This is the week of honour for the Ikemba Nnewi, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who died November 26, 2011, in a London hospital. Thousands of people will be gathering in Nnewi, his ancestral home to pay him their last respect. His remains will be intered in that town on March 3.

That event-which will be attended by the high and the mighty in Nigeria will be a fitting honour for a man who loved his people – the Igbo – to the extent that he could have died for them, if the circumstances had compelled him to do so. At a time that the Igbo people’s safety and future in the federation became threatened, he came out boldly to speak and act for them. When it became necessary, he went to war in defence of the people. Even after the war which cost a lot in terms of lives and fortune on both sides of the divide, he went into exile. He endured the burden and other associated hazards of living in a foreign land for many years before returning to the country after he was granted pardon.

His return to the country was particularly significant. It marked the real end of the hostility between the Igbo and the rest of Nigeria and the real beginning of the healing of the wounds inflicted by the war. It also became a proof of our collective desire to forget the past.

Ojukwu, the man who sacrificed so much to win for the Igbo their rightful place in the Nigerian federation and became the rallying point for his people, is now gone leaving behind several questions. What happens to the Igbo after Ojukwu? How will they cope without him and who will assume the role of leader of the Igbo?

Our cover story this week is first and foremost to honour this great Igbo man who has died and would be buried this week. But besides that, the story is also to address all the questions that are being asked concerning the future of the Igbo people now that the man who always stood for them in their troubled times has gone. The story titled: Ndigbo After Ojukwu was anchored by Anthony Akaeze, assistant editor