Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a secessionist state in south-eastern Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to 15 January 1970, taking its name from the Bight of Biafra (the Atlantic bay to its south)
Widow of late Biaf-ran leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odu-megwu Ojukwu, Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, and her children were said to have been more favoured than their other relations in the sharing of their father’s property as Ojukwu’s Will was read at the Enugu High Court yesterday.
The Will which was expected to have brought peace to the family now wrangling over who should control the assets left behind by the late Ikemba Nnewi since his demise on November 26, last year, has however been rejected by some of the beneficiaries through Emeka Ojukwu jnr.
In rejecting the Will which was read at the High Court by the Chief Registrar, Enugu Judiciary and Probate, Mr Dennis Ekoh, Ojukwu jnr called it a ruse.
They accused Bianca and her lawyer of allegedly causing trouble with the issue.
’’What I have to say about the Will is my position on it. It is Bianca and the lawyer that are doing what they are doing. We are waiting for the Will to be read; then I can make a statement on it. For the Will to be read, all of us, my brothers and all the beneficiaries would have to be present. And if the Will does not reflect the wish of my father, which we all know, we shall go to court,’’ he said.
Earlier, Bianca and her two sons had dragged Ojukwu’s brothers before the Lagos High Court over the control of Ojukwu Transport Limited’s, OTL’s, property situated at No. 29 Queen’s Drive, Ikoyi,Lagos, where Ojukwu once resided. The Will which was read by Mr. Ekoh also threw up some surprises when an ‘unknown’ name Tenny Harman was mentioned as number one among the late Ojukwu’s children.
There were to be more shockers as the name of Sylvester Ojukwu popularly called “Dede†was conspicuously omitted from the list endorsed by Ojukwu himself as his children just as Emeka Ojukwu (Jnr) only got a property in Umudim Nnewi, Ojukwu’s hometown as his entitlement.
After appointing Bianca, the late Igwe of Oraukwu, Emeka Ojukwu and James Chukwuneme as trustees and executors of the will the names of the children were next; and the late Ikemba stated that only the eight listed and no other person should be regarded as his children.
The eight children listed are Tenny Harman, Emeka Ojukwu, Mmegha, Okigbo, Ebele, Chineme, Afam, and Nwachukwu.
Bianca who arrived the Enugu High Court premises in a black Prado Jeep at about 8:30 could not hide her surprise when the strange name of Tenny was mentioned among Ojukwu’s children as she started whispering with family members in the registrar’s office with her.
Apart from Bianca, other family members who were in court to listen to the Chief Registrar included Mr. Mike Ezemba and Mr Val Nwosu; Ojukwu’s first cousin. They however declined comments on the matter as they left in different vehicles that brought them to the court premises.
Bianca, who is currently Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain would be all smiles later as the will awarded her Ojukwu’s Enugu mansion ‘Casabianca’ located at No: 7 Forest Crescent GRA, which the late Ikemba Nnewi had named after her. She is to also replace Ojukwu on the board of the Ojukwu Transport Limited, OTL, or appoint a representative in the management board.
Bianca heaved a sigh of relief as the Will clearly gave her a stake in the controversial OTL. The company was founded by Ojukwu’s father, Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu who died in 1966, but left several assets behind for his children especially inLagosunder the OTL.
Ojukwu transferred his interest in the company to his widow and children in the Will which reads inter alia, “Bianca and her children should take over my place at my transport…she may also wish to appoint somebody to represent her at the board…â€
Bianca also got two properties located at plot 20 Jabi Abuja, with Certificate of Occupancy number 4405, as well as another property located at Kuje,Abuja.
The late Eze-Igbo also willed all his personal effects, monies and cars for Bianca and her children’s upkeep.
He also allotted to Bianca two hectares of land at Umuezeani Umudim Nnewi, ‘’If she does not remarry.’’
Ojukwu’s strange daughter Tenny, who was said to be unknown to members of the family before now, was allotted Jubilee Hotels,Zaria; but when the will was read it was observed that the hotel had been sold thus she would receive the proceeds from the sale.
For the former Commissioner inAnambraState, Emeka Ojukwu, who was generally regarded as Ojukwu’s first son, it was not a fair deal as he got only a house in Umudim Nnewi. Ojukwu further willed a hectare of land each to all his daughters but directed that his Nnewi property is “to remain a binding legacy to us for generations to come.“
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ENUGU—MR. Bob Onyema, the ailing former Chief of Staff to the late Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, recently struck with cancer, may have been abandoned but associates of the late war lord said they were trying their best to help him out of his predicament.
Vanguard reliably gathered yesterday that Onyema was by the bedside of the former Biafran leader from the time he was flown to London in December 2010 to the time he died on November 26, 2011.
But shortly after Ojukwu was buried early this year, Onyema suffered an attack of prostate cancer and sought the assistance of Ojukwu’s wife to go for medical treatment abroad but she was not forthcoming.
However, it was gathered that a few associates of Ojukwu rallied to raise money for the former Chief of Staff of their deceased leader, which eventually made it possible for him t to travel to India for surgery.
Onyema has since returned to Nigeria after a successful operation and is currently recuperating under the watchful eyes of members of his family in Lagos.
A source close to him confirmed that Bianca, who is currently serving as Nigeria’s ambassador to Spain, did not contribute a dime for Onyema’s medical trip to India
Sources disclosed some of the names of Ojukwu’s associates who assisted his former Chief of Staff, pleaded that they would not want their names mentioned in the press.
“You know we did what we did because of the way Bob took care of our former leader who we still regard, even in death.
“Yes, I contributed and some other persons contributed but I do not wish that my name be mentioned in the press,†one of the contributors said.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Barely a year after the death of the late Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Emeka Ojukwu, there seems to be an on-going family crisis. In this interview with ENYIM ENYIM, the first son of the late warlord, Chief Emeka Ojukwu, jnr, speaks on the rearing family feud as well as the life and times of his late father.
Excerpts;
There are speculations that one of your brothers has filed a suit at a law courtagainst Bianca barely one year after the death of your father?How true is this?
Are you referring to Debe?
Yes?
He has taken my father’s wife to court. He has taken me to court. He has taken my fathers brothers to court and even my cousins to court. He has taken the AIG of police to court and even the army command has been taken to court. Almost every body has been taken to court over one claim or the other.
I think that you would have to ask him why he is in court with everybody. And I want to remind you that while my father was sick in England, he took my Ojukwu Transport Company and the Directors which my father was a member to court. So, my father’s name was listed as a defendant. So these are things that you would have to ask him. I do not want to comment further on that. If there are issues within any family and there bound to be issues especially in a big family like this, it is best resolved within the family whether you are from the outside, or you are from the inside. Going to court or going to the police or even going to the press will certainly not solve the problem. All you do is to aggravate the system and it’s not good and you will end up creating more enemies.
Rumour has it that your father’s will has been tampered with. Is it true?
I have heard those rumours and people have asked me severally about it. Essentially, my father’s will is known to me and there has been a rumour and people are saying that there has been changes in the will. We are not aware of such changes. But we are watching to see. There is a rumour about reading of the will severally. Three months ago, there was a rumour that the will had been read without some people involved knowing about it. I want to wait and see, given that I know what my father said is what it is. You should also know that reading a will is a different thing from executing a will.
The family will have to look at it to see who produced these changes and what the changes are. If it is a deviation from my fathers wishes, then we will surely challenge it in court. I cannot discuss the details of my father’s will in the public but we do have copies with us.
Last Sunday, your family had one year remembrance of late Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu. People had expected that the South East governors would have been present. But on that day it was only governor Peter Obi that came.
