Nigerian politician and military leader
Chukwuemeka
"
Emeka
"
Odumegwu Ojukwu
(4 November 1933
[1]
? 26 November 2011
[2]
) was a
Nigerian
military officer
and
politician
who served as 1st
president
of the
Republic of Biafra
from 1967 to 1970 during the
Nigerian Civil War
. He previously served as military governor of the
Eastern Region
of Nigeria, which he declared as the independent state of Biafra.
[3]
Ojukwu was born in
Zungeru
, Nigeria during British colonial rule. He was the son of
Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu
, a wealthy and successful
Igbo
businessman. Ojukwu was educated at
King's College, Lagos
in Nigeria and
Epsom College
in
Surrey
,
England
. He graduated from
Oxford University
in 1955 with a master's degree in history and returned to Nigeria to serve as an administrative officer. He later joined the Nigerian army and was rapidly promoted. Following Nigerian independence in 1960, a group of mostly Igbo junior army officers overthrew Nigeria’s civilian government in the
1966 Nigerian coup d'etat
.
Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi
, another Igbo, became the new Nigerian head of state, and he appointed Ojukwu as military governor of the predominately Igbo Eastern Region. However,
Hausa
and
Yoruba
army officers feared an Igbo-dominated government, resulting in the
1966 Nigerian counter-coup
and the subsequent
1966 anti-Igbo pogrom
.
In response to Igbo demands for secession, Ojukwu reorganised the Eastern Region as the Republic of Biafra, and he declared independence from Nigeria. Nigeria invaded Biafra, sparking the Nigerian Civil War. The Nigerian military, with support from the
United Kingdom
and the
Soviet Union
, blockaded Biafra and cut food supplies, which created a mass famine. Ojukwu made use of foreign media to highlight the plight of Biafran civilians and depict the war as genocide against Igbos.
[4]
The shocking images of starving Biafran civilians turned the war into an international media sensation, as this was one of the first globally televised wars alongside the
Vietnam War
.
[5]
Biafra received international humanitarian relief during the
Biafran airlift
.
Biafra eventually capitulated to Nigerian forces in 1970 after millions of Biafran civilians died. Ojukwu subsequently fled to
Ivory Coast
in exile, where President
Felix Houphouet-Boigny
, who recognised Biafra as a sovereign and independent state, granted him political asylum. In 1981, newly democratically elected Nigerian president
Shehu Shagari
granted amnesty to Ojukwu, allowing him to return to Nigeria without facing political or legal consequences from the war. Ojukwu spent the remainder of his life unsuccessfully attempting to return to Nigerian politics as a democratically elected politician rather than a military ruler.
He died in 2011 at the age of 78 in London, England.
[6]
His body was returned to Nigeria, where Nigerian president
Goodluck Jonathan
arranged a
state funeral
. He was buried with full military honours, including a
21-gun salute
from the Nigerian Army, and thousands of people attended his funeral. Ojukwu remains a contentious figure in the history of Nigeria. Many
Igbo people
regard him as a hero and a messianic figure who did what was necessary to ensure the survival of Nigeria's Eastern population while facing the possibility of a genocide after the 1966 coup. Other Nigerians have deemed Biafra's secession unnecessary, blaming Ojukwu for the events of the war and accusing him of oppressing Biafra's non-Igbo ethnic minorities.
[7]
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Chukwuemeka "Emeka" Odumegwu Ojukwu was born on 4 November 1933 at
Zungeru
[8]
in northern Nigeria to Sir
Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu
, an
Igbo
businessman from present-day
Nnewi
,
Anambra State
in south-eastern Nigeria. Sir Louis was in the transport business; he took advantage of the business boom during
World War II
to become the richest man in Nigeria. He began his educational career in
Lagos
, southwestern Nigeria.
[9]
Emeka Ojukwu started his secondary school education at
CMS Grammar School, Lagos
aged 10 in 1943.
[10]
He later transferred to
King's College, Lagos
in 1944 where he was involved in a controversy leading to his brief imprisonment for assaulting a British teacher who put down a student strike action that he was a part of.
[11]
This event generated widespread coverage in local newspapers.
[9]
At 13, his father sent him to the
United Kingdom
to continue his education, first at
Epsom College
and later at
Lincoln College, Oxford University
, where he earned a master's degree in History. He returned to colonial Nigeria in 1956.
[12]
He was a
Roman Catholic
.
