Biafra War Anniversary: 12 Unforgettable Quotes Of Late Ojukwu
Late military leader Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu headed the unsuccessful move by Biafra to secede from Nigeria that ended exactly 46 years ago on January 15, 1970.
For three years, Ojukwu fought to keep Biafra from being defeated. With supply lines cut, millions of Biafrans slowly starved to death.
After the civil war ended in 1970, the leader of the Biafra lived in voluntary exile.
The arrest of Radio Biafra director Nnamdi Kanu caused a spate in agitation for the independence of Biafra territories.
However, remembering how many people lost their lives in the civil war (up to three people were said to have died) Nigerians warned of not repeating the battle.
Famous General Ojukwu died on November 26, 2011, but his wise words will live forever.
To mark the anniversary of the conflict Naij.com has gathered top powerful quotes of the late Biafran leader.
1. “I still believe that the one thing that will bring peace, absolute peace, to this country, the type of peace we want attached to development, is to liberate Ndi Igbo and there is no better act of liberation than accepting that they have equal right in Nigeria.”
2. “It is said that the 1966 coup that failed was strictly an Igbo coup, but then the irony of history is that it was the late General Aguiyi Ironsi, an Igbo who single-handedly dismantled the coup in Lagos, while my humble self, another Igbo-man rendered it immobile in the north.”
3. “We are humans. We live. We fight, fight because the decision to be free is a decision taken freely and collectively, because to become involved in violent struggle for freedom is the only honor left to an oppressed people threatened with genocide, because in the final analysis the only true bulwark against death is to live.”
4. “The history of the world is a chronicle of oppression.”
5. “What I have become, in this struggle is the mouthpiece of my people. I go where they push and no more.”
6. “If a leader accepts himself as already dead to society, there will be no reason for cowardice in his leadership.”
7. ”We make no apologies for the social phenomenon known as the Biafran revolution; rather, we proclaim with pride the inevitability of our struggle, the indestructability of our people, and the assured finality of our success.”
8. “Since oppression is maintained by force, it is only possible to remove that oppression by a counterforce.”
9. ”Biafra is a child of circumstance. His existence and survival are always a marvel, sometimes bordering on a miracle. His life is a tribute to man, his courage is his endurance, his ingenuity is his humanity.”
10. “One thing that frightens leaders and lead them to a number of excesses is usually fear of death. No leader should fear death. In fact, you should accept the fact that from the moment of leadership you are sacrificed to death.”
11. “For unity to be meaningful it has to be creative, not the unity of Jonah in the whale but the unity of holy matrimony. The first can only lead to defecation, the second to procreation.”
12. “We do not play politics. We are not masochists; rather, we are people who choose to hunger a little to remain alive instead of feeding fat to become respectable corpses.”
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