OJUKWU, DO NOT MOURN IF AND WHEN HE FINALLY DIES?

Icheoku is truly pissed off at the lack of interest on Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu's healthcare needs and general welfare by the core Igbo peoples of Nigeria especially his immediate Nnewi, Anambra State community. Since his admission at the Ememer Green Ward, Royal Berkshire Hospital London last June 2010, stories have rented the airwaves, media and online world about the near despondent state the former warlord has been left in and without much coming from the so called his people for whose benefit he nearly lost everything, including his life? 

Ikemba Nnewi and Dikoedioranma of Igboland, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, deserves better, having sacrificed so much both in treasure and career to give or rather restore the dignity of the Igboman within the Nigerian community. A former Lieutenant Colonel in the Nigerian army and once General Officer Commanding a Nigerian Army Division, forsook everything including his seniority in the Nigerian army and put his life on the line in defense of his Igbo kindred facing the threat of imminent extermination within the Nigerian society. Icheoku says if the Ikemba is ordinary, he would have just tagged along to get along and would have reaped all the benefits his position, as a very senior Nigerian army officer, would have conferred on him within the Nigerian society. But he had a constitution not endowed most people and as the man he truly is, he stood up to say enough to the Nigerian madmen who were on a mission to completely wipe out the Igbo race. 

At the end of the three year civil war, which was forced on Biafra, Ojukwu in order to save his neck, self-banished himself from Nigeria into exile only to return several years later following a presidential pardon by then President Shehu Shagari. Like the three Rs which Yakubu Gowon dreamt of but which was never fully implemented by those Igbo-hating elements in Nigeria, Shagari's well thought-out gesture had its own opponents, who made it very difficult if not impossible for the Ikemba to truly ever reassert himself back in NIgeria - politically, financially and otherwise. As the resourceful man that he is, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu has successfully managed his fixed finances well enough to stay above board all these years since his return from exile. Unfortunately he has taken ill and is very sick in a London hospital; the least the Igbo people could do for him is to show some appreciation and gratitude for his sacrifices and rush to his aid. 

For those of us who live it or who have experienced life abroad, medical services is one heck of a drain-pipe for anyone's personal finances - the reason why there are so many medical-bills induced bankruptsies in the Western world. Admitted that there exist medical insurances to buy into to protect one from going under water in health emergency or crisis situations, but think about what happens in situations where someone does not have medical insurance or it has expired when he took ill? Ojukwu lives in Nigeria and most likely does not have any overseas medical insurance and by necessary implication is being billed directly, personally, as a medical tourist. This is not a position anyone wants to be found in and it does not matter how rich an individual is. When the exchange rate of the Naira to most useful foreign currencies like the Dollar or British pounds Sterling is factored in, and at an average hospital overnight stay of plus or minus $12,000 per night, it is not a laughing matter for anyone to remain hospitalized for as long as Ojukwu has so far. This averaged $12,000 nightly charges is excluding any specialized visits by consultants and sometimes totally excludes every other hospital services other than a bed and pillow as well as some other miscellaneous services including a nursing attendant. 

Someone known to Icheoku did not have medical insurance when he recently got into an accident and broke his arm. He stayed overnight in the hospital for observation after his fractured arm was set in a cast (POP) and was given some pain killers. Two weeks later, the mailman came and delivered him a bill from the hospital - a total of $76,000 for medical services rendered? One of the itemized bills read $600 for bandages and another $1250 for gauze and so on. Needless to say that out-patient removal of an appendix will take one down $12,000 and now the real picture of Ojukwu's hospitalization begins to crystallize. So assuming Ojukwu's hospitalization bill is about $12,000 per night and at the exchange rate of 150 Naira to a dollar (250Naira to a Pound Sterling) that will set him off 1.8 million Naira every 24 hours? Icheoku asks, does Ojukwu have this kind of money to spend on his health needs and the answer is as good as your guess; and assuming for the purposes of argument, he has it, should he be allowed to spend himself into bankruptcy or homelessness? 

A man of Ojukwu's standing ordinarily deserves to have his medical care needs at the present time declared catastrophic, with the Federal Government of Nigeria stepping in to take full responsibility for its offset. But here is a man declared enemy of the state by Nigeria's power that be and not withstanding his State pardon, is still being resisted, chastised and loathed by many of those who wished him and Biafra, ill. So at such a fork on the road, it is expected that the very Eastern Nigeria region he fought to protect from a threatened genocidal apocalypse, should step in to fill the void and by extension, assure this war hero that his efforts were not in vain and that there are appreciated. So far to the best of icheoku's knowledge, only Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State has done something to assist Ojukwu with his medical bills and hospitalization; but whether it is enough, Icheoku is not in a position to affirmatively so conclude. So out of five core Igbo States and four other states that constituted the former Eastern Nigeria region or Biafra, only one showed up and you ask yourself, what happened to the rest? 

