Dr. M.I. Okpara Was Different

 By Christopher C. Ulasi 

Dr. Micheal Iheonukara Okpara governed the nine states which made up eastern Nigeria from 1959 to 1966.  When the military coup of 1966 terminated his governorship on January 16, 1966 the only property he owned was an old bungalow he had in his village Umuahia Abia State.  When the Biafra war ended in January 1970 he desired to study Economics in an American University but he could not raise the fees.

In 1974 after he had gone back to brush up his medical knowledge and was in Edinburgh for his membership examination he shared a flat with a foreigner, a West Indian.