“No One Can Replace Ojukwu” – Bianca

As the 2nd year remembrance of late Biafra leader, Chief Chukwuemeka Odemegwu-Ojukwu, comes up in a few weeks, his widow, Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu is still mourning him. As she told an interviewer sometime back: "It will be contradictory to say that one has 'finished mourning.' You can never finish mourning such a man because he is irreplaceable. Yes, the external, the mourning attire can go, but it's still a very raw pain and it's a wound that will take quite some time to heal.

Because it's not just a function of missing him, there were so many aspects that he dominated. He was like glue. He was like a stabilising factor. He had an answer to anything. Any challenge that you are faced with, he could almost dissect and give you a sensible way forward and he was very accommodating of other people's views. He didn't believe he had a monopoly of wisdom.

These are the qualities that very few people possess. These are the qualities that he will be remembered for a long time.

He was a wonderful father to our children and did most things that a lot of fathers didn't have time to do. Even days when he didn't feel too well and I am going to their school to visit them, he would always want to go and personally buy gifts for them on their birthdays. He would sit with them, tell them stories, teach them songs, he would come down to their level and he was always worried about their welfare. He was a gentle giant. He was good with the kids and they miss him, I'm sure, even more".

(Citypeople)