At the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos, funeral programme for the late elder statesman and Biafran warlord, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, last Thursday, National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh spoke to reporters on the significance of Ojukwu’s death and why the country must be restructured along Ojukwu’s suggestions. Excerpts:

People from all parts of the country came to TBS to honour Ojukwu. How do you see this outpouring of eulogies?
Nigerians of all divides were there. Those, who disagreed with Ojukwu 40 years ago agreed with him in death. Now that he is dead, they all agreed with all he said. They are still pretending that Nigeria is working. Nigeria is not working. All the issues he canvassed that even made him to carry arms are still relevant in Nigeria today.

They are still killing people. We still have mass murders and we have so much pockets of injustice in Nigeria. So, Nigeria cannot continue the way it’s going without a discussion. We need a round table national dialogue. There are so many pockets of grievances in the Nigerian nation. So, those who are in authority today, if they continue to resist national dialogue, the collapse of Nigeria is inevitable.

Nigeria cannot continue the way it’s moving. Every part of Nigeria has something or the other to agitate for. The President cannot continue to sit on an empire that is decaying. So the only thing the President needs to do, is to open up and allow Nigerians to come together.

We are not talking about the breakup of Nigeria. We are talking about how to discuss so that Nigeria will remain. If they want to say they will use force to intimidate the people, one day the whole thing will cave in. So, Ojukwu stood for equity and fairness. He canvassed equity and fairness and justice. They fought him.

Ojukwu didn’t fight Nigeria. Nigeria fought Ojukwu because he declared independent Republic of Biafra to defend his people and they started a war against him and his people. Now, they continue to move on and they don’t have peace. Nigeria doesn’t have peace today.


APGA National Chairman, Victor Umeh
So, the first thing they have to do is to go back and look at the things he said and the suggestions he made. If Nigeria is going to survive through a confederation, so be it, so that there will be peace. There is no point forcing everybody to be part of Nigeria, using states as federating units yet it’s not working. There is need to tell ourselves the home truth. Those who are in authority always want to protect their empire but when they leave office they join the agitation for national conference. Now that they are in authority, let them use the power they have to call people together so that we dialogue.

Former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (rtd.), said recently that there was no need for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC). What is your take on that?

Babangida is entitled to his own opinion. The preponderant opinion in Nigeria is that there is need for national conference. It’s only a fool who can say that there is no need for dialogue now. If you don’t want war, the only thing you need is dialogue. It’s through dialogue that you prevent war. Boko Haram is holding Nigeria hostage right now. It’s only Boko Haram now. By the time other groups rear up and carry arms against Nigeria, what would be left? Nothing!

Nigeria is finding it difficult to contain Boko Haram. Talking about the people of the South-East for instance, we have only five states and 95 local governments, what if a group rears up in the South-East carrying arms as Boko Haram is carrying arms and in the Niger Delta also, the militancy returns? What will the Nigerian government do? Nothing! So it’s better for them to achieve peace through dialogue without violence than to continue to uphold this level of injustice and think that Nigeria will remain. It will not remain.

The late Ojukwu no doubt played a prominent role in keeping APGA as one family before he died. How is your party going to remember him?
We are Ojukwu’s agents. Before he died, you know Ojukwu was known as somebody who led a war in defence of his people. Since war was no longer fashionable before Ojukwu died, he built a political movement and that political movement is APGA. And he was able to establish two state governments in Anambra and Imo states.

He put two governors in office in Anambra and Imo. We will remain his agents and collectively, we shall keep his dream alive. He was my direct boss for eight years. I can tell you all the things that Ojukwu stood for.Our promise is that we shall continue to carry on with that vision of Ojukwu. We are his apostles; we are going to carry the mission and his message till the end of time.

So, APGA will not die. Ojukwu is dead physically but in spirit he is alive and he is with us. And before he left just like Christ did, giving his apostles the gift of Holy Ghost, Ojukwu breathed the life of struggle into all of us, those of us who stayed with him for a long time. So, we will continue with that struggle and his struggle will never die until justice, equity and fairness reign in Nigeria.

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), is a card carrying member of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). But he participated in everything concerning the burial rites of the late Ojukwu in Lagos. How do you view this?
Fashola is a great man. Like he spoke at the Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos, if you look at the circumstances, it’s very difficult for him to hold a myopic view in his home. His wife is a Catholic, the mother, an Anglican, the father a Muslim. So, he is a man who is already in the middle of the road. He is a very good man and he has accommodated the Igbo in Lagos very well.

That is why they are supporting his administration. I thank him immensely for the efforts he put into organising the event and we wish him well. We assure him that the Igbo people in Lagos will continue to support his administration. He has done very well by identifying with the Igbo. This is Lagos. Lagos is the melting point in the South-western Nigeria but only Fashola was governor in South-West that attended the event. His presence spoke volumes.

What do you make of President Goodluck Jonathan’s participation in Ojukwu’s burial arrangements?
When Ojukwu died, their eyes were opened. As soon as Ojukwu died and his body was put in the morgue, Boko Haram started killing people. So they now went back to Ojukwu’s message. They now realise that this was a great man. He saw tomorrow and that tomorrow that he saw, Nigeria has not been able to grapple with it. So they have identified with him knowing that he was like a prophet that came to Nigeria and his message is still resonating.

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