S’East govs, others remember Odumegwu-Ojukwu as book on war years is launched

Igbo tasked on development

THE contributions of the late Biafran leader, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, to the development of the nation will once again be remembered as  governors of the six states of the South-East geo-political zone will today launch a book on him at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja.

The book titled: Ojukwu, the Rebel I Served, and written by Uche Ezechukwu, a veteran journalist and public analyst, captures some of the innermost secrets and exploits of the former Biafran leader and foremost Nigerian soldier who died last year.

Besides, as citizens of Anambra State gather to chart ways of moving forward, the Chairman/CEO of Orient Communications Limited, Mr. Goddy Ezeemo, has identified some of the problems militating against the progress of the Igbo in the country to include quest for materialism, crimes and betrayal.

Emeka Okengwu, who signed a statement on behalf of the organisers of the book launch on Odumegwu-Ojukwu, said the chairman of the event would be Senator Ben Obi while Governor of Niger State, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, would present the keynote speech.

The book is an account of a journalist who stayed and worked closely with the late Odumegwu-Ojukwu for two years at the end of a major and harrowing phase of his life after leading the Biafran War against Nigeria, which lasted for almost three years.

Ezechukwu became a loyal confidant to Odumegwu-Ojukwu after his return from a 13-year exile and into a tumultuous political experience that led to his imprisonment. The book encapsulates the personal qualities of a man many loved to misunderstand and rather labelled as an ambitious soldier and warmonger.

In his address delivered at the second day of the Anambra State Re-orientation Conference held in Awka yesterday, Ezeemo regretted that 52 years after independence, the Igbo had not found their feet in national affairs.

Ezeemo sponsored the five-day workshop in collaboration with the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Anambra State chapter.

The workshop, tagged: “Rediscovering the Lost Igbo Values”, was organised for various segments of the society including traditional rulers, politicians, Labour unions, politicians and the vigilance groups.

He said: “Ndigbo are still wallowing in moral, social and political doldrums. We are often seen as money-mongers, cheats, underdogs and stooges that can be manipulated with wands of naira notes. We can hardly agree on issues affecting our collective interests… we prefer to sing discordant tunes and betray our brothers for our selfish ends.”

While criticising the kind of education imparted to children, Ezeemo lamented that “parents today pay special fees for others to write examinations for their children, they settle lecturers to have their wards’ marks upgraded. Even, some lecturers collect money or make unnecessary demands from the students.”

Ezeemo, who emphasised that the workshop was a platform for cross-fertilisation of ideas that would improve the lot of the Igbo, equally berated the youth, saying they had taken to crimes like kidnapping, advance-fee-fraud (419), cyber crimes and armed robbery. He lamented that the age-long tradition, which regards crime as abomination has been jettisoned.

According to him, “many of our children today do not believe that hard work pays. They merely look at others who have made it in life and vow to make it by hook or crook.”

Also, in a paper presented at the occasion by a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Prof. Benjamin Osisioma, he blamed Anambra elders, saying they had sold “our birthrights to the highest bidders from Nigeria’s political firmament.”

On the way forward, Ezeemo and Osisioma charged the Igbo to make sacrifices, be their brothers’ keepers, change their attitude towards their neighbours, as well as jettison the spirit of pulling down and shape their thinking towards the future.