Every beginning anticipates an end. Even the holy book underlines extensively
that there is time for everything. And so the reality has dawned on all of us
that Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu has bowed out as the curtain fell on him
in this world which to him has been a massive stage on which he played out his
part with an impact unignorable.
Destiny at times trusts responsibilities on some people, but not many acquit
themselves to the satisfaction and admiration of the majority including enemies.
Some people make history while some others are mere pretenders and passengers
in the mammy wagon of history. It is a difficult task to pen a tribute to this
rare being at this time without sounding repetitive of what has already been said
about him by many in the past three months.
The history, person and character of Ojukwu inlike different images that in some
cases verge on contradictions. For instance, what was the son of the richest man
in the country in the 1950s looking for in the colonial service? My father, a
retired school principal repeatedly told us about how Ojukwu appeared in Alayi,
one of the rural communities in the Old Bende Division in the present Abia State
in a glittering black Mercedes Benz. What was a young man who owned such a car doing
in the civil service? He had come as a young District Officer, in his 20s then, to
supervise one of the elections preceding Nigeria’s independence in which my father
worked as a returning officer.
The general elections must have been the ones that followed the 1956 London Conference
that, among others, consolidated the Federal Constitution of 1954 and paved the way for
Nigeria’s independence in 1960. My father was enthralled by the man’s level of
professionalism and penchant for detail and aptness. He emitted intimidating authority
far more than even the colonial masters. His command and rendition of the English language
was so impressive to my father that I am still longing for an opportunity to ask him, now
an elder statesman in his own right, whether that encounter informed his choice of discipline
when entered the University of Ife a few years later to pick up a degree in English Language
and Literature.
As if joining the civil service was not enough diversion for a man whose father owned a famous
and humongous business empire, he went ahead to enlist in the military not even as a subaltern,
but an ordinary soldier. Ojukwu’s life in the military both in Nigeria and the defunct Republic
of Biafra is common knowledge. But what made him think of joining the military in the first place?
In the biography of the late foremost businessman and conservationist Chief S. L. Edu, entitled
The Journey from Epe, it was hinted at that Ojukwu had foreseen the prominent role the military
would play in the affairs of the nation and had always thought of positioning himself strategically
right from childhood.
Chief Edu told a story of how he visited Ojukwu’s father, the late Sir Louis Odumegwu-Ojukwu, at his
Queen’s Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos residence in the 1940s and saw the then young Chukwuemeka playing in the
sitting room. He was asked what he would like to become in future when he grew up. He replied
pointedly that he would like to become an army officer and in future rule Nigeria. The two business
partners must have gotten more than they bargained for or should I say may have disregarded the young
boy’s response.
While the rest is now history, the question still remains as to whether Ojukwu had the precognition
of what the future held for him before getting himself grounded in the study of history, practical
administration and government bureaucracy and military professionalism. While the trajectory of his
life somehow suggests that much, it is not as important as the admirable manner in which he has
brought to bear all he had or was endowed with on every responsibility thrust upon him. When erudition
mattered he dramatized it, youthful energy he unleashed it, negotiation he scooped it, compassion he
poured it out, bravery he belittled it, courage he redefined it, oratory he elevated it, and love he
poeticized it profoundly. His failings as a human being have been by far eclipsed and outstripped by
his numerous good qualities principal of which was life-long selflessness.
Ojukwu has been the most misunderstood individual that has walked the Nigerian political space.
While his enthusiasm and love for a united Nigeria where justice and equity reigns remained unswerving,
he was always misunderstood by those who have refused to accept the truth or have been victims or willful
audiences of the age-long negative propaganda against his person. He became a rebel for asking for the
whereabouts of his boss and insisting that military hierarchy and tradition be respected in his succession.