Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu’s last wish was not the election of Peter Obi as Anambra State Governor for a second term but a decent burial ceremony for dead Biafran soldiers, says his son, Emeka Ojukwu Jnr.
In the election in 2010, the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) had campaigned with the slogan that the wish of Ojukwu, who later died in 2012, was that Obi should be re-elected.
But Ojukwu Jnr dismissed the claim as political gimmick by Obi to curry support for a second tenure.
He said his father’s last wish was for dead Biafran soldiers to be given a befitting burial, which was eventually done on January 12, 2015 at the Alex Ekwueme Park, Awka.
His words: “It was a very emotional day for me. I tried to hold back tears and I don’t think that it would have been right for me to shed tears on national television. It was very emotional for me to sit there, and I was very much aware of the implication of literally sitting in my father’s seat.
“He should have been sitting there and I was truly representing him and people who came and paid condolences were not to me but to him.
“I thought of all the years since after the war and all the experiences that I had with him and those he had with some other people, and truly that was his last wish. The other one was more of a political statement of Anambra people; re-electing Peter Obi for a second term.
“His last wish was for the war heroes to be honoured and I was happy to be part of it. We are extremely grateful that we have Governor Willie Obiano who is a man.
“Really others would be afraid to take that step and he had the audacity to take it and this is a day I will not forget.
“On that day, we saw the old soldiers such as Achuzie, Nwobosi, Ben Gbulie, and Emma Odeaja. It was a wonderful day.”
Ojukwu Jnr reiterated that Obi was having issues with his campaign “so he had to come up with something to make him win and it worked.”
