By Meryl White
Impunity Watch Reporter, Western and Central Africa

ABUJA, Nigeria –  Forty years after the end of the Nigerian conflict, rebel fighter soldiers who fought for a breakaway state have been given their pensions. Emeka Ojukwu, a Biafran separatist, was one of the ex rebels fighters who had received payment for his retirement. Mr Ojukwu, who is now 74, was pardoned in 1980. After receiving his pension check, he was perturbed and stated that It was “an insult for people to address me as a Lt Col.”

According to a 2000 BBC report, Ojukwu felt no remorse for the civil war. Ojukwu was quoted in a 2000 saying “Responsibility for what went on – how can I feel responsible in a situation in which I put myself out and saved the people from genocide? No, I don’t feel responsible at all. I did the best I could.”

The Nigerian government has pardoned 63 rebels in an attempt to show that the country has come along way since the civil war. In 1967, the eastern region of Nigeria tried to break away from the country, and the conflict resulted in millions of death. Many of the deaths resulted from famine, and inadequate medical care and aid.

In 2007, at the 40th anniversary of the commencement of the Biafran war, Emeka Ojukwu reported to the BBC that the Igbo community, who reside in south-east Nigeria, still felt excluded and marginalized from Nigerian society.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Pensions Paid to Nigerian Rebels  – 15 January 2008

BBC- Biafra: Thirty Years On  – 13 January 2000

All Africa – Nigeria: Ojukwu – ‘I’m a General… Calling Me Lt Col is an Insult’ – 15 January 2008