December 6, 2017
Cover story : TheBiafraPost
It is very crucial to know that Nzeogwu started that very 1967 civil war that ended with Ojukwu; Ojukwu in an effort to correct the mistake of Nzeogwu his flesh and blood which had brought hatred and death upon our people found himself in inevitable war. Eastern Nigeria was in control of Nigeria and everything therein until Nzeogwu a Biafran from present Delta state struck, his coup disorganized us. His coup was tagged Igbo coup and a tribal hatred began, pogroms began to happen and present southsouth and southeat suffered pogroms together in the hands the oligarchy. There was no difference between them; one flesh and one blood and that was how God made them.
Ojukwu was stable; he had everything but he could not watch while that coup kept taking lives of his people. Aguinyi took over and within a short time; old eastern people were subjected to ethnic cleansing, the killing started long before Ojukwu declared self defense and the killing did not start because of Aguinyi’s death or anything else but because Nzeogwu led a coup which was tagged our coup by the North. Let me humbly remind you all today that it started from Delta state and ended with Anambra state. That was how strong the bond; we don’t leave our own, we fight together and we die together. It is true that when the war came; it was devastating, we lost focus and to survive- we killed ourselves. The war is over; let us today regroup and stop ranting and get out from this slavery for we are conquered people.
I boarded a cab last two months when I visited Asaba Delta state and the driver tried to interact with me in English language, I technically opposed and told him I am an Igbo speaking person. He laughed and said he is Delta and not Igbo. Then I picked interest and without any atom of joke; asked him if he is Hausa; he strongly shuddered in disagreement, I asked again if he is Yoruba, he said no but not without saying “I am Delta Igbo; our Igbo is different from your Igbo, we are Delta Igbo”.
I laughed remarkably and explained to him that we have three major tribes in Nigeria and you are either one among the three. We have Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba and one must come from either one before being conscious of his definite. I was not surprised because I often hear such thing; I hear abandoned properties and I hear sabotage by core Igbo speaking Biafrans. I even heard that Ken Sarowiwa helped Nigeria gave out Bakassi Penusilla to Cameroon, a land that was strategic to the war. Verily, verily I say unto you; they shall call you friend, buy you cars, promise you heaven and earth to side them against your flesh and blood, but they shall kill you after they have killed your flesh and blood like they killed Ken Sarowiwa.
This is not one sided; a core Igbo speaking Biafran also sees his brothers -de politically divide called southsouth as strangers. One has practically told me that it is time core Igbo speaking Biafrans forget Biafrans across the river because they have lost their root. He wondered how they could think that oil is the reason for identifying and decried that one thing is wrong with every Biafra. “Biafrans from Enugu or Akwaibom have one thing in common. We always claim to have sense and conscious of nonsense” He cited that it is an embarrassment to think the reason for unity is because of resources even when Northern politicians steal the oil and pollute our land. He further said that Eight (8) out of ten core-Biafra states have oil and the two without oil has more than oil. He went further to telling me that Southsouth betrayed Biafra; looted their own and claimed abandoned properties of their own flesh. He wondered how they all got killed in the north and instead of come back home stronger, they found divide among themselves.
But when I looked back; I realized this is one of the spoils of the civil war; we were battered and starved and brothers turned against brothers to feed. Fathers turned against sons and sons against daughters, mothers even turned against their children. That war broke down our defenses and made us vulnerable; we sold our conscience to please our flesh and embraced our enemies to spare our lives. We turned against each other to survive and we lost our root for they bombed and filled our root with our blood. Blood covered our eyes that brother could not recognize his brother and the subsequent generation lived in denial. We are all victims of the civil war; that is the reason we must persevere and gradually restore our severed root or identity.
The imperatives of this very topic is to remind the few still
left behind to understand that Biafra is our identity. It beats my imagination
that after a clear history; knowing the truth that there was a political attack
against our unity, a man allows self to be controlled to destruction. We were
old eastern region; we were killed together as one people and our rivals knew
we were not different but flesh and blood. They invaded our land; afraid of our
strength and they systematically divided us by creating states and tagging us
artificial names. But I have not come to cry or lick the wounds of the civil
war; I have come to remind us what really caused our problem today and
scattered us without value.
Story by Ifeanyi Chijioke a thinker, revolutionary writer, a senior journalist in TheBiafraPost and socio-economic and political analyst that writes from Onitsha in Eastern part of Biafraland
Published/Edited by Anyi Kings
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