Ojukwu: Board Member of Awolowo Foundation

[Toyin Falola]

 

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OBAFEMI AWOLOWO FOUNDATION
28 LANRE AWOLOKUN ROAD
GBAGADA PHASE II
LAGOS
E-mail: cent...@awolowofoundation.org

December 2, 2011
PRESS STATEMENT ON THE PASSING OF CHIEF ODUMEGWU OJUKWU

The Ọbafẹmi Awolọwọ Foundation mourns the passing away of a leading Nigerian political figure, a fine officer and gentleman and one of our trustees, Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu.

Chief Ojukwu was invited to serve on the inaugural Board of Trustees of the Foundation almost 20 years ago. His choice was based on his renowned respect and admiration for Chief Ọbafẹmi Awolọwọ, whom he famously described as ‘the best president Nigeria never had’.

                 

Chief Ojukwu accepted our invitation to serve under the chairmanship of General Yakubu Gowon without any hesitation whatsoever, and by so doing, demonstrated his readiness to join hands with us to sustain and promote a worthy legacy and, perhaps more importantly, his resolve to lead by example in the national effort to put the past behind us. We will always treasure his association with the Foundation. 

We condole his widow, Chief Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu, his entire family, and the nation at large on the sad loss of this great Nigerian.

May his soul rest in perfect peace.
                                                           
For: Ọbafẹmi Awolọwọ Foundation                                                                               

 

 

Dr Ọlatokunbọ Awolọwọ Dosumu.                                       
Executive Director

 

Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
http://www.toyinfalola.com
www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa
http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs
http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue

[Assensoh, Akwasi B.]

Dear "Sir" Toyin:

Thank you very much for sharing with us below the historic news release from the Awolowo Foundation. In my upcoming intellectual memoirs, I have an entire chapter on the Nigeria-Biafra civil war, just as I saw it in Nigeria (as a Journalist) from the beginning to the end; including seeing the discussion by Igbo leaders of using "the rising" sun as their symbol. Indeed, without such a historic message from the Awolowo Foundation, many of us were under the wrong assumption that there was a lot of bitterness still ranging (or existing) between Chief Ojukwu and Dr. (General) Gowon.

Interestingly, I still remember that the Head of the UK-based University of Bradford Peace Studies Program, Professor O'Connor (under whom I did my first postdoctoral studies) was the External Examiner for General Gowon when he was completing his Ph.D. studies at University of Warwick, a real histoical coincidence! Also, I have a historic black and white photo of General Ironsi's first broadcast about the Nigerian coup, with then Colonel Ojukwu, Lt.-Colonel Yakubu Gowon and others crowded in the studios while the broadcast was going on. I see the picture as a "pictorial conspiracy", as it was interesting to see the northern and southern officers smiling in the picture while the broadcast was going on! Yet, the end was the Gowon-led coup d'etat that eliminated General Ironsi and several leading southern officers. Interesting!

Again, many thanks, "Sir" Toyin for deeming it necessary to share such a news release of great historicity from the Awolowo Foundation, which showed that Generals Gowon and Ojukwu were in social harmony before the Igbo Chieftain passed away.

A.B. Assensoh.
_________________
A.B. Assensoh, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
AAADS Department
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
USA
 

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [usaafric...@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Toyin Falola [toyin...@austin.utexas.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 6:53 PM
To: dialogue
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ojukwu: Board Member of Awolowo Foundation

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[Rex Marinus]

Dear Akwasi, General Ojukwu was a tolerant, sophisticated, and principled man. He took his own stand by the wickets, and the rest is history. Look, his willingness to serve on the board of the foundation with Gowon mirrors his willingness, even during that war, to meet and talk and arrive at compromises like gentlemen. Ojukwu was a thorough Igbo man. He had no absolutist instincts. There was always room for compromise; for given of grounds, and for engagement. But thank you for your witness. I hope you'd someday write and publish your account of those moments that you saw.
 
The thoughtful and kind letter by the Awolowo foundation is equally a grand and peaceful gesture. It is a great start. Perhaps given the place of Awolowo in the great conflict, and in the background of this halo of genocide around him, Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu and the Awolowo Foundation might think about starting the process of final reconcillation. Using the Awolowo Foundation they could find some way of engaging and partnering with the Chinua Achebe Symposium at Brown University. A joint conference on Nigeria and the Civil war to bridge that history and to open grounds for both dialogue and closure might be worthwhile. Knee-jerk reactions do not resolve these issues, neither does denying genocide. I have strong opinions about Awolowo, and I admit, that much is framed from my own readings about his political choices from 1937-1967. But I'd also came to know Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu when I was a writer at The Sundaya Magazine (TSM) and she was our neighbor at Ilupeju, and I admit I liked her quite a bit:)  I'm thus not surprised by the inner decency that permitted her to write the letter to Ojukwu's family. If Prof. Falola's posting of it is to prove anything, it is that it is possible to disagree without being dissagreeable. It is also possible for Dr. Dosunmu to roll off the ball and use the Awolowo Foundation to convene a conference in her father's memory towards genuine dialogue on the question of the Igbo genocide, starvation and the Civil war.
Obi Nwakanma

