Dr. S. Okechukwu Mezu, a seasoned statesman, political theorist and diplomat of the Biafran era, aptly stated in his recent exclusive write-up and interview with Igboville forum about Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe "Who really is Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe?" "Once or twice in a century, nature or the Good Lord sends to a people a phenomenon. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Zik of Africa, was such a phenomenon. He was not just an Igbo man, he was a Nigerian, an African, a Pan-African and a black man. He was a man of great intelligence" -------Dr. S. Okechukwu Mezu.

This powerful statement, though made prior to the passing of Dim Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, seems to so perfectly apply to our Ojukwu as well, hence my adaptation of it in a published eulogy for Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu, Eze Igbo Gburugburu.

In part 1 of this note, I will proceed to reproduce verbatim, with full permission, the writings of one of the greatest scholars of Igbo origin, Dr S. Okechukwu Mezu, and conclude in Part 2 with his other note on Emeka Ojukwu. Dr Mezu is among the very few Igbo men alive that worked closely with both Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu. His views on these great Igbo, Nigeria and Africa greats is ranked highly among the most authentic, forthright and plain honest views available.

"Who really is Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe?" By Dr S. Okechukwu Mezu

Once or twice in a century, nature or the Good Lord sends to a people a phenomenon. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Zik of Africa, was such a phenomenon. He was not just an Igbo man, he was a Nigerian, an African, a Pan-African and a black man. He was a man of great intelligence who valued education and founded the University of Nigeria at Nsukka the progenitor of all universities in Nigeria. Before that, University College Ibadan (UCI) was affiliated with the University of London which also superintended their degrees. Dr. Azikiwe (an Honorary doctorate holder) attended Howard University (Washington, D.C.) and Lincoln University (Lincoln University, Pennsylvania). He earned a Law Degree like myself by correspondence from La Salle Extension University Law School, Chicago. Till today, he is still cherished at Lincoln University and he opened the door to many an African student. In 1998, Lincoln University, under President Niara Sudakasa, organized a symposium in honor of Dr. Azikiwe. It was attended by quite a galaxy of personalities including Dr. Julius Nyerere. My wife and I were at the conference.

azikiweWho really is Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe? In 1970, I edited a book with Dr. Ram Desai entitled, Black Leaders of the Centuries (301 p.). It was not an encyclopedia of black leaders. "The approach , in fact, is analytical rather than encyclopedic. Of primary concern was to identify those leaders (and several they were, are and will be) whose actions, and more important than actions, ideas and ideals have moved the centuries and changed or influenced the destiny of the black world; to identify those leaders whose philosophies, have gone beyond their countries, continents, islands; beyond their immediate geographical location and/or confinement and have caused a change of mind, a change of heart or even orientation amongst black people elsewhere and even the world at large." These identified leaders included Edward Wilmot Blyden, a pioneer West African Nationalist, William E. B. Du Bois, a Scientist and Public Figure, Booker T. Washington (maligned by many but contributed immensely to the education of the Negro) , Marcus Garvey and his brand of African Nationalism, Blaise Diagne and Lamine Gueye from Francophone Africa, Jean Price-Mars, the Father of Haitianism, Nnamdi Azikiwe, a Philosopher and a Man of Ideas, Kwame Nkrumah, a Leninist Czar (in the eyes of Ali Mazrui) Frantz Fanon, (symbolizing the myth and reality of the Negro) Malcolm X (who lived in the age of guns and rhetoric) and Martin Luther King, Jr. (the dreamer who had a vision). Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was a Pan-African Leader who happened to be Igbo. He has no compere in Africa, black or brown. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was a rational intellectual leader, the type Nigeria has not seen before and may never see again given the existential situation of today. With patience and equanimity, he sacrificed personal ambition and opportunism and peacefully, peacefully led Nigeria to independence coaxing the tardy North of Sir Ahmadu Bello and restraining the impatient West of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. A more peaceful transition there never was in the continent of Africa or in the history of colonial transfer of power. The chief architect, Dr. Azikiwe, was prepared to play second fiddle to less educated, less experienced, lesser known individuals for the sake of peace, unity and tranquility in Nigeria. His goal, like our own aspirations, was the unity of Africa and the communality of the black world.

For a Pan-Africanist like Dr. Azikiwe (as it was for some of us), the disaggregation of the Luggard Nigerian conglomeration (legitimately or illegitimately conceived) was antithetical to all he fought for and lived for all his life. When Dr. Azikiwe found himself in the Biafran enclave, when the fever of war reached uncontrollable degrees, and dissent was tantamount to insurrection and treasonable felony, a crime against the state, Fabian and pragmatic in his philosophy and conscious of the fact that he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day, suspect to the regime and sidelined because of that, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe wrote the Biafran National Anthem. When the Biafran Government could not make any headway on the international arena, Dr. Azikiwe was called upon (like Dr. Michael Okpara and others) to lead delegations to various African and Caribbean countries to explain the Biafran cause and seek recognition for the new nation. I was then the Deputy Director of the Biafran Office in Paris with Ambassador Ralph Uwechue as Director. My schedule of duty, amongst other things, included picking up from the airport every arriving Biafran dignitaries and their security - Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Dr. Michael Okpara, Prof. Kenneth Dike, Chief C. C. Mojekwu, Air Force Officer Chudi Sokei (killed during the war), Sir Louis Mbanefo, Sonny Odogwu, Dr. Pius Okigbo, etc. - a great responsibility for sometimes five or more of these precious dignitaries had to squeeze into my then brand new Sports Car - Simca Mille Berton - bought March, 1967 with my graduate scholarship and fellowship stipends from the Federal Government of Nigeria, Graduate Fellowship from UNESCO and The Johns Hopkins University Graduate Felllowship. To paraphrase General Gowon, money then was no problem, the problem was how to spend it. That Simca is still preserved till today as a relic of the Baifran War.

