Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu
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| Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu | |
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President of Biafra
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| In office May 30, 1967 – January 8, 1970 |
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| Preceded by | Position created |
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| Succeeded by | Philip Effiong |
| Constituency | Biafra |
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| Born | November 4, 1933 Zungeru, Nigeria |
| Nationality | Nigerian |
| Political party | Military, later APGA |
| Spouse | Bianca Ojukwu |
| Alma mater | Lincoln College, Oxford University |
| Profession | soldier, politician |
General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Ikemba Nnewi, known as Emeka Ojukwu, (born November 4, 1933) was the leader of the secessionist state of Biafra in Nigeria (1967–1970), during the Nigerian Civil War, and previously Military Governor of the Eastern Region of Nigeria.[1] He is usually referred to in news and other sources just as Ojukwu.
Frederick Forsyth, a friend, wrote a biography about him titled Emeka. It was published in 1982. Ojukwu was also a prototype of anonymous General character in Forsyth's novel The Dogs of War published in 1974.
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[edit] Education
He was born in Zungeru,[2] the son of Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu (KBE), President of The African Continental Bank, first President of The Nigerian Stock Exchange and a business tycoon who was believed to be Nigeria's first multi-millionaire. Chukwuemeka's name meant "God has done well." He attracted media publicity at a young age. In 1944, the young Ojukwu was briefly imprisoned for assaulting a white British colonial teacher who was humiliating a black woman at King's College in Lagos, an event which generated widespread coverage in local newspapers. He then went on to study in Britain, first at Epsom College, in Surrey and later earned a Masters degree in history at Lincoln College, Oxford University.
[edit] Biafra
Ojukwu decided to enter the military over the objections of his father, who wanted him to study law. He joined the Nigerian military and graduated from the prestigious Sandhurst Military Academy in England. He then became a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army of Nigeria and Military Governor of the oil rich Eastern Region. Following an anti-Igbo/Christian genocidal pogrom in the Muslim Northern Region, Igbo chiefs met at Umuahia in the Eastern Region. They decided to declare the region consisting of the Igbo heartland, the Niger Delta (mostly Ijaw) and the Cross River basin (Efik and Ibibio areas) independent. Ojukwu was chosen by the Igbos to lead the new country and appointed Head of State & General of the Peoples Army, named "Biafra" after the Bight of Biafra.
Despite some early Biafran successes, such as the world famous Abagana ambush in which two divisions of the Nigerian Army were annihilated, the Nigerians slowly gained the upper hand, supported by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union and, tacitly, by the United States. Among the world's major nations, only France and Portugal offered some support to Biafra.
On June 1, 1969, he delivered the Ahiara Declaration, a patriotic speech, in the village of Ahiara.[3] The speech condemned racism and imperialism, and asserted "our inalienable right to self determination". Ojukwu condemned as genocide the actions of Nigeria and the United Kingdom, for completely blockading Biafra without exception for children or other noncombatants.
[edit] After Biafra
Ojukwu left Biafra as it collapsed, intending to set up a government in exile. He subsequently lived in Ivory Coast for 13 years. Seeking to bolster his support among Igbos, President Alhaji Shehu Shagari pardoned Ojukwu and allowed him to return to Nigeria in 1980. He joined Shagari's National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and contested the 1983 election for the Senate.
In February of 1994 Ojukwu accepted an invitation to give a speech at the Lagos Law School.[4]
As the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), he ran for President in the 2003 presidential election. He claimed to have won the election and filed a court challenge against what he said was the "massive fraud" that allegedly denied him the presidency.
Today Ojukwu lives a quiet life in Eastern Nigeria. In early December 2006 he was again chosen to be the APGA presidential candidate for the April 2007 election.[5] On January 14, 2008 he received his military pension from the Nigerian government, but on this occasion he complained that he was referred to as a lieutenant colonel and not as a general, his rank in the Biafran military.[6]
[edit] See also
- Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra
- Ojukwu at a News Conference
[edit] References
- ^ Hanbury, Prof H G (January 1967). "OE News - News from All Quarters". The Epsomian XCVII (1): 35. “Colonel C O Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Region, Nigeria was vigorously commended in The Daily Telegraph, by Prof J G Hanbury, QC, for his refusal to go to Lagos for a constitutional conference, at the risk of probable assassination. Prof Hanbury considers that as 'an intensely patriotic Nigerian,' Col Ojukwu 'will spare no effort to hold the federation together,' but if there is no way open except secession 'he will take steps to placate the minority in Rivers and Calabar provinces and may hope to carry the East to new prosperity'”
- ^ Ojukwu Interview, World Igbo Congress, August 08, 2005.
- ^ Ezenwa-Ohaeto (1997). "To Understand What Happened", Chinua Achebe: A Biography. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 146-148. ISBN 0253333423.
- ^ U O. The Promise that was and still is Biafra. Retrieved on 2007-08-27. “The war has come and gone but we remember with pride and hope the three heady years of freedom. These were the three years when we had the opportunity to demonstrate what Nigeria would have been even before 1970. In the three years of war, necessity gave birth to invention. During those three years, we built bombs, we built rockets, we designed and built our own delivery systems. We guided our rockets, we guided them far, and we guided them accurately. For three years, blockaded without hope of imports, we maintained engines, machines, and technical equipment. The state extracted and refined petrol, individuals refined petrol in their back gardens, we built and maintained airports, we maintained them under heavy bombardment. We spoke to the world through a telecommunications system engineered by local ingenuity. The world heard us and spoke back to us. We built armoured cars and tanks. We modified aircraft from trainer to fighters, from passenger aircraft to bombers. In three years of freedom, we had broken the technological barrier. In three years, we became the most civilized, the most technologically advanced black people on earth. (from the speech delivered by Ojukwu)”
- ^ "Former warlord emerges as candidate", AFP (IOL), December 4, 2006.
- ^ Molly Kilete, "38 years after civil war: Ojukwu angry, receives pension", Daily Sun, January 15, 2008.
[edit] External links
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