From the announcement of his death late November last year, to the grandiose state funeral accorded to him last weekend, a deliberate and systematic attempt to whitewash the character of the ex-Biafran warlord, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu became the order of the day. Politicians of all ethnic and religious persuasions were falling over one another to join the chorus in praise of the warlord. I have no idea why they think this is necessary, but even those of us who were either not born then or were too young to know first- hand, what Emeka Ojukwu was best known for, knew that the man was no national hero.
Yes, the Ibos do have a reason to consider him a hero, after-all the cause for which he became notorious was supposed to be in service of the Ibo nation, but must the rest of us go blind because the Ibos are duty-bound to honour their tribal chief? As if historical records do not abound to show us just what kind of an ethnic bigot Emeka Ojukwu was, our politicians kept showering such encomiums as patriotic, nationalist, true general, war hero etc on the secessionist leader of Biafra, why are they so desperate to rewrite history even when the facts are there for all to see? From the first stage of the funeral at Zungeru, to the final internment at Nnewi all we’ve been hearing from our political leaders is what a great man Dim Ojukwu was, haba, must we lie to impress some people?
One contributor to Daily Trust’s letter page captured our collective confusion when he wrote to say that he was confused that the same Ojukwu he knew as the architect of Nigeria’s civil war was being honoured with our highest military honours. What went wrong? It is not on record anywhere that Ojukwu had ever repented or regretted either his secessionist bid or its unfortunate aftermath, yet here he is being wrapped in a hero’s garb for posterity.
This writer thanks God that historical records are there to show the real man Emeka Ojukwu was. One such record is the invaluable book by the late one-time managing director of the New Nigerian Newspaper, Malam Turi Muhammadu, titled Courage and Conviction: New Nigerian the first 20 years. In this history of the newspaper itself, Malam Turi painstakingly wrote about all the incidents that led to the civil war and what happened afterwards. I refer this book to anyone who wants to know the sheer self-pride, egotism and ethnic bigotry that drove Ojukwu to drag this nation into that unfortunate war.
When it became obvious that war was inevitable because of Ojukwu’s intransigence, the New Nigerian had reported from the government’s statement that ‘the head of the federal military government regrets that some innocent Nigerians in the three Eastern states will suffer considerable hardship and possible loss of lives in the days ahead through the blind and inordinate ambition of Ojukwu.’ The paper’s front page comment of the same day, May 31st 1967 had mournfully stated ‘The news is bad. It could hardly be worse. The inevitable has happened. Pride has triumphed and reason lies trampled in dust.’ This was how Ojukwu’s actions were received in those days because of the obvious tragic consequences they portended for the nation. Yet he went ahead with his script and the rest is history. But how can we forget all this and declare Ojukwu a national hero? One politician even called him his father, well good luck to him, what a father he had.
Unfortunately, the attempt to make heroes out of dead villains is not restricted to Ojukwu’s case alone. The same undeserved honour was said to have been given to another Ibo soldier, Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu at the end of the civil war by the Yakubu Gowon administration. Nzeogwu it was, who authored and executed the mass murder of Northern Nigerian leaders, beginning from the premier himself, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardaunan Sakkwato to his wife Hajiya Hafsatu to many other aides, and most top military officers of Northern extraction; in the first and bloodiest military coup the country had witnessed. So bloodthirsty was Chukwuma Nzeogwu that when a foreign journalist asked him what he would have done had Sir Ahmadu Bello agreed to accept the aircraft sent to airlift him to Niger Republic to avoid being killed, that he simply said he would have had the aircraft bombed.
According to available historical records, the late Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was reliably informed by the then British Prime Minister, who had come to Lagos for a Commonwealth Heads of government meeting, that his country’s intelligence sources had told him of coup plan that will involve the killing of Sardauna as well as other political top brass, particularly Chief Samuel Akintola, then premier of the western region. On hearing this and knowing there was very little time to waste, the prime minister despatched a plane to pick Chief Akintola and Sir Ahmadu Bello to safety in neighbouring Niger Republic. The Sardauna refused to leave Kaduna, and urged his western colleague to go alone. But Chief Akintola also decided to go back to his people. Both were killed within the next 24 hours.
It was this escape plan that the journalist alluded to when he asked what Nzeogwu would have done if it had gone ahead. His heartless response was that he would have had them bombed, because for days before the incident he had Sir Ahmadu Bello under 24 hour surveillance. Yet this same man, who died fighting for the secessionist Biafran nation under Ojukwu, was eventually given a hero’s state burial by the Gowon government. One wonders what informs such decision. I was at the Annual Trust Dialogue, at the Transcorp Hilton in January last year when General Gowon made a reference to then Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, adding ‘God forbid’ to underscore his disgust for the Libyan president. Of course neither he nor his audience were in a position to know that Gaddafi was living his last few months on earth at the time. But nothing Gaddafi did then could compare with what Nzeogwu did to Nigeria on January 15th 1966, yet the same Gowon buried him a hero.
Amazingly, Ibos are still the one ethnic group with a monopoly of persecution complex in Nigeria. Yet history is replete with instances of where governments bent over backwards to accommodate their wishes and aspirations. The two state funerals above are clear examples. However the danger in this whitewashing game is; what are we trying to tell the present and future generation of Nigerians? Are we trying to say that there is nothing wrong with championing a tribal cause, leading the country to war and remaining unapologetic to your dying breath, because when you die you will deserve a hero’s burial? Or are we trying to say that wiping out a whole generation of regional leaders in cold-blood, and then fighting to divide the nation apart are little sins to be glossed over so that when you die you still deserve a state funeral? Unless we want to send the wrong message to young Nigerians we must stop this culture of whitewashing dead villains, and touting them to the world as heroes. Thankfully, the Just and Almighty God does not consider political expediency and other hypocritical human factors before awarding heroes and villains their rightful place in the hereafter. With Him SWT, no amount of white-washing can change anything.
