LAGOS, Nigeria — Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu passionately believed his homeland in eastern Nigeria deserved to be its own country, a new nation free of the borders imposed by foreigners as colonialism lifted across Africa in the 1960s.
That hopefulness, seen in the rising-sun flag of the Republic of Biafra, descended into hellish reality as Nigeria’s many ethnic groups fought over whether to remain unified during a bloody three-year civil war that killed 1 million people.
Instead of pan-African pride, it brought the first television images of starving African children with stick-like arms into homes around the world. And even today, the oil-rich nation still violently struggles with its identity.
Ojukwu, a millionaire’s son who became the military leader of the breakaway republic, died in a London hospital Saturday after a protracted illness following a stroke. He was 78.
Maja Umeh, a spokesman for Nigeria’s Anambra state, confirmed Ojukwu’s death Saturday. Anambra state, in the heart of what used to be the breakaway republic, had provided financial support for Ojukwu during his hospital stay, Umeh said.
In a statement Saturday, President Goodluck Jonathan praised Ojukwu for his “immense love for his people, justice, equity and fairness which forced him into the leading role he played in the Nigerian civil war.”
“His commitment to reconciliation and the full reintegration of his people into a united and progressive Nigeria in the aftermath of the war will ensure that he is remembered forever as one of the great personalities of his time who stood out easily as a brave, courageous, fearless, erudite and charismatic leader,” the statement read.
Leaders said the war’s end would leave “No Victor, No Vanquished.” However, that claim has yet to be fulfilled as ethnic and religious tensions still threaten Nigeria’s unity more than 40 years later.
Ojukwu’s rise coincided with the fall of Nigeria’s First Republic, formed after Nigeria, a nation split between a predominantly Muslim north and a largely Christian south, gained its independence from Britain in 1960.
A 1966 coup led primarily by army officers from the Igbo ethnic group from Nigeria’s southeast shot and killed Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, a northerner, as well as the premier of northern Nigeria, Ahmadu Bello.
The coup failed, but the country still fell under military control. Northerners, angry about the death of its leaders, attacked Igbos living there. As many as 10,000 people died in resulting riots. Many Igbos fled back to Nigeria’s southeast, their traditional home.
Ojukwu, then 33, served as the military governor for the southeast. The son of a knighted millionaire, Ojukwu studied history at Oxford and attended a military officer school in Britain. In 1967, he declared the region — including part of the oil-rich Niger Delta — as the Republic of Biafra. The new republic used the name of the Atlantic Ocean bay to its south, its flag a rising sun set against a black, green and red background.
SOURCE: Washington Post, 26 November 2011. http://www.washingtonpost.com
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