[13]
Early career
[
edit
]
Ojukwu joined the civil service in Eastern Nigeria as an Administrative Officer at
Udi
, in present-day
Enugu State
. In 1957, after two years of working with the colonial civil service and seeking to break away from his father's influence over his civil service career,
[14]
he left and joined the military initially enlisting as a
non-commissioned officer
(NCO) in Zaria.
[15]
[16]
[17]
Ojukwu's decision to enlist as an NCO was forced by his father (
Sir Louis
)'s pulling of political strings with the then
Governor-General of Nigeria
(
John Macpherson
) to prevent Emeka from getting an officer-cadetship.
[18]
Sir Louis and Governor-General Macpherson believed Emeka would not stick to the gruelling NCO schedule, however, Emeka persevered. After an incident in which Ojukwu corrected a drill sergeant's mispronunciation of the safety catch of the
Lee-Enfield .303 rifle
, the British Depot Commander recommended Emeka for an officer's commission.
[18]
From Zaria, Emeka proceeded first to the Royal West African Frontier Force Training School in Teshie, Ghana and next, to
Eaton Hall
where he received his commission in March 1958 as a 2nd Lieutenant.
[19]
[20]
[21]
He was one of the first and few university graduates to receive an army commission.
[22]
He later attended Infantry School in
Warminster
, the Small Arms School in
Hythe
. Upon completion of further military training, he was assigned to the Army's Fifth Battalion in Kaduna.
[19]
At that time, the Nigerian Military Forces had 250 officers and only 15 were Nigerians. There were 6,400 other ranks, of which 336 were British. After serving in the
United Nations’ peacekeeping force
in the
Congo
, under
Major General Johnson Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi
, Ojukwu was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1964 and posted to
Kano
, where he was in charge of the 5th Battalion of the Nigerian Army.
1966 coups and events leading to the Nigerian Civil War
[
edit
]
Lieutenant-Colonel Ojukwu was in Kano, northern Nigeria, when Major Patrick Chukwuma
Kaduna Nzeogwu
on 15 January 1966
executed and announced the bloody military coup
in
Kaduna
, also in northern Nigeria. It is to Ojukwu's credit that the coup lost much steam in the north,
[23]
where it had succeeded. Lt. Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu supported the forces loyal to the Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Armed Forces, Major-General
Aguiyi-Ironisi
. Major Nzeogwu was in control of Kaduna, but the coup had failed in other parts of the country.
[24]
Aguiyi-Ironsi took over the leadership of the country and thus became the first military head of state. On Monday, 17 January 1966, he appointed military governors for the four regions. Lt. Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu was appointed Military Governor of the Eastern Region. Others were: Lt.-Cols
Hassan Usman Katsina
(North),
Francis Adekunle Fajuyi
(West), and
David Akpode Ejoor
(Mid West). These men formed the
Supreme Military Council
with Brigadier B.A.O. Ogundipe, Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, Chief of Staff Army HQ, Commodore
J. E. A. Wey
, Head of Nigerian Navy, Lt. Col.
George T. Kurubo
, Head of Air Force, Col.
Sittu Alao
.
By 29 May, the
1966 anti-Igbo pogrom
started. This presented problems for Odumegwu Ojukwu, as he did everything in his power to prevent reprisals and even encouraged people to return, as assurances for their safety had been given by his supposed
[25]
colleagues up north and out west.
On 29 July 1966, a group of officers, including Majors
Murtala Muhammed
,
Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma
, and Martin Adamu, led the majority of Northern soldiers in a mutiny that later developed into a
"Counter-Coup" or "July Rematch"
.
[26]
The coup failed in the South-Eastern part of Nigeria where Ojukwu was the military Governor, due to the effort of the brigade commander and hesitation of northern officers stationed in the region (partly due to the mutiny leaders in the East being Northern whilst being surrounded by a large Eastern population).
The Supreme Commander General Aguiyi-Ironsi and his host Colonel Fajuyi were abducted and killed in
Ibadan
. On acknowledging Ironsi's death, Ojukwu insisted that the military hierarchy be preserved. The most senior army officer after Ironsi was Brigadier
Babafemi Ogundipe
. However, the leaders of the countercoup insisted that Lieutenant Colonel
Yakubu Gowon
be made head of state, although both Gowon and Ojukwu were of the same rank in the Nigerian Army. Ogundipe could not muster enough force in Lagos to establish his authority as soldiers (Guard Battalion) available to him were under
Joseph Nanven Garba
, who was part of the coup. This realisation led Ogundipe to opt-out. Thus, Ojukwu's insistence could not be enforced by Ogundipe unless the coup plotters agreed (which they did not).
