gidgiddy:
Ojukwu was interviewed in the early 2000's by former Saharareporters journalist, Rudolph Okonkwo. Ojukwu spoke on a wide range of things such as the war, Awolowo, Gowon, Biafra and the future of Nigeria. Below are excerpts from the interview as well as the link to the full interview.

On Awolowo:

"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. He tried like an elder statesman to find a solution. Awolowo is a funny one. Don’t forget that the political purpose of the coup, the Ifeajuna coup that began all this, was to hand power over to Awo. We young men respected him a great deal. He was a hero. I thought he was a hero and certainly I received him when I was governor. We talked and he was very vehement when he saw our complaints and he said that if the Igbos were forced out by Nigeria that he would take the Yorubas out also. I don’t know what anybody makes of that statement but it is simple. Whether he did or didn’t, it is too late. There is nothing you can do about it. So, he said this and I must have made some appropriate responses too. But it didn’t quite work out the way that we both thought. Awolowo, evidently, had a constant review of the Yoruba situation and took different path. That’s it. I don’t blame him for it. I have never done"

On Igbos and the Biafran agitation:

"The formation of a country where Igbos would be majority? I have never opposed it. If the Igbos feel that things are best for them in a country of their own, why shouldn’t they have it? If after all we have been going through in Nigeria we feel that Biafra is best, we have every right to seek to re-create Biafra or any other place. Let us not make the mistake of thinking that this world is a prison. You are what you are for as long as it is comfortable for you. That is how I see it"

On Gowon and the war:

"They unleashed a massacre. We tried to contain them; they unleashed a second wave more vicious than the previous one. I looked upon the situation, did the best I could for our people who were scattered all over Nigeria. I said okay, this is our boundary. If you can find your way back to within this area, whatever there is within this area would be shared amongst all of us. You have as much right here as anybody who happened to be here. That actually is another way of seeing the declaration of Biafra and they had a goal and aim in their flight. The other thing to bear in mind is that we didn’t really wage a war. What we did was resist Gowon’s coup d’état and I hope that he would enter the Guinness Book of Records as the person who has waged a coup longer than any body else because the whole three years, he was actually trying to legitimize his coup"

On fleeing Biafra:

"What I considered was to fight the war to the best of our ability and give a leadership to our people for as long as I could. If you remember, when I left Biafra I went in search of peace. I went trying to get hold of Houphouet-Boigny, the president of the Ivory Coast. He happened to be in Cameroon. By the time he came back and we had a discussion, my number two, General Effiong, had surrendered. That was the way it came about. But all that notwithstanding, I know many people would have loved a dead Ojukwu but I would not oblige them. I intend to live for very, very, much longer and I intend also to be quite vocal in politics for as long as I can"

On the 36 states:

"I don’t know who decided on a structure of 36 states, but I say, if we decide to review it, why shouldn’t we? Those states, you and I must understand, were mainly punitive creations rather than a need for economic advancement of Nigeria or Nigerians. Let us stop burying our heads in the sand. We have had national emergencies and managed to get out of it. Let us look at each other eyeball to eyeball and decide the type of country that we want to live in. I believe that is essential"

On the future of Nigeria:

"The worst thing about Nigeria is that here is a nation that has so much potential but the only problem is that everybody seems unprepared to face the problems or the realities of the Nigerian situation. There is absolutely no way you can look at the Nigerian federation, the way it was conceived, and say it is a good federation. One of the federating units is bigger than the other units. The other thing is that everything that has worked in Nigeria, or appears to have worked, seems very much to have been an imposition. The idea that sovereignty belongs to the Nigerian people is all fiction as far as Nigeria is concerned.

Source: http://saharareporters.com/2011/11/26/my-last-interview-dim-chukwuemeka-ojukwu-rudolf-okonkwo

WeneWali:
Thank you my brothers for countering yoruba liars who claim that Awo in calabar was released by Gowon in lagos when Calabar as part of the East under Ojukwu never took orders from Gowon who was illegitimate in the eyes if the East at that time.

The knobheads were even parading a video of Gowon and Awo taking pictures after his release by Ojukwu as 'evidence of Gowon's release of Awo'.. Laughable

Whoever controlled the East released Awo, and that person was Ojukwu.

Except they want to tell us that Kim jon un of North korea can decree the release of a prison in South korea. Laughable yoruba argument.

They are too ashamed to admit the truth because it makes them look like ingrates that they are.

imhotep:

Eze Igbo Gburugburu Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.

ThatFairGuy:
Biafra evening newspaper
[s][/s]

YorubaHero12:
H

SLAP44:


A better officer than this has never been commissioned in this country.

WeneWali:
Thank you my brothers for countering yoruba liars who claim that Awo in calabar was released by Gowon in lagos when Calabar as part of the East under Ojukwu never took orders from Gowon who was illegitimate in the eyes if the East at that time.

The knobheads were even parading a video of Gowon and Awo taking pictures after his release by Ojukwu as 'evidence of Gowon's release of Awo'.. Laughable

Whoever controlled the East released Awo, and that person was Ojukwu.

Except they want to tell us that Kim jon un of North korea can decree the release of a prisoner in South korea. Laughable yoruba argument.

They are too ashamed to admit the truth because it makes them look like ingrates that they are.
.

gidgiddy:


It would be an embarrassment to many Yorubas that the Ojukwu they maligned for years was the one who released their hero

WeneWali:


Definitely better than your Tinubu yoruba nation newspaper which is only good for wrapping hot boli.

gidgiddy:


It would be an embarrassment to many Yorubas that the Ojukwu they maligned for years was the one who released their hero

ThatFairGuy:

Hypocrites.
The same TVC did this documentary below which you didn't go against! https://www.nairaland.com/5845131/how-nnewi-became-nigerian-town

SLAP44:


A better COWARD than this has never been commissioned in this country.

ThatFairGuy:

Joke on you
Who'll believe biafra evening newspaper

YorubaHero12:
Ojuku is a morafuka that played on the intelligence of the Igbos to sell to them a reason to hate Awolowo so he can blame him for the war loss. Foolish man sacrificed his people, went to war without food, lost the war, ran away disguised like a woman, and blamed his enemy for not giving him food and hence reason for the loss of war.

Below is the New York Times prints of 1966 that clearly showed Gowon Released Awolowo. They narrated that Awo drove to Gowon’s office after the helicopter brought him from Calabar prison. (Check the 4th Image). The video is posted in the next post.

Infact he not only released Awolowo, he released Enahoro, Lateef Jakande, Samuel Onitiri, Sunday Ebiotoma, and Michael Omishade the same day.

I will attach the video to the next post to verify too.

ThatFairGuy:

Thanks for refuting these lies from them and thier COWARD hero.

gidgiddy:


It would be an embarrassment to many Yorubas that the Ojukwu they maligned for years was the one who released their hero

SLAP44:


The only people that denies obvious facts are those ashamed of their past.

YorubaHero12:
Ojuku is a morafuka that played on the intelligence of the Igbos to sell to them a reason to hate Awolowo so he can blame him for the war loss. Foolish man sacrificed his people, went to war without food, lost the war, ran away disguised like a woman, and blamed his enemy for not giving him food and hence reason for the loss of war.

Below is the New York Times prints of 1966 that clearly showed Gowon Released Awolowo. They narrated that Awo drove to Gowon’s office after the helicopter brought him from Calabar prison. (Check the 4th Image). The video is posted in the next post.

Infact he not only released Awolowo, he released Enahoro, Lateef Jakande, Samuel Onitiri, Sunday Ebiotoma, and Michael Omishade the same day.

I will attach the video to the next post to verify too.