"Would Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe have seceded from Nigeria and declared Biafra's Independence if he were in control of the situation. The answer is definitely NO. Would Dr. Azikiwe have worked out an accommodation under the Aburi Accord that projected a Confederation. The answer is definitely YES.  General Ojukwu is General Ojukwu and Zik of Africa is Zik of Africa and never, never the twain shall meet. The above is a veiled and indirect response to the entreaty from John Okiyi viz: "I will write Dr. Mezu to weigh in and give us his honest view [about Dr. Azikiwe and General Ojukwu]. Our elders are still alive and can guide us." There will be time to talk about Ojukwu, the war and Ojukwu's return to Nigeria. I was privileged to hold a private and extended discussion with him after his return from exile. It would be inappropriate to delve into those discussions at this time." quoted from  "Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe," by Dr. S. Okechukwu Mezu, http://eboeville.ning.com/

After writing the above on November 16, 2011, little did I know then that Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, born November 4, 1933 would die ten days later on 26 November 2011.

What would have been the nature and shape of my life, my forty-three years of marriage to my wife, Dr. Rose Ure Mezu, our family, the number of children (ten) we have? What direction would life have taken me,  my family, the family of Dr. S. Okechukwu and Dr. Rose Ure Mezu, if, if my life and that of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu had not intersected during the Nigeria-Biafra War?

"Are you married?" asked Ojukwu finally.

"No," replied Dr. S. Okechukwu Mezu. "But I have a fiancée. We were engaged on June 10, 1968."

"You must get married immediately," continued Ojukwu. "I am sending you to Abidjan, Ivory Coast, as Biafra's Ambassador. You are a young man. I want you to travel with your wife. I have not allowed any Biafran diplomat or elder to travel out with their wife during this war - Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Dr. Kenneth Dike, Dr. Michael Okpara, Dr. Pius Okigbo, Dr. Otue, Sir Louis Mbanefo, Chief C. C. Mojekwu etc. -  If they leave Biafra with their wives, I know they will never come back to Biafra. You are different. You were abroad, joined us from there. I can trust you fully. Tomorrow, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will prepare your passport and that of your wife and the two of you will leave for Abidjan with the next flight out of Uli Airport. They will also prepare the necessary letters of authority."

General Ojukwu did not even ask for my opinion.  He seemed not to care whether I was from Owerri or Onitsha or Nnewi, or Calabar. He knew of my work for Biafra in Paris from all his emmissaries that came there. He probably saw something in me. Our ideas about the war, our fears about its prosecution were identical. We could communicate without talking. He was simple, calm and ponderous. He had no illusions about the daunting tasks ahead and the immense suffering of our people. He knew I would accept. I did accept. I was then twenty-seven years old. He was thirty three.

 

That conversation took place early in September 1968 at his Umuahia Bunker. I did not really want to leave Biafra again. I wanted to stay home and fight, fight and die if need be with my people. That was my second trip to the war-torn Biafra. I had made an earlier trip into Biafra in June 1968 in one of the night flights carrying arms to Biafra. I had traveled from Paris to Lisbon, Portugal where with the help of Biafra Special Representative, Mr. Ikpa, I joined a Biafra flight carrying arms to Biafra through Sau Tome. I was the Deputy Director of Biafra Historical Research Society, a pseudo-Biafran Embassy set up  by Chief Ralph Uwechue and myself in Paris, Chief Uwechue as the Director, myself as the Deputy Director. Chief Uwechue before then was the Nigerian Chargé d'Affaires at the Nigerian Embassy in Paris who resigned his appointment and joined the Biafra struggle and pulled out with him, the French press and all the goodwill Nigeria had in Paris and with the diplomatic community.

The following day, as I went to arrange for the passports a Nigerian fighter jet shrieked across then came back and strafed us - the civilians below with relish and abandon. Lying low in the trench in front of the ministry, I could have picked out the Algerian pilot if I had a shot gun. I believe about seven people died in and around the Biafra Foreign Office Ministry during that raid.  Two Nigerian jets came back in the afternoon that day, bombed again the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Information with disastrous casualties. My wife and I were quickly married (September 6, 1968) by Rev. Benjamin Dara, CSSp at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Umuokrika, Ahiazu, my wife's home parish without a wedding dress and with about ten close members of both families in attendance. As we left the church, two Nigerian jets flew "ceremonially" past the Church. We learned later that a nearby busy market, Afor Oru, was bombed with disastrous consequences.

