₦airaland Forum

hairyanus:
I took time today to research about this man and why many Igbos adore him...My interest was basically because i have recently been reading biographies and Nigerian political history.
Again, i am married to an Igbo woman i love dearly and despite being born long after the war considers this man Ojukwu a Hero.

I found out from various books written about him that he was a typical Igbo man who will not bow to any man. He also hated injustice and will not be silent when its before his eyes.

I was also astonished to discover that his father Loius was among the top 3 Richest Nigerians at the time. So what will make this man abandon such wealth, join the military and subsequently go to war. There has to be more.

I discovered that his mentors had an overwhelming influence on him while he was in Harvard.

His contemporaries could not handle his intelligence and arrogance.

The gradual regionalization of political parties that started as national parties painted a picture that Nigeria is not one but a British creation. AG was purely a western party, NCNC was Eastern by all ramifications. NPC was more northern like others accross the niger..Ojukwu, though being in the army saw a clear case of struggle for dominance and supremacy originating from the regions to the centre.
The political firmament of Nigeria took off with a picture of regional struggle for dominance and supremacy..
Ojukwu observed and began to plot. I began to research on how Ojukwu was able to establish the Biafran pound in 3 years and traded globally with it. Where was it printed, who designed it and more?..i am a curious researcher of history when am bored...permit me to inform you that the first batch of the Biafran pounds was printed and brought into Biafra before Ojukwu declared secession.

To be continued, i am typing with my phone and tired.

oladapolif:
Its left for you to have a sensible mind about this man Ojukwu and what really triggered the Nigeria Civil War, that have wasted many igbos lives by putting them on a line. I am Yoruba and today, I decided to re-read about this Biafra war and why the Nigeria government did not want igbos to leave, because I am tired of Igbo cries and I want Nigeria to break up as well. I went on Wikipedia and to what I can gather about the causes of the war, was that Ojukwu doesnot like the Northerners in Power and he wants the igbos to be charge, due to the natural resource "Oil" is in the Eastern Region. The igbos were collecting Royalties from the Oil production even before the war. Most countries that supported Nigeria Govt. during war, was because of their Nations' interest. Uk was supporting Nigeria Govt cos of their Shell Company, USA was partially supporting Nigeria Govt cos of their Investments in Nigeria, Isreal was supporting Biafra cos of their nations Interest as well. Take a good look at these nations supporting each party, Do you think they give a fkkk about Africans, if they have nothing to gain from us?.( tell me about other Africa civil war and what Europe country give a fkkk, if they have nothing to offer to the Europeans?) Biafra claim they lost due to Starvation, will you feed your opponent when you are fighting, but Biafra refuse to acknowledge the fact that they went to war with less ammunition. Biafra have continue to blame Awolowo for their failure and forget the power of propaganda. We should be more focus on Ojukwu, who rushed the Biafra youths to war without better plan, We should also remember Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, who is power hungry as Ojukwu and he also betrayed his fellow Biafrians, We should talk about how Ojukwu released Banjo to fight his own people. To me, I believe Ojukwu should have been held accountable when he was alive for leading Biafria to war when they are not fully ready, I believe the causes of the war should be more focused on and if Biafra want to create their nation, they should do it in a diplomatic way. I am not been biased in anyway, just according to what I could gather online about the causes of the civil war.

ECOTERRORS:
I need to salute a great warrior from igbo land
He is the;

Anu ana gba egbe ona kpa nri

Dike ji afonu emere bomb

Agu na eje mba lota ma buru ozu ofeke lota

Nwoke ana kpo Mgba Mbga dike

Ogbara nkiti Gowon na ebe

Nwoke igbo nyere Eze chie ya Ear Ndigbo Gburugburu

USarmy:
Best way to end your misery, according to Awo

Ephemmm:
You mean you will miss the coward that run away in the battle field?

freshness2020:
at least he is way better than ur awo that committed suicide.

Eshinwaju:
d rebel leader...abandoned his first wife......wasted his fathers wealth..... ...was a product of a baastard.......n...abandoned his first son like his father abandoned him..........killed 3million of his people.... ......abandoned his people.....sexually molested his best friends little daughter.....n died of dementia.....all hail the hero of d iboes.....

. There are so much convoluted,diluted and distorted stories about Ojukwu out there. Many people don't know anything about the man except that he led the short lived breakaway republic of Biafra and that later he fled into exile at the end of the war. Love him or hate him, Ojukwu is an indelible part of our history.

Languages:- Ojukwu is one of the few people who could speak the three main languages of Hausa,Igbo and Yoruba fluently. Ojukwu was born in the north to Igbo parents but grew up in Lagos as a young boy. Ojukwu would later work in East as a district officer, in the north as commander of Kano Garrison and in Lagos as Quarter- master general.In all, Ojukwu was fluent in 5 languages, Igbo-Hausa-Yoruba-English-French.