Emeka Ojukwu, jnr,
Let me clarify something for you first of all. What happened on Sunday was the removing of our mourning cloth. It was not the remembrance. You remember my father died on the 25th of November and he was buried in March. The remembrance would be around that time. We as a family decided to give him one year of mourning from the day he died and that was why. We celebrated mass on the 25th. It is more of a private family matter or ceremony with some few close friends of the family. It was not supposed to be for the general public as such.
Soon after your father’s burial, we gathered that some members of the family organized a similar event before now. Why?
Some members of the family, you mean my father’s wife, Bianca. A lot has been said about this in many ways but basically, what happened was that the family made it clear that it is going to be one year and nothing less than that.
And she suggested that she wanted to do it before one year due to her engagements and the family said she is free to go abroad for her engagement but when it is one year, she has to join the family.
She insisted and that was why you did not see family members as it was last Sunday. But when the time came for us to do it, she decided to come down and join us. I think that from the way I see it, she got better advice from people and she realised that it was not right about what she did.
During the ceremony last week, Bianca explained that the absence of the Imo state governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha was due to some other engagements.What is the relationship between the Ojukwu family and the governor?
Dr. Rochas Okorocha’s relationship with the Ojukwu family is excellent. Actually, he was one of the first people that came to us as the date was approaching and asked what we wanted him to do, whether we wanted him to be involved. And he has been coming since my father died.
He in particular knows about this event and got closer. Some thing came up that stopped him from attending this function but he sent a high powered representative to the occasion and he called us to tell us as soon as he knew that he was not coming with so much apologies. In fact, his assistance was great in every way. We do not have any issue with him. He has been fully with the family since my father died. He has stood with us at those trying times, so I reject any notion that the family has issues with him.
How do you feel about the contributions of Nigerians to your father’s funeral?
I do not know what to use to describe it. It is only the likes of Achebes, Soyinkas that can find a word to describe it. It was indeed touching and the assistance have been amazing I must say. We are talking about a man who seemed immortal.
He was greater than life. The notion that he was no more was indeed touching but the response from Nigerians was what sustained us and we have realized that his life really meant something and really touched our lives. You see one tends to take people close to them for granted and you may not know how great or respected he or she is because he is with you.
The response by Nigerians further opened our eyes. It was really a wonderful thing to see what took place during his funeral. You know there were events of course in Europe and America; all parts of Africa and the far East.
I will never forget it and I am sure where ever he is, he knows that he has achieved what he had come on earth to do. Maybe he did not take us to the promised land but he certainly took us to the mountain and showed us the promised land.
The national chairman of APGA , Sir Victor Umeh has said he would expose things about Ojukwu’s death and the role of Peter Obi and Bianca? What is your reaction?
Like I said before, internal issues about the family do not need to be discussed in the press. Some times ,we would not like it to be written. The comment by about some issues. My comment on this is that I’ll wait for Victor Umeh to tell as what he wants to expose.
Tell us about your father and your life with him at your tender age
Certainly, he was all that people say he was. Growing up, my father was a jovial person. He likes to play pranks a lot. He was a loving and wonderful father. We did not see him much because of the civil war but whenever he comes, we enjoy him so well. But when we began to see activities and the heavy presence of people around our house, we would know that he was coming to see us. We got to spend more time with him in Ivory cost.
The war was over. But the first few months after the war, he was quite depressed about the number of deaths during the war, about the killings and especially those under his charge that died. But after that, he came back to his normal self. He would play football, table tennis, play with people. He was indeed a wonderful father and a great one at that.
Can you recall an issue that took place between you and your father?
Sure, many of them. Some of them I will not tell you because it could be embarrassing. I will tell you one. You know that as you start to get old or coming up as a tanager, you’d begin to see muscles forming, you will begin to feel great like a man. I came home and perhaps I went somewhere that I was not supposed to go and I came in and saw my cousins and my parents.
He challenged me and instead of me backing down like it used to be, I spoke up and asked him what do you mean and by that action, something happened. His reaction surprised me. Instead of continuing with the argument, he just looked at me and said oh! So you are a man; good, good, okay, every body out.
Everybody went out and he locked the door and while I was looking at him, he started unbuttoning his shirt and I was just looking at him and I was about calling him daddy and what I heard was gbuum. He gave me a blow close to my chest and my stomach rose high before I landed on my back like a sack of rice. I couldn’t breath.
I was trying to breath or say something when I got another one gbum. When I got up, I jumped through the window and ran away. You know in Ivory coast, we did not have burglaries like here in Nigeria. I did not come home lfor about two days and in fact, he sent for me before I came back. So he was that kind of person.
When he discovered that you were now a man, how was his approach to you later?
By then, I was not quite a man and that was why I jumped out of the window. One thing I really enjoyed about my father was honesty. He was an honest man. Remember, when I was getting married for the first time and I asked for his advice, do you know what he told me? He said ‘my son, I am on my number three and I am not the best person to give advice, so just go and ask somebody that is still on number one.’ The man is indeed fun to be with.
But why did you choose not to be a soldier like your father?
It’s not that I do not want to be a soldier. I tried. When I came back to Nigeria, I wanted to join the army. Even when I was in Ivory coast, I wanted to join the army but my father said no, that I should join the Nigerian Army. He said that I was not from Ivory Coast.
He has always maintained that we are Nigerians. I participated in sports in Ivory Coast and I qualified for Olympics 100 meters. I was faster than some of the people that represented Ivory coast then but my father refused, insisting that I will have to join the Nigerian team and not the Ivory Coast team. I was about fourteen or fifteen years ten. When I came back to Nigeria, I went to join the army and I was unofficially told that it wouldn’t be such good idea from the powers that be then. I tried even the French Legion but it didn’t work out.
Possibly they were afraid of your father and that was why they refused
Well I wouldn’t want to put words in their mouth about that. But I know that they have had enough of the first Ojukwu, let alone having another Ojukwu in the Nigerian Army.
Humphery Boigny of Ivory Coast was your father’s great friend, how did you see him?
He was like a father to my father because the age disparity was too much.To us, he was a wonderful man, very caring. He always remembered our birthdays and will come to the house with gifts. He will even remember what you like to eat. He was just fun to be around.
He was also a very powerful person and he held that country firmly. Not that they did not have problems but he was able to hold the country. I will tell you one story about him. As a young child, I liked something and you know children like what they like and we do not want to know if this thing is cheap or costly. So one day, at the palace in Yamosukwu with guests and friends, he had invited us to eat and enjoy with him and I like caveat and caveat is very much expensive. A little quantity of caveat is very expensive, about hundreds of dollars. But that is what I liked. It is also an apatizer before the meal. They will give you a little caviat and put it on a cracker about four or three.
For me, I was eating like garri and my dad and my mum were making signs, telling me to stop that they were doing it quietly so that people would not know, but the president noticed that and said, oh! my young friend likes caviat. He said he likes good things and it is good for him. And later on, we finished and went home and one day, two black cars came to our house from the presidency full of cartons of it to our house and said that they should give me and that they are for me.
Your father Dim Odumemgwu Ojukwu is no more ,what are the challenges facing the family?
There have been serious challenges since he died. People now have expectations about you and what they expect you to do now as the head of the family. People want to prop you up, people want to knock you down. But this is what life is all about. I miss him because there are things I would have loved to seek his advice but he is no more and the burden of the family is now on me and I have no choice but to carry on and I told my father that he will never be disappointed at me because with his training and teachings, I am well armed to carry on with the challenges that go with it.
Today I have to take some leadership actions and bring out money whether you have it or not and that is the way it is. It is now that I have come to realize the role my father was playing as it were and now, I am playing similar roles. I know that the man was on a mission and I know that it was not a mission one can finish in a life time.
