Controversy is the author of history. The Nigeria-Biafra war was controversy writ large, and there’s no dodging the historical role of Ajie Anthony Ukpabi Asika in the war and its aftermath. Asika has had his critics, but there have been some contrarian voices speaking up for him against all odds. The words of Martin Luther King, Jr. can serve as a guide, for starters: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
When secession from Nigeria was all the rage among his fellow Igbo people before the breakout of the civil war in 1967, Asika dared to stand by his conviction as a Nigerian federalist. He did not feel convinced that high-wire emotion was the proper response to hideous pogrom. Some do lazily argue that embracing the federal cause back then made any Igbo person the darling of the federal forces. Nothing could be further from the truth, as the passage hereunder culled from the book First Call – An Account of the Gowon Years written by General Yakubu Gowon’s press secretary, Moses Ihonde, reveals:
Michael Ojukwu, an officer with External Affairs, had to show his service identification card before being allowed in. A military guard who first caught sight of his name hollered for the others to come and see his catch.
“You are Ojukwu?”
“Yes, I am.”
“You’re under arrest!”
“I am a foreign service officer.”
Before the poor man could complete the sentence, he was beaten so badly that he had to be hospitalised. Some Ministry of External Affairs’ colleagues who tried to intervene told the soldiers that Michael was not a Biafran or any relation of the secessionist leader; that he was not even an easterner, but a mid-westerner and, above all, a staunch federalist. To all of which the soldiers replied: “But why should he have let himself be called OJUKWU!?”
The man did not wait to get out of hospital before changing his name to Damassus.
To make the matter quite clear, it’s worthy of note that the delectable actress and singer, Stella Damasus, would have been known as Stella Ojukwu instead of Stella Damasus but for this near-death experience.
Let the truth be told: Asika could have been killed even from the federal side. Let’s illustrate the danger of the time with the story of my great friend, the desert conqueror, Chief Newton Jibunoh, as narrated in his biography, Hunger for Power:
Segun (Olusola) and I were always talking about the impending war and Segun kept assuring me that all would be well, saying “Look Newton, nothing will happen to you.”
One day, we were in Segun’s office when Major General Austen-Peters attired in uniform and looking very angry, walked in and asked Segun a lot of questions about the security situation at the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) because Segun was then the Director of Programs.
Then he asked Segun, “Do you still have Igbos here?”
Segun said, “Yes, so and so are here…”
There was I sitting with Segun and hearing all these angry enquiries about Igbos. It made me quite uncomfortable, so immediately Austen-Peters left with his gang of soldiers, I said, “Segun, I have to leave.”
This incident made me regret my hasty decision to return to Nigeria from my expedition…
Asika had to survive dangers such as faced by Michael Ojukwu and Newton Jibunoh before getting appointed as the Administrator of East Central State. His presence as a civilian leader instead of a military overlord helped a lot in the reintegration of the Igbo people after the war. He opted for soft power, encouraging a cultural resurgimento that made dancing troupes such as Nkpokiti and Atilogwu Nigerian prize-winning wonders. He enabled the founders, Jerry Enweazu, BSC Nzenwa and AW Ibe, to set up the civil conquering force, Enugu Rangers International Football Club, that had the temerity to beat the Nigerian Army football team immediately after the war! In the early days, some blokes refused to support Rangers because the team was seen as a saboteur’s club!
Asika brought home the groundbreaking writer, Obi Egbuna, to set up the Writer’s Workshop in Enugu. He ensured that the scientific feats of the war were re-enacted via the Project Development Agency (PRODA) headed by the inimitable Prof Gordian Ezekwe. His role in out-manoeuvring some Nigerian hawks toward the re-establishment of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) is the stuff of legend.
Asika remarkably allowed the state’s newspaper, Renaissance, to run almost independently with gifted fearless writers and journalists such as Austine Akagu , Agwu Nwogo, JC de Aguomba etc writing truth to power. A major regret of my brother, Isidore, when he served as the editor of Mister (MR) Magazine owned by Richard Mofe-Damijo was the abortion of his planned interview with Ukpabi Asika. The magazine had a policy of running long interviews like Hugh Hefner’s Playboy magazine, and the epochal date for the interview had been booked with Asika only for it to fall through because the then Military President Ibrahim Babangida suddenly fixed one state function that forbade movement all over the country, especially Lagos. That missed interview would have been a history-bearing collector’s item!
Some of Asika’s traducers would always cite the exchange the then East Central State Administrator had with Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, the great Zik of Africa, but I had it on good authority that they remained the best of friends to the very end.
Incidentally, what inspired me to do this article is the after-birthday Facebook post by Asika’s son, Obi Asika, thus: “I had to take a pic with the official portrait of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe at the National Assembly Senate Building – The first President of Nigeria, the first Senate President of Nigeria, the first Governor-General of Nigeria, First Premier of the Eastern Region. A scholar and athlete and Pan-Africanist, one of the most important Africans of his generation and of course I am extremely proud to be from Onitsha where he was from and of course never forgetting my Egbu massive on the Ejiogu side.”
Obi Asika is a reason to believe – like his father, Ajie Anthony Ukpabi Asika, who died on September 14, 2004.
