Well, this writer appears to believe so:

[size=14pt]Ojukwu's Successor[/size]
Announcer Express

Mar 15th, 2012

FROM four million years BC to the present day, there has been showcasing amazing range of human history. From the appearance of the first people to the arrival of the internet, the broad span of human geography and achievements are laid out in a clear and accessible way. Major world events from the dawn of human history to the beginning of the third millennium are vividly laid bare.
Maps clearly show the spread of ancient peoples and the modern division of continents. Expert authors tell the fascinating stories of the rise and fall of empires, and of the human struggles that make up the vast and varied history of the human race. Timeliness provides a guide and easy guide to every period and subject. Quotes give the views and comments of someone writing at the time. The ebb and flow of history is brilliantly brought to life. History, is a compass. A guide.
The first modern human was Homo Sapiens (wise man) who appeared between 400,000 and 300,000 years ago. From Africa, human begins began to spread to every continent a process which took almost one million years. Everywhere, humans were on the move. This was the age of the great migrations. Civilization began with the first towns. Towns grew into cities, which became the centres of the world’s first empires. Egypt, the Indus Valley and China all had advanced societies.
Impressive Civilizations also arose in Central America, Africa South of the Sahara and eastern Mediterranean. Religion, trade, art and law-making developed. So did technology and warfare. Human life became more organized and complex. Like Journalists, the job of a historian is to ask questions and make sense of the answers under stories and legends, historians work from a viewpoint.
If my memory serves me right, the first people to write their own history were the Chinese. We know the name of one early Chinese historian. Sima Qima, who wrote a history of China in about 100 BC. The Egyptians and other peoples recorded the names of their kings, as well as victories in battles. That is North Africa. Civilization on the cause of the Nile River, started first in Egypt, the land of pharaohs.
In West Africa, Nigeria is situated, made up of the Hausas, Igbos and Yoruba’s with more than 250 ethnic groups, hence tribe and tongue differs. East of the River Niger, the Igbos are located. For now, the Igbos are my focal points.
I understand that Nri, is the ancestral homeland of Ndigbo. Taken as given. I am in best of health, to the glory of God. As well, I am in the mood for respect this morning and must sound much more differential. As an African, I need no tutorial on civility, the nexus of our culture. Besides, my friends and fans infected me with light hearts and humours this so sweet a morning. My world lights up around them.
Yes, the meek shall inherit the earth, but meekness does not preclude toughness. Jesus the Lord was meek when physically present on earth but he unleashed bulala and ventured unsheathing the sword from the scabbard on able bodied merchants over their merchandize in the synagogue. An occasional anger fuel by human remissness is permissible especially with Jesus, when rapacious mainstreamers stormed like locusts on a heavenly pedestal, unleashing a devastating blow and sinking the leverage of spiritualism.
Back to the Igbos. Our marginalization captures our agony about alienation. Out of the six geo-political zones in Nigeria: South-South, South-West, South-East, North-West, North Central and North-East, only the Igbos of South-East has five States, others have more than five. In spite of our entrepreneurial gusto, creative verve and intrepid quest of history, we have not enjoined a political state of grace in Nigeria since the Civil War. Don’t ask me why.
The saddle of Presidency is so foreign to us. In the bouquet of prime cabinet positions, we don’t enjoy a finger of choice. With Lazarus humility we accept whatever pops up, hence contented with tokens, a little sop in the mouth. Remember how champagne bottles frothed gleefully in the east, when Major-General Ihejirika was made the head of the Nigerian Army. It was un-heard of, since the Civil War.
Our last of the titans, the Crocodile Ironsi, fell to the treacherous bullets of young and ethnically tendatious soldiers before hegemonic coupists made short work of us in our dominated officer ranks. Many thanks to Ikemba, the legend who has gone home. He came, he saw, he confronted the inhumanity of Nigeria against the Igbos. Painfully, it is still the same old song, though with some measured application of ruthlessness.
