3.) Completing the tripod from Eastern Nigeria is Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.
He was the first military governor of the former Eastern Nigeria, and subsequently became the leader of the secessionist Republic of Biafra from 1967 to 1970 during which the Nigerian Civil War raged. The Igbo see him as their own Moses, who tried to lead them out of the House of Bondage at a time they were being massacred in Nigeria for a coup they knew nothing about, even though some people chose to label it an Igbo coup. Consequently, anybody who criticises Ojukwu gets a barrage of attacks from the Igbo, no matter what supportive evidence in video or print the person puts forward. Ojukwu cannot do any wrong. An attack on him is an attack on the Igbo, it is believed. Close to him among the Igbo is Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria’s first non-executive president. Because Azikiwe was more pro-Nigeria than pro-Igbo, he does not have the same measure of cult following among the Igbo that Ojukwu has. But that does not mean that the Igbo feel happy with anybody who criticises Azikiwe.