 

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From: aass...@indiana.edu
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
CC: anthony...@yahoo.co.uk
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: Ojukwu: Board Member of Awolowo Foundation
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2012 09:52:13 +0000

Dear "Sir" Toyin:

Thank you very much for sharing with us below the historic news release from the Awolowo Foundation. In my upcoming intellectual memoirs, I have an entire chapter on the Nigeria-Biafra civil war, just as I saw it in Nigeria (as a Journalist) from the beginning to the end; including seeing the discussion by Igbo leaders of using "the rising" sun as their symbol. Indeed, without such a historic message from the Awolowo Foundation, many of us were under the wrong assumption that there was a lot of bitterness still ranging (or existing) between Chief Ojukwu and Dr. (General) Gowon.

Interestingly, I still remember that the Head of the UK-based University of Bradford Peace Studies Program, Professor O'Connor (under whom I did my first postdoctoral studies) was the External Examiner for General Gowon when he was completing his Ph.D. studies at University of Warwick, a real histoical coincidence! Also, I have a historic black and white photo of General Ironsi's first broadcast about the Nigerian coup, with then Colonel Ojukwu, Lt.-Colonel Yakubu Gowon and others crowded in the studios while the broadcast was going on. I see the picture as a "pictorial conspiracy", as it was interesting to see the northern and southern officers smiling in the picture while the broadcast was going on! Yet, the end was the Gowon-led coup d'etat that eliminated General Ironsi and several leading southern officers. Interesting!

Again, many thanks, "Sir" Toyin for deeming it necessary to share such a news release of great historicity from the Awolowo Foundation, which showed that Generals Gowon and Ojukwu were in social harmony before the Igbo Chieftain passed away.

A.B. Assensoh.
_________________
A.B. Assensoh, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
AAADS Department
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
USA
 

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [usaafric...@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Toyin Falola [toyin...@austin.utexas.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 6:53 PM
To: dialogue
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ojukwu: Board Member of Awolowo Foundation

 

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OBAFEMI AWOLOWO FOUNDATION
28 LANRE AWOLOKUN ROAD
GBAGADA PHASE II
LAGOS
E-mail:

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Obi Nwakanma:

It is always amusing how you attempt to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, or spin whole cloth out of thin air...

Moving on...

There is absolutely no symmetry in the Awolowo Foundation and the Achebe Symposium co-organizing such a discussion that you mentioned below: it simply won't happen.  It would not have happened BEFORE this latest book by Prof. Achebe, with his previous vitriol against Awo; and it will certainly not happen now after the book.  Also, deep down, I believe that Prof. Achebe has written off Nigeria from his subconscious. although it intrudes his conscious, if that is not oxymoronic....

If there is to be such a discussion - and I have always believed that there should be, but under sober circumstances, and not histrionics - I believe that it should be handled on two planes:

1.  the Afenifere/Ohanaeze-led  socio-political-cultural plane, with the Arewa Consultative Forum chipping in;

2.  the OAU (University of Ife) / UNN-led  academic plane, with the Nigerian Defence Academy chipping in.

The outcome may be disappointing to many sides though...but I believe that it will ultimately happen, but before an Igbo-person presidency.

And there you have it.

Bolaji Aluko

[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

Thanks for your consistent efforts, Aluko.

They help us  see beyond smoke screens.

Any assessment of Biafran suffering that will not admit the culpability of Biafran leadership and wants to clamp a questionable genocide claim on Nigeria will not receive much respect from Nigerians. 

When it is coupled with ethnocentric triumphalism  it becomes nauseating.

Sad, though it is, it might be time to ask if Nigeria should not have prosecuted the Biafran leadership for dragging Nigeria into a preventable war by initiating war in unilaterally  excising land from Nigeria and prolonging the war without  reason.

 It might also be worth considering trying the leadership for crimes agaimst humanity for  letting Bifrans starve when the humane thing to do was to surrender rather than use their suffering as capital to continue fighting a losing war. 