One of the ways to carry on from where my father stopped is this problem in the party APGA. We have to find a way to stop it and settle all parties. It would be wrong that in his absence, the party that he gave his life for and nurtured would end up this way and the whole thing will derail completely. You were here last Sunday when Governor Peter Obi and Sir Victor Umeh met here in my palour and shook hands and I feel this is a sign of good things to come and we shall ensure that the matter is settled.
An incident happened on that Sunday morning when the MASSOB leader Ralph Uwazurike came with his people to your compound…
You mean early in the morning before we went to church. What happened was that Uwazurike was invited by Bianca and he was allowed into the family compound but you know, he tends to move with a huge crowd and he was advised at the gate to enter with enough security personnel for him to feel protected and that the hundreds and thousands of people following him would not go in because we were still planning for the event and could not accommodate so many people. In their characteristic nature, they forced their way in and started fighting the security operatives at the gate and things were about to get out of hand.
So I entered my living room and made some calls and that is why peace was restored that day. If you noticed, there were presence of soldiers, police and the state security service. And it was good that they took that control as it were and his men were not able to follow him into the compound. If you enter somebody’s house as a guest, you must respect that home regardless of any other thing.
Why did Bianca choose to invite him?
You would have to ask Bianca about that not me. Of course you know that even the newspapers seem to be attending functions together with him.
Was he afraid that he would not be allowed to enter the compound on that day?
I do not know. You may have to ask him about that. But Bianca is our wife and we are the one that married her. So she is always welcomed
We also learnt that there was plot by him to attack you through his members
Yes I am aware of that. That Sunday morning while were trying to keep peace at house. I was reliably informed that he had given instructions that I should be handled or that I should be assaulted and when we decided to call the police and other security operatives to take over security in the compound and at that points obviously all reasons had gone out of the window.
I thought that you are working together at what point did you have problems.
He is guest and he came to our compound and he told him what to do so that we have sanity in the compound but he choose to force his way and do as he likes.
It appears he left in a hurry?
Yes once the situation changed he had to go. I also heard that there was a plan to arrest Uwazurike on that day because of the act of lawlessness that happened on that day. I heard that there was a request made by security people that was there to Abuja for him to be arrested. And he got wind of it and it made him to go immediately.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Enugu – The will of the late Ikemba Nnewi, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, was on Friday presented to the family with his widow, Bianca, getting the lion’s share.
The presentation by the Chief Registrar of the Enugu High Court, Mr Dennis Ekoh, was witnessed by Bianca, Mr Val Nwosu, Ojukwu’s first cousin, and Mr Mike Ejemba.
In the will, the late Ojukwu identified one Tenny Haman as one of his children.
Ojukwu listed the children as Tenny Haman, Chukwuemeka Jnr, Mmegha, Okigbo, Ebele, Chineme, Afam and Nwachukwu.
The Ikemba gave the Casabianca Lodge at No. 7, Forest Crescent, GRA, Enugu, two property at Jabi and Kuje in the FCT as well as all his money and personal effects to his widow.
He also said that Bianca should replace him as the trustee in the family company, Ojukwu Transport Ltd, while also giving her two plots of land in his village at Nnewi.
He, however, added that if she re-married, the land should be taken away from her.
The first son, Emeka Jnr., got the family house at Nnewi, while the newly mentioned daughter, Tenny Haman, got the Jubilee Hotel located in Zaria, Kaduna State.
The Biafran warlord also shared other landed property in the village among all his children.
Ojukwu listed the trustees and executors of the will to include Bianca, Emeka Jnr and Mr James Chukwuneme.
Reacting to the will, Bianca, who is Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain, expressed satisfaction with its contents.
“It was a fair will. This time round, he did not disappoint us,’’ she said.
The ambassador, however, expressed shock at the disclosure of a new daughter in the family, whom she said had never been mentioned by her husband.
None of the children was present at the presentation of the will. (NAN)
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ENUGU — THE silent war between Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, widow of the late Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, and Directors of Ojukwu Transport Limited, OTL, who are brothers of her late spouse, has blown open as both parties have dragged themselves before High Courts of Lagos state to determine who controls the landed property belonging to the company.
This came even as the family had concluded plans to mark the first anniversary of Ojukwu’s death at Nnewi today. The former Biafran warlord died on November 26, 2011 at aLondonhospital at the age of 78.
Crisis had been brewing between Mrs. Ojukwu and her late husband’s brothers over the control of some property which were left by their late father, Eze Odumegwu Ojukwu, under his company’s name, OTL, for decades. The late Ikemba Nnewi was one of the directors of the company and apart from living in one of the property at Ikoyi which he vacated and relocated toEnuguover 10 years ago, Ojukwu was also involved in managing some of the property.
These property which were at a time compulsorily acquired by the Federal Government were later released to OTL and the late Dim Ojukwu continued to manage some of them until his demise last year.
The property in contention
The property include those situated at 58, Ibadan Street, Ebute Metta, Yaba, Lagos; 29, Queens Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos where Ojukwu once resided, 41 Macpherson Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos, 13 Hawksworth Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, 14 Probyn Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, 2A and 2B Park Close, Apapa, Lagos, 32A Commercial Avenue, Yaba, Lagos, Nnewi Building, 1/3 Creek Close, Apapa, Lagos, 120 Agege Motor Road, Mushin, Lagos, 4A and 4B Park Close, Apapa, Lagos, 196 Igbosere Road, Lagos, 15 Oshodi Street, Lagos and 15/16 Forces Avenue, Port Harcourt.
After the death of Ojukwu, the Ojukwu Transport Limited was left with six directors namely Professor Joseph Ojukwu, Engr. Emmanuel Ojukwu, Lotanna Putalora Ojukwu, Dr. Patrick Ojukwu, Arc. Edward Ojukwu and Lota Akajiora Ojukwu while an Estate Management Consultant, Mr. Massey Udegbe of Massey Udegbe & Company was appointed by the directors to manage the property.
Bianca goes to court
However, in a suit number LD/1539/12 filed at the Lagos High Court on October 9, 2012, Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu’s two sons, Afemefuna and Nwachukwu Ojukwu, claimed that they were entitled to the possession of the property known as 29, Oyinka Abayomi Street formerly 29, Queens Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos “until the harmonization of the management and administration of the assets of the 1st Defendant (OTL).â€
They urged the court to declare that the forceful ejection of the claimants from the said property was illegal just as they also asked the court to declare that they were entitled to the possession of the property known as 13, Hawksworth Road, Ikoyi, Lagos; 32A, Commercial Avenue, Yaba, Lagos; 30, Gerard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos and 4, Macpherson Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos, which they claimed, had been under the possession of their late father.
Mrs. Ojukwu, who sued on behalf her two sons, further sought an order of the court to restrain the defendants or their agents from interfering with the “Claimants’ possession and control of 29, Oyinka Abayomi Street (formerly Queens Drive) Ikoyi, Lagos†as well as the aforementioned four property also situated in Lagos.
…OTL, too
But in a twist, the OTL filed a fresh suit number LD/1680/2012 on November 1, 2012 also before a Lagos High Court against Mrs. Ojukwu, claiming possession of the property known as 29, Queens Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos which comprised two-storey detached house in addition to the payment of N40 million being expected rentable value per annum of the said premises from September 27, 2012, until the defendant gives up possession of the property.
In addition, the OTL demanded the payment of N100 million as damages from Mrs. Ojukwu as well as 21 per cent interest on the accrued sum until judgment was given and five per cent until the entire sum was fully liquidated.
In a 15-paragraph statement of claim brought by its counsel, Ifeanyi Okumah, OTL claimed ownership of the property at 29, Queens Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos, explaining that its agent appointed managing agent had asked Mrs. Ojukwu to handover physical possession of the property to him but she refused.