[27]
The fallout from this led to a standoff between Ojukwu and Gowon, leading to the sequence of events that resulted in the
Nigerian civil war
.
[28]
[29]
Biafra
[
edit
]
Following the incessant killings of Igbos all over the nation as a result of tribal intolerance and fear of domination by Igbos, Ojukwu, being the southeastern general and Yakubu Gowon who was selected as the supreme general and head of state agreed to hold
a peace conference at Aburi, Ghana hosted by General
Joseph Ankrah
. An agreement of autonomy was reached by the two parties where the southeastern region will become independent. However, on reaching Nigeria, Gen. Yakubu Gowon breached the agreement and failed to implement the system of autonomy and further declaring war against the agreed secession of southeastern Nigeria. As a result Colonel Odumegwu-Ojukwu declared Eastern Nigeria a sovereign state to be known as Biafra:
[30]
Having mandated me to proclaim on your behalf, and in your name, that Eastern Nigeria is a sovereign independent Republic, now, therefore I, Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, by the authority, and under 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.
[31]
On 6 July 1967, Gowon declared war
[32]
and attacked Biafra.
[3]
In addition to the Aburi Accord that tried to avoid the war, there was also the
Niamey
Peace Conference under President
Hamani Diori
(1968) and the OAU-sponsored
Addis Ababa
Conference (1968) under the chairmanship of Emperor
Haile Selassie
. This was the final effort by Generals Ojukwu and Gowon to settle the conflict via diplomacy.
[33]
During the war, in 1967, some members of the July 1966 alleged coup plot and Major
Victor Banjo
were executed for treason with the approval of Ojukwu, the Biafran Supreme commander. Major Ifeajuna was one of those executed. The defendants had argued that they sought a negotiated ceasefire with the federal government and were not guilty of treason.
[34]
After two and a half years of fighting and
starvation
,
[35]
a hole appeared in the Biafran front lines, and the Nigerian military exploited this. As it became obvious that the war was lost, Ojukwu was convinced to leave the country to avoid assassination.
[36]
On 9 January 1970, he handed over power to his second in command, Chief of General Staff Major-General Philip Effiong, and left for
Ivory Coast
, where President
Felix Houphouet-Boigny
? who had recognised Biafra on 14 May 1968 ? granted him political asylum.
[37]
[38]
Return to Nigeria
[
edit
]
In 1981, Ojukwu began campaigning to return to Nigeria. Nigerian president
Shehu Aliyu Usman Shagari
granted a pardon to Ojukwu on 18 May 1982, allowing him to return to Nigeria as a private citizen. Ojukwu re-entered Nigeria from Ivory Coast on 18 June.
[39]
Ojukwu declared his candidacy for the Nigerian Senate in 1983. The official tally showed him losing by 12,000 votes, though a court attempted to reverse the ruling in September of that year, citing fraud in the election results.
[40]
However, the disputed result was rendered moot when the Shagari government fell in the
1983 Nigerian coup d'etat
on 31 December. In early 1984, the
Buhari regime
jailed hundreds of political figures, including Ojukwu, who was held at the
Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison
.
[41]
He was released later that year.
Ojukwu married
Bianca Onoh
(former Miss Intercontinental and future ambassador) in 1994, his third marriage. The couple had three children, Afamefuna, Chineme and Nwachukwu.
[42]
In the
Fourth Republic
era, Ojukwu unsuccessfully contested the presidency in
2003
and
2007
.
[36]
Death
[
edit
]
On 26 November 2011, Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu died in the
United Kingdom
after a brief illness, aged 78. The
Nigerian Army
accorded him the highest military accolade and conducted a funeral parade for him in
Abuja, Nigeria
on 27 February 2012, the day his body was flown back to Nigeria from
London
before his burial on Friday 2 March. He was buried in a newly built mausoleum in his compound at
Nnewi
. Before his final interment, he had an elaborate weeklong funeral ceremony in Nigeria alongside Chief
Obafemi Awolowo
, whereby his body was carried around the five Eastern states, Imo, Abia, Enugu, Ebonyi, Anambra, including the nation's capital, Abuja. Memorial services and public events were also held in his honour in several places across Nigeria, including Lagos and Niger State, his birthplace, and as far away as
Dallas, Texas
, United States.
[43]
His funeral was attended by President
Goodluck Jonathan
of Nigeria and ex-President
Jerry Rawlings
of Ghana among other personalities.
[44]
[45]
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edit
]
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External links
[
edit
]
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Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu
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