These are sad questions, especially in the light of the efforts of Philip Efiong and Alexander Madiebo to set the record  straight and after Joseph Achuzia has already spent some time in prison after the war, but since those who were barely aware of their environments when these incidents took place, egged on by a person who should know better,  are insisting on vengeance, it might be wise to bring up these issues.

thanks

toyin

Compcros

Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems

"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"

[Rex Marinus]

Dr Aluko:
I gave a suggestion, you're not obligated to take it. But bear in mind that you can have all the symposia and talk you want, on whatever platform. But a talk is a talk if it has symbolic weight. In any case, your way of reading Achebe's mind or subconscious, ya mi l'enu! Achebe is rooted uwaveringly within his Nigerian identity. It is self-serving on your part, I dare say, to even suggest anything as ludicrous as your current position. Besides, I did not say that the Achebe symposium would even consider to be part of such a partnership. I was merely exploring a potential idea. It is in fact amusing that you keep waving this red rag of Nigerian presidency. I'll also tell you this, just in case you have not noticed: the presidency of Nigeria is not a condition for Igbo being. The Igbo are moving in a direction where it doesn't matter whoever is president of Nigeria; all they demand is fairness, truth, justice. Let a dog be president of Nigeria. That's the problem of Nigeria. The Igbo will try and make the most of it. Solid Igbo men do not even want to be president of Nigeria. You do not see them come out. They mind their own businesses quietly and watch Nigeria plod along. So you can keep the presidency of Nigeria until Nigerians are tired of running in circles and bring all its best hands on the deck. That's one point. The other point is that I have not seen you with a magic wand that turns anybody you annoint into the president of Nigeria. That's my way of saying, if serious Igbo seriously put their mind on the presidency of Nigeria, you can certainly bet they'd become it. I salute you.
Obi Nwakanma

 

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Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:04:33 +0100
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: Ojukwu: Board Member of Awolowo Foundation
From: alu...@gmail.com
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
CC: cent...@awolowofoundation.org; anthony...@yahoo.co.uk

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Obi Nwakanma:

Dr. Alex Ekwueme is one of the solidest of Igbo men and women alve - and until recently he wanted to be president. Is Prof. Pat Utomi not another?  I would say that Oby Ezekwesili is another prospect, as well as Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, but please not Dora Akunyili. Mba nu!

I wave no red flag or magic wand on Nigeria's presidency, but one thing that I know is that we still have not had  a president FULLY prepared for the job, I mean FULLY prepared.  And you know it (even though you pretend not to) that the sub-text of every marginalization talk of many of our Igbo compatriots is that an Igbo individual (man or woman) has not yet become an ELECTED (even if negotiated) civilian president in this post-military, post-Biafran dispensation, as a sign of the TOTAL redemption  - as it were - of Biafran involvement.  [When we had an argument before about no Igbo CIVILIAN President, you made strenuous arguments about the monumental constitutional powers of then President Azikiwe, that he was not a figure head President so I for one relented.]

Finally, I find many of your contributions about Nigeria affairs quite "imposing". To you, it appears that God is an Igbo potentate, and you are his Forrest Gump reporter on Earth, witness to all his Igbo contributions to the greatest events East, West or North of NIgeria.

And there you have it.

Bolaji Aluko

Shaking his head

[Rex Marinus]

Sir, you do me great disservice. How could I ever think God an Igbo potentate? No. Hear this now: God is not an Igbo potentate. There you have it. So, I could never be his all-knowing reporter. Infact, even if God appoints me his reporter, I shall humbly decline. Its too much power for a single man, and I really do not like that kind of burden. As for Azikiwe and the presidency, I stand by my position. Zik was not what you often like to call, and I suspect in perjorative terms, a merely  "ceremonial president." He was President and Commander-in-chief of the Republic, and he was elected by the Parliament of Nigeria. The constitution of the republic granted exceutive power to that office, with the Premier as his Chief Advisor and leader of the business of government in Parliament. That is head of goverment. In that position he nominated ministers to be appointed by the president. The power of the office of the president of the republic became significant once Nigeria assumed the status of a republic in 1963. It was not merely ceremonial. That's why we agree that real the first coup in Nigeria was by Webly Everad in 1964. Regarding Igbo men and women who want to be president,  I'd like to re-emphasize that the presidency of Nigeria is not a condition for Igbo being. Ekwueme and Utomi are not the most solid of Igbo men. There are many who could lead any state or nation of any configuration. These men and certainly women are not spending their lives obsessed and ventilating about being president. So, being the president of Nigeria is not  a condition for Igbo to stop being Igbo, and to become the Nigerian of your own terms. You do not place conditions on other people's aspiration for political leadership, why do you make the presidency of Nigeria conditional for the Igbo? That's the point of my quip. I'm sorry you think it "imposing." I salute you.
Obi Nwakanma

 

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Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2012 11:53:48 -0400