Affluence:- Ojukwus father, Sir Louis Ojukwu was one of the richest men in Africa. Ojukwus father made his money by taking advantage of the post world war 2 economic boom to make shrewd investments. His Business empire spanned shipping,banking,import and export,manufacturing,transportation and properties. He sat as chairman of John Holt west Africa, African continental Bank,Nigerian stock exchange and Ojukwu transport company. Ojukwu transport company was one of the major reasons Igbos fanned out across Nigeria using it to travel outside Igbo land and some of Ojukwus earliest drivers were the late chief Ilodibe (Ekene dili Chukwu) and Izuchukwu (Izuchukwu Trans) who all later became transport magnets themselves. It is estimated that in today's money, Ojukwus father would have been worth about 10 Billion American Dollars. People who say that Ojukwu declared Biafra to enrich himself make me laugh

Humbleness:- Despite Ojukwus fathers wealth, despite Ojukwus first class education at Epson college,Surrey and Oxford University. Ojukwu shunned his fathers wealth, rejected the plush position his father offered him in his organisation and joined the civil service as an assistant district officer when he returned from England in 1955. This enraged Ojukwus father who felt his son deserved better and when he tried to remove his son as a civil servant, Ojukwu did worse by joining the army as a common recruit! How many of us would have done such a thing if we had rich fathers?Imagine Dangotes son joining the Army as a private. After this,Ojukwus father wouldn't talk to him for a long time.

Army:- Ojukwu was the first graduate to join the Nigerian army. He was also the first indigenous Qaurter-Master General of the Nigerian army. Ojukwu would later serve as an instructor at NMTC Kaduna where he taught future military leaders like Murtala Mohammed,Obasunjo and Ike Nwachukwu military tactics.

Seniority with Gowon :- It has often been a subject of debate about who is senior between Gowon and Ojukwu. Gowon stated recently while celebrating his 80th Birthday that he was commissioned as an officer in 1956 while Ojukwu was commissioned in 1957 making him Ojukwus senior in the army. This is true,however it should be noted that an Army officer is still a civil servant. Ojukwu joined the civil service as a graduate in 1955. When Ojukwu joined the Army and was subsequently commissioned 1957 after undergoing officers training abroad,the government backdated his commission date to 1955 to reflect the year he joined the civil service and that is how Ojukwu gained seniority over Gowon. The government just saw his joining the military as transferring from one Government department to another. To this day, the Government still recognises Ojukwu as senior to Gowon while the Army might recognise Gowon as senior to Ojukwu.

One Nigeria:- Believe it or not, Ojukwu used to be a staunch believer of one Nigeria. "When we were British subjects,we saw our selves as one but as soon as Britain granted us independence and left, everything unravelled fast,everybody suddenly remembered that they were Hausa,Yoruba,Igbo etc. We could never see our selves as Nigerians and it became increasingly clear to the discerning mind the one Nigeria was a mirage"

Beard:- Ojukwu started growing his trademark beard the day he was appointed Military Goveror of Eastern Nigeria. Before then, Ojukwu was always clean shaven.

Secession:- Contrary to popular opinion, Ojukwu did not get up one day and declare Biafra, neither did he start the war. The counter-coup of July 1966 of which the president-Elect Buhari was a ring leader saw the massacre of mostly easterners all over Nigeria. An estimated 30,000 men,women and children were butchered in wave after wave of remorseless violence. There are two things Ojukwu did to show he still believed in Nigeria. After the first wave of killings,Ojukwu asked many of those who fled home to the east to return to the north and even encouraged those who were planning to return to stay put. Ojukwu even escorted the returnees to the border between the north and eastern region as they went back,sadly many of them were killed in the next wave of violence. The second thing Ojukwu did was that even though he was besieged by his people who asked him to pull the Eastern region out of Nigeria, Ojukwu resisted and went to Aburi,Ghana to negotiate with Gowon on how to keep Nigeria one. Ojukwu and Gowon reached an agreement called the Aburi accord which both men signed in front the president of Ghana. Sadly,Gowon returned to Ghana and repudiated the agreement and to make matters worse, Gowon went ahead to create States without the permission of any body. With the the failure of Gowon to stop the killings, his abandonment of the Aburi agreement, the eastern Nigerian consultative assembly (a body which comprised of traditional rulers and district heads that adviced Ojukwu on how the east should be run) gave Ojukwu the mandate make Eastern Nigeria self Governing. Ojukwu the declared Biafra. Even then,Gowon could have returned to negotiation table.Instead,what he did was to rally troops and attacked,starting the war. If anybody caused the war, it was Gowon.