Once again, Icheoku reiterates that Ojukwu's healthcare and social welfare needs is not the sole responsibility of Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State but that of all other governors from that region, for which defense and protection led Ojukwu to take up arms against Nigeria. To do otherwise and pretend that it is none of their business will show these beneficiaries of that largess as ingrates or ignorant or both. Delineating it further, Icheoku says those core Igbo governors of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States should make the present Ojukwu's medical needs their collective responsibility on behalf of the Igbo nation. Icheoku says no true Igbo man or woman will object to even a budgetary allocation to an Ojukwu Healthcare Appeal Fund? In the alternative, each of these governors are respectively allocated over 600 million Naira each month as security votes and could sacrifice just a little portion of that huge money for the sake of our dear Ikemba. It is a good deed; it is a right thing to do. These governors could easily do this if only they believe in a good cause - just one percent or even ten percent of one month's allocation only and help a man without whom they possibly would all be speaking Hausa now and knocking their foreheads on the grounds in prayer? 

Icheoku believes that were these governors truly grateful for the sacrifice made by Ojukwu for and on behalf of the Igbo people in particular, and somewhat now interested in the welfare of Ojukwu in reciprocity, they could easily secure approval from their respective States House of Assembly for some financial gratuity towards Ojukwu's medical assistance fund and even stage an appeal fund for that purpose and ask fellow Nigerians to help them save Ojukwu. The Nigerian people are not cold-blooded and usually comes to their neighbor's help and these governors would have gladly assisted the good cause. Oha N'Eze Ndigbo, Aka Ikenga and such other Igbo organisations should conduct Ojukwu Get Well fundraising/appeal fund and invite all the "Akajiakus of Igboland" to come to the aid of Dikedioranma of Igboland. Particularly most worrisome in this Ojukwu health-saga is the near total indifference of Nnewi people to the health needs of their most prominent son - the Ikemba Nnewi; and Nnewi people are reputed for having very deep pockets and parades themselves as the richest community in Igbo land? Regrettably, Icheoku is not in a position to know the underlying village-politics in Nnewi that is forestalling their help and/or support of one of their own. 

Icheoku have written severally on the urgent need to assist a man of the people now in need of the peoples help and here once again call on the good people of Igbo-land to rush to Ikemba's help before he gives up the ghost, lonely, dejected and despaired. Icheoku warns that the spirit of the Ikemba will not take kindly to all those people making preparation to show up and own his funeral on the day he eventually kicks the bucket. Those showboating pretenders who are presently coy about helping out an Ojukwu in need, should not shed crocodile tears in the event Ojukwu finally succumbs to his current medical issues. In short they should not mourn Ojukwu! One Igbo musician Mike Ejegha's song says "honor me while I am still alive - Jam nma n'ndu"; so Icheoku pleads and calls on all those Igbo billionaires and politicians alike to show up now or forever keep their peace and never show up to read useless eulogies the day the Ikemba finally yields his ghost. 

The baddest news emanating from the current Ikemba's lonesome experience and near-abandonment in a London hospital is that it will operate as a chill on future patriots who may want to do good for the people. If Igbo people could so easily forget their Odumegwu Ojukwu as to literally abandon him to his own personal destiny at this hour of his most need, a hero who stood between them and their traducers - an otherwise assured annihilation within the Nigeria contraption, who thereafter would not be similarly forgotten at his or her hour of dire need. So instead of a common pursuit for the benefit of the people, such person/s in positions of authority would rather be genuflecting and selling-out to Igbo nemesis of Nigeria just to feather their personal nests for the rainy day, regardless whether their action is or would be detrimental to the Igbo people as a whole. Icheoku is therefore on bended knees pleading please, please, please Igbo people and your governors, come to the aid of the Ikemba and Dikedioranma of Igboland, the peoples war-hero before it is too late. Please let Igbo people help Ojukwu see more days and possibly a future where all that he stood for and fought for may eventually come to pass; or at least necessary changes made to the necessitating conditions that led to the confrontation and by extension improve the condition of the coalition of the unwilling nations which constitute Nigeria. Igbo people, Ojukwu needs some financial help to offset his medical bills and/or seek more and improved medical care, possibly in America. So come to his aid now before it is too late; otherwise do not mourn if and when he finally dies!