A classic 2001 interview with Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu

As we enter the 3rd week of January, we remember, as always, the coup of January 15, 1966 led by Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. It was the day when Nigeria, hobbling along since the amalgamation of the Southern and Northern protectorates in 1914, finally lost its wheels. One of the military officers who helped to foil the coup was Lt. Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, who was stationed in Kano. Ojukwu, later on, led- the breakaway Republic of Biafra that emerged as an unintended consequence of the coup. On July 9, 2001, I interviewed Ikemba Nnewi, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in Boston, USA.

Over twenty years later, the interview is still as relevant as it was in understanding the Nigerian conundrum. For the young ones just getting into the arena, this will be a lesson in Nigerian history. Enjoy.

RUDOLF OKONKWO: “The Federation of Nigeria is today as corrupt, as unprogressive and as oppressive and irreformable as the Ottoman Empire was in Eastern Europe over a century ago. And in contrast, the Nigerian Federation in the form it was constituted by the British cannot by any stretch of imagination be considered an African necessity. Yet we are being forced to sacrifice our very existence as a people to the integrity of that ramshackle creation that has no justification either in history or in the freely expressed wishes of…