The war:- It should be noted that Ojukwu went on numerous peace missions during the war to end the crisis but to no avail. What type of Warmonger does this? Despite being outgunned and out manned,Biafra fought gallantly almost 3 years

End of the war and exile :-Contrary to what some people say on Nairaland, Ojukwu did not dress up as a woman to leave Biafra. He also did not abandon his people in the middle of the war to save his skin. I urge people to read the following books to get the true idea of how the war ended and how Ojukwu left Biafra. 'The struggle for secession' by NU Akpan and 'Nigeria and Biafra: My story' by General Effiong ( in Biafra,the 2 most high ranking officials after Ojukwu were both from the south-South. Effiong was deputy and Akpan was secretary to the Biafran Government) Ojukwu was adviced by his commanders after the fall of Owerri that the war had become hopeless. Ojukwu convened a meeting of his Government where it was decided that Ojukwu and top members of his Government and their families would fly out of Biafra. Ojukwu would hand over to his deputy General Effiong. Ojukwu later went to Uli airport with the contingent that was to travel with him. Ojukwu even inspected a guard of honour. NU Akpan what was on the flight stated that Ojukwu was the last one to enter the plane. Two days later, Biafra collapsed and Effiong surrendered to Obasunjo. Some people call Ojukwu a coward for leaving at all but ask the same people what would have been the point Ojukwu staying back to be slaughtered when the war had virtually ended and had been lost? People become martyrs for a cause that is still alive, not a cause that is dead. Ojukwu spent his entire fortune financing the war and flew into exile virtually a penniless man. He would later raise a loan start business and by the time he returned from exile 12 years later, had become a successful international business man. Ojukwu often said that he did what did to protect his people and he had no regrets. Former minister of Health, Professor ABC Nwosu once said that if Ojukwu had not declared Biafra,he would have killed by his people because only a deranged human being can be shouting one Nigeria as 40,000 of his brethren are being kille

ECOTERRORS:
I'd rather be a biafra girl soilder than serve in the Nigeria army where ethnicity and nepotism is rife

swezenberg:
So who is a coward. Person wey get mind swallow poison abi soldier wey abandon wife and children run comot for battlefield go another country

oneeast:
Ikemba Nnewi was the first graduate to join the NA. He was the first African to attend the prestigious Oxford University.

Ikemba shall be remembered forever for being among the greatest Africans. What he saw 40yrs ago is what people are crying about today. He fought a just war to send a message to the oppressors. UN has seen through what he fought for and have invited Biafran leaders.

Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu the man that saw tomorrow.

Eshinwaju:
d rebel leader...abandoned his first wife......wasted his fathers wealth..... ...was a product of a baastard.......n...abandoned his first son like his father abandoned him..........killed 3million of his people.... ......abandoned his people.....sexually molested his best friends little daughter.....n died of dementia.....all hail the hero of d iboes.....

USarmy:
Best way to end your misery, according to Awo

Rilwon:
coward bastard


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJeho8FBod0&itct=CBkQpDAYAyITCISyx9jwu8UCFcIhfgodUyUAzTIHcmVsYXRlZEjju4ahhv3DkHE%3D&hl=en&gl=NG&client=mv-google

PassingShot:
This is very interesting but a question that I have not gotten any satisfactory answer for till today is, why was Ojukwu rejected by the Igbos when he ran for presidency in 1999? Not that he lost the elction is my concern but why did he fail to win the Igbo votes?

PassingShot:
This is very interesting but a question that I have not gotten any satisfactory answer for till today is, why was Ojukwu rejected by the Igbos when he ran for presidency in 1999? Not that he lost the elction is my concern but why did he fail to win the Igbo votes?

ECOTERRORS:
I need to salute a great warrior from igbo land
He is the;

Anu ana gba egbe ona kpa nri

Dike ji afonu emere bomb

Agu na eje mba lota ma buru ozu ofeke lota

Nwoke ana kpo Mgba Mbga dike

Ogbara nkiti Gowon na ebe

Nwoke igbo nyere Eze chie ya Eze Ndigbo Gburugburu

Radoillo:
Ojukwu was never at Havard though, or any other American university for that matter.

ATMC:
My goodness! Wow! Beautiful title. Deep meanings!

Ghost01:
How can you say Ojukwu was the first African to attend Oxford University?

Anyway, everyone is a professor in history online nowadays.

USarmy:
Best way to end your misery, according to Awo

PassingShot:
This is very interesting but a question that I have not gotten any satisfactory answer for till today is, why was Ojukwu rejected by the Igbos when he ran for presidency in 1999? Not that he lost the elction is my concern but why did he fail to win the Igbo votes?

Anoruo:
I Don't like this man.

ogwomba:
i love him, deal with it.