Saturday, 26 November 2011

Goodbye Ojukwu

I note with sadness the passing of Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, leader of the Biafra, the breakaway state formed in southern Nigeria in 1967.
I can remember images of starving & poisoned people from the Biafran war, even though I wasn't even a teenager at the time.
Later I read Frederick Forsyth's book The Biafra Story, which painted an image of Ojukwu as a caring & dedicated leader of his people; the Igbo. He lived up to this image throughout his years after the war & played a part in making Nigeria better than it would have been had he not survived.
To this day, I think Biafra would have been a success had it not been for the despicable actions of the UK Labour government of Harold Wilson.
Wilson supplied arms & military advisers to the Nigerian regime, despite overwhelming evidence of its mistreatment & mass murder of eastern Nigerians. Despite this support, Ojukwu & his people held off the Nigerian military forces for three years, suffering conditions that cost the lives of at least a million Biafrans.
I believe, had it survived, an independent Biafra would have been one of the few successful states in Africa today,
Farewell Ojukwu, or as your people call you; Dikedioramma.

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