By CLIFFORD NDUJIHE, TONY EDIKE,  VINCENT UJUMADU, HENRY UMORU, PETER OKUTU, PAUL ODENYI, JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU
IN life, late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who died on Saturday, was immensely popular. In death, the late Biafran leader has proved to be more popular given the barrage of tributes being showered on him from all parts of the country.

This came as the governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi said yesterday that the burial of the Ikemba Nnewi will be a collective decision.

Amid the heaps of eulogies, the Odumegwu Ojukwu family of Nnewi, Anambra State, will meet this week to decide on his burial date.

Ojukwu’s elder brother and head of the Ojukwu family, Prof. Joseph Ojukwu, a former Chief Surgeon at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, Enugu, was said to have been formally contacted by Ojukwu’s wife, Bianca, and his Chief of Staff, Prince Bob Onyema from London, Saturday, and he was expected to convey the news to the entire members of the family in Nnewi, according to their tradition.

Late Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu and Bianca at APGA presidential rally at Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu.

A member of the family told Vanguard that the Eze Odumegwu Ojukwu family had already scheduled a meeting this week to deliberate on the burial arrangement but noted that the meeting would hold after representatives of the family had met with Governor Peter Obi on his return from London.

Obi and the National Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Chief Victor Umeh, left for London, Saturday, to join Bianca and Onyema to make necessary arrangements to fly the remains of the former General back to Nigeria.

At Ojukwu’s GRA residence in Enugu, a condolence register had been opened by the leader of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike and some members of Eze Odumegwu Ojukwu’s extended family.

Present at the compound which was being decorated, yesterday, in readiness for visitors, who are expected to troop in to pay their last respect for the Ezeigbo Gburugburu, were Chief Uwazurike, Mr. Alfred Nwosu, a member of the Eze Odumegwu kindred family, Chief Azuka Okwuosa and Mr. Umunakwe Josef Onoh, Mrs Ojukwu’s younger brother.

Sympathisers at residence

Few sympathizers that visited the residence, yesterday, left when told that Mrs Bianca Ojukwu was yet to return from London where she had spent the last11 months taking care of her spouse. Some of the sympathizers who were received by Uwazuruike signed the condolence register, promising to repeat when Ojukwu’s wife returned to the country.

Among the early callers who signed the condolence register were former Governor of Anambra State, Senator Chris Ngige, wife of Cross River State Governor, Mrs. Obioma Imoke; Chief Ugochukwu Agballah; a businessman from Nnewi, Engr. Emeka Okwuosa; and the member representing Onitsha North I Constituency in Anambra House of Assembly, Barrister Chigbo Enwezor.

Among those who showered tributes on Odumegwu-Ojukwu, yesterday, were Senate President David Mark, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida; Senators Ifeanyi Okowa, Ben Obi, and Chris Ngige; and Governors Liyel Imoke, Segun Mimiko, Abiola Ajimobi, Abdulfatah Ahmed and Rep Eseme Eyiboh.

Tributes also came from Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (rtd); Prof Barth Nnaji, General Andrew Owoeye Aziza, Dr. Kema Chikwe; Capt. Emmanuel Ihenacho; APGA, Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN; All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP; Congress for Progressive Change, CPC; and Pro-National Conference Organisation, PRONACO.

Senator Ngige noted in the condolence register: “Ezeigbo Ikemba, Dike Dioramma Ndigbo, has translated. A great loss! But his spirit lives on and all the people of the former Eastern Nigeria (Biafra) will remember him as the true Agunaechemba (A lion that protects its generation)”.

On her part, the Cross River State’s first lady, Obioma Imoke who hails from Nnewi, wrote: “My Uncle, what can I say? Rest in the bossom of the Lord. We accept God’s decision.”

She told reporters as she was leaving the premises with members of her entourage that Ojukwu was a friend, “an uncle you can discuss anything with. That was the sort of uncle he was; an uncle who was very protective of his family, very close to each and everyone of us. He had special relationship with every person. He wasn’t a General warlord to us, he was our uncle.”

Anambra lawmaker, Barrister Enwezor, who came from Awka to sign the register, said the news of Ojukwu’s death came to many in the state with rude shock. He described it as a great loss to the people of the state, the Igbo nation and Nigeria as a country.

Enwezor called on the governments of the eastern states which were part of the old Eastern region to immortalize Ojukwu by naming great edifices in their various states after him. He also urged the Federal Government to name a major street in Abuja after the Ikemba Nnewi in recognition of his immense contribution to the growth of the country.

Enwezor said that members of the House of Assembly would hold a special session in honour of Ojukwu as a way of mourning the departed Nigerian icon.

He was a hero’s hero – Mark

Senate President, David Mark, described Ojukwu as a dogged fighter who fought till the end to liberate the oppressed.

Senator Mark in a condolence message to the government, people of Anambra State and the bereaved family, remarked that Ojukwu remained one of the greatest Nigerians that ever lived. In the statement which was signed by his Special Adviser, Media, Kola Ologbodiyan, the Senate President noted that Ojukwu was a great fighter who stood for justice, equality before the law, fairness and freedom to all citizens.

He stated: “No matter how much you love or hate him, Ojukwu was a man who loved his people and was ever prepared to lay down his life for them to have a better living. No matter the angle it is viewed, Ojukwu will be remembered as a man who stood up to be counted when it mattered most. He was a man who hated oppression and did his best to liberate the downtrodden.”

Chikwe, Ben Obi, Ihenacho, Umar, Eyiboh, Okowa mourn

To Kema Chikwe, former Minister of Aviation, Ikemba’s death was a tragedy for the Igbo because “there is only one Ikemba, who had the charisma to mesmerize the entire Igbo nation and sustain it till death. Irrespective of political affiliation every Igbo man knows that there was only one Ikemba.”

Senator Ben Obi, Special Adviser to the President on Inter Party Affairs, said: “One of the greatest, courageous and most focused sons of Africa has passed on.

A soldier and a philosopher, a teacher and a thinker, a man who found comfort with both the mighty and the low, a man who at all times was honest, with undiluted ideas on any situation or suggestion on any situation. A lover of his people, indeed a great patriot!”

Capt. Ihenacho, rtd., a former minister, mourned “the passing of a great and patriotic Nigerian, an absolute titan, hero of the Igbo nation” and sympathised with Ojukwu’s widow, Bianca and immediate family.

Senator Ifeanyi Okowa who noted that another great Nigerian had gone to the great beyond, described Ojukwu as “a gallant soldier who brought in his academic prowess into the political arena and became a godfather in the politics of APGA in the South-East.”

To Col. Abubakar Umar (retired), former governor of old Kaduna State, Ojukwu’s death was a very sad loss for not only Nigeria but also humanity. He said: “I remember I invited him to Kaduna when I was governor for a re-orientation campaign. As he got the invitation, he said: ‘Colonel, I will be there,’ and he came. He was a man with great ideas about how to advance the cause of Nigeria. The nation will sorely miss him. I pray that God will have mercy on his soul.”

Rep. Eseme Eyiboh said that Odumegwu Ojukwu did not live long enough but he lived a good life, which was long enough. He was a hero in life and in death.

 Odimegwu-Ojukwu was an extraordinary Nigerian -IBB