The company said despite disclaimers published in some national dailies warning the general public to deal with the managing agent appointed by it, Mr. Massey Udegbe and subsequent letters to the occupiers of the property to vacate and hand over the keys to the owner (OTL) or its agent, the defendant (Bianca) refused to hand over the property, a development that has denied the company N40 million rent it would have collected on the said property.
Tenants in confusion
Following the two legal actions, some tenants of the said property were thrown into confusion as to who to pay their rents and this prompted one of the occupants of 30, Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, West Africa Offshore Limited to drag Mr. Emmanuel Omuojine, the managing agent appointed by the late Ojukwu, Mr. Massey Udegbe, who was appointed managing agent by OTL and the company (OTL) itself before the Lagos High court.
The company which claimed to have paid N40 million to Mr. Omuojine on behalf of OTL as five-year tenancy in 2007, sought an order of the court directing the payment of N24 million representing two years rent from March 16, 2012 to March 15, 2014 in respect of the said property and for same to be lodged into an interest yielding account in the name of the Chief Registrar of the High Court pending the resolution of the disputes between the parties.
By the new development, both Mrs. Ojukwu and the directors of OTL, would have to wait for the determination of the various suits on the contentious property before they could further benefit from them.
Meanwhile, the first anniversary is expected to be observed at Ojukwu’s family compound at Nnewi today though the family members are at loggerheads over who controls the property left behind by their late multi-millionaire father, Sir Louis Philip Odumegwu Ojukwu who died in 1966.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Beautiful, if that could capture it, is like an understatement. For in her seventies, the grace and elegance that must have made the Ikemba fall head over heels in love decades ago were apparent. With a disarming smile, an intellect that is confounding and a memory that is outstanding, Mrs Njideka Odumegwu-Ojukwu is a subject for a whole biography. But that may never come out of her. She just is not attracted by publicity. In this interview, a lot of areas were marked as no go areas, a lot of fields not to be touched. Obvious, however, is the fact that there are far too many truths lurking within her that only a book can fully capture. What we serve here therefore is the summary of an interview session with the woman who saw the Nigerian Civil War as the wife of one of the two most important players – Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu; a woman who gave birth to four successful children and has remained elegant even in her seventies. Eni Akinsola spoke with her. (Note: this interview was first published in The Nation on Sunday, June 22, 2008. Mrs Ojukwu passed on March 24, 2010)
What was your childhood and growing up like? My birth was said to be special in that my mum was barely seven months pregnant when I came prematurely with my twin sister. We were said to have been covered with all sorts of clothing, wool and other things to make us warm. My mum could not offer breast milk because she was not too well and so we had to be breast-fed by other women. I made it but the other child didn’t. I was named Njideka, which means “I am grateful for this child.â€
My parents had seven of us, one died at thirteen and I became the second from the original third position among the children. I attended St. Monica’s in Onitsha and Archdeacon Crowder Memorial Girls School, Elelenwo, near Port Harcourt. I was born in a Christian family. My parents were very strict Christians. It’s difficult to say this, but the truth is that I was born in abundance. I had everything I wanted. True also is that it wasn’t a happy childhood. My father, for reasons best known to him, wanted very much to marry me off and yet he had five daughters, I was number two.
Coming from a wealthy home, how was school like? It was not easy at all. Teenagers had their own ways of thinking. We had so many people. My father would not allow one to say hello to a man. But here was I, in Elelenwo, with students from University College, Ibadan coming to teach. I will be going on, and see one and say hello, or shake hands, my father would see that and descend on me. Our house was so high that he could see you from afar. In any case, I was not ready to play hide and seek. I read a lot, stayed indoors a lot.
My father was one of the pioneers in the recording business. There was another called Joe Febro, though I have forgotten the man behind it. Those days, they used to work together.
My father, had seven living children I was first number three, but when the eldest died at thirteen, I became the second. How did your relationship with Ojukwu start? It was after my divorce from Dr. Brodi-Mends, a Ghanaian and the father of my first child, Iruaku. Ojukwu is somebody you see around or bump into because our parents were business people. I’d seen him the day my younger sister was going to England at the airport. She knew him before me. Later on, he told me my sister was my best ambassador. That she was always talking about me and that I was always at home. Then, you had to fly by a small aircraft from Enugu to Kano to join the British Airways. So, we had gotten to the airport when my name was announced, I was shocked. I had the feeling that maybe something terrible had happened to my father. My hands were shaking when they were giving me the telegraph. I opened it and what was the content: “I am sorry; I mean to come to meet you at the airport. But I was sent to Keshi in Ghana. Emeka. “When I read it, I had to wonder, why is he concerned and where is “Keshiâ€. Because, I was not familiar with military locations. After that, I went to London and continued with my life, until three years later, when I met him again at a tube station. I had gone with a friend of mine, Mrs. Obiekwe, she is late now. While we were going with the husband, somebody just said ‘they do not greet people in Igbo.’’ I turned back and lo and behold, it was Emeka, who had escorted his father to the station. He said he was on a course and asked for my phone number and I gave him. A week later, he called. “Hello, I am very sorry I have not been able to call,†he said, I said no problem, in any case, you give your number to several people not with any expectation that they’ll call. We met on several occasions thereafter. He pursued me like I have never experienced. At a point he asked me about a Canadian friend of mine and said that I had to let go of him. One major reason I didn’t mind him was my father. I was afraid he could have a heart attack and die if he got to know I had a white friend. By then, we were thinking of a serious relationship. Anyway, Emeka was calling and calling and staying on the phone. I didn’t realize what he was up to until I asked him why he liked wasting time and money on phones. He asked if I really wanted the truth, then revealed that he wanted to take that my friend, who he had christened “Canada.†off me! (laughter). One day, Emeka invited me to his house. I took a friend of mine, Efun Shobande, with me. We got to his house and he took me aside. So, you brought someone to come and spy on me? I laughed it off but that was indeed why I brought my friend with me. By the way, I lost contact with Efun and have not seen her since. I understand she was married and was in Kaduna, she was brought up in Jos. On the way back the next day, we talked about him and I was so confused, that when we go to Baker Street, I almost passed out. Efun told me that she liked and preferred Emeka. In any case, she added, “he is a Nigerian.†I thereafter, told him to get in touch with my parents if he was serious. He had known about Iruaku, my daughter by Brodi-Mends. She was two when I left home. When I got back to Nigeria, I saw a huge teddy bear with Iruaku and when I asked who gave it to her, I was told it was Emeka. He had obviously wooed everybody in the house over. My mother and the rest were all in love with him. Our parents, fathers were well known to one another, though they are from Nnewi and we are from Nawfia, not too far from Awka. Your marriage with Ikemba started on a high. He was a military man and all that… Did you know he was in the military when it started.? I knew he was a soldier. But I didn’t know much about what being a soldier meant. There was a day he came home while in London with the British Army uniform, I asked him and he said he is on course and so have to put on the uniform during the duration of the course. I only got to know more when I came back. The first party he took me took me to was Ironsi’s. I didn’t remember seeing many women there. I remember seeing Murtala Mohammed who was then Ironsi’s Aide De Camp. The men were so polished; spoke impeccable English, well mannered and unbelievably polite. I was pleasantly surprised. So we had people like this in Nigeria? I sort of liked them. The crop I saw was impressive. And Emeka was very good at taking care of a woman. Was he randy, full of soft words, romantic? I didn’t even know the word is romance. Not really. He is just a very kind man, very polite, not intrusive. He cared less about what happened in the kitchen, he just settled for whatever you offered him. He respected me and my opinion a lot. Later, when the children got across to him, he would ask them what my opinion was on issues. And I loved him immensely in return. If you were this in love, why the separation? Well, somebody summed it up: Fredrick Forsyth in his book. He knew the very beginning of the story. I agree with him that it is the war. I suppose, in a given situation, where things are very bad, there is always a casualty. I guess I was the last casualty of the war. I do not hold Emeka responsible. I think there was pressure on him to have another wife and he was resisting. And you know there are other undercurrents that are better left in the past where they belong. So, one day, you just decided to leave him or he asked you to leave? No, I just left. I disappeared. I went to London. Okigbo my last son was then around two and a half years. He didn’t allow any of the children to go with me. Eventually, we communicated again and I got the children back. Maybe the problem is that I can’t tolerate distraction in my marriage. I gave all, my soul, life and all and could not stand ridiculous stories. The unfortunate part of it all was that I kept marrying single sons. But if I had married again and had trouble, I would just have left I love my peace. Since then, what have you been doing? I have been doing business. When I was in London, I was ordering George, jewelleries from India, Italy and selling them to other traders. I couldn’t continue with my education, so I went into buying and selling. Some people asked me, what was Deka (West Africa) Limited (my company) into? And I answered: we sell everything except illegal things. Like your dad who was into buying and selling before going into recording? Yes, I