OJUKWU IS DEAD AND GONE WITH BIAFRAN WAR MEMOIRS?

 

Icheoku says unfortunately, procrastination has once again cost Nigerians and the world a rare insight into the Biafran war and the soul of the man who lead the three year Biafran war effort. He promised the world a true account and memoir of the Biafran war, detailing its causes, prosecution, successes and failings, as well as the final suspension of hostilities leading to his forced exile to then Ivory Coast. But like William Shakespeare said, the good are often interred with their bones and so has this great forensic opportunity into the soul of Biafra, unfortunately, died with the man who was Biafra's alter ego and chief protagonist. Dikedioranma of Igboland, Ikemba Nnewi Dim Chukwuemenka Odumegwu Ojukwu is dead and gone with his memoir of the Biafran experiment. Icheoku says may his courageous soul now rest in peace and may the spirit of Biafra never rest nor die. 

Regrettably many Nigerians alive then and now, as well as future generations have been robbed by his death of this promised first-hand's percipient account of what happened and may never know exactly what truly transpired during that Biafran war of survival. Icheoku had noted and is writing an article on the lack or not readily available chronicled history and/or biography of some Nigerian greats, and you wonder what history professors at various Nigerian universities are doing when they could have handed various assignments to their students and scholars to memorialized certain Nigerians history. You take a look at the Nigerian landscape and you hardly could find books on people like Gani Fawehinmi, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Rotimi Williams, Tunde Igiadgon, MKO Abiola, Emeka Ojukwu, CC Onoh, Balarabe Musa, Maitama Sule, Wole Soyinka, Joseph Tarka, Aminu Kano, Mai Diribe, Adaka Boro, Tai Solarin, Beko Ransome Kuti, Sam Mbakwe and the brains behind Ojukwu Bunker, Ojukwu bucket, Uli airport lantern-illuminated landing strip etc. 

Icheoku asks where is the future of Nigeria when the past  of Nigeria dies without anything transferred as handouts or notes therefrom of how things were and who did what and how. It is called recorded history and biographies; and Nigerians are not doing well upholding this department of their society. So as Icheoku and the rest of the reasonable and rational humanity mourns the loss of the great one; and in as much as we shall miss his colossal presence, the thing that will be sorely missed is that his promised opportunity to take the world into the experience called Biafra is now also gone with the wind. 

Chief Odumegwu Chukwuemeka Ojukwu would have done a terrific job educating Nigerians on Biafra as only he could have done. Having led that heroic effort that called the bluff of the northern Hausa/Fulani bloody hounds and their collaborating marauders, people bent on dipping their Koran in the Atlantic Ocean beginning with the ethnic cleansing of the Igbos principally in Northern Nigeria, he is  the real insider as it gets. Icheoku, without being immodest, states that every Igbo man and woman owe the freedom they enjoy today to the bravery of the man who stood up to be counted when it mattered most. Chief Odumegwu Chukwuemeka Ojukwu looked into the eyes of genocidal Yakubu Gowon and told him, the SLAUGHTER OF THE IGBOS MUST CEASE AND STOP, no more! What a best seller this book of the real Biafran War story would have been; a true account from the man who should know, having personally led the effort. According to his ADC, "there is virtually nothing that happened during the war period that he did not know about. He was determined to get justice for the people of the Eastern region. He laid his life down for out people but unfortunately many people did not get to know more about him. He never went to war for personal aggrandizement. At all times during the war he was concerned about the people." Icheoku says this is exactly what is missing - a real account of the Biafran war by someone who actually knew something about what happened, an insider''s insider. Unfortunately, his death has permanently deprived the world of such a great opportunity and forever. Anyway, the Ikemba is gone but his spirit lives on in the millions of his admirers and other Biafran protagonists and apologists. So long Ikemba, Dikedioranma of Igboland Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, rest in peace, Adieu!