Late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu’s son, Debe, who is a lawyer and businessman, speaks to OLUFEMI ATOYEBIon the life of the former Biafran leader
You have the semblance of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who is your father. What other things did you inherit from him?
My late father was the grand patron of Odinana Nnewi when he was alive but after his death, I was elevated to fill that position. I am a legal practitioner and international businessman. I also deal in real estate business. I am the President-General of Umudi Nnewi Development Association. We are from Nnewi North which is made up of four towns in Anambra State. I am also the Chairman of Nnewi Improvement Union in Lagos. So I am a leader just like my father.
What was it like growing up as the son of Ojukwu?
It was the experience of every young child. My father was contending with his career as a young soldier, moving from one place to another. We were not moving around with him each time he was transferred, so as his immediate family, we had to cope with his long absences. When you are a young army officer, you suffer a lot because of transfer and movements. He was kept busy in those days, so I saw little of him at home. I was always with my mother. But when he got to a higher position in the army, he became settled and I started knowing what type of father I had.
What were the things you missed when he was not around?
As a child, you don’t really know how to differentiate between missing your parents and having them around you, especially when you are happy. You take it as it comes but when you move from adolescent to manhood, you will start feeling their absence. There are times when you wish to be by your mother’s side and there are times when your father’s presence will be mostly needed. This is what happened to me when I was young. I actually started feeling my father’s absence when I stepped out of the shadows of boyhood.
Did he visit you in school?
He was a busy man and at a time, he was in exile. So he had no time to pay such visits. My grandmother and my mother were always around me.
How much time did dedicate to the family?
Despite his busy schedule, he was a high quality family man. I was always with him in those days when he came around. Our relationship developed as I grew up. From being his child, he later put me in the position of a friend and as time went on, I became his brother and confidant. That was when he started telling me the secrets about his life. He would wake me up at 3am and tell me things he would not tell anyone. One thing I cherished about our relationship was that God spared his life to the point where he regarded me as his brother.
As a soldier, how did he rule the family?
Ojukwu was a listening father. He would allow you to make mistake and then correct you. He liked to set example for others to follow. Once a child adores his parents, he will imitate what they do.
Your father was a rich man. Did he pamper you?
Ojukwu did not pamper his children. He showed them how to be independent. He was not pampered by his father so he did not know how to spoil his children. My father was a soldier and in the army, they don’t spoil young officers, they go through strict guidance.
My father played with his children but he knew when to draw the line. We dared not cross it. It was a character he imbibed as a boy. When his people were in difficulty in 1966, he could have sacrificed their well-being for a bottle of champagne or juicy position in government but he said no to all that. He stood for his people and remained with them till the end.
What does being Ojukwu’s son mean?
You came looking for me for this interview because I am Ojukwu’s son. There are more than 150 million Nigerians but you singled me out because of who I am. It’s a big challenge being his son. He told me that family value is a relay race. His father did well and gave him the baton. He lived a distinguished life and handed the baton to me. The challenge I am having now is that I must try and surpass what my father did so that I can hand over the baton to my children to continue the race. That is a huge responsibility because the whole world knows how great my father was. If your father sent you to England to be educated and you ended up sending your own child to a school in village, you have failed as a man. His achievements made my race harder.
What was Ojukwu’s philosophy?
Ojukwu’s philosophy was benign. He lived with the philosophy of give and take. He believed in equity and justice and that there is no median between truth and false. You cannot stand in the middle. He could play and dine with you but once you cross the line, he would fight you. As an Igbo leader, he did not compromise his principles. These are things that made him different from today’s politicians. Our leaders should learn to emulate Ojukwu’s loyalty to his people. Fear is a major obstacle to good governance. It aggravates gradually and develops into paranoia. You will even doubt your ability if fear seizes you. Ojukwu did not fear anyone. He was offered part of the nation’s wealth but he refused to take it because he did not want to be compromised. Many of our leaders know what to do to make Nigeria better but fear does not allow them to take the right decision. Ojukwu preferred to lose everything but his voice, which he used to speak the truth.
How did he respond when you offended him?
He never told me that I offended him. We were like friends so we cracked a lot of jokes together. He understood what I wanted to say even if I did not say it.
