To lead is to serve. To lead is to offer oneself in service to others. To lead is to offer oneself to a people’s demands or desires, their needs, their wants and all. To lead is to serve selflessly in times of peace and in times of danger; it is to serve without equivocation, engaging with people in their soul, body and spirit, with knowledge, steadfastness, consistency and constancy. To lead is to serve in truth without being diverted.
A leader worth his salt is concerned about the interest, welfare and wellbeing of his people; such a leader is concerned about his people’s lives, their property, their happiness, and their individual fulfillment and development on a continuous basis. A leader worth his salt is a teacher and a model to behold; the leader embodies all that he wants his people to be.
To lead is to serve. To lead is to offer oneself in service to others. To lead is to offer oneself to a people’s demands or desires, their needs, their wants and all. To lead is to serve selflessly in times of peace and in times of danger; it is to serve without equivocation, engaging with people in their soul, body and spirit, with knowledge, steadfastness, consistency and constancy. To lead is to serve in truth without being diverted.
A leader worth his salt is concerned about the interest, welfare and wellbeing of his people; such a leader is concerned about his people’s lives, their property, their happiness, and their individual fulfillment and development on a continuous basis. A leader worth his salt is a teacher and a model to behold; the leader embodies all that he wants his people to be.
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There is none that is familiar with our beloved brother and leader Ikemba Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu whose passing we mourn, and whose life we celebrate today, that will not affirm that he met and superceded the tenets of a true leader as afore stated, and well merited all of his titles which to us are more like fond references for the simple reason that he richly deserved them - Ikemba (Power of the people); Dike di ohamma (Beloved by his people); Odenigbo Ngwo (Man of substance and significance); Eze Igbo Gburugburu (paramount leader of Igbo).
I arranged and managed Ikemba’s itinerary and meetings when he visited Boston in July of 2001. I was with him for all of four days, at which time I ensured his presence, his person, his meetings and itinerary were featured in Boston’s national journal of record – The Globe. It was not my first time meeting Ikemba, but it was the closest meeting anyone could have wished with a much beloved and wildly admired leader; and to crown it all, it was a meeting where I had the rare privilege to lead this leader, the great Ikemba; direct him and manage him. There was not a more compliant and manageable leader than the great Ikemba. It was a matter of informed and educated leader. It was also about a Ieader who knows to follow regardless of his status. I decided where Ikemba went, and who he met; I led him where he went, even to the Nigerian Catholic church, where mostly Igbo worship - “Ojukwu Church” – my son calls it. The great Ikemba deferred to me on questions posed him; and he called me boss on occasion. My outing with Ikemba was fulfilling for me, as it was satisfying to Ikemba, such that when it was over, the great man phoned and left me an indelible message, which I still carry with me today, eight years later. I recall him saying afterwards quote –
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“I never knew I could be this close to Boston”.
In all the meetings I arranged for Ikemba with scholars, politicians, ambassadors, medical doctors, medical scientist heads of health care, the media, and I was present at those meetings, all of them, there was none at which Ikemba muted a single personal or self-interest matter. NONE. In all the meetings and all of the time, Ikemba concerned himself about Nigeria. Ikemba spoke always to social and economic remedy of Nigeria; Ikemba spoke to economic and political equity in Nigeria, his clarion call dating back to the days of Aburi Ghana in 1967. Ikemba concerned himself, as the leader he was about Nigeria, her problems and solutions to her problems. He spoke clearly in the spirit I understood him to mean that if it is well with Nigeria, it will be well with Igbo, and that Igbo have a pride of place in Nigeria. It is this Ojukwu’s spirit - “Biafra of the mind” – Ikemba once termed it that ought to drive the strategic thinking of every Igbo in Nigeria. That is till Nigeria, which I call Lugard’s Cage, and those trapped in it decide which way it goes – the way of Ojukwu’s Aburi, or forever remain the infirm, sickly British fabrication that it is.
