Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu
Categories: Nigerian people | 1933 births | Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford
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Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Ikemba Nnewi (born November 4, 1933) was the leader of the secessionist state of Biafra in Nigeria (1967–1970), during the Nigerian Civil War. He is usually referred to in news and other sources just as Ojukwu. Frederick Forsyth, a friend, authored a novel about him titled Emeka, after Ojukwu's personal nickname. It was published in 1982.
He was born in Zungeru as the son of Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, a business tycoon who was believed to be Nigeria's first millionaire. Chukwuemeka's name meant "God has done well." He attracted media publicity at a young age. In 1944, the young Ojukwu was briefly imprisoned for assaulting a teacher at King's College in Lagos, an event which generated widespread coverage in local newspapers. He then went on to study in Britain, first at Epsom College and later reading history at Lincoln College, Oxford.
Ojukwu decided to enter the military over the objections of his father, who wanted him to study law. He was to become a Lieutenant Colonel in the Nigerian Army of Nigeria. Following an anti-Igbo pogrom in the Muslim Northern Region, a meeting of customary chiefs at Umuahia in the Eastern Region decided to declare the region, the Igbo heartland, independent. Ojukwu agreed to lead the new country, named Biafra after the Bight of Biafra. This was the first country in Africa to be founded by African people.
Despite some early Biafran successes, in which the Nigerian capital of Lagos was almost captured, the much larger Nigerian Army slowly gained the upper hand, supported by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union and, tacitly, by the United States. Among the world's major nations, only France offered some support to Biafra. Despite the lopsided nature of the battle, Ojukwu, a very competent commander, held out for 31 months before finally surrendering on 8 January 1970.
Ojukwu spent a decade in exile. Ojukwu lived in exile in Côte d'Ivoire 13 years. Seeking to bolster his support among Igbos, President Alhaji Shehu Shagari invited him to return in 1980. He joined Shagari's National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and contested the 1983 election for the Senate, but was defeated in the election. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidency in the 2003 presidental election. He claimed to have "won" the election, despite garnering only 3.3 percent of the vote, and filed a court challenge against what he said was the "massive fraud" that allegedly denied him the presidency.