We seem to be the last to the dinner table when much choice food had been shared. We are the Jetsam and flotsam of the Nigeria Jiggery pokery. But why? We do not lack men of intelligence, men of good leadership acumen and none of the men of the other zones have turned governing into a model. The concept of marginalization connotes victim hood. We the marginalized want to rise, but others in conspiracy and superior weapons target us for exclusion and extinction. With muted but eloquent implication we backed and pitched our tents with Jonathan for a change of baton to the East in 2015, God’s willing. We intend taking a shot at Presidency, counting on Jonathan’s minority mercies. Jonathan stooped and conquered. His application of his Igbo name was a latchkey of convenience to the Igbo heart and infectiously it worked for him.
May Jonathan unsheathe swords in our defence. But let’s strike the bull eye. We lack contextual politics, the one that works in Nigeria. Again, is the burden of our republicanism, the ethos which refers to the perceived equality of all and the impotence of authority. Recall the saying, the Igbos have no king. Our lack of contextual politics is linked to our republican penchant. To succeed, we must adapt our skills to the society and exploit them for advantage. A fairly consensus leader is needed.
The Jews, with whom we claim a descent, in spite of their small numbers in the United States and Europe, have not acted like the blacks who hoot about tyranny. They have coalesced their best in persons and companies and in groups to extract their pound of flesh from those societies. It was the envy of this minority that gave birth to nervous Adolf Hiller, hence he gassed over six million Jews at Surbibo. The worse holocaust in human history.
They are evidence that failure is no excuse. Today, the Jews dominate virtually every stratum of life in Europe and America. It is not so in Israel itself where there are a thousand contending opinions as recorded in the book. In the Land of Israel, by Amos Oz, the perennial Nobel Prize Candidate. Yet, they find a symmetry in their battle against their foes.
We the igbos have the Jewish blood running at full blasts in our Jugular veins. A biological proof of common ancestry in obedience with the law of genetic inheritance with filial generations manifestations. I am talking about Mendelism of biological sciences. Spare a thought for Larmack that of use and disuse too.
The igbos have raw potentials, perhaps at the risk of sounding immodest, more than any ethnic group in the country. We have energy and resourcefulness. On good authority, we do well in intellectual enterprise and business everywhere. In the words of our dynamic Governor, the man of the people, Owelle Anayo Rochas Okorocha at Heroes Square, during the celebration of Ikemba’s transition: “In any where you go and fail to find an Igbo man there, run for your dear life, don’t wait for a split second, to scamper away”. Very instructive.
In all of Nigeria, the culture of mendacity, the very act of begging is least among us. It is not in our character, very un-Igbo like. The average Igbo man would rather prefer to be set up in business than give him lunch money. Everywhere in the country, by extension, in the world, the Igbo knack to make money generates envy. Virtually every industry succumbs to the Igbo Midas touch.
Yet, in politics, in the sweepstakes for power, we take the back seat. We need not look anywhere except at ourselves for this lack of progress. Warrant Chiefs Complex of our people is a suspect. Since the end of the Civil War, individuals rise for mention are not regarded with much respect in our political spheres of influence. But selfishness is at the root of our individualisms. They broker deals that sell away our birthright.
Only Zik of Africa and legendary Ikemba Ojukwu bounded us together. Ojukwu more than Zik encapsulated the Igbo Pavlovian reflex against oppression. Zik was a sunnier personage who came short of hard bargain. You can understand. Between a Civilian and a soldier, a lot of differentials are abound. May they rest in peace. Nothing represents the infighting among the Igbo elite more than the tussle for supremacy. In this connection, the greatest enemies of Igbo are the Igbos. That is why the average Igbo calls their leaders traitors.
Since the colonial times when the warrant Chiefs exercised power the people did not recognize, the Igbo society has grappled with the concept of leadership that can work for them. The real issue is that the Igbo culture calls for individuals to assert themselves in the group. Success is less about the group than the individual. The syndrome of Obiefuna being more interested to show off how he outdid Ikemefuna whose mother smirked at when Ikemefuna and he were teenagers!!!
That kind of environment will inevitably give birth to an absence of group élan at the centre. The only thing that has bound the Igbos together was the Civil War. Since then it has been serial divisiveness, backstabbing, individual ascendancy at the expense of the group. Now the burning issue of after Ikemba’s departure, who leads Igbo? In terms of the cost and curse of Biafra, the Nigeria’s Biafran burden, Ikemba remains a titan who won’t die, because he lives in our hearts. The days after him is therefore as important to the Igbo race, because we have to set a new course for destination untold, with success as much an end as it is the beginning of new journeys.
