to suggest otherwise. He should rather be seen as a tough soldier who had to take some tough decisions to protect his people, not because he was against the federal union, but more because the federation apparently did not want his people. Available evidence indeed suggests that Ojukwu went to war not because he liked war, but because he had no option, given that the problems he faced defied peaceful solution.
In spite of this, Ojukwu still made additional efforts to keep his people within the federal union by attending the Aburi Conference in Ghana, summoned by then Head of State of Ghana, General Joseph Ankrah. And just when everyone thought that Nigeria was back on the path of peace, Colonel Gowon on May 27, 1967, carved up Nigeria into 12 states, a policy which saw the Eastern Region being split into three states. Three days later, in fact on May 30, 1967 and based on the mandate of the Eastern Nigerian Constituent Assembly, Colonel Ojukwu made the historic declaration that completely changed the course of Nigerian history for the next three years. According to him, “Having mandated me to proclaim on your behalf, and in your name, that Eastern Nigeria be a sovereign independent republic, now, therefore I, Lieutenant Colonel 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.” What then followed was the civil war.
Would the situation in Nigeria at present have been different if the war had not been fought? Could the war have been averted? Was Ojukwu right in declaring a war at the time given the contending issues of men and materials that were obviously not to his advantage? Thirty-two years after the civil war, could it be truly said that Nigeria indeed learnt something from the war given the country’s present challenges? Obviously, these are mind-boggling questions that will forever beg for answers from eminent historians and Nigerians in general.
The civil war eventually broke out on July 6, 1967 between forces loyal to the Biafran cause and those of the Nigerian government, with both sides making serious use of propaganda against the perceived enemy. It is on record, however, that under Ojukwu’s leadership, the Biafran army, with limited resources but with sheer ingenuity, conceived and produced the Ogbunigwe (one that kills in multitudes), a cone-shaped, sometimes cylindrical cluster bomb that dispersed shrapnel with percussion, often with very telling and destructive effect. Similarly, Biafran scientists built airports and roads, refined petroleum, chemicals and materials, designed and built both light and heavy equipment, researched on chemical and biological weapons, rocketry and guidance systems, invented new forms of explosives, and experimented with new forms of food processing and technology. In fact, the Biafran home-made armoured vehicle, the “Red Devil” was, for instance, a real terror in the battlefield.
All the same, the war lasted 30 months, causing huge losses on both sides in men and materials. It is estimated that up to one million lives may have been lost on both sides. Nevertheless, when the situation became critical for the Biafran forces to continue, Ojukwu was to relinquish command of the army to his second in command and Chief of General Staff, Major-General Phillip Effiong, as he made his way to Cote d’Ivoire, where he had been offered political asylum by President Felix Houphouet-Boigny.
The impact of the civil war, especially on the Igbo, was far-reaching. However, one wonders several years after, whether the very factors that caused the war are still not present in the polity, thus leading many to now suggest that if Ojukwu were still alive today, he would more appropriately have been declared either a visionary or a prophet.
Return from Exile and Participation in Politics
The Nigerian Civil War ended on January 12, 1970. It is, however, important to note that in the second half of 1969, the Federal Government took a decisive step on Biafra with a view to ending the war. It increased the number of men on the lines and reinforced its weaponry. It also changed its field commanders and reorganised its formations. In fact, by the last quarter of 1969, federal victory was almost a reality. However, quite early in January 1970 Biafran surrender was imminent. As we noted earlier, Colonel Ojukwu handed command of the Biarfran army to Phillip Effiong, his second in command and Chief of General Staff, and subsequently left for Cote d’Ivorie, where he had been offered political asylum.
Subsequently, General Effiong broadcast the total and unconditional surrender of the Biafran armed forces to Nigeria on January 11, 1970. Ojukwu was to remain in Cote d’Ivorie until his return following a presidential pardon granted him by Alhaji Shehu Aliyu Usman Shagari, then President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in 1982.
On his return, he joined partisan politics albeit to the amazement of many Nigerians. Even more confounding was his choice of political party, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). Expectedly, this raised several questions, as many wondered why NPN, instead of the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) to which many of the Igbo at the time belonged. Of course, interpretations were many and far-reaching. For some, it was to express his gratitude to Shagari and the leadership of the party, for the state pardon granted him, while others saw it as a display of nationalism, rather than ethnicity. But the man at the centre of the controversy said he rather joined the NPN “to bring the Ndigbo once more into the main stream of Nigeria’s politics” since he was the one that pulled them out in the first place.
However, whatever the reasons were, Ojukwu, to the utmost surprise of everybody, also went straight for elective office. Pundits argue that his choice of active politics may have been motivated by the same factor that influenced him into joining the civil service as an Assistant District Officer – service to his people. It was also the same burning desire that drove him into the Nigerian Army, despite his educational background and later into confronting the Federal Government under the leadership of General Yakubu Gowon. It has equally been suggested that Ojukwu may have been motivated by the lives of Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta of Ghana and Kenya respectively, who had moved into power from prison.
Be that as it may, it is on record that Ojukwu’s participation in active politics opened a new chapter in the politics of the Igbo, nay Eastern Nigeria. He contested the Onitsha senatorial seat on the platform of the NPN in the 1983 elections. In fact, prior to his return, the NPN in Eastern Nigeria, especially under the leadership of Vice President Alex Ekwueme was finding it difficult to penetrate both the old Anambra and Imo states. Hence, the coming of Ojukwu and the founding of his “Ikemba Front” was essentially to checkmate the activities of the NPP in the Southeast.
