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 World War II to become one of the richest men in Nigeria. He began his educational career inLagos, southwestern Nigeria.[9]
Emeka Ojukwu started his secondary school education at CMS Grammar School, Lagos aged 10 in 1943.[10] He later transferred toKing's College, Lagos in 1944 where he was involved in a controversy leading to his brief imprisonment for assaulting a white British colonial teacher who humiliating a black woman. This event generated widespread coverage in local newspapers. At 13, his father sent him overseas to study in the United Kingdom, first at Epsom College and later at Lincoln College, Oxford University, where he earned a master's degree in History. He returned to colonial Nigeria in 1956.
Ojukwu 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 as a recruit: O. Olutoye (1956); C. Odumegwu-Ojukwu (1957), Emmanuel 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.
Ojukwu came into national prominence upon his appointment as military governor in 1966 and his actions thereafter. A military coupagainst 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.[6]
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 considere 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 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).[7]
Ojukwu 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 Republic of Biafra in 1967. This 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.
TBT; makes it 82 years and TBT remembers him.
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