On September 10, 1968, a few days later, my wife and I left for Libreville, Gabon, from Uli-Ihiala airstrip, code-named "Annabelle" Airport, celebrated in 1970 in my historical novel: Behind the Rising Sun (William Heinemann Publishers, London, 1970). We stayed at Hotel Le Gamba and were received by then President Omar Bernard Bongo, another friend of Biafra. President Houphouet Boigny sent his private jet to pick us up from Libreville to Abidjan. We took along a Ghanaian, Mrs Sapara Grant, who was heading back home from Biafra. For a few weeks, Hotel Ivoire, Room 310, would be a new home for my wife and myself. That same week, my wife and I received the first batch of Biafran kwashiokor children as they arrived from Biafra and we flew them to Bouake and made desperate efforts to find them food and comfort. They spent the night in an elementary school open hall.

Approximately forty three years ago (in 1967), great challenges confronted the Igbos of Nigeria with the coup d’etat of January 15, 1966 led by Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu an outstanding progressive, who was buried with full military honors when killed by those he fought against. His coup d’etat was triggered by political lawlessness, uncontrolled looting of the treasury in the political arena and uncontrolled looting and lacing in the streets of Western Nigeria. Unfortunately the Sarduana of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Prime Minister of Nigeria, Sir Tafawa Balewa and the Finance Minister, Chief Festus Okotie Eboh (among others including military officers) were killed in the process. The pogrom of Igbos followed in Northern Nigeria beginning in July 1966 – atrocities we would rather not recount but should never forget.

I was then completing my Doctoral dissertation at The Johns Hopkins University, in Maryland. As a young man, I led demonstrations in front of the US State Department in Washington D.C. to protest the murder in the Congo of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and the Katanga secession. I believed in Pan-African Unity (in fact organized an International Conference on Pan-Africanism as President of the Organization of African and American Students. The proceedings of that conference were edited by me and published in 1965 by Georgetown University Press.) Beyond Pan-African Unity, we believed in a Pan Black world inspired by William DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Booker T. Washington, Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Julius Nyerere, and those I celebrated in my book Black Leaders of the Centuries published in 1970.

The war broke out in 1967. Biafra and the Igbos were attacked and faced liquidation through starvation and blockade from the sea, the air and the land.  Many of us were conflicted. Can a committed Pan-Africanist like me really support the secession of Biafra from Nigeria.  For me when the choice became clear, it was immediate. I was offered an appointment as a Senior Diplomat by Chief Simeon Adebo, Nigeria’s Representative at the United Nations. After a night in his house and as his guest at the Ambassador’s Residence in the elegant suburb of New York, my mind was made up. I must fight for the defense of my people.

I postponed the defense of my Doctoral dissertation which I had written in Paris as an exchange student at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, a joint program of the University of Paris with The Johns Hopkins University. Together with Ambassador Ralph Uwechue, we founded the Biafra Historical Research Centre in Paris (a pseudonym for the Biafran Embassy in Europe, from where we organized the steady supply of food and medicine through Caritas Internationalis, International Red Cross, Terre des Hommes, Medicins sans Frontier for the beleaguered citizens of Biafra.  I hereby confess that we also sent planes, arms and ammunition through other sources for the defense of Biafra and its citizens and arranged the passage (through Yaounde and Douala) of six young Igbo Nigerian fighter pilots who had just graduated from a training school in Germany. They formed the nucleus of the Biafran Air Force with Chude Sokei then as the Commander. I was later appointed by General Ojukwu following the recognition of Biafra by Cote d’Ivoire as the Biafran Ambassador to Ivory Coast and President Houphouet-Boigny with concurrent accreditation to Anglophone West Africa and as an envoy to President Leopold Sedar Senghor of Senegal whose works and life (incidentally) was the subject of my Doctoral dissertation. Leopold Sedar Senghor et la defense et illustration de la civilization noire (Paris 1968).

Under Ojukwu, I had the honor and privilege of being a member of the Biafran Delegation to Niamey (Niger Republic) Peace Conference under President Hamani Diori (1968) and the OAU sponsored Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Conference (1968) under the Chairmanship of Emperor Haile Selassie. This was the final effort by General Ojukwu and General Gowon to settle the conflict at the Conference Table. The night before the Conference, I translated into French and had printed General Ojukwu’s speech for simultaneous distribution in French and English following its delivery. The rest is history and even though General Gowon, a good man, promised “No Victor, No Vanquished,” the Igbos were not only defeated but were vanquished and treated as such but their heads were unbowed, and remain unbowed