Which of his favourite food did you share with him?
That is a piece of information I will rather leave within the family. It’s not for the public. But each time he came to Lagos, my wife cooked his food. He would not eat elsewhere unless my wife prepared his food.
What were the things you noticed about him shortly before the civil war broke out?
I was not with him at the time, I was with my mother. You know he had other family members. So I did not notice any anxiety in him. I was already 10 years when the war started so I had formative understanding of what was going on around me. I fought the war from the boys company.
How could your father allow you at that tender age to fight in a war?
Where else would he have taken me to during the war? The most dangerous place to be is outside the military zone. As a military man, you will have your gun so you can defend yourself. I knew everything about the war. I did not read it in history book, I saw it all and I can relay how it went.
Were you not afraid that you and your father could be killed?
Ojukwu did not entertain fear in any situation so why should I fear death? He was the only head of state that fought in a battle; he did no stay back in the barracks. We were all there at the warfront.
He told me a story of how his best friend died beside him. They had gone on an inspection and reconnaissance as the federal troops advanced. There was a bomb and immediately, they both went down. When the dust settled, my father said he stood up and called his friend three times but he did not answer. Then he noticed shrapnel in his head. He was dead. He came close to being killed from mortar attacks by the federal troop several times. He said his friend was one of the brightest air force officers in Biafra during the war.
He told me another story of how he would have been killed in a plane crash. After getting a bomber plane, he was excited so he jumped into it and told the pilot to start the engine. He said he wanted to see how it would work against the enemies. The people around him were confused; they were worried that their leader could fly to the war front, to launch an attack. It was a duty reserved for the soldiers and the air force, but they were all afraid to approach him and tell him not to go. But his personal security man summoned the courage to tell him that it could be a fatal flight. That was when he disembarked from the plane. The fear of everyone was confirmed when a few hours later when the plane was attacked by federal troop and brought down.
Did the fear of arrest make him to go on exile?
Ojukwu was never afraid in any situation. He went on exile for 13 years and came back. He lived in this country till he died of old age. That shows you that he was a strong man. The man who started the American civil war did not survive it but my father did.
If he had succeeded in sustaining Biafra as a nation, what type of president would he have been?
He would have been an equitable president. He hated injustice because he experienced it. Maybe along the line there could be abuses but I suspect that Biafra under my father’s would have been a great nation.
Was Ojukwu religious?
Let me tell you another story about my father. We had the Biafra Defence Academy where soldiers were trained. One cadet officer finished as the best in his class in 1967 and while Ojukwu was inspecting the parade, he went to the man and gave him a rosary used by the Catholic parishioners to pray. That tells you how much he believed in God. He would have given the man a pistol or just a certificate but the rosary gift meant that the foundation of what happened at the time was the fear of God.
How did he celebrate birthdays?
He never did until he was an old man. I did the same. The first birthday I celebrated was when I clocked 40. I did not know it until my wife threw a party and invited everyone. She embarrassed me on that day.
Why are you keeping the same kind of beard your father had?
It’s nature. I have always had the beard from my university days at Nsukka (University of Nigeria). Most students did not know my name. They called me Ikemba.
What other values of Ojukwu did you imbibe?
Truth is the major quality I imbibed from him. I cannot tell lies. I say things the way they are. Truth was what my father stood for all his life. He did not steal his people’s wealth; he worked for what he had. I cannot involve myself in Nigerian politics because I cannot lie. Nigeria is well endowed to the extent that every child should have free education up to the university level.
Your father had more than one wife. Would you like to emulate him?
He lived the life of a polygamist but that is what we are. Odumegwu means a lion. Lions protect their cubs. Many women come to us in the family and we protect them by marrying them. God created women, so we cannot send them away. My grandfather had many wives too.
However, I am not going to be comfortable marrying more than one wife. It brings conflict into a family. But I can relate with more than one woman. Anything that happens in your life is ordained by God. When you have a lovechild, be kind enough to accept the child.
What is the most cherished property that you inherited from your father?
When my grandfather died, he gave my father economic dynasty. My father managed the inheritance well and added political dynasty to it. When he left, he gave me the economic and political dynasty. I am the custodian of the two great qualities and few Nigerians have that.
Punch Nigeria
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