By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
Controversial personages are the stuff of world history. In my book, the most controversial figure in the history of Nigeria goes by this name: Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.
I have just picked up a book Ojukwu: The ‘Rebel’ I Served authored by the late celebrated journalist Uche Ezechukwu.
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu almost always dominated all discourse in the course of his journey on earth. In death he upped the ante of his profile through the unbeatable burial given to him that outclassed every other burial in the country.
The author of the book Ojukwu: The ‘Rebel’ I Served was Ojukwu’s media assistant and speechwriter for two years following the ex-rebel’s pardon and return to Nigeria.
It is indeed remarkable that the causes that Ojukwu championed in his chequered life are still staring Nigeria in the face.
Ojukwu served as a kind of Nostradamus in seeing far into the future, well ahead of his contemporaries; whence the reality of some eminences who opposed him in the past are now calling for a Nigerian confederation!
As a world figure in his leadership of the Republic of Biafra, Ojukwu graced the cover of the esteemed Time magazine and forged friendships with the spy Frederick Forsyth who would later write the bestselling thriller The Day of the Jackal.
Ezechukwu brings to bear on the book his intimate knowledge of Ojukwu at close quarters which makes Ojukwu: The ‘Rebel’ I Served a candid encapsulation of a well-rounded life.
The known truths about Ojukwu’s life, such as being the leader of Biafra in the 30-month civil war and consequently going on a 13-year exile in Cote d’Ivoire, are given greater muster through the mastery of Ezechukwu who was strategically poised to know the issues.
In his foreword to the book, Obinwa Ben Nnaji, the founding editor of the defunct Enugu-based Satellite newspaper where Ezechukwu was a star columnist, writes: “Many regard it as unfortunate that the Ikemba was not able to pen his memoirs in his lifetime.
But all hope is not lost. The ‘Rebel’ I Served will definitely serve as an adequate stop-gap, which will help fill a yawning gap, and add to the rich collection of the literature on the events of before, during and after Biafra, in which most of us were proud to have played an active part.”
The book is definitely not a hagiography, and the author’s objectivity cannot be gainsaid. Ojukwu told Ezechukwu that he did not find being addressed as a rebel appalling because it was only rebels who changed the course of history.
The author happened to be a child soldier in the wilds of Biafra, so he was up there with the Ojukwu phenomenon from the very beginning.
It was on a certain Tuesday before the Easter of 1986 that Ezechukwu met Ojukwu in flesh and blood through the introduction made possible by the late Chief Chris Offodile.
Ojukwu’s controversial declaration for the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and the concomitant rivalry with Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) forms a pivotal anchor as Ezechukwu worked for Satellite newspaper owned by the family of the then Anambra State Governor Jim Nwobodo of the NPP.
There are glimpses of Ojukwu’s war of attrition with the Lagos State government over the ownership of Villaska Lodge, Ikoyi, during which Ojukwu always camped out in the open with his then partner Stella Onyeador.
It should serve as a measure of Ojukwu’s spirit of accommodation that he employed Ezechukwu as the editor of his magazine NewGlobe, even as some people had given to the ex-Biafra leader anti-Ojukwu articles written by the author in his Satellite column.
Insights about Nigerian leaders such as Murtala Muhammed, Olusegun Obasanjo, TY Danjuma etc abound in the book.
There is the bombshell given by Ojukwu that Murtala Muhammed actually hails from Edo State!
Vistas such as Rev Father Anozie’s deranging attack on Ojukwu in church are enthralling. Ojukwu, according to Ezechukwu, “inwardly rued the fact that neither Zik nor he was able to do for Ndigbo what Awo had done for his Yoruba people”.
It’s indeed remarkable that Ojukwu believed that the “Yoruba nation will one day, at their convenience, pull out of Nigeria, without firing a shot, and that is due to the Awo legacy…”
In Ojukwu’s view, “the bane of Igbo politics in Nigeria was that Ndigbo were too emotional and believed that politics was religion where the change or adjustment of their political beliefs with changing circumstances was akin to changing your faith which was apostasy that was frowned at in every religion.”
Ojukwu was a much misunderstood man in his lifetime due to many controversies surrounding him.
After studying History in Oxford University he defied his father to become one of the first few graduates to enlist in the Armed Forces.
When the military struck via the January 15, 1966 coup that ousted the civilian regime of the First Republic, it was Ojukwu that defied Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu as the commander in Kano – yet the military putsch ended up being tagged an Igbo coup.
After the flagitious pogrom unleashed on his Igbo people, it fell on Ojukwu’s shoulders to lead the charge of the freedom of Biafra from Nigeria.
He had to go on exile in Cote d’Ivoire after the failure of his war effort in 1970, and it took the magnanimity of Second Republic President Shehu Shagari to grant him pardon for a celebrated return to Nigeria.
His joining forces with Shagari’s ruling NPN put him at loggerheads with the majority of his Igbo kinsmen and women who had pitched their tent with Zik’s NPP.
Ojukwu had the courage of his conviction, and he would later get married to the delectable beauty queen Bianca who is carrying on his legacy with arresting panache.
By giving the world an insight into the mind of the most controversial Nigerian who ever drew breath, Ezechukwu scored a bulls-eye.
Uzor Maxim Uzoatu is a renowned poet, journalist and author