Ojukwu came into national prominence upon his appointment as military governor in 1966 and his actions thereafter. A military coup against the civilian Nigerian federal government in January 1966 and a counter coup in July 1966 by different military factions, perceived to be ethnic coups, resulted in pogroms in Northern Nigeria in which Igbos were predominantly killed. Ojukwu who was not an active participant in either coup was appointed the military governor of Nigeria's Eastern region in January 1966 by General Aguyi Ironsi.[4]

In 1967, great challenges confronted the Igbos of Nigeria with the coup d’etat of 15 January 1966 led by Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu who was widely considered to be an outstanding progressive and was buried with full military honors when killed by those he fought against. His coup d’etat was triggered by political lawlessness, and uncontrolled looting and lacing in the streets of Western Nigeria. Unfortunately the Sarduana of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello; the Prime Minister of Nigeria, Sir Tafawa Balewa; the Premier of the Western Region,Chief Ladoke Akintola and the Finance Minister, Chief Festus Okotie Eboh (among others including military officers) were killed in the process. The pogrom of Igbos followed in Northern Nigeria beginning in July 1966.Eventually, then Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu declared Biafra's Independence on 30 May 1967. (Biafra- 30 May 1967 to 15 January 1970)

He took part in talks to seek an end to the hostilities by seeking peace with the then Nigerian military leadership, headed by General Yakubu Gowon (Nigeria's head of state following the July 1966 counter coup). The military leadership met in Aburi Ghana (the Aburi Accord), but the agreement reached there was not implemented to all parties satisfaction upon their return to Nigeria. The failure to reach a suitable agreement, the decision of the Nigerian military leadership to establish new states in the Eastern Region and the continued pogrom in Northern Nigeria led Ojukwu to announce a breakaway of the Eastern Region under the new name Biafra republic in 1967. These sequence of events sparked the Nigerian Civil War. Ojukwu led the Biafran forces and on the defeat of Biafra in January 1970, and after he had delegated instructions to Philip Effiong he went into exile for 13 years, returning to Nigeria following a pardon

Chukwuemeka "Emeka" Odumegwu-Ojukwu was born on 4 November 1933 at Zungeru in northern Nigeria to Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, a businessman from Nnewi, Anambra State in south-eastern Nigeria. Sir Louis was in the transport business; he took advantage of the business boom during the Second World War to become one of the richest men in Nigeria. He began his educational career in Lagos, southwestern Nigeria.[7]

In 1944, he was briefly imprisoned for assaulting a white British colonial teacher who was humiliating a black woman at King's College in Lagos, an event which generated widespread coverage in local newspapers. At 13, his father sent him overseas to study in the UK, first at Epsom College and later at Lincoln College, Oxford University, where he earned a Masters degree in history. He returned to colonial Nigeria in 1956

He joined the civil service in Eastern Nigeria as an Administrative Officer at Udi, in present-day Enugu State. In 1957, within months of working with the colonial civil service, he left and joined the military as one of the first and few university graduates to join the army: O. Olutoye (1956); C. Odumegwu-Ojukwu (1957), E. A. Ifeajuna and C. O. Rotimi (1960), and A. Ademoyega (1962).

Ojukwu's background and education guaranteed his promotion to higher ranks. At that time, the Nigerian Military Forces had 250 officers and only 15 were Nigerians. There were 6,400 other ranks, of which 336 were British. After serving in the United Nations’ peacekeeping force in the Congo, under Major General Johnson Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, Ojukwu was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1964 and posted to Kano, where he was in charge of the 5th Battalion of the Nigerian Army.

Lieutenant-Colonel Ojukwu was in Kano, northern Nigeria, when Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu on 15 January 1966 executed and announced the bloody military coup in Kaduna, also in northern Nigeria. It is to Ojukwu's credit that the coup lost much steam in the north, where it had succeeded. Lt. Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu supported the forces loyal to the Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Armed Forces, Major-General Aguiyi-Ironisi. Major Nzeogwu was in control of Kaduna, but the coup had failed in other parts of the country.[9]

Aguiyi-Ironsi took over the leadership of the country and thus became the first military head of state. On Monday, 17 January 1966, he appointed military governors for the four regions. Lt. Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu was appointed Military Governor of Eastern Region. Others were: Lt.-Cols Hassan Usman Katsina (North), Francis Adekunle Fajuyi (West), and David Akpode Ejoor (Mid West). These men formed the Supreme Military Council with Brigadier B.A.O Ogundipe, Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, Chief of Staff Army HQ, Commodore J. E. A. Wey, Head of Nigerian Navy, Lt. Col. George T. Kurubo, Head of Air Force. Template:Col. Sittu Alao

By 29 May 1966, there was a pogrom in northern Nigeria during which Nigerians of southeastern Nigeria origin were targeted and killed. This presented problems for Odumegwu Ojukwu. He did everything in his power to prevent reprisals and even encouraged people to return, as assurances for their safety had been given by his supposed colleagues up north and out west.

