I  ALSO  recall that in preparation for Aburi Conference, some of them submitted memorandum. The position of the Eastern Region at that time was that there should be a loose confederation in the absence of true nationalism.

At the end of Aburi Conference, this was the agreement. When Ojukwu came down from Aburi, everybody hailed him that he did the right thing since the Ibos were no longer wanted in Nigeria. On the Nigerian part, what was accepted in Aburi was changed overnight, and Ojukwu insisted that “On Aburi will stand”. Had Nigerians accepted the Aburi Conference, there would have been no war.

We could have worked together to have a Confederation which in my opinion is the ultimate that can save this nation in the present circumstances. We should stop pretending. The centralised government imposed on Nigeria, people were not consulted, it was imposed on Nigeria and we have seen that  it is  not  workable. All that the rest of Nigeria wants is the oil, it is the oil that is keeping this country together, not the love of one Nigeria.

‘SO ON ABURI WE STAND!’ That was Ojukwu’s position. Then towards September, the series of killings of the Ibos in the North had reached a crescendo that trains loaded with Southerns were arriving at Enugu from the North. In some of the trains human bodies without heads were loaded and sent to the South.

There is one pathetic case of a pregnant woman whose one eye was plucked out and she was forced at gunpoint to swallow her eyes. No eternity would make this woman to forget what was done to her, in the name of one Nigeria.  That was barbarism of the highest level.

Many headless bodies returned to Enugu. Odumegwu Ojukwu had earlier said that the Eastern Region would not secede from Nigeria unless  it was pushed out of Nigeria. But when the headless bodies were coming back and the woman with one eye inside her stomach, plus other atrocities manifested against the Southerns, Ojukwu was forced to say, “the push has started”. And even at that point, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, regarded as the father of Nigeria, supported Ojukwu that the push had started.

The rest is history. It is significant to note that  the words of the Biafra Anthem was composed by Dr. Azikiwe himself.
I attended a meeting in Ojukwu’s office, in the Commissioner of Police office. People like Graham Douglas, N.U. Akpan, many intellectuals, lawyers and politicians were there, pushing for an appropriate response to the Nigerian massacre of the Southerners.

If Ojukwu succumbed to the pressure, it did not mean that he was ambitious to rule Nigeria. Indeed his carrying the war into the West as far as Ore, was to show Nigeria that he didn’t want to secede. He wanted one Nigeria where things could be sorted out at a conference table. That was not to be.

This conference is now overdue. We must decide how this nation that landed on its head, can stand on its feet. The President should be more circumspect, should talk less, and do those things that can show that he is carrying the whole nation. If he desperately needs to withdraw oil subsidy, there are things he  must do. The arrogance of the elite will not help him. The masses are already down trodden.

The hungry man has no respect for a man or an institution that makes them starve. Those who want subsidy removed, do not buy fuel. Government buys for them! Let us return to the main question.

In my humble opinion, Ojukwu did not start the war; Nigeria started the war, as a 24 hour police operation according to Gowon, to subdue Ojukwu. That they failed and the war lasted for three years, cannot now be attributed to Ojukwu as having started the war. Indeed as he said, “we in Biafra did not start the war, we fight in self-defence”.

WAS HE A REBEL? My answer is ‘no’. Having been placed in charge by the military authorities to be the Governor of the Eastern Region and seeing the Eastern Region being massacred, by the same Nigerians, he had a sacred responsibility to protect the people of the East over whom he presided.

The decision to change the name from Easter Nigeria to Biafra was not the sole idea of Ojukwu. Those of us who were present from the beginning till now, have a duty to write the correct history of the Civil War.

Ojukwu fought in self-defence, and therefore one could see the speed with which the Ibos who fought very hard for Nigeria, who were very committed nationalist fighters for Nigeria, suddenly changed their clothing and fought for the Biafran nation. Yes, Ojukwu was a nationalist of the highest order, but he was also a Biafran nationalist, and he made no mistake about it.

Because of the enigmatic nature of ‘nationalism’ which I have properly analysed in my book on Nigerian Nationalism and the Problems of Socio-Political Integration, it was easy for the erstwhile Nigerians to carry on to wear the gabardine of Biafran nationalism, and at the end of the war, it was easy also for them to become Nigerian nationalists once more.

But the question is, who was a better nationalist than Ojukwu? Zik was a nationalist fighter, he ended up as the Owele of Onitsha. Awolowo was not a nationalist. He started as a nationalist agitator and combined with other forces to drive Zik away from the Western Region. Ahmadu Bello had no pretences, he was interested in one North first.

Ojukwu demonstrated that he could be a nationalist at any level. When eventually he got pardon to come back to Nigeria, he attempted to go to the Nigerian Senate to demonstrate that he was a true Nigerian. Of course the powers that be prevented him from being a Senator. He would have been the finest Senator that this country never had. For more comments, read the Nigerian Nationalism and the Problems of Socio-Political Integration, by Prof. B.I.C. Ijomah.

PROF. B.I.C. Ijomahwrote from the Centre of Policy Studies and Research.