In this interview with Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, the leader of the Movement for the Survival of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, on the death of Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, Ikemba Nnewi and Eze Igbo Gburugburu of Igbo land, Uwazuruike, who practically relocated to the Enugu Casabianca House of Ojukwu since his death was announced, spoke painfully and emotionally about Ojukwu, his politics, vision, what he meant to his people and about the direction of Igbo struggle and leadership. The interview is as sizzling as it is emotional. Excerpts:

By McPhilips Nwachukwu

The death of Ojukwu means a lot of things to many people. As one of the closest persons to the late Igbo champion of struggle for emancipation, what does his death mean to you?

Honestly, Ojukwu’s death is a very devastating news to me. But,  before he died, I was on phone with Iyom Bianca, the wife. She called me few hours before he died and told me that he was in crisis situation. So, after that sad call, we talked more on phone, prayed, cried and all that. Then, when he passed on, Iyom called back to inform me and we continued talking till morning.

The whole thing was shocking, but I was able to stabilize myself because, within the hours of that night that I was told that he was in  crisis situation, I was following the whole situation and, because of that, the news of his death no longer came to me as sudden announcement because I had an early inkling about his situation.

 Ojukwu was the father figure of Igbo struggle for emancipation, which, in the past few years, you have undertaken through your activities with MASSOB. What will be the direction of Igbo struggle now with Ojukwu’s death?

The struggle remains. Nothing changes.
Rather, we will intensify the struggle to make sure that we make him happy in the spirit world. You may want to know that

Ojukwu was known to me before I started the struggle. I knew Ojukwu for close to twenty years. And I knew him close to five or six years before I started MASSOB.

So, I worked with him closely one-on- one before I started MASSOB.

I knew his ideals and I knew what he stood for and that was why I started MASSOB. I mean that I was one of the closest persons to him then.

So, why should the struggle come to an end now that he is dead when the struggle started when he was alive?
If he didn’t like the struggle or like Biafra, I wouldn’t have started it in the first place!

When I started the struggle, he was with me and he was with me more than any other person. While I was in prison he would be the first person to call my wife to ask after my children to make sure that there was money or food in the house.

Each time I was imprisoned or detained, in some cases, he would come to  the  prison  to  see me.

The first time he went to prison to see somebody was to come to Owerri prison to see me. He came personally with Iyom Bianca to see me at Owerri prison where he told the prison officials that he never did that before in his life time.

So, he did so many things for me that he never did for any other person.

Therefore, I have to do things for him too, which I have never nor will do for any other person.

There is nothing that I do for Ojukwu that is too much or anything that any Igbo man does for him that is too much.
People say to me, ‘Every day, you come here and stay from morning till night,’ and I say to them, ‘Yes, I can do it for many more days because Ojukwu could have done same for me’. So, to me, it is a loss, that he died  but I know too that it is a very big loss to Ndigbo.  But, to me, the loss is indescribable because he played a role that my biological father couldn’t play in my life.

Ralph Uwazuruike, MASSOB leader

He was everything to me. He managed me like his own son, told me things. When I went wrong, he called me and cautioned me. And each time I did wrong, he did not fail to admonish me. And if I did rightly, he would call me to congratulate me. He also taught me family life. In fact, he gave me education on some of the things I didn’t know about family life. So, there wasn’t anything that he didn’t do for me.

 Do you see any other person filling this gap of what he represented for you and the Igbo nation?
That is the difficult question. And people have been asking me this question and what I say to them is that it is only God because it is Him who took Ojukwu away from us and He knows that Ojukwu is irreplaceable. There is nobody that can replace Ojukwu for Ndigbo.

All of us are now are like sheep without shepherd. We are just mopping, looking, wondering and asking what next will happen? If any person tells you that he can replace Ojukwu, that person must be joking. What we can do now is only to hope on God to throw up somebody for us. Somebody that Ndigbo will like and work with.

But the most important thing that Ndigbo should do now is to see Ojukwu’s death as an opportunity to bond for unity. That’s the much we can do now. And we started it even before his death.

On November 4, we organised a birthday party, which people from all walks of life, from across party lines attended for the first time. But we never knew that he wouldn’t live to experience the next birthday.

I think we should build on that birthday because it brought Ndigbo together and we contemplated that, after that birthday,  we would call for another gathering this December so that a section of Igbo leadership would come together to deliberate on Igbo affairs.

Ojukwu’s spirit was Igbo spirit. To us Ndigbo, Ojukwu  was like Jesus Christ, which if you mention his name, it sends a message across: the message of unity, togetherness, oneness and we have to build on that.

 Is Ohaneze not providing that kind of direction?

What is Ohaneze? Who is Ohaneze to Ojukwu?

All over the world, when you mention Ojukwu, every Igbo man knows that he is our father, our leader, the man that we follow.

