One would only  be echoing the obvious by saying that the life and death, as well as the burial of Late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu were phenomenal. While Ojukwu’s life, right from the cradle, provides ample resources for the making of thrillers in the world of creative arts, and transcendent study in the field of socio- philosophy; his death and the activities immediately following it are not less eventful.

Whereas one is a concluded phenomenon variously captured in the fluctuating memories of many and the dynamic sanctuary of documented history, the other remains an unfolding plethora of vivacious overflow of passion evolving from people of divergent feels on life – people who enjoyed the privilege of relating with the departed Ezeigbo Gburugburu.

One thing remains common in these reactions to the phenomenal life of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu: every of his associates, even the remote, knew him well enough to testify to his iron-cast strength of character, his brilliance, his fiery bravery, his passion for selfless sacrifices and fair play; his metropolitan bent, his objective disposition, and not less his flair for quintessential interaction with affable nature and the beauties thereof. Ojukwu provided a microcosm representational of the inviolability as well as the irrepressibility of the human spirit; a cynosure for every man’s often unexpressed tenacity for life.

The front-page comments which the Ikemba commanded while he lived, now coming in greater torrents, wider diversity and sustained intensity at his passing on certify him as an icon whose appeal defies the restraints of time and space. Such uncommon disposition is not wont to just another man who stumbles on good life regarding less the excruciating demands that service to humanity requests on his frail self.

‘When beggars die there are no comets seen: the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of a princes.’ History, they say, is a graveyard of the aristocrats. When, following the events of Ikemba’s burial and funerals, some columnist of renown reasoned that the Dim deserves a place in the pantheon of deities amongst Ndigbo, he merely amplified Shakespeare in echoing the unprecedented superlative love Nigeria, Nigerians and Ndigbo in particular showed the legendry hero, more after the cold hands of death griped him. According to the writer, Ojukwu could share the resolute fierily of Sango or the Ogunian absolutism if he were of Oduduwa heritage. However, with Ikemba’s death, the intermix of cultures came to the fore; for among the Igbos is a shared belief in the communion of spirit beings, the gods and the Supreme Being.  Chief Victor Umeh, the fiery National Chairman of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), who is an Ojukwu-mentored politician said this much when he announced the post humous relevance of the Ikemba. Chief Umeh has since maintained that even in death Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu remains the leader of the party and Ndigbo by extension. He insists that APGA would continue to use Ikemba’s name to break political bounds in furtherance of Ojukwu’s pursuit for enhanced Igbo nation and better Nigeria. According to him the potency of Ojukwu’s intervention is even stronger now that he has conquered mortality and oversees APGA’s operations from the spirit realm. That tells the primordial link between Ojukwu, alive or dead, and the people for whom he sacrificed so much.

Ojukwu’s death would have thrown up passionate reactions; it would have led to myriads of well authored tributes, but beyond all those, the underlying jostling in the leadership of Ndigbo over his replacement is both exciting and puzzling. But none fits the mould of the Dim, and so Ndigbo would continue to miss that presence that mocked the foolery in holding one group superior and the others inferior.

Recognizing the uncommon traits of the legend, the theatrics of most of those posturing for his place hold them out as bland impostors to a sacrosanct status which compells sacrifices from the holder. Ndigbo should therefore retreat in a pensive recourse to the wisdom in the war saying that ‘he who is surrounded by enemies, guard himself all the time’. They should realize that not only are there enemies out there, there are even more vicious ones within.

Leadership, especially the shade Ndigbo and Nigeria now crave, is neither ascribed through the whims of some loud mouthed megalomaniacs, nor assumed as an inheritance. It is rather earned through endearing acts and preponderant feats achieved by one in the making or remaking of one’s socio-political and economic environment. When these prerequisites are sought in the credentials of candidates for leadership among Ndigbo, the number of those standing to be so recognized shortens.

Agreed, the Igbo nation parades a cluster of great sons and daughters who ordinarily could be champions in less challenging political climes, but these sparks of success pale to insignificance in comparison to the institutional personality enjoyed by a few who, having been called to service, have succeeded in touching the lives of the people and effecting the structural rehabilitation of Ndigbo among their pairs in Nigeria.

In this class of leaders are found people who though bountifully endowed with requisite brain, brawl and vintage privileges, opt for Spartan existence which locates them with the pulse of majority of the people they hunger to emancipate from the savagery of skewed national policies which are formulated to perpetually reduce the dignity of Ndigbo.

Having understudied the peculiarities in the quest of Ndigbo to rediscover themselves in the Nigeria of today, and having looked at the brilliant glow of the likes of Senator Uche Chukwumerije and perhaps Senator Anyim Pius Anyim and Dr. Oby Ezekwesili (never mind her femininity), I make bold to recommend Mr. Peter Obi, the Governor of Anambra State, for the leadership of Ndigbo. This is borne out of the uncommon brilliance he has exhibited in the governance of a state which before his emergence was a pariah among states, but which he has succeeded in making the toast of viable institutions and foreign organizations. A close study of Mr. Obi’s persuasion and his mechanism for working his designs readily predisposes him as a veritable leader whose ingenuity would serve Ndigbo a great lot, particularly now that many pretenders are masquerading as the hope of the people.

It was not for nothing that the great Ikemba who saw tomorrow, prying into the future of his people, persuaded them to oblige him the last wish of returning Mr. Obi for a second term in the Anambra State gubernatorial election of February, 2010. The people did bountifully oblige him, and the gains there from are manifest in the unprecedented physical development as well as the intrinsic reorientation Mr. Obi’s tenure has been unfolding in the state. The governor has manifested the capacity to put in place policies that turn around the lost years of the people’s defeat in the war. Among these is the return of schools in Anambra State to their private owners, mostly missionaries, to ensure the restoration of character and quality learning among the youth who had, for over four decades, been abandoned in the wild by deliberate federal policy aimed at vitiating the agility of a people. Not even the blue murder loud shouts from the Western collaborators of the plot to ‘hold them down’ could reverse the resolve of Mr. Obi to effectively reposition his people to regain their lost glory. Such clear headed foresight and stubborn tendencies in resisting distractions are obvious pointers to the brand of leadership Ndigbo seek in Nigeria of today.

Governor Obi has equally shown vintage statecraft in his sagacious dealings with constituted authorities in the country. He has never been limited by his membership of APGA which is widely, though wrongly, seen as an Igbo party; hence his relevance as the Vice Chairman of The Nigeria Governors’ Forum, the Chairman of South East Governors’ Forum, the Chairman of South South-South East Governors’ Forum; member National Economic Team; honorary Adviser to The President on Economic Matters etc. In all of these and more Mr. Obi has perform so well that accolades in forms of unsolicited awards have continued to adorn the repository of his credentials.

While late Dim Odumegwu-Ojukwu provided leadership that encapsulated the rejection by Ndigbo of peripheral status in Nigeria political equation, the brand of leadership Ndigbo require today should again emphasize selflessness, dedication to a cause, foresight, resilience, greater suavity and sense of acceptability among the tribes contending for the soul of the nation, with the recognition that the said soul is bound to be preserved and not ‘haramed’.  Methinks Mr. Peter Obi, the Governor of Anambra State, is imminently a compendium of these qualities.

Okechukwu Anarado