Each time Ikemba was posed a personal question, he demurred. At the Israeli Consulate in Boston, where I had him meet with the Israeli top diplomat in town Mr. Itzhak Levanon, the first question out of Mr. Levanon’s mouth to Ikemba was – “why don’t you run for president of Nigeria?” “I have lived a turbulent life”, Ikemba said to Mr. Levanon, “I am 67 now, I’ll leave the field for younger ones”. “No”, the Israeli diplomat insisted, “look at Ariel Sharon” – meaning Sharon, then prime minister of Israel who was about as old as Ikemba or perhaps a bit older. Ikemba quelled the Israeli diplomat’s insistence that he run for president by posing the diplomat a question that struck at the heart of the Israeli/Palestinian perpetual political stalemate. “If not Arafat, who?”, Ikemba asked. Mr. Levanon parried the question, as passionately as any Israeli would. There are not a people who know and understand their adversaries, and are agreed on their survival strategies as do the Israeli – who happen to be Igbo natural friends.
You would think the desire for President Odumegwu-Ojukwu of Nigeria was over, but not yet. At the last meeting of that same day, where health experts and doctors gathered at Boston’s premier HealthCare Center – Dimock Community Health Center for informational interaction with Ikemba, the first question Jackie Jenkins-Scott, the health center president posed Ikemba, was, you guessed it – “are you going to run for president?”
At the Boston Globe premises, where Ikemba also met with the Editorial Board Chairman Thomas Gagan, the inquiry remained still about Ikemba running for president of Nigeria. ”I am very much like a relay racer who has finished my race, baton in hand, waiting to hand over to the next generation”, was Ikemba’s response. Ikemba had allowed as much to Igbo and friends two days earlier at the Nnewi banquet in his honor.
Ikemba had no more ambition than as he put it – quote - “to see that the next generation of Igbo achieves more than I did”. Ikemba had no more ambition than to see to the wellbeing and welfare of his people wherever they were. It was evident in his gratitude to eminent Boston Politicians gathered at the reception in his honor at Boston City Hall Chambers, for their hospitality to his Nigerian brothers and sisters.
Though it is said that one never says never in politics, but it was easy to read the genuiness of Ikemba, his sincerity relative to relinquishing position to the younger generation. Yet it was easy to understand why Ikemba journeyed back into electoral politics under the All Peoples Grand Alliance – APGA, unlike his first sojourn into politics upon his return from exile – which yours truly did not mind at all, as Ikemba was not one to watch on the sidelines. This time, however, no Igbo alive was unhappy that Ikemba re-joined politics if only for the reason, that he was and remains right now, the only genuine, selfless leader Igbo had, and the Nigerian nation for that matter.
At that time in 2003, I wrote a piece titled – Ojukwu Trumps them all – a piece that assured victory for Ikemba, if Nigerians were literate and honest, and hypocrisy did not have the best of them. That Ikemba beats hands down any Nigerian who competed with him for the presidency of Nigeria in a fair and free election was without question. Consider this wise saying by Chief Obafemi Awolowo – “if you are 10 years ahead of your people, you do not ask who is the leader?” Till the day of his passing to date, Ikemba remains many decades ahead of every Nigerian of all sheds, tribe, tongue and religion, whose tomorrow he saw 42 years ago to be exact.
The appreciation and gratitude Ikemba expressed to his hosts at Boston City Hall, on behalf of his immigrant Igbo and Nigerian brethren demonstrated nothing short of a man ahead of the rest doing something no leader from our part of the world ever do. There is no African leader who gives a hoot about their citizens’ exodus out of their country, much less care where the exiting citizens were headed, or what becomes of them wherever they headed.
Immigrants such as we are ….those of us in the US, and elsewhere in the world can and do in fact inconvenience our hosts. Only a knowledgeable, true and responsible leader such that we hardly have in Nigeria or Africa as a whole recognizes the fact of immigrant burden on a host country, and the essence of extending gratitude to a host nation, a host state or a host city and its leaders, as Ikemba did on behalf of Nigerian immigrants in Boston.
In arranging for Ikemba’s appearance at Boston City Hall, and having that day Friday July 6 2001 declared Ikemba Day, with citation and all, I knew how much time and effort Councilor Charles Yancey, then president of Boston City Council and his staff invested. Councilor Yancey and staff took on the endeavor with grace, and pleasure, but it was not without inconvenience, which I, as an immigrant brought upon them in favor of our leader. With that you begin to see the wisdom of Ikemba; wisdom being a key attribute of a leader worth his salt; a leader who cared about his people wherever they may be.