The adoption of a deliberate forgetfulness by the Nigerian State, accounts in large measure, for the cyclical disaster that has become a major theme of the country’s experience. It is the height of dishonesty when the country’s collective intelligentsia decides to collaborate in this project of amnesia. The historians engaged to teach at our universities ought to sustain our memory of the whys and what ifs of the Nigeria Biafran War. It is one more rubbish to sum up the lessons of the Biafran War as simply a demonstration of the indestructibility of the Nigerian fabric. The war is a wound in the country’s psyche and it is wrong in the very absolute to encourage Nigerians to transcend the trauma by just with a sleight of hand, erasing it from their memory. The war that ravaged the innocence of children, terrorized the most vulnerable and upended humane values.
Therefore, any successor of Ojukwu, must have a charisma and commanding presence matched by few men anywhere. The successor must surpass self, inspiring a degree of reverence that approaches cult dimensions in scale, grandeur and drama. Not to the absence of frailty in character, but to a certain gravitas, a passionate engagement with the big issues of our time. The successor must envince the willingness to rise when history calls and meets head on with a historical burden, not through arm struggle but supersonic diplomatic soldiering.
He must be ready to sacrifice his preferment in order to stand with us an essential element allure. Must remain indifferent to material accumulation and should be in the know what it takes for the Igbos to rise to their promise. Ikemba when he was on earth had proposed writing a memoir, where he intended confiding his deepest thoughts on the vexed issues of the Biafra to the document. If he never managed to get it, I suggest the successor should be in a frame mind to meet the widow, lady Bianca and larger family with a view to opening up the archive of Ojukwu (letters, speeches, dairies, photos, readings etc) to a select group of scholars to commence the task of producing impressions of the Biafran war as seen from the perspective of the man who wore the title of “the people’s general”.
The successor should know that it does appear Nigeria is flirting, once more, with re-experiencing the catastrophes of war. The belligerent tone that seemingly defines national discourse, the rampant dispossession of the many by the few, and the spate of violent attacks on innocent targets, forewarn of a slide to the calamitous night of war. He should be mapping out strategies, tactics and logistics to contain any eventuality, with war not to be one of them. Repression must be forced to yield place to sustained honesty and openness. Frank Conversation is an invitation to fission. No nation is an inevitable organism.
The successor must have tested governance and be well-informed in retrospect and prospect of the Igbo society as a bio-socio-cultural system; the lessons of Biafra should inform every aspect of his combinations and permutations. I don’t mean MASSOB.
In the spirit of enterprise as Enterprise Bank would say: “Every Journey has its storms and setbacks; you need a strong resolve and a clear vision to keep going”. With due respect therefore, apologies to nobody, I ask ancient Nri Kingdom if the aforementioned features of Ojukwu’s successor are well-blended in Chief Ralph Uwazurike? Of course, the answer is no. so on what premise was Uwazurike celebrated in the on going 1013th Igu Aro Ndigbo?, Nri Community, definitely could not have been thinking or acting for the millions of Igbo race.
The coronation of Chief Uwazurike as the successor of Ojukwu with the title of Ije Ndigbo born January 14, 2012, both spiritual and physical, by Eze Onyesoh and the claim of its divine nature is palpably skewed. Hear Ojukwu on Chief Uwazurike after attending the inauguration of the Biafran House in Washington, DC: “He lacks both charisma and oratorical flourishes. He is neither a scholar nor an intellectual, a philosopher nor a deep thinker, a sophisticate nor a deep thinker. He is a homespun boyish looking man, with an air of arrogance, or the self-importance of a parvenu gloating in his new found prominence”. “Secondly, I am in complete disagreement with his method and his goal”. That was Ojukwu on Uwazurike. Is the ancient Nri Kingdom listening?
Ikemba’s shoe is bound to be oversize for Uwazurike. Besides, Ohaneze Ndi Igbo should select a successor based on plebiscite not on the historical contraption of the ancient Nri Kingdom. Also pressure group is not healthy for the Igbos as individual impulses will dwarf the fount of Ndigbo. We should not be looking for an accident of grace. Owelle Anayo Rochas Okorocha is our best material for Ikemba’s succession.

