in their struggle, the people of biafra earned the respect of figures such as jean-paul sartre and john lennon, who returned his british honor, mbe, partly in protest against british collusion in the nigeria-biafra war. the former president of biafra, late general emeka odumegwu-ojukwu, stated that the three years of freedom allowed his people to become the most civilized and most technologically-advanced black people in the world. in july 2007, odumegwu-ojukwu renewed calls for the secession of the biafran state as a sovereign entity.