One evening in 1968, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe had arrived in Paris and I lodged him at the Hotel Napoleon Paris, 40 Avenue de Friedland, 75008 Paris, France a stone throw from the Etoile. I promised him, I would be back by 8:00 p.m. to take him out to dinner and a movie. I was there promptly at eight. I walked into his hotel room. He was sitting on the bed and putting on his socks. I still do not remember how the conversation started. But when I looked at my watch, it was 4:00 a.m. in the morning. I wish, I wish, I wish I had taped the conversation - a detailed course on the beginnings of Nigerian Politics, the journey to independence, the Foster-Sutton Tribunal, an attempt to nail him and imprison him over the African Continental Bank, how the Igbos rallied and overnight recopied volumes and volumes and volumes of ACB bank ledgers, rubbing the new books with soot mixed with palm oil to age and validate. He spoke about the constitutional conferences, his time as Leader of Opposition in Western Nigeria, Premier of Eastern Nigeria, the chance to team up with Chief Awolowo and become Executive Head of Government of Nigeria, the decision to rather save the Nigerian Federation by aligning with NPC to become a ceremonial Governor General of the Federation yielding the Prime Ministerial post to a school Headmaster Sir Tafawa Balewa to ensure the British granted Nigeria Independence on October 1, 1960 and finally the bombshell - the Biafra War of Independence (Secession). "When under a military regime and the soldier points a Gun at you," ended Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, "you raise up your hand in submission and say 'Yes Sir!'" "But then," he continued "when you are out of the range of his gun or he drops his gun under a civilian regime, you leisurely roll up your flowing Agbada, (one thousand five hundred style) first with the left hand, then with the right hand and ask him - Gbo Di Anyi - what was it you were saying yesterday?".

Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe despite the strong reservations he had about the Ojukwu's declaration of the independence of Biafra, worked with his heart and soul to seek recognition for the new regime and to save the Igbos. The NCNC under Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and after him, Dr. Michael Okpara funded the independence movement in Nyerere's Tanzania and Kaunda's Zambia. The two nations refused to recognize Biafra until they personally saw Dr. Azikiwe and confirmed where he stood on the issue of secession. General Ojukwu had no alternative but to allow Dr. Azikiwe travel out of Biafra. Dr. Azikiwe traveled to East Africa and obtained recognition for Biafra from the two countries. In the case of President Kaunda, Dr. Azikiwe would tell us later, he, Dr. Azikiwe, rubbed Mentholatum on both eyes just before he entered the room to meet President Kaunda. As Dr. Azikiwe tried to narrate the suffering and pogrom in Biafra, tears profusely and freely flowed from his eyes President Kaunda burst into tears himself and stopped him immediately. "My Master, what do you want?" he said. "Recognition of Biafra," said Nnamdi Azikiwe. "It is done, you have it," said President Kaunda who gave him a handkerchief to clean his teary eyes. Dr. Azikiwe was personally responsible for at least two out of the five countries that recognized Biafra. Incidentally, tears worked wonders during the war. In Paris, President Houphouet Boigny was visiting Paris with his wife. We had just helped a French team go to Biafra to prepare a one hour program on French TV "Cinq Colonnes à la Une." After watching this program on the suffering of the children of Biafra, Mme Houphouet Boigny cried and cried and refused to eat until the husband President Houphouet Boigny did something about Biafra. The husband obliged and met President General de Gaulle who declared following that meeting that "Le Biafra a le droit à l'autodetermination." [Biafra has a right to self-determination]. Once back in Abidjan, President Houphouet-Boigny recognized Biafra and General Ojukwu appointed me Biafra Ambassador to Ivory Coast with concurrent accreditation to West African States.

Finally, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe is a leader any tribe, nation, country, continent would cherish to have any day, any time, any generation - a consummate intellectual, a pacifist, a democrat par excellence, rational, never impetuous, ever willing to listen to all sides, a man of indefatigable energy. He was seventy-five years old when we (R. B. K. Okafor, Jim Nwobodo, Sam Mbakwe, Solomon Lar, Paul Unongo, myself and a host of others) called upon him in 1979 to lead NPP (Nigerian Peoples Party) as the standard bearer and Presidential Candidate - a party formed and organized by Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim who then renamed his branch of the party GNPP (Great Nigerian Peoples Party). Dr. Azikiwe was ever ready to campaign from ten in the morning till three A.M. the following day in the service of his people, the Igbos.

Would Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe have seceded from Nigeria and declared Biafra's Independence if he were in control of the situation. The answer is definitely NO. Would Dr. Azikiwe have worked out an accommodation under the Aburi Accord that projected a Confederation. The answer is definitely YES. General Ojukwu is General Ojukwu and Zik of Africa is Zik of Africa and never, never the twain shall meet.

John Okiyi Kalu Writes

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