Ojukwu and Nigerian Federalism (1)

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu’s father, Sir Louis Phillipe Odumegwu-Ojukwu was one of Nigeria’s richest men of the pre-independence era. Born in 1908, before amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria in 1914, Sir Louis aged 5, followed village womenfolk to the Nkwo market place, where a small unit of British soldiers led by a Major tied the hands of Sir Louis’ father and other clan chiefs with ropes, broke their dane guns into pieces and set them on fire! This was part of British pacification and humiliation of natives into accepting colonial rule. Sir Louis subsequently got some limited education, became a produce inspector in Lagos, worked for John Holt and then entered business, becoming owner of the country’s largest road haulage company. He died in 1966. Emeka was Sir Louis’ first son, born in Zungeru on November 4, 1933 after his parents’ separation. He started living with his father in Lagos at age 3, attended St. Patrick’s School, CMS Grammar School, and at 10 in 1944 entered Kings College, Lagos. In 1946, Emeka was transferred to Epsom College, Surrey, England where he stayed six years excelling in sports-sprinting, rugby, javelin and discus-gaining admission to Lincoln College, Oxford in 1952. He took BA from Oxford in 1955 and MA both in History having lived a multimillionaire’s son’s life, driving a Rolls Royce, enjoying feminine company, and spending pleasant vacations in Lagos high society. Contrary to Sir Louis’ desire that he join the family business, Ojukwu chose to join the Civil Service, seeking a posting to Northern Nigeria. Due to Nigeria’s federal structure, he was posted instead in 1955 to his native Eastern Region, to Udi as an Assistant District Officer. Udi transformed Ojukwu into an authentic Igbo man! Before then he was a black British gentleman and Lagos boy, who spoke Queens English and fluent Yoruba. According to his friend and biographer, Frederick Forsyth, Ojukwu for the first time, found the land of his ancestors, “I became aware that I was Igbo, and a Nigerian, and an African, and a black man. In that order. And I determined to be proud of all four. In that order.” At Udi, he learnt Igbo language, forsook routine office paperwork in favour of working with villagers and peasants, and learnt the true nature of the African reality. As would later happen with other Igbos, the Udi villagers trusted him and he transcended official colonial administrator, becoming adjudicator and leader. He was subsequently posted to Umuahia and Aba until 1957 and might well have stayed in the civil service, but for his father’s actions. Horrified at Ojukwu’s next posting to Calabar (where he feared that an Efik woman would “capture” his son), Sir Louis deployed his connections with the Governor-General, Sir John Macpherson, who immediately cancelled the transfer. Evidently Emeka’s choice of the civil service was to craft his own destiny, rather than walk eternally in his father’s wealthy and influential shadows. Frustrated at Sir Louis’ interference in his career, he decided to join the army. There is an alternative view-that Ojukwu already had designs on political power and as a historian knew the army would be a good route to his ambitions. Frankly the evidence as we shall later see, does not completely validate that theory. Ojukwu may have stayed in the civil service, which he appeared to be enjoying and his actions during the 1966 coup are not consistent with those of a military officer seeking political power. Ojukwu at least in his early military career was a pro-establishment officer who may have seen the army as the only authentic national establishment in the midst of Nigeria’s ethnic and regional divisions. Ojukwu’s father again tried to prevent him joining the army as a cadet officer, prompting his joining as a private in 1957! It was only after British military officers recognised the futility and dysfunction of having a Masters from Oxford as a Private in the army with illiterates as contemporaries and superiors that his entry was regularised and his father’s wishes overturned. Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu went through training at Teshie in Ghana; Officer Cadet School at Eaton Hall, England from February 1958 for six months; Infantry School at Warminster; Small Arms School at Hythe returning to Nigeria’s Fifth Battalion, Kaduna in November 1958. He was deployed in 1959 to Western Cameroun to join the hunt for rebel Felix Moumi at one point discovering over one million pounds worth of various European currencies which he sent back to Army Headquarters for which he received commendation, but (in early signs of corruption) reportedly never heard of the funds again. Ojukwu was already in military service at independence in 1960 and wrote in “Because I am Involved” that he “burnt my British passport and turned my back permanently on colonialism and neo-colonialism”; promoted Captain in December 1960; was staff Officer at Army Headquarters from 1961; became Major in summer 1961 (at which point his father reconciled with him); passed Joint Services Staff Course and was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in January 1963 when he was appointed army Quartermaster-General. In January 1966, when the first military coup happened Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu was Commander at the 5th Battalion, Kano. •This is the first in a multi-part review of the life and impact of Ojukwu on Nigeria’s history and federalism