learnt trading from him. He was into several other legitimate things. For instance, when he started the record business, he would bring in sample records and play them, he would then ask us to listen in and from our reactions, he gets a fair idea of how the record would be received by buyers. In that way, we were being used as sounding boards. Then he went into importing ladies’ things. Later on, he opened a recording factory, CTO, which stands for Christopher Tagbo Onyekwere. Before I married, I worked for him for one year as a clerk and I was for the important and export section. So, I learn on the job. Of the several of us Tagbo is an accountant, Ndubuisi, the other boy, an engineer, is the one managing the rest of my dad’s business. Tagbo was in London for sometime and then moved to Zambia, where he was like the governor of the Central Bank for some time. Definitely after the war, my family was not comfortable here. The factory was burnt during the war, because it was on the water front. My elder sister, I told you was a nurse, and was one of the best nurses I have ever met. She had a clinic. She is late now and had children. When I was asking about you from the commissioner, your son, I could read admiration and deep respect. And he said, he never heard any bad word from you against his father. I know you have your grouses, why did you keep them to yourself? You see, it is destructive to bring children into the disagreements of their parents. In my case, he is not a criminal; he is a very kind man. He was not criminally involved. He did not steal while in government, he doesn’t know how to steal government’s money. And that was why he was even spending our money. So, there was indeed nothing to tell. I couldn’t make up a story because I wanted to make him bad with the children. If there was a crime you could hold against him, it would be that he loved women. Ordinarily that is a thing one should be able to put up with, but it is not that simple when you are in love with a man. In any case when you love a man, there are so many things you don’t ever do. He, I must say, is unlike most Nigerian men. His likes are not common. In maintaining the family, he was much like my dad. He does not interfere with what happens in the kitchen. He has a long of good points. Well, have you been communicating? Yes, very well. In bringing up the children, he is always there. Whenever, proximity allows, he comes in here and we discuss specific issues of importance. We were never in any irreconcilable crisis. And we share respect for one another. How was the war for you? The fact that you were the wife of the Head of State of a breakaway country; how was the pressure of the war, the children and the family? Let me tell you one true story. When the war started, the wife of the Commissioner of Police came up to my house and asked; Madam, how do you survive in all these because the tension was just too much? She said: “do you know, this man, she was referring to her husband, whenever he goes out, I always feel I am going to melt. My body would be shaking. You know, I love my husband so much I can’t imagine what I would do if he dies.†I told her that I tackle the tension by settling for the worse, even when I pray fervently that it does not happen. Each time he goes out, I pretend that it may be the last time I’ll be seeing him. I felt that the best thing to do is to be prepared anytime to be a widow. That I felt would be the best attitude because if not, you will die immediately. If you love a man like that, all you could do if the unexpected happens, is to swallow very hard and just move on. You see, I am so calm. There was this particular doctor who used to come to take what he needed for others from the little we were getting as relief materials during the war. He refers to me as ‘always unruffledâ€. May be it’s in the way I’m made. Was there no time you felt threatened as a person? When you felt death was close? Were you prepared to die for the cause? Were you convinced about the Biafra thing? If you saw what happened to Igbos in the north… I was so angry. I told my husband I would have been in the tanks if I wasn’t married to him. When they were bringing people from the North; headless men, women … they put bottles inside them. I was very angry. I felt I should go out there and kill all of them. There was no way you could see the returning casualties and not get angry. Let me give you an example. One day, when I came back from Ivory Coast, I was on my way to Broad Street. I didn’t know my way around. One gentleman in suit, extremely light in complexion, obviously from the North, introduced himself. Please can I meet you? His name was a northern name. I said, oh my God! And went away showing how bitter I was. Is there any reason for Biafra now? You tell me. Is there any reason for Biafra as a Nigerian? (Here there was a debate on present realities.) I don’t know. It’s almost impossible, but it won’t be. It can happen if they are not careful. The way they are treating everybody, even Yorubas sometimes ago threatened to go away. And you people (Yoruba) let us down because we wanted southern solidarity. Have you not heard of that? It is not over yet. It may not come in this manner. It may not be Yoruba wanting to go away or Igbo wanting to go away. Something terrible can happen. You cannot continue to oppress people like this. They force their ways into power or rig elections and rob the place dry and they are not even ashamed. What haven’t we seen? When Emeka was a governor, he was young, early thirties because both of us were married when we were thirty. I remember one day, one ambassador came and left a small chain and pendant for him to give me. He rejected it. It took a lot of persuasion from everybody there before he accepted it. The case now is different. Do you know that Nigeria is the 10th country in the world in terms of the gap between the rich and the poor? And the people who are rich don’t even know how to make money, only how to steal. In our own time, my father worked himself to death. They didn’t know what resting was all about. Nowadays, people just flaunt their unearned wealth. It’s not fair. To some people he was unforgiving… Yorubas or those that he dealt with? Not Yorubas. Several people in write-ups have said he is stubborn, inflexible and rigid. I know you love him, you still love him, and he was your husband. How do you see him? He wasn’t intransigent or inflexible. You see, he was not stubborn to me, and that is the gospel truth. The only thing that sometimes caused friction was women. And when you look at this women problem, a lot of them used to bring themselves to him. Donate themselves! Though I believe that sometimes a man should be able to say no. Earlier on, you alluded to the war as reason for separation. What particular situation can you point to in the war? The whole war itself. We were not together all the time; it was too dangerous. If it was about closeness, the war made us close like this (showing two hands tightly held together). Very, very close. Although he was far away from us, we were very close. We had a radio, the children used to talk to him every evening, every 9 o’clock. He was sending messages to me almost every night by dispatch rider. He would write a letter. I would give the person a reply. His fears, his feelings…? Very serious things. But I don’t want somebody else to know about them. I remember when we were in Ivory Coast. There was this debate in France about Quebec and French Canadians and something about someone who had information that was needed by parties to the crisis and they killed him. I don’t know how it happened but when I finished reading it I went and burnt all the letters. When he knew that I burnt them, he was upset… but I am glad I did it Those are things you could have used to write your memoirs… All the things I burnt are in my head. At my age I don’t forget anything. They come out like pictures in my head. So, it’s not about that. Let’s pray you write your book. I am longing to read it. Maybe I would have been gone by then. You mean you are not going to write your book? You don’t have to write it yourself. You have your sons. They can do that for you. I said you are still very young. You will read it, even when I am gone. You don’t want it launched before you go, but why? For some personal reasons… You met some other top ranking Nigerians who were leaders as well. How well did you relate with them? And have you met some of them of late? I knew some of them but we were not friends Like who particularly? Let me see. You know we were colleagues. Our husbands worked together, but their ways were different from my own. I didn’t like to be what they were. I don’t want any person to come and tell me about my husband because it may kill your spirit. I also don’t want to tell them about their husbands. They weren’t terribly educated. I am not terribly educated either, but I have a different outlook. I remember one instance when Emeka was governor. One day I got a message from Victoria Aguiyi-Ironsi ordering me to attend a function. I ignored it and didn’t go. I felt she could have called me on the phone. I wasn’t a military officer? Some of them were carrying on as if they were military officers too. She shouldn’t have done it. I was sorry when her husband was killed. She was a nice lady too in her own. Others though were not as nice, and to that end, I used to keep some distance from them. Gowon’s wife… have you ever met her? I have never met her. Gowon was not married before the crisis. You know he was a rank lower than my husband. What would you say was the lowest point in your relationship with him? It was in Ivory Coast. It was the conspiracy that eventually led to my leaving. It is better left for another day. From the way you have been speaking of him, it is obvious you loved him and you still love him. Yes, but if I love him what can I do. It’s not something you just write on. It is deeper than just writing about it. The young woman who is the wife of the Ikemba now, Bianca, is she close to you? No, not really. Though, we have met on some occasions like when Emeka (my son) got married. You are from the same area? No, she is from Enugu state, I’m from Anambra. How have you been coping; I mean running your life? I am more or less retired now. I live on pension from me, from my family and from my children.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
From the desperate, dark days of a dying Biafra, to the ecstasy of his return from exile in the then Ivory Coast, OBINWA NNAJI, reminisces on another high point of the Chuwkwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu story
It is difficult to adequately capture the ecstasy which surrounded the return of General Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu to Nigeria, without first looking critically at events preceding his dramatic departure from Uli Airport in 1970 into exile in Ivory Coast, as it was then known. The tail-end of 1969 was tortuous and posed the greatest challenge to a people who were heroically fighting with their ‘bare hands’, to put it metaphorically, having held out for over two years and 10 months.
