On November 4, 1933, General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the officer who led the former Eastern Region to secede as the Republic of Biafra and fought the 1967-1970 Nigerian Civil War, was born in Zungeru.
Ojukwu was born into the wealthy family of Sir Louis Phillip Odumegwu Ojukwu, one of Nigeria’s most prominent businessmen at the time.
His privileged background took him from Lagos to Epsom College in England and later to Oxford University, where he graduated with a degree in History.
He joined the Nigerian Army in 1957 and rose rapidly through the ranks, becoming Military Governor of the Eastern Region in January 1966.
Following the January 1966 coup and the July counter-coup, Ojukwu rejected the leadership of General Yakubu Gowon.
On May 30, 1967, he declared the Eastern Region an independent state — the Republic of Biafra — triggering a 30-month civil war that claimed over a million lives.
The war ended on January 15, 1970, with Ojukwu going into exile. He returned in 1982 after a presidential pardon by President Shehu Shagari and later ventured into politics.
Known as the Ikemba of Nnewi and Eze Igbo Gburugburu, Ojukwu died on November 26, 2011, in London at the age of 78. He was buried with full military honours.
