53 years after the
Nigerian-Biafran war, old wounds have not healed. The consequences of the
violence and hate born during the war between the Easterners and their fellow
Nigerians have not died out completely. Many hearts are still hurting. Many
souls are still troubled. Many born after the war are looking for answers to
their questions.
The Nigerian
Government has left many questions unanswered. It has failed to render an
apology for the massacre and pogrom orchestrated against the Igbo race before
and during the civil war. It has failed to explain why it was so much engrossed
in a genocide against a people who had contributed so much to the growth and development
of Nigeria.
The anti-Igbo pogrom
in 1966 left thousands of Igbos dead and seriously injured. About 30,000 Igbos
were rounded up and slaughtered by irate youths and Muslim mobs.
What's more striking
in that event is that the Nigerian army actually led the slaughter.
Ethnomusicologist
Charles Keil, who was visiting Nigeria in 1966, recounted, "The pogroms I
witnessed in Makurdi, Nigeria (late September 1966) were foreshadowed by months
of intensive anti-Ibo and anti-Eastern conversations among Tiv, Idoma, Hausa
and other Northerners resident in Makurdi, and, fitting a pattern replicated in
city after city, the massacres were led by the Nigerian army. Before, during
and after the slaughter, Col. Gowon could be heard over the radio issuing 'guarantees
of safety' to all Easterners, all citizens of Nigeria, but the intent of the
soldiers, the only power that counts in Nigeria now or then, was painfully
clear. After counting the disembowelled bodies along the Makurdi road I was
escorted back to the city by soldiers who apologised for the stench and
explained politely that they were doing me and the world a great favour by
eliminating Igbos."
Frederick Forsyth in
his book ‘The Biafra Story’, noted that "the police and army not only
joined in but in many cases actively led the killing gangs, spearheading the
looting of the victims’ properties and the raping of their womenfolk."
The role of the
Nigerian army and police in the horrendous despatching of citizens of eastern
origin cannot be doubted nor can it be forgotten. But to date the Nigerian
government has not tendered an official apology to the Igbos for the war crimes
committed against them. Nobody has been brought to book. Nobody has been
arrested. In fact officers who led the slaughter are now paraded as heroes
instead of criminals.
The immediate
precursor to the massacres was the January 1966 Nigerian coup d’état led mostly
by young Igbo officers. But this does not justify why thousands of Igbos had to
pay for the sins of a few. This does not justify why the government had to play
the blind eye while thousands of Igbos were murdered.
The civil war that
ensued shortly after the pogrom displayed the barbarity of the Nigerian
Government. Rather than targeting the so-called rebels the army chose to pour
down fury on innocent Easterners. A typical example is the Asaba Massacre.
Scores of young men were gunned down after being called to a briefing in an
open square. It is estimated that more than 700 men and boys were killed, some
as young as 12 years old. To date no one has been questioned or arrested for
war crimes committed against Asaba people.
The blockade slammed
on Easterners proved to be more disastrous than bombs and bullets. The defunct
Biafra was cut out from the rest of the world and 3 million people died of
hunger. These were not "rebels". They were ordinary citizens.
Biafra was born on
the 30th of May. This date not only serves as a memorial for the birth of
Biafra, it infuses pain and questions in the minds of those whose people were
pummelled to the dust because of Biafra. Until the government apologize to the
Igbo people I see no reason why we should call Nigeria a united nation. Where
is the unity and sense of patriotism? Can a people whose ancestors were
butchered and traumatized be patriotic to Nigeria?
Most of the key
actors in the civil war are still alive. Personalities like Yakubu Gowon and
Olusegun Obasanjo still have breath in their nostrils. They should come down
from their horses and explain why the government was silent when the Igbo race
was being decimated. Gowon should apologise for turning a blind eye when
thousands of Igbos were killed under his watch.
Femi Fani-Kayode in
his article ‘A Morning of Horror and The Slaughter of Igbos’, writes, "To
those that want the Igbo to forget the past and to stay in Nigeria despite
their suffering, anguish, pain and sorrow I suggest that the best way of
convincing them to do so is to stop the hate, the lies, the historical
revisionism, the insensitivity, the bullying, the cheating, the ethnic
cleansing, the mass murder, the genocide, the Islamisation, the Fulanisation,
the callousness, the attempt to dehumanise and enslave and the deceit and
instead to show them love, compassion and understanding.
“Make them feel like
equals with other Nigerians and prove to them that Nigeria has much more to
offer them than the usual empty promises and vain hopes of a better tomorrow
and the ephemeral and deceptive illusion of perhaps one day achieving the
Presidency."
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