To say Biafra was losing grounds with great rapidity, was to state the obvious. Faced with an onslaught never seen in the annals of wars and insurrections, where all the world powers viz – Britain, United States, USSR and their allies – turned their arsenal on Biafra, it must have amazed military strategists in Sandhurst, Pentagon and Petersburg, how Biafrans could last the distance – “sheer will power and of course, the Eastern spirit not to say dieâ€.
Pounded on all fronts from air and ground; cut off by a heartless policy of ‘economic blockade’ on the high sea with virtually all essential commodities not within the reach of the citizenry of Eastern Region, causing untold hardship, malnutrition and kwashiorkor for both old and young, the people simply plodded on.
With almost all the major cities fallen – Nsukka, Obollo Eke, Abakaliki, Oji River, Awgu, Okigwe, Awka, Onitsha, Asaba, Gagem, Ogoja, Calabar, Ikot-Ekpene, Port Harcourt, Aba, even though there were skirmishes of fighting going on, it was a matter of time for other towns to cave in. When the war taunted Uzuakoli, it was only to be expected that the Biafran Operational Engine Room, the headquarters and Ministry of Defence, Umuahia would be threatened.
In spite of all these misfortunes, there was cheery news that Owerri, had been retaken by brave Biafran soldiers – but at a very high cost. There was a very touching scene when the remains of Captain Tony Asoluka of ‘S’ Brigade killed by a Federal sniper was taken to his Owerri town for burial. The surviving mother made us all cry as she kept asking hysterically “who will buy me my Lux soap again?†Orlu town, strategically situated in the heart of the Republic, as well as the seat of Biafran School of Infantry, the equivalent of Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA), where officers were being trained, was never conquered. Even though Federal troops occupied Onitsha they couldn’t link up with Awka as Biafrans held the Nkpor to Abagana axis. Of course, the famous Abagana waterloo is a topic for another day.
Uli, Ihiala, Oguta and Uga Airport and its environs were in very safe hands. Yours sincerely was in the trenches at Umuakpu-Omanelu axis, which then was 64 miles to Port Harcourt on the Owerri-Port Harcourt main road. So hilarious were the boys fighting to get back Port-Harcourt when the unexpected and shocking news of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s defection to Nigeria rent the airwaves.
My transistor radio was tucked away, and when the disturbing news broke, my co-officers in the trenches yelled “That’s the end of the Warâ€. The defection of the first Nigerian President, Rt. Hon. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, sometime in October 1969, dealt a severe blow to the morale of Biafran troops at the various war fronts.
Then in quick succession, in November and December, all the strongholds began collapsing. Umuahia was threatened and when it fell, it took its toll. Nobody waited to be drafted to defend the symbol of Biafra. All the warriors and commanders of note raced to join a rescue mission that was already too late in day. Ojukwu and the Defence Headquarters had been evacuated amidst heavy fighting, shelling and bombardment by Nigerian troops from air and land. The Biafran Army Engineers had to break the bridge, the only link from Umuahia to Owerri.
If the Imo River Bridge ‘4 Corner’ as it is called was left intact, then Biafra would have been overrun in few minutes of entering Umuahia. So they were all there – the big names and top military brass – Brigadier Tim Onwuatuegwu, Col. Joe ‘Air Raid’ Achuzie, Brigadier Wilson Odo, the Commandos and famous Strike Forces and Battalion Commanders physically involved in the fight to hold back the rampaging Federal troops keen to cross over the Imo River Bridge.
The surge to reach Owerri had begun in earnest from Aba. For us, 64 miles away at Omanelu after Mgbirichi and Umuagwo, and Umuakpu, it was a nightmare. Owerri that was our safe haven was being evacuated without a gunshot, and with Federal troops not in sight. What to do? There was total confusion and the entire ‘S Brigade’, ‘S’ Division which had several Infantry and Engineering Battalions dug in at the trenches, had to quickly adopt ‘Operation Open Corridor’.
Owerri was no longer within reach and news came that Federal troops had taken it without firing a shot. With extended line formation and fire and movement, the entire troops retreated with great speed through the marshy terrain of Egbema, luckily ending up in Awo-mama, which became the rallying point for all fleeing Biafran troops.
The felicitations and joy for surviving the fierce war, knew no bounds as soldiers greeted fellow combatants with the soothing greeting ‘Happy Survival’. It was January 8, 1970.
So came the departure at Uli Airport of General Ojukwu, widely said to be heading to Ivory Coast in furtherance of exploring some peace overtures, and the surrender by Major-General Phillip Effiong who stood in for him.
It was apparent we had come to the end of the road begun on July 6, 1967 with the first shot fired at Gagem Ogoja and Obollo Eke in Nsukka. The rest is history. So far 13 years, 1970 – 1983, Ojukwu stayed away from the shores of Nigeria in exile in Yamoussokorou, Ivory Coast. With the advent of Satellite Newspapers on Agbani Road, Enugu, in 1982, the crop of journalists so assembled had a burning zest to begin the campaign for a state pardon for Ojukwu. From all departments of the newspaper, the fireballs came from all cylinders.
We wrote strongly-worded editorials, analysis and features making the case for his return urgent. The News Department headed by Late Sly Alakwe and Alphonsus Ikediashi, his able deputy went the extra mile. Alphonsus Ikediashi stumbled upon an exclusive with a big story on the mother of Ojukwu presumed and rumoured dead years ago in Kano. With such sensational headlines “Give me my sonâ€, “Bring my son back†– a passionate appeal from a distressed mother to President Shehu Shagari, we hit Shagari on a very sore point.
