YESTERDAY was the 78th birthday of one of Nigeria's very few illustrious statesmen and soldiers, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu and upon realising it I enthused, in the newsroom: 'O! Wonderful.' Sure, my exhilaration, even came across to me as a bit unnescessary. Moreover, I am not used to counting people's lives in number of years. But on feats and cognisable developments that set the human out as functionally relevant to society and remarkable even if the acts be of kind mien, benevolence or simple dedication to service. A man's or woman's living up to old age, middle age, youth or childhood never mattered so much to me as what difference he or she made to mankind with the much he lived. Though, I never lose grasp of the fact that I am an African, living in Africa, where long life really means a lot (But is there really any place where humans are truly not obsessed with longevity').So, my enthusiasm with this turning 78 of Odumegwu-Ojukwu ' the Dim of his native Umudim, Nnewi, Ikemba Nnewi, Dikedioramma Ndiigbo and more feathers ' is without doubt, for being alive this long despite his damning health challenges of recent ' his stroke and reported living on life support. But more for the phenomenom he has turned out to become even while alive and while perpetually on the flip side of economic, professional, political correctness.This is a man who had every reason and means to turn away from the needs of commoners and live the elite life he was born into. He is the first son and heir apperent to the estate of a man who was, in colonial times and at independence in 1960, Nigeria's richest man. He had the best education and provision possible for any. He is also intellectually vibrant, physically strong and handsome. Yet he abadoned all the lures of these gifts to fight for a cause that he deemed was for justice and good of his common folks.Born clearly of silver spoon, on November 4, 1933 at Zungeru in Northern Nigeria to Sir Louis Phillippe Odumegwu Ojukwu, a businessman from Nnewi in South-Eastern Nigeria. Sir Louis was into transport business; he made a wise use of the business boom during the Second World War to become the richest man in Nigeria when he died in 1966. Ikemba began his educational career in Kings College, Lagos in South-Western Nigeria. He got into trouble by participating in anti-colonial demonstrations with such seniors as Anthony Enahoro. At 13, his father sent him to Great Britain to study at Epsom College, England. He left Epsom at 18 for Lincoln College, Oxford. At Oxford University, he obtained a Bachelor's degree in Modern History. After graduate studies, he retuned to colonial Nigeria. This was in 1956.Expected to take his father's business, he instead joined the civil service in Eastern Nigeria as an Administrative Officer at Udi, in present-day Enugu State. In 1957, he left and joined the military as one of the first and few university graduates to join the army. He joined as an infantry recruit because the colonial officers would not let him into the officer corps, no thanks to his father's pulling of strings to keep him out of the army. He later went on to undergo military training in Ghana and England. As events later unfolded, he later got the tag of 'rebel' there despite a meritorious career.Many would argue his illusterous status, given, in particular, the dope of bad news about him since the Nigerian Civil War of 1967'1970, in which he led the unsuccessful cessation bid of the Republic of Biafra and the tainting propaganda that followed ever after. But let's begin from the known premise to appraise this fabled Ikemba icon and its phenomenal paths. We may get to point of awareness of his unique statesmanship and illustrious nobility despite always taking unusual tracks to press home his unwavering loyalty to his land of citizenship, Nigeria.Since his early teen years, he has throd the path of political incorectness (rather inappropriatness), as a 13-year-old in 1946 he was sent out of elite Kings College, Lagos for lending his support to an anti-colonialism revolt ' an act unimaginable for an elite child in such an eminent school with strong colonial heritage then. As a 23-year-old fresh graduate of Oxford University, England in 1956 he did the unthinkable by returning to Nigeria and opting to join the Army not as an officer but as a rank-and-file recriut. At 33 in 1966, he did the seemingly 'incorrect' again by refusing to join the Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu troop in hatching and executing the first coup de tat. Rather, he alligned with the Federal Forces to foil it even as it was deemed that he would have supported his fellow 'Igbo officers'. He became the governor of defunct Eastern Region under the first miltary government headed by late Supreme Commander, Gen. Johnson T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi. Even when the countercoup forces led wrought their five-month-long pogrom against his Eastern Nigerian folks in the northern region (May 29, 1966 ' September 29, 1966), he remained loyal to Nigeria, and preached peace and unity even as governor of the receiving end, Eastern Region.It was not until negotiations and persuasion for cesation of unslaught against his Igbo folks failed that he bowed to the prod of the political leaders of the region and joined them to sing songs for a sovereign region. On May 30, 1967, based on the mandate of the Eastern Nigerian Constituent Assembly, then governor of Eastern Region, Colonel Odumegwu-Ojukwu declared Eastern Nigeria a sovereign state to be known as Biafra.His words on that day capture the pain with which he had to bow to popular demand.He declared: "Having mandated me to proclaim on your behalf, and in your name, that Eastern Nigeria be a sovereign independent Republic, now, therefore I, Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, by virtue of the authority, and pursuant to the principles recited above, do hereby solemnly proclaim that the territory and region known as and called Eastern Nigeria together with her continental shelf and territorial waters, shall, henceforth, be an independent sovereign state of the name and title of The Republic of Biafra."
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