Nevertheless, and for whatever reasons, Ojukwu lost the senatorial election to Dr. Edwin Onwudiwe of the NPP in 1983, even as the NPN won the governorship election in Anambra State. This has also made some to argue that NPN deliberately sacrificed him because they could not fathom how to handle him, if he eventually entered the Senate at the time. Whatever the reasons may have been, it is on record that although he lost the senatorial election, he still remained in the NPN, until the military struck again on December 31, 1983 under General Muhammed Buhari, thus bringing Nigeria’s Second Republic to an end.
The new administration arrested and kept Ojukwu and several others at the Kirikiri Maximum Security Prisons, Lagos. However, he was unconditionally released from detention on October 1, 1984, alongside 249 other politicians of the period. In ordering their release, General Buhari had noted: “While we will not hesitate to send those found with cases to answer before the special military tribunal, no person will be kept in detention a day longer than necessary if investigations have not so far incriminated him”.
Under the politics of the Third Republic, he joined the National Republican Convention (NRC), but this time aspired to contest the presidency. According to him, “The surest way to show that the civil war had ended and the Igbo fully integrated into the affairs of the nation was to allow the Igbo to become president”. Unfortunately, General Babangida promptly disqualified him and many other “old brigade” politicians. During the General Sanni Abacha regime, he was again one of those elected to the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) of 1994/1995. Remarkably, it was this conference that gave birth to the present geopolitical structure of the country.
At the inception of the Fourth Republic, Ojukwu co-founded the All Peoples Party (APP), now All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), with Dr. Olusola Saraki, Chief Tom Ikimi, the late Lamidi Adedibu, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, among others. He was also a former member of the party’s Board of Trustees (BOT). When the party (APP) lost at the 1999 polls, many of its pioneer members left for the ruling party (PDP), but Ojukwu remained. He later founded the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), which was not registered as a political party.
Ojukwu in 2002 co-founded the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) with Chief Chekwas Okorie and others. He was indeed the party’s presidential candidate in both the 2003 and 2007 general elections. Though he lost at the two attempts, but the party won the governorship election in Anambra State. Whereas in the 2003 presidential election, he came third, in that of 2007, he came sixth. He did not participate in the 2011 election mainly due to his failing health. In fact, APGA owes its popularity in the Southeast and its improved performance in both the 2007 and 2011 elections to him.
Although, an ex-soldier, it is self-evident that Ojukwu was a democrat at heart. In fact, he was once quoted to have said that “as a committed democrat, every single day under an un-elected government hurts me. The citizens of this country are mature enough to make their own choices, just as they have the right to make their own mistakes”. He no doubt had an eventful political career. His role in Nigeria’s politics may have also influenced the appointment of his wife, Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu, as Senior Special Adviser on Diaspora Affairs to President Goodluck Jonathan.
It is, however, possible that his main regret in politics may have been that he never lived to see an Igbo man elected and assumed office as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria given that this would mean the full integration of Ndigbo into the Nigerian polity several years after the civil war, which he led to give the people a sense of belonging, indeed, a better deal in Nigeria.
Nevertheless, it was obvious that his people truly appreciated his efforts and were always in a hurry to show it. In fact, the reception he received upon his return from exile in 1982 was tumultuous. He was at different times showered with numerous traditional titles, including Ikemba Nnewi (the people’s symbol of strength), Eze Igbo Gburugburu (overall king of the Igbo), Dikedioranma Ndigbo (beloved hero), among others.
Ojukwu eventually died on November 26, 2011 at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, London following a protracted illness.
Conclusion
We had earlier noted that Ojukwu’s place in Igbo, nay Nigerian history is assured. There is no doubt that whether you hate or love him, depending on your conviction, his role in Nigeria’s history can never be ignored. Having said that, it will be good also to take a more critical look at his personality before concluding on whether or not he meant well by his activities.
Our historical discourse suggests that all through his life Ojukwu was a firm believer in the Nigeria project. No doubt he fought for a Nigeria where everyone will be seen to be equal. He was also a manifest apostle of good governance and always supported the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC), essentially to restructure Nigeria into a proper federal state. All through his lifetime, he never shied away from taking a position that will advance equity, justice and fairness in the Nigerian state. Indeed many will remember him more as the conscience of the nation, as a man who fought for what he believed, and as one who insisted on justice and never compromised till the end.
It is equally apparent that Ojukwu was a man of deep conviction. He was not just this individual that you could easily understand, perhaps, owing to his high intellectual fecundity. He was obviously intellectually precocious, well endowed with good judgment and restless with ambition. In place of a life of ease, pleasure and plenty, into which he was born, he opted for one of hardship, danger, glory and virtue, thereby choosing the more difficult but virtuous life. Many have equally identified him with some element of stubbornness. But to this he also had an answer. In one of his last interviews, he said: “I hope I remain stubborn. The important thing is to get things right. If you look around you in Nigeria, we tend to sweep things so much under the carpet, only to come back and start picking them bit by bit. If the verdict is that I am stubborn, then I draw comfort from the fact that Winston Churchill was stubborn, Napoleon Bonaparte was stubborn. I draw consolation that Nelson Mandela is stubborn. All around me, the names that keep coming up are those of very stubborn people. If I am stubborn, then there is just one point I want to make about stubbornness, I believe I was stubborn for the right reason”. Can anybody fault that?
Of course, his bravery, courage and sacrifice will live after him. Nigerians are bound to miss him. Among his people, Ojukwu may have lived and died as the authentic hero, a man who could do no wrong, and one whose word was law. His people will forever remember his gift of oratory, his high-level intelligence and sheer power of persuasion, even as they will eternally appreciate his perceived sacrifice and courage, even in the face of adversity.
Dr. Obi Iwuagwu teaches Economic History, Development Studies and Public Policy in the Department of History and Strategic Studies, University of Lagos, Akoka.
Colonel Ojukwu went into exile for more than a decade after losing the Biafran war
People have been paying their respects to Col Ojukwu around Nigeria this week
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