http://www.announcerexpressonline.com/?p=4181

The tie should be between Owelle Rochas, Okwute Obi, Pat Utomi, Uwazuruike, Ngige, Chibuike Amaechi and Orji Uzor Kalu.

Ejiné: Well, this writer appears to believe so:

Hear Ojukwu on Chief Uwazurike after attending the inauguration of the Biafran House in Washington, DC: “He lacks both charisma and oratorical flourishes. He is neither a scholar nor an intellectual, a philosopher nor a deep thinker, a sophisticate nor a deep thinker. He is a homespun boyish looking man, with an air of arrogance, or the self-importance of a parvenu gloating in his new found prominence”. “Secondly, I am in complete disagreement with his method and his goal”. That was Ojukwu on Uwazurike.

http://www.announcerexpressonline.com/?p=4181

whao! This is the first time I'm reading about any of Ojukwu's seemingly earlier feelings about Uwazuruike (obviously before they got closer), but it is truly apt!
Funny enough, this summarizes my EXACT feelings about Uwazuruike.
Ojukwu in his usual elegant English captures Uwazuruike accurately.

As for Rochas replacing Ojukwu, I would rather say that Rochas should replace Zik, in the sense that Zik was a national player, and Rochas will be a national player (whether we like it or not). I don't see him fighting Igbo cause.
Lastly, I personally think that we need someone with a military background. We are in Nigeria for heavens sake, and nobody knows how the country will resolve. I would prefer someone in Ebitu Ukiwe's mold; someone who can command fear and respect among Igbo and other groups in Nigeria.

Onlytruth:

whao! This is the first time I'm reading about any of Ojukwu's seemingly earlier feelings about Uwazuruike (obviously before they got closer), but it is truly apt!
Funny enough, this summarizes my EXACT feelings about Uwazuruike.
Ojukwu in his usual elegant English captures Uwazuruike accurately.

As for Rochas replacing Ojukwu, I would rather say that Rochas should replace Zik, in the sense that Zik was a national player, and Rochas will be a national player (whether we like it or not). I don't see him fighting Igbo cause.
Lastly, I personally think that we need someone with a military background. We are in Nigeria for heavens sake, and nobody knows how the country will resolve. I would prefer someone in Ebitu Ukiwe's mold; someone who can command fear and respect among Igbo and other groups in Nigeria.

You are right in everything except that you refuse to see the fact that Igbos will never have one leader. That's an abomination in our culture. Our culture permits freedom and independence of each clan. We can only attain political progress when we cease to believe in what we are not and reach consensus with contribution from every Igbo clan on who is Igbo and how to be Igbo. That way a real map of a new Igbo nation will be drawn where we can have one voice. Failure to do this will lead to increase in Ikwerreism amongst so many embittered Igbo groups who feel left out thereby making our political potentials unattainable.

Andre Uweh: The tie should be between Owelle Rochas, Okwute Obi, Pat Utomi, Uwazuruike, Ngige, Chibuike Amaechi and Orji Uzor Kalu.

Owelle Rochas, probably, considering the fact that he has that individual spirit just like Ojukwu.

Pat Utomi can be a Nigerian leader but not an Igbo leader. He is not even an Anioma leader.

Uwazuruike is a freedom fighter and that's where it ends. I really don't see him taking the place of Ojukwu.

Chibuike Amaechi has not proven his Igboness enough. Infact, how can someone who has never attended an igbo meeting be an Igbo leader?

Ngige? Haba what makes you think he can fit into Ojukwu's shoes. he's still struggling for a senate spot.

Orji Uzor Kalu would have made good Igbo leader because of his strong head but he's just like every other politician out there that are after their pockets.

afam4eva:

Owelle Rochas, probably, considering the fact that he has that individual spirit just like Ojukwu.

Pat Utomi can be a Nigerian leader but not an Igbo leader. He is not even an Anioma leader.

Uwazuruike is a freedom fighter and that's where it ends. I really don't see him taking the place of Ojukwu.

Chibuike Amaechi has not proven his Igboness enough. Infact, how can someone who has never attended an igbo meeting be an Igbo leader?

Ngige? Haba what makes you think he can fit into Ojukwu's shoes. he's still struggling for a senate spot.

Orji Uzor Kalu would have made good Igbo leader because of his strong head but he's just like every other politician out there that are after their pockets.

Pat Utomi sees himself first as Igbo before any Anioma issue.He is busier with Igbo affairs than anything else.
Amaechi: Is graduallly coming back to his Igbo soul and body and will do begger when giving the opportunity. Though not my number one candidate.
Ngige, a very fearless leader, and will do well when the opportunity arises.
Despite few political lapses, OU Kalu has a lot of Igbo feelings and will do anything possible to put the Igbo nation at the forefront of African affairs.

Andre Uweh:
Pat Utomi sees himself first as Igbo before any Anioma issue.He is busier with Igbo affairs than anything else.

I know Pat utomi is Igbo. I've seen him on numerous Igbo programs on TV. What i'm saying is that i've never seen him fighting the Igbo course. he's more like ZIK.

Andre Uweh:
Amaechi: Is graduallly coming back to his Igbo soul and body and will do begger when giving the opportunity. Though not my number one candidate.

Can you prove this?

afam4eva:
I know Pat utomi is Igbo. I've seen him on numerous Igbo programs on TV. What i'm saying is that i've never seen him fighting the Igbo course. he's more like ZIK.


Can you prove this?

Chibuike Amaechi, since his second term has discovered his Igboness. He visits most Igbo bodies overseas in any country he visits. Attends Igbo working men christian fellowship in P.H. Only cecently at Ojukwu's memorial in Port Harcourt, he described Ojukwu as 'OUR IGBO LEADER'.
He is not there yet but time will tell.

