As the Ikemba goes home…By Shola Oshunkeye
Friday March 02, 2012
Friday March 02, 2012
 |
•Ojukwu
|
Before he succumbed to the multiple strokes that sent him the way of all flesh on Saturday, November 26, 2011, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, former Head of State of the defunct Republic of Biafra, the Ikemba Nnewi and Eze Igbo Gburugburu (King of Igbo Worldwide) had joined the club of statesmen who lived to read their obituaries. One of such great men was Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Owelle of Onitsha, fondly called the Great Zik of Africa. He had the rare “honour” of reading and seeing his obituary in the nation’s media of mass communications in 1989.
Back to the present. And long before Ojukwu succumbed to the icy clutches of death at 78, and joined his forefathers on that fateful day, in a London hospital, Nigerian newspapers and news magazines had used swathes of newsprint to announce his “passing”.
But like the Phoenix, Ojukwu, Nigeria’s illustrious rebel with a cause (Ademola Oyinlola, writing in TELL), would rebound into the warm embrace of his photogenic wife, Bianca, and make his spokespersons to churn out rebuttals, telling the world: “Ojukwu is not dead.” “Ikemba is alive.” Once, Ojukwu himself responded to one of the rumours of his death with ultimate humour as he told The Spectator, our now rested sister newspaper, that he was “not in a hurry to leave this planet.”
And he meant every word of it. For, even when he was buffeted by multiple cerebro-vascular accident, CVA, or stroke, at the twilight of his time, he fought like a Trojan. He resisted the reaper with every fibre of his being. Like a true General. And just like he did the many battles that dogged his hyperactive life.
This was how Bianca captured her husband’s final battle: “When the doctors would tell us he wouldn’t make it to the morning, he would struggle and in the morning, he would still be there.” And when his mystique life finally ran its full circle, the former Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria said, “he didn’t struggle; he went peacefully.”
Nonetheless, the nation slipped into a swivel of emotion and deep mourning. Then, came the deluge of tributes, some objective, several subjective.
General Yakubu Gowon, former Head of State, and erstwhile Ojukwu foe, who led the assault against the defunct State of Biafra, said of Ojukwu in an interview with the Voice of America (VOA): “Let me say how sorry and sad I am to hear the passing away of my old colleague and friend and aspirant partner during the period of our crisis. But both of us were reconciled friends in the end. He certainly will be missed by all, especially the family and partisans and friends and other well-wishers. I pray for the repose of his soul and may God grant his soul everlasting rest.”
Although Gowon reportedly condemned the treatment of Igbo at the time as undesirable, he did not believe there were sufficient grounds for the region to secede.
“Let us say that the civil war was for the unity of the country,” Gowon continued in the interview. “If there was no secession, there would not have been a civil war. Although all men of goodwill to Nigeria will admit that, yes, what happened to the Igbo in Nigeria at the time, it was really bad enough, but I do not think that it should get [to] the stage whereby any leader of a people would wish to take his people out of (the) nation.”
While former President Olusegun Obasanjo believed that “in a way, his (Ojukwu’s death) marks the death of an era,” Nigeria’s incumbent President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, in a statement, eulogised him (Ojukwu) for his “immense love for his people, justice, equity and fairness which forced him into the leading role he played in the civil war.”
Well, there may be divergent opinions on who the late Ikemba truly was and who he was not. But one thing that no one can detract from his persona and pedigree is that he was not your ordinary Nigerian. He was a phenomenon, a hero of his people, a Moses who led his people into a 30-month war so they could have a strong voice and claim their Papa’s Land (Sonny Okosuns). Whether you see him as a hero or a villain, that would not colour the prism of history as he bids the world a final bye. As the world celebrates his demise, we devote the following pages as a befitting obituary and memorial to the Eze Igbo Gburugburu, the son from the land of the rising sun, who gave his all so his people may truly live.
Back to the present. And long before Ojukwu succumbed to the icy clutches of death at 78, and joined his forefathers on that fateful day, in a London hospital, Nigerian newspapers and news magazines had used swathes of newsprint to announce his “passing”.
But like the Phoenix, Ojukwu, Nigeria’s illustrious rebel with a cause (Ademola Oyinlola, writing in TELL), would rebound into the warm embrace of his photogenic wife, Bianca, and make his spokespersons to churn out rebuttals, telling the world: “Ojukwu is not dead.” “Ikemba is alive.” Once, Ojukwu himself responded to one of the rumours of his death with ultimate humour as he told The Spectator, our now rested sister newspaper, that he was “not in a hurry to leave this planet.”
And he meant every word of it. For, even when he was buffeted by multiple cerebro-vascular accident, CVA, or stroke, at the twilight of his time, he fought like a Trojan. He resisted the reaper with every fibre of his being. Like a true General. And just like he did the many battles that dogged his hyperactive life.
This was how Bianca captured her husband’s final battle: “When the doctors would tell us he wouldn’t make it to the morning, he would struggle and in the morning, he would still be there.” And when his mystique life finally ran its full circle, the former Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria said, “he didn’t struggle; he went peacefully.”
Nonetheless, the nation slipped into a swivel of emotion and deep mourning. Then, came the deluge of tributes, some objective, several subjective.
General Yakubu Gowon, former Head of State, and erstwhile Ojukwu foe, who led the assault against the defunct State of Biafra, said of Ojukwu in an interview with the Voice of America (VOA): “Let me say how sorry and sad I am to hear the passing away of my old colleague and friend and aspirant partner during the period of our crisis. But both of us were reconciled friends in the end. He certainly will be missed by all, especially the family and partisans and friends and other well-wishers. I pray for the repose of his soul and may God grant his soul everlasting rest.”
Although Gowon reportedly condemned the treatment of Igbo at the time as undesirable, he did not believe there were sufficient grounds for the region to secede.
“Let us say that the civil war was for the unity of the country,” Gowon continued in the interview. “If there was no secession, there would not have been a civil war. Although all men of goodwill to Nigeria will admit that, yes, what happened to the Igbo in Nigeria at the time, it was really bad enough, but I do not think that it should get [to] the stage whereby any leader of a people would wish to take his people out of (the) nation.”
While former President Olusegun Obasanjo believed that “in a way, his (Ojukwu’s death) marks the death of an era,” Nigeria’s incumbent President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, in a statement, eulogised him (Ojukwu) for his “immense love for his people, justice, equity and fairness which forced him into the leading role he played in the civil war.”
Well, there may be divergent opinions on who the late Ikemba truly was and who he was not. But one thing that no one can detract from his persona and pedigree is that he was not your ordinary Nigerian. He was a phenomenon, a hero of his people, a Moses who led his people into a 30-month war so they could have a strong voice and claim their Papa’s Land (Sonny Okosuns). Whether you see him as a hero or a villain, that would not colour the prism of history as he bids the world a final bye. As the world celebrates his demise, we devote the following pages as a befitting obituary and memorial to the Eze Igbo Gburugburu, the son from the land of the rising sun, who gave his all so his people may truly live.
No comments:
Post a Comment