The explosive interview caused a big stir to the extent that one of the most successful Ibo business tycoons, Chief Arthur Eze alias “Arthur 1,000â€, made for Nnewi and gave a gift of a brand new Mercedez Benz to Ojukwu’s mother. Satellite roared and soared. It was Ojukwu’s mother’s plea that perhaps touched the milk of human kindness in President Shagari, that he finally caved in and announced the ‘Great Pardon’. The efforts of the journalists on the stable of satellite had paid off. Innocent Okoye now a Professor of Mass Communications, Nzekwe Ene, the arrogant intellectual who had a penchant for correcting any script in sight and more often ended up correcting himself; stylish Victor Jegede, Uche Ezechukwu, the prose master, Late Mike Azuide, Late Chike Akabaogu, Roy Eze, Chika Ezerioha-‘Chez Williams’, Sam Nkire, Emma Okocha, Danquah Oye, C-Don Adinuba, Godwin Nzeakah and, of course, the big boss Chris Ejimofor, to mention a few.
With the pardon granted, we at the Satellite landed on ‘Cloud Nine’. The Sunday Editor Innocent Okoye was on the next available flight out of Lagos to Abidjan. It turned out he was the only journalist from Nigeria to first land in the then Ivory Coast. We had compiled back to back copies of Satellite for the perusal of the General. We had sought for an exclusive interview. Yamoussoukorou had been besieged by sea of European journalists.
Trust Ojukwu, he refused to grant an interview to the battery of journalists and photographers that lay in wait. Owing to the copies of Satellite, Innocent had passed through one of his aides, Ojukwu chose to speak to Innocent via the intercom. Not dejected, Innocent ended up getting scoops, tracing and filming the large expanse of Ojukwu’s sand filling company and trucks owned by the Biafran leader while in exile.
The Sunday Editor was also the only Nigerian journalist at the Nigerian Embassy in Abidjan when Ojukwu was re-issued with a Nigeria Passport. We made a feast of his exclusives from Abidjan.
Then came Ojukwu’s return. The scenario that played out at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos was just child’s play. From all over old Eastern Region, the crowd took over the major streets from Ogbete-Ogui-Abakaliki Road to Emene Airport. Bus loads from the northern parts of the country, formed a rainbow procession.
Traders from Aba, Onitsha and Igbos living in Ogbete Market paced and walked to the airport singing in Ibo Language “Papa Anata Oyoyoâ€, Daddy is back. Several committees had sprung up with bearing the legend of ‘Onyije Nno’, translated ‘Traveller Welcome’.
To be part of history, yours sincerely had driven just past the junction of Army Barracks by Abakpa junction. It was impossible to proceed further. With my wife and two little children sitting atop my car, we were about five kilometers from the airport. The road was literally over run by termites in the shape of human beings. We sat there when Ojukwu driven in a slide-open Mercedes Benz, waving heartily to the crowd sauntered past. The rival National Party of Nigeria (NPN), faithful who had thronged the airport did not allow Anambra Government officials of the ruling Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) to come even as close to the gates of the airport.
Dignitaries were molested and soaked and sprayed with water hoist. And so the General not knowing where he was heading to, perhaps seeing his seat of government, in Enugu State for the first time since it fell in 1967, was a prisoner to those who hijacked and herded him straight to Nnewi.
Disappointed at not seeing their hero, thus bringing a sour taste in the mouths of tens of thousands that had raced to Government House, Independence Layout, Enugu where an elaborate arrangement had been laid out by the sitting Governor, Chief Jim Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo, who had cut short his overseas tour in Madrid, Spain where he was watching the World Cup to rush home, the people that had converged began to disperse one by one – raining abuses on those who disrupted the grandiose plan for their selfish aggrandizement.
· Obinwa Nnaji, former Editor of Daily Satellite Newspaper, was a one-time Lieutenant in the Biafran Army Engineers (BAE). He wrote from Enugu. The last in the three-part series ‘What you don’t know about Ojukwu’ follows next Sunday.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu died last weekend. His death brings to a certain climax the drama of a true, modern Nigerian epic. Olusegun Obasanjo was right this time in describing Ojukwu’s death as “the end of an era.â€
At the passing of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu described Zik as “the Alpha and the Omega of modern Nigeria,†just as he characterised Obafemi Awolowo as “the best President Nigeria never had,†thus melding paradox with hyperbole in an equal alchemy of mystery.
It was in true form. Ojukwu was like that – capable of wit and rhetoric. He was born to it. My first meeting with Ojukwu was as a rookie journalist in Lagos in 1990 at the then Holiday Inn in Ikoyi. He would grant no interviews he said. However, when I mentioned that I was writing the life of the Poet Okigbo, he looked me squarely in the face, and said, “I cannot talk to you about Okigbo standing up.
“Anyi g’anodu n’ani.†(We must have to sit down to it). He gave me the address to his office in Apapa and invited me to a chat, and thereafter, to the famous Villaska Lodge on Queens Drive, Ikoyi. A mighty head sat on Ojukwu’s shoulder and his eyes were then bold and penetrating, whenever he drove home a point. Years later, like Tiresias, those eyes became clouded, half-blind with cataract; the passage of time was upon them.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the lion of Biafra, had been touched by the hand of time. Time is the great leveler. In 1987, Ibrahim Babangida described Awolowo as the “great issue in Nigerian politics.†He was wrong. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu remains the central issue in modern Nigeria.
It was he who took Nigeria by the scruff of the neck and shook it out of its complacency. Ojukwu was born into great wealth. The second, but apparently favored son of West Africa’s wealthiest man in his time – Sir Louis Phillipe Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Emeka Ojukwu started school at the CMS Grammar School at ten in 1943- when most in his generation began secondary school at fifteen.
He transferred soon to Kings College, Lagos, and was the youngest boy at Kings College in 1944. He was senior in class to people like Alex Ekwueme or the late Rex Akpofure (1945) or Allison Ayida and Asiodu (1946) –those were his contemporaries.
Ojukwu however was different in one respect: he was born to wealth and privilege. His father was a powerful mogul of finance and counted among his dinner guests, the British Governor-General of Nigeria as well as the likes of Nigeria’s leading anti-colonial nationalist figures, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe who was his Godfather.
Perhaps his exposure by these vicarious contacts opened the young Emeka to the great issues of national and global politics which emboldened him far earlier than his peers, for even as a ten years he came to national and perhaps international attention by his actions in 1944 when he took part in the now famous Kings College students anti-colonial and anti-war protest against the British colonial administration.
One of the most damning pictures against colonialism, and perhaps an image which was fully exploited by the nationalists to mobilize public opinion against British colonial rule in Nigeria was of a ten years old Emeka Ojukwu standing trial in the Lagos courts and sleeping in the docks before an English judge trying a minor. His father of course hired one of the leading lawyers in Lagos; Ojukwu was freed. But he was soon sent away to boarding school in England. His father wanted him at Eton. Admission protocols took too long and he ended up at Epsom in Surrey. From Epsom College, where Ojukwu excelled in Sports – in Cricket, Athletics, Boxing and in Debate – he went down to Lincoln College, Oxford when he lived the life of youthful dissipation, took his degree effortlessly in History and later earned a Master of Arts in Modern History from Oxford in 1956. He returned to Nigeria in 1957, and against his father’s entreaties joined the Eastern Nigerian Civil Service, and in due course also against his father’s objection, joined the Queens Own Regiment as a private soldier. Afterwards, when it became clear that it was beneath his paces, he was sent to Eaton Hall for Officers Training in 1957. He was the first Nigerian University graduate to join the Army.
The rest is now history. Among his early jobs was as Military Instructor at Teshie, Ghana, where Murtala Muhammed and Benjamin Adekunle were his students in Military Tactics. At 33 years, he stood boldly against genocide and against the contradictions of the modern Nigerian state and declared the secession of the Republic of Biafra from the Nigerian federation. Civil war ensued, and he led the war as Head of State and Commander of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Biafra for three years from 1967 to 1970 when Biafra collapsed.