Who among us here is unaware of Ikemba’s Silver Spoon Heritage? A heritage that fetched him the best education money could buy in colonial Nigeria – Kings College, and in Great Britain – Oxford University; a sterling beginning which Ikemba turned against so to say, and the comfort of his father’s riches, for lowly inconvenient life in public service first as District Officer and thereafter a life in the military starting at the lowest cadre.
But here was a man who realized at an early age what his calling was – service, public service in the true sense of that calling. Realizing he had the opportunity of first rate education that could allow him to render equally first rate service to the newly independent Nigeria and her peoples, Ikemba had a question in his mind whose answer none other but himself knew. How, and through which organ of public service could I best render service to this young nation and her peoples? He decided on the military.
Ikemba had at times explained his choice of the military, yet it bothered many still, why the military. I have read some people surmise that Ikemba joined the military so he may plan a coup d’etat. But if you knew Ikemba, you’d know that indiscipline was never part of him. Nonetheless, history shows that In words and indeed Ikemba the soldier turned out a coup breaker.
But when still a wondering and pondering mind realize that Ikemba rendered leading roles and services to Nigeria and to his people as a military man, services he could not have rendered the way and manner he did had he chosen a profession other than the military, we can then begin to understand the choice he made, and then say, as I believe many have already said, the Almighty placed Ikemba on the path he chose for a good reason. Think who else it should have been for Igbo, during their baptism by fire, if not Ojukwu. I happen to believe that none was more intellectually and psychologically prepared to withstand as a leader the vagaries and vicissitude of that time.
As every discerning Igbo or Nigerian knew, Ikemba could have left Biafra as the baptism by fire began in Igbo land. But he did not. Ikemba’s inheritance, his intellect and preparation could have sustained whatever lifestyle he chose to live wherever he chose to settle outside the murderous entity Nigeria had become and the burn-fire that was Igbo land in particular. As a fine lady I know put it – “with more lucrative options, he (Ikemba) took the more difficult path”. Yes, he did.
Ikemba stayed….YES he stayed… and experienced with his people whom he led in body, in soul and in spirit in the inferno unleashed upon them by Harold Wilson’s Britain, Alexei Kosygin’s defunct Godless Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – USSR and Gamel Abdel Nassar’s Arab World in Africa and the Middle East. In his leadership, Ikemba demonstrated resiliency, exercised knowledge, consistency and constancy – qualities he possessed through to his dying day.
“To thyself be true”. This was Ikemba’s personal motto; the spiritual engine that drove everything he did.
Ikemba never changed. “He is still the same”, remarked Boston Globe’s Thomas Gagan, after his meeting with Ikemba. Ikemba remained true to himself, and so to his people – Igbo, as well as to Nigerians.
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country”. That was the late President John F. Kennedy’s often quoted statement. Ojukwu lived a life of never asking what his country or his people could do for him. Ojukwu lived a life of what he could do for his people and his country.
You can only think but for a second and it will dawn on you that men the caliber of Ikemba are not around anymore.
There is no other Eze Igbo Gburugburu.
Look at all of us gathered here today. All of the past weekend, this weekend, next weekend, the weekend after next weekend, all over the world, where there are Igbo, friends and well-wishers, they have gathered or planning to gather, as we have gathered here today with friends and well-wishers from far and wide to mourn and at the same time celebrate the life of this great Igbo son who I call The Igbo Premier Son, our most beloved brother, and leader, our shining light, the best of us, the kind that is not made anymore…our brother who saw tomorrow, yesterday….Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.
Ikemba,
Dike di ohamma,
Odenigbo Ngwo,
Eze Igbo gburu gburu…..
May Your Soul Rest in Perfect Peace
Eulogy for The Peoples General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu culled in part from – The Man of Biafra – By Peter Opara (Posterity Books) 2003
Delivered in Boston/Randolph Stetson Hall on February 18, on the occasion of the mourning of the passing and celebration of his life and times.
Peter Opara
February 18, 2012
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