AMAECHI, ORJI, ODILI, EULOGISE OJUKWU

Glowing tributes flowed freely yesterday in Port Harcourt to the late former military governor of old Eastern Region and Ikemba of Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka  Odumegwu-Ojukwu at the Rivers State stanza of his burial ceremony.

Rivers State governor, Mr. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi; Governor of Abia State, Theodore Orji, former Rivers State Governor, Dr Peter Odili and the former President of Nigerian Bar Association, O. C. J. Okocha (SAN) were among those who paid tributes to the departed former Biafran leader.

At the auditorium of the Rivers State House of Assembly, venue of the event, Governor Amaechi lauded the character traits and leadership vision of Ojukwu, highlighting Ojukwu's willingness to fight the perceived injustice against his people.

He said: 'My understanding then of Ojukwu is that he was a man who could not withstand injustice, and as a student of art or history, you know that the beginning of a struggle is the presence of an attempt by a group of people to deny the rest their right of existence, and Ojukwu felt that he could lead his people out of the injustice meted on them by the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

'What all the Igbo and all of us who belonged to the old Eastern Region then are doing now is to celebrate Ojukwu's achievements as a governor and as leader of his people.'

Amaechi noted that while Ojukwu did not win the Nigerian Civil War, he brought political victory to his people.

'The Nigerian Government may have won the military victory but the political victory was won by the Ibos because they established the fact that they are not a people you can ignore in the Federal Republic of Nigeria anymore,' he said.

Also describing him as loving and kind, Governor Amaechi encouraged those in the former Eastern Region to emulate Ojukwu's laudable qualities that distinguished him in the social and political landscape.