@POST

Many Igbo commentators tend to forget the culture Igbo man finds himself when they try to lay a wet ink about Igbo leadership or lack thereof on paper. In fact mildly stated, the essay is a load of contradictions. The author in his or her confused mindset tend to glamour after hero leadership for Ndidgbo also maintained that average Igbo man would rather prefer to be set up in business than give lunch money.

The author further destroyed what would have been a brilliant article by suggesting candidates for such Igbo leadership. The history of Nigeria had emphatically suggested that Ndigbo are not cut to be led by a consensus hero or autocratic leadership.

It has to be recall that Ojukwu was not a consensus leader of Ndigbo as he was unknown figure to many Igbo people before he was appointed military governor of eastern region of Nigeria. I am afraid to say that Ojukwu’s position among Ndigbo is like no other. Ojukwu among Ndigbo was a product of chance predicated upon unforeseen circumstances.

In my book, Ojukwu is not a mere leader of Ndigbo but a symbol of struggle, survival of Ndigbo extermination, spirit to fight, opposition against aggressor, amalgam of Igbo political philosophy and moment of unity.

Dede1: @POST

In my book, Ojukwu is not a mere leader of Ndigbo but a symbol of struggle, survival of Ndigbo extermination, spirit to fight, oppression against aggressor, amalgam of Igbo political philosophy and moment of unity.

^^+1

The thought of replacing Ojukwu with leaders who are yet to prove themselves and even 1st term governors is essentially foolhardy. No one can replace Ojukwu, period!

BTW: what title or leadership position did Ojukwu hold that you people believe needs to be awarded to someone else? None of the leader in the horizon are fit to untie Ikemba's shoes let alone replace him among Ndigbo. Next thing you know, peons like Onlytruthlies will start believing that they are capable of replacing the great Ikemba. Nonsense!

---

TO KEEP NIGERIA ONE IS A TASK THAT MUST BE DONE

Onlytruth:

whao! This is the first time I'm reading about any of Ojukwu's seemingly earlier feelings about Uwazuruike (obviously before they got closer), but it is truly apt!
Funny enough, this summarizes my EXACT feelings about Uwazuruike.
Ojukwu in his usual elegant English captures Uwazuruike accurately.

As for Rochas replacing Ojukwu, I would rather say that Rochas should replace Zik, in the sense that Zik was a national player, and Rochas will be a national player (whether we like it or not). I don't see him fighting Igbo cause.
Lastly, I personally think that we need someone with a military background. We are in Nigeria for heavens sake, and nobody knows how the country will resolve. I would prefer someone in Ebitu Ukiwe's mold; someone who can command fear and respect among Igbo and other groups in Nigeria.

This is your first time, and you actually believed that rubbish was said by our Ojukwu against our Uwazuruike? can't you simply do a google search on that quote to find out who actually wrote that nonsense about Uwazurike? Do you actually think that Ojukwu will stoop so low? Haba! What's wrong with some of you? Laziness? Who ever wrote the useless article above and credited the nonsense quote to Ojukwu should be stoned. Iddiots.

For those of you lazy ones, here is the link to the so called Ojukwu's quote about Uwazuruike. It was written by one Tochukwu Ezukanma

http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/uarticles/uwazurike_ojukwu_and_the_biafran.htm

Bialegend:
This is your first time, and you actually believed that rubbish was said by our Ojukwu against our Uwazuruike? can't you simply do a google search on that quote to find out who actually wrote that nonsense about Uwazurike? Do you actually think that Ojukwu will stoop so low? Haba! What's wrong with some of you? Laziness? Who ever wrote the useless article above and credited the nonsense quote to Ojukwu should be stoned. Iddiots.

Dude, the insult is unnecessary and quite childish. If you discovered a mistake, all you need to do it point it out.
The mistake was an honest one (at least for me) mainly because I know there was a time Ojukwu was not so cosey with Uwazururike. Having said that, I think that whoever used those words to describe Uwazuruike is not very far from the truth.
If you go through some of my recent postings on Uwazuruike's statements, you will see that I share in those views, and I pity gullibe (mainly illiterate) Igbo youths that are being gunned down by Nigerian security for following Uwazuruike's strange methods of non-violence. Infact I hold very strong views about that, and think that they (MASSBO) should disband. However recently it appears that Igbo leaders have started to impose on MASSOB some of what they should have been doing ab initio -namely to drive criminals from Igboland. MASSOB should have been doing this BEFORE NOW, but they didn't. If the Igbo leaders continue to add those wise inputs, maybe MASSOB can be made relevant in the future. I wouldn't put much hope on Uwazuruike because Igbo say that you know a chicken that will turn into a cock at hatchling stages.