As the agitation for a new republic of Biafra draws more attention, there has been a debate on the role of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the Biafran war. Below is what late Biafran leader Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu had to say about it in a 2001 interview.

When asked by Rudolf Okonkwo if Awolowo ever made the promise of seceding with the Yorubas should the Igbos leave Nigeria, Ojukwu said;

"We’ve said this over and over again, so many times, and people don’t understand; they don’t want to actually. If you remember, I released Awolowo from jail. Even that, some people are beginning to contest as well. Awo was in jail in Calabar. Gowon knows and the whole of the federal establishment knows that at no point was Gowon in charge of the East. The East took orders from me. Now, how could Gowon have released Awolowo who was in Calabar? Because of the fact that I released him, it created quite a lot of rapport between Awo and myself and I know that before he went back to Ikenne, I set up a hotline between Ikenne and my bedroom in Enugu. ............
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I feel that I have a responsibility to always point out the deficiencies of Nigeria and to keep alive the alternative. That’s why I say that there will always be, if not the Biafra of territory, Biafra of the heart. - Ojukwu, 2001