Word: ojukwu
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Today, Ojukwu's Biafra is a land of physical ruin. Crowded into hardwood forests and mangrove swamps that cannot possibly support them, Biafrans are starving to death, by a conservative estimate, at the rate of 1,000 a day. Most of the 4,500,000 refugees from all corners of Nigeria who returned to the Ibo heartland live in makeshift camps, totally dependent on scanty government and missionary rations. The price of staple foods has risen fantastically (cost of a dozen eggs: $4), and salaried work is almost nonexistent. Biafra's chance of survival shrinks with each...
Modern Bush War. From the beginning, there was no question among Ibos as to who must lead them. Ojukwu, besides his gifts of intellect and training, was the federal Nigerian governor of the Eastern Region and thus held the key to all its resources. True to his profound belief in Nigerian unity, Ojukwu first argued against outright secession and urged Easterners to settle for a radical loosening of ties with the rest of Nigeria. The ruthless slaughter by the North, he pleaded, was "the final act of sacrifice that Easterners would be called upon to make in the interest...
...point, Ojukwu and Gowon appeared to be headed for a compromise that would have allowed the Ibos a mea sure of autonomy and self-protection while still keeping them in the federation. But Gowon was unwilling to let the East maintain a separate army, finally brought the crisis to a head by decreeing a plan for twelve Nigerian states that would have cut the Ibos off from their oil and their coastline. Meanwhile, Ojukwu expelled Northerners from his region and built up his army. In the early hours of May 30, 1967, at a champagne reception in the regional capital...
...outset, Ojukwu received little sympathy
Furious Bursts. Ojukwu's antagonist is a dapper, 33-year-old son of a Methodist missionary. Yakubu Gowon, the commander of the federal forces, had no ambitions beyond serving as a competent staff officer of the Nigerian army until two years ago, when leaders of the Northern countercoup settled on him as head of state. Gowon was, at that point, the North's way of appeasing the South: besides practicing Christianity, he belonged to one of the smallest Northern tribes. Trained at Britain's Sandhurst military school, Gowon once shared barrack quarters with Ojukwu, but has neither his intellect...