On 29 July 1966, a group of officers, including Majors Murtala Muhammed, Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, and Martin Adamu, led the majority Northern soldiers in a mutiny that later developed into a "counter-coup". The coup failed in the South-Eastern part of Nigeria where Ojukwu was the military Governor, due to the effort of the brigade commander and hesitation of northern officers stationed in the region (partly due to the mutiny leaders in the East being Northern whilst being surrounded by a large Eastern population).

The Supreme Commander General Aguiyi-Ironsi and his host Colonel Fajuyi were abducted and killed in Ibadan. On acknowledging Ironsi's death, Ojukwu insisted that the military hierarchy be preserved. In that case, the most senior army officer after Ironsi was Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe, should take over leadership, not Colonel Gowon (the coup plotters choice), however the leaders of the counter-coup insisted that Colonel Gowon be made head of state. Both Gowon and Ojukwu were of the same rank in the Nigeria Army then (Lt. Colonel). Ogundipe could not muster enough force in Lagos to establish his authority as soldiers (Guard Battalion) available to him were under Joseph Nanven Garba who was part of the coup, it was this realisation that led Ogundipe to opt out. Thus, Ojukwu's insistence could not be enforced by Ogundipe unless the coup ploters agreed (which they did not).[10] The fall out from this led to a stand off between Ojukwu and Gowon leading to the sequence of events that resulted in the Nigerian civil war

In January 1967, the Nigerian military leadership went to Aburi, Ghana for a peace conference hosted by General Joseph Ankrah. The implementation of the agreements reached at Aburi fell apart upon the leaderships return to Nigeria and on 30 May 1967,as a result of this, Colonel Odumegwu-Ojukwu declared Eastern Nigeria a sovereign state to be known as BIAFRA:

"Having mandated me to proclaim on your behalf, and in your name, that Eastern Nigeria be a sovereign independent Republic, now, therefore I, Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, by virtue of the authority, and pursuant to the principles recited above, do hereby solemnly proclaim that the territory and region known as and called Eastern Nigeria together with her continental shelf and territorial waters, shall, henceforth, be an independent sovereign state of the name and title of The Republic of Biafra."

(No Place To Hide -- Crises And Conflicts Inside Biafra, Benard Odogwu, 1985, Pp. 3 & 4).

On 6 July 1967, Gowon declared war and attacked Biafra. For 30 months, the war raged on. Now General Odumegwu-Ojukwu knew that the odds against the new republic were overwhelming. Most European states recognised the illegitimacy of the Nigerian military rule and banned all future supplies of arms, but the UK government substantially increased its supplies, even sending British Army and Royal Air Force advisors.[citation needed]

During the war in addition to the Aburi (Ghana) Accord that tried to avoid the war, there was also the Niamey (Niger Republic) Peace Conference under President Hamani Diori (1968) and the OAU sponsored Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Conference (1968) under the Chairmanship of Emperor Haile Selassie. This was the final effort by General Ojukwu and General Gowon to settle the conflict at the Conference Table. The rest is history and even though General Gowon, a good man, promised "No Victor, No Vanquished," the Igbos were not only defeated but felt vanquished. ref name=bap/>

After three years of non-stop fighting and starvation, a hole did appear in the Biafran front lines and this was exploited by the Nigerian military. As it became obvious that all was lost, Ojukwu was convinced to leave the country to avoid his certain assassination. On 9 January 1970, General Odumegwu-Ojukwu handed over power to his second in command, Chief of General Staff Major-General Philip Effiong, and left for Côte d'Ivoire, where President Felix Houphöet-Biogny — who had recognized Biafra on 14 May 1968 — granted him political asylum.[citation needed]

There was one controversial issue during the Biafra war, the killing of some members of the July 1966 alleged coup plot and Major Victor Banjo. They were executed for alleged treason with the approval of Ojukwu, the Biafra Supreme commander. Major Ifejuna was one of those executed. More or so, there was a mystery on how Nzeogwu died in Biafra enclaved while doing a raid against Nigeria army on behalf of Biafra.