Ohaneze is there and, after every two years, they pick one person and, after another two years, they bring in another different mentality. They are always in Abuja chasing after one thing or the other. Well, I am not to deride anybody.
But Ojukwu was a fearless person.

We are talking about leaders that can sacrifice their lives.

Those that can stand up for their people and say, ‘Okay, let me die’.  We are not talking about people  who are looking for contracts or looking for positions.

We are talking about people whose concerns are about the well-being of the masses.

Ojukwu used the resources of his father to execute a project for the welfare of his people. Because of his people, he went on exile and stayed for more than ten years. Because of his people, he encountered suffering, humiliation and insults. These are the people that we are talking about.

 Don’t you think that the critical question now should be about the Igbo leadership. Who fills  the gap?

No no.

What we are saying is that he is not here now. He is dead. But that he is not alive doesn’t mean that Ojukwu should be forgotten. Whatever we do in Ala Igbo can not work with Ojukwu’s name!

It is just like in Yoruba land. You can’t denigrate Awolowo today because he is not there. It is not true. Till today, the name Awolowo is the in   thing in Yoruba politics. So, it will be the same in Igbo land with Ojukwu.

So, the first thing that we can do now is to give him a befitting burial. The best in Africa and everybody will see it. We have to do it. After  that, we will have a meeting of Igbo leaders to sit down and chart a way forward for Ndigbo. God must surely throw up somebody.

Leadership is not a game of contest. In Igbo land, ana asi na anaghi echi eze eze , ana amu eze amu( the king is not crowned but given at birth ). That person who does what his people love is their leader already. And so it was with Ojukwu. He worked himself into the heart of his people. Even when he was coronated, Eze Igbo, some of his opponents challenged the title, but, because of his acceptance by his people, it didn’t take long before everybody began to hail him as Eze Igbo Gburugburu.

So, leadership is not about going to sit in Abuja or by election.

Nobody as a matter of fact elected Ojukwu to be his or their leader. But through his actions and activities, he was adopted by his people as their leader.

 In a recent statement credited to you in one of the national dailies, you were quoted to be warning Federal Government and Nigeria that since Ojukwu, who stood as the stabilizing force against the use of violence by Ndigbo in their agitations, is no more,  Ndigbo will no longer hesitate to opt for violence if the need arises in the future. What does that kind of statement portend for your struggle?

What that means is that a people should not be taken for granted. If you come to Nigeria today, it is only the Igbo people that have prosecuted a war as a tribe. In the war, all the other tribes fought against Ndigbo. So, we know the burden of war and we know the triumphs of victory. So, we have consummated that burden of defeat in whatever way you look at it.

You know what it means to lose your father or your mother. If you come to Okwe, there are a whole lot of people, who were abandoned at Oji river, men, who lost their limbs and legs fighting for Biafra. I built a home to relocate them at Okwe. Each time I see them, I know how I feel.

I pay them salaries every month to stop them from begging. I know the burden of feeding their children and sending them to school. More than126 people and I know how it feels! Somebody who hasn’t experienced  that before will want you to go to war.
But, unfortunately, this government listens to only people who shout for war.
It is very unfortunate.

Look at our roads. Even, look at our youths, nobody listens to them. Every day we read about hundreds of youths from other places being sent abroad for higher education. What about Igbo youths.

Must you be a militant or carry guns and start shooting people before you are included in the scheme of things? If you come to Nigeria, it is only the South East that has only five states and the least number of local governments. And when they share revenues, the North will go home with billions of naira and scanty amount of money will be given to our governors.

So, what do they want? They want us to start rioting before they begin to give us equal number of states and local governments? Is that what they want? You can’t talk about peace without justice. Shortly after Ojukwu’s death was announced, there was rioting in Ebonyi State. I had to send some of our members to go and quell the situation because it would have degenerated to other places.

 What was the cause of the riot?

Ojukwu’s death! Information got to me that the youths were mobilizing and I had to quickly intervene because, before you know it, Onitsha, Aba, Okigwe, Owerri would have all been caught up in the riot. These youths were angry. They saw Ojukwu as their father. Now their father is dead and they felt like, ‘Okay, let us show our anger’.

But I had to stop them. I brought non violence all the way from India and Ojukwu sustained it because he loved it. He didn’t want Ndi Igbo to die again. Ndi Igbo died during the civil war. So, that was why I made the statement. If Nigerians think that Ndigbo are cowards, they are making a mistake and they know it.

And they know that whenever we start a thing, it takes another dimension. They know that if Ndi Igbo start violence now that involves gun that we manufacture guns ourselves. They know that the only tribe that manufactures guns are Igbos..
It will look like kidnapping. Kidnapping started in the Niger Delta, but when it came to Igbo land, look at the dimension it has taken. Immediately they allow Ndigbo to go into violence, Nigeria is finished.