There is no question about Ojukwu’s personal human flaws; he had many of it, and he made his own share of mistakes, and he was prepared to acknowledge these. The question today however is no longer whether Ojukwu was right or wrong about Biafra. From all the tributes paid to him this past week, and from all that has happened in Nigeria, and continues to happen to this nation since 1970, it is apparent that Odumegwu-Ojukwu was right. He stands tall before the blind judge of history. He returned to Nigeria in 1982 from exile and re-embraced it, and talked from then about the “Biafra of the mind.â€
The Biafra of the mind is the gift of memory and the gift of freedom from a man who rejected mere privilege in search of service and honor, and from a man who led and proved that it is possible to lead a productive African nation. Last week, the president of the Nigerian senate, Mr. David Mark said he still wonders how Ojukwu could mobilize the technological genius of an entire nation. That is the secret: Biafra was organized as a democracy.
It was a clarion call. Ojukwu’s greatest achievement is proof – that even in the most desperate and turbulent of situations, men led by example, can reach great heights.
As he himself said at the TSM Lectures in 1992, “while Biafra was a vast workshop Nigeria was a dumping ground†of all kinds of expensive toxins. Ojukwu led people with dignity; Biafra’s grassroots democracy thrived; men and women of ability were inspired to work; young men stood before their General and vowed to give their life to him and for the people he led. Why? How did Ojukwu achieve this among a most troublesome people like the Igbo? It is simple: he was their General, and he proved that he could be trusted.
He earned their trust. He inspired them by his own sacrifice. He led them – with the flag of the rising sun fluttering – to believe that they were that sun rising.
Nigeria lost the opportunity of Ojukwu’s sterling leadership.We who survived Nigeria’s darkest night yet because of Odumegwu-Ojukwu and all those who fought with him, must now send him to immortality as the sun rises. It is time to say Goodnight, my General, as you lie now rested in that eternal crypt: the soul of an entire people where gods are made and are reborn.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu stamped an indelible mark on the Nigerian psyche in the 1960s, leading the Igbos of eastern Nigeria into an ultimately disastrous attempt at secession in the aftermath of coups and pogroms. He remained a hero and symbol of self-reliance in his home region until his death last week at the age of 78, much loved by some, if always a controversial figure.
With his bulky frame, brilliant oratory and long dark beard, he was a formidable intellectual and physical force during the first convulsions of Nigeria’s turbulent post-independence history. Were it not for his outsized ego, some historians have concluded, the 30-month civil war, which ended in 1970, might have been avoided – or at least cut short before it claimed more than a million lives, many of them children who succumbed to hunger and disease as the breakaway republic of Biafra was squeezed into submission by federal troops.
The son of one of Nigeria’s wealthiest businessmen, Ojukwu was schooled in Lagos, before being sent to Epsom College in England. In 1955 he graduated from Oxford, with a penchant for sports cars and a talent for rugby. Ignoring his father’s pleas to join the family transport business, he enrolled in the civil service, working as an administrative officer.
His decision then to become a soldier was unusual for someone of his privileged background but prescient given the central role the military was to play in subsequent upheavals. “The only truly federal organisation in Nigeria that appeared likely to remain intact was the army,†he later said. Rising rapidly up the ranks he served a stint in the UN peacekeeping force in Congo.
But it was when appointed military governor of the eastern region, after Nigeria’s first coup in 1966, that he rose to international prominence. Junior Igbo officers had murdered the then prime minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, from the north, before being put down by loyalist troops. The uprising led to the first military regime and, sparking retaliatory massacres against Igbos, set Nigeria on the path to war.
Ojukwu did not join the coup, nor the counter coup in which northern officers struck back. For a time he remained fastidiously loyal to military hierarchy. But as events strained the multi-ethnic federation to breaking point, he declared the creation of the Biafran republic. At the time, the eastern region was flooded with some 2m Igbos fleeing massacres in other parts of Nigeria.
The doomed struggle proved a cautionary tale for other parts of Africa that fitted uneasily into their inherited borders
In the Igbo narrative, the east was forced to break away from Nigeria by an impending genocide. Later it was forced back in. With international backing, federal troops retook half the territory in the first year of the war, when the Biafran struggle had become unwinnable. Ojukwu refused to concede as much. Instead he rallied his people to hold out in the midst of extreme suffering, brought for the first time to televisions across the world.
The doomed struggle proved a cautionary tale for other parts of Africa that fitted uneasily into their inherited borders. Paradoxically it also consolidated Nigeria’s unity, by showing the terrible potential cost of trying to break apart the federation bequeathed by colonial rule.
But it also led to reconciliation. After the surrender of Biafran forces, Jack Gowon, then military head of state, declared a policy of “no victor no vanquished†and prevented acts of retribution. Ojukwu had fled into exile in Ivory Coast.
It is one of the remarkable facets of elite Nigeria that those who fought on the battlefield and toppled each other in coups have ended up doing business together and even in cases joining the same political parties. Ojukwu was pardoned in 1982 by the then elected head of state, Shehu Shagari, and returned to Nigeria to join the ruling party. However, his efforts at a political revival were largely unsuccessful. The rhetorical flair was still there, but he had lost some of the guile that made him such a formidable adversary in the 1960s.
His later career, in which he ran unsuccessfully for president, mirrors the fate of his own people, who have remained third fiddle on the federal stage. Eastern Nigeria still bristles with the enterprise and self-reliance that won so many international supporters to the Biafran cause. But like much of the country, it has been left without the infrastructure or power needed to fulfil its potential.
Latterly Ojukwu had fallen sick. Fellow officers, politicians and civil servants who cut their teeth in Nigeria’s turbulent sixties continue to play an influential role. But as Olusegun Obasanjo, who led the victorious federal troops, said in a tribute to his former battlefield adversary, Ojukwu’s death “marks the end of an eraâ€. The once mighty are falling, many of them conscious that they have failed – as Ojukwu himself used to lament – to imbue Nigeria with a cohesive national project or strong sense of citizenship.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
The leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, said yesterday that he was so devastated by the death of the former Biafran warlord, Chief Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, that he has refused to eat since his demise. He said members of the association also joined him in shunning food to mourn the demise of the Ikemba, whom he described as “a mentor and confidantâ€.
Speaking to reporters over the telephone, Uwazuruike declared that there is no going back on the Biafran struggle despite the death of the former Biafran leader.
He maintained that the Ikemba lived, fought and died for the actualisation of the state of Biafra even after the end of the civil war. Uwazuruike lamented that Ojukwu died some few weeks after he organised a befitting 78 birthday bash for him in his absence and was looking forward to the day he would return to the country to a heroic welcome.
His words: “We are going to continue the struggle until those things he lived, fought and died for are realised. There is no going back on the struggle. In fact, we are more emboldened now more than ever before. We are not going to stopâ€.
Uwazurike maintained that Ndigbo must also double their efforts to remove the shackles of discord and join forces to bring about the realisation of the ideals of the former leader and presidential candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
He said that is one of the ways to honour the late Eze Igbo Gburugburu, adding: “That is the only thing they can do to keep his soul alive. He is still very much with us. He is watching us and urging us to move on. We cannot stop now. We must realise his dreamâ€.
When The Nation visited the residence of Uwazuruike at Freedom House in Okwe, the headquarters of Onuimo Local Government Area of Imo State and all the offices of MASSOB, it was observed that the Biafran flag was flying at half mast in respect of their departed leader. Also, when our correspondent visited Ahiara, in Ahiazu Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State, where the famous ‘Ahiara Declaration’ was made during the Nigerian civil war, the atmosphere was sober and the people were seen discussing the incident in hushed tones.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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