Blockaded by air, land and sea, Ojukwu and Biafra refined enough fuel stored under the canopies of jungle trees in the town of Obohia in Mbaise, Imo State Nigeria. These were the products of make-shift Refineries that moved from place to place as the enclave receded. Facing deadly air raids from Russian MIG jets piloted by Algerian and Egyptian mercenaries, Ojukwu's Biafra and University scientists created "Ogbunigwe," what Americans today would call a weapon of mass destruction. As the drums of war were sounding, Ojukwu's Biafra was planning the establishment of the University of Science and Technology in Port-Harcourt.

The young man, General Ojukwu, then thirty three years old, had to rein in Biafran military officers some senior to him, others his juniors. He had to get his father's age mates, or near age mates to work with him and for Biafra. Some of these were larger in size than life itself, some were more intelligent, a few were wiser - Nnamdi Azikiwe, Pius Okigbo, Sir Louis Mbanefo, C. C. Mojekwu, Kenneth Dike, Eyo Ita, Jaja Nwachukwu, Dr. K. O. Mbadiwe, Barrister Raymond Njoku, Chief Dennis Osadebay, Sir Francis Akanu Ibiam, Inspector Boniface Ihekuna, Inspector General Okeke, Colonel Njoku, Colonel Nwawo, Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, General Madiebo, General Philip Effiong, Dr. A. A. Nwafor Orizu, M.C. K. Ajuluchukwu, Dr. K. O. Mbadiwe, G.C.M Onyiuke, and so many others - diplomats like O. U. Ikpa (Portugal), Godwin Onyegbula (Foreign Ministry), M. T. Mbu (Foreign Affairs), Emeka Anyaoku (Commonwealth Secretary), Ralph Uwechue (Paris), Dr. Sebastian Okechukwu Mezu (Abidjan), Ignatius Kogbara (London), Austin Okwu (Tanzania), Ugwu (Gabon), Dr. Ifegwu Eke (information), Okoko Ndem (Propaganda), Sylvester Ugoh (Bank of Biafra), N. U. Akpan, Dr. Otue (Canada) Aggrey K. Orji and Dr. Lemeh (New York), Dr. Aaron Ogbonna (West Germany), etc.[11] If Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was the head of so many "rebels" (a list that is not exclusive), who then are the patriots

After 13 years in exile, the Federal Government of Nigeria under President Shehu Aliyu Usman Shagari granted an official pardon to Odumegwu-Ojukwu and opened the road for a triumphant return in 1982. The people of Nnewi gave him the now very famous chieftaincy title of Ikemba (Strength of the Nation, while the entire Igbo nation took to calling him Dikedioramma ("beloved hero of the masses"). His foray into politics was disappointing to many, who wanted him to stay above the fray. The ruling party, NPN, rigged him out of the senate seat, which was purportedly lost to a relatively little known state commissioner in then Governor Jim Nwobodo's cabinet called Dr. Edwin Onwudiwe. The second Republic was truncated on 31 December 1983 by Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, supported by General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida and Brigadier Sani Abacha. The junta proceeded to arrest and to keep Ojukwu in Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison, Lagos, alongside most prominent politicians of that era. Without ever charged with any crimes, he was unconditionally released from detention on 1 October 1984, alongside 249 other politicians of that era—former Ministers Adamu Ciroma and Maitama Sule were also on that batch of released politicians. In ordering his release, the Head of State, General Buhari said inter alia: "While we will not hesitate to send those found with cases to answer before the special military tribunal, no person will be kept in detention a-day longer than necessary if investigations have not so far incriminated him." (WEST AFRICA, 8 October 1984)

After the ordeal in Buhari's prisons, Dim Odumegwu-Ojukwu continued to play major roles in the advancement of the Igbo nation in a democracy because

"As a committed democrat, every single day under an un-elected government hurts me. The citizens of this country are mature enough to make their own choices, just as they have the right to make their own mistakes".

Ojukwu had played a significant role in Nigeria's return to democracy since 1999 (the fourth Republic). He had contested as presidential candidate of his party, All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA)for the last three of the four elections. Until his illness, he remained the party leader. The party was in control of two states in and largely influential amongst the igbo ethnic area of Nigeria.

On 26 November 2011, Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu died in the United Kingdom after a brief illness, he was aged 78 years. Nigerian army accorded him the highest military accolade and conducted funeral parade for him in Abuja, Nigeria on 27 February the day his body was flown back to Nigeria from London before his burial on Friday, 2nd of March 2012. He was buried in a masoleum in his compound at Nnewi. Before his final internment, he had about the most unique and elaborate weeklong funeral ceremonies in Nigeria besides Chief Obafemi Awolowo, whereby his body was carried around most states especially the five Eastern states, Imo, Abia, Enugu, Ebonyin, Anambra, including the nation's capital, Abuja and Niger state his birthplace