BIAFRA: WHEN WILL MY MOTHER COME BACK- PRINCESS ORJI

The Biafra Post | December 11, 2017

Princess Orji
Tears trickled down my cheek but not right before her; I went into my room and could not hold back, that was the first time of setting my eyes on the child that was born Eleven years ago in Onitsha prison. I did not tell her she was born in the prison yard and neither did I tell her her mother is suffering, I only told her to smile and study harder. But when I went into my room; the question she asked me echoed in my head, “When will my mother come back?” she asked as if her mother decided to stay away from her or hate to be with her.

I had a little chance to ask her what she was told was why his father and mother could not come back home for years and she murmured “Biafra”. She appeared incomplete without her mother; knowing no joy or happiness.

She had had the feeling and taste of being an orphan; a false situation created by time and circumstance. She also has a greater affection for her mother because instead of rejoicing over the presence of her father; she instead demanded to know when her mother will come back. I could not decipher what was going on in her head but the question left me powerless. If I had the power; I would have gone to Onitsha Prison yard and released her mother to her.

That is the conscience provocative question from Princess Orji; a black healthy little girl, she would be eleven years shortly, marking the month her mother was taken into detention and given birth to. Her mother regrets her situation simply because she was accused of treason, a crime she doesn’t know the meaning let alone application of it. Having no military experience and a pregnant mother in the remote part of Nigeria accused of plan to usurp the government of Olusegun Obasanjo back in 2006 is something more or a less a fairy tale.

But in Nigeria; the government is so wicked and insensitive that justice is fed to the dogs; Judges are but puppets in the hands of the ruling class while the entire judiciary lives in the pockets of the rich and political class. Her mother is one of the illustrations of what humanity is passing through in Nigeria, a lawless country without justice.

Standing and looking strangely at me; she was told that her father will be coming back; I had received the news that Innocent Orji will visit Aba to meet his only child he left ten years ago, so I worked hard to also travel to Aba and see if I could get news and reactions. But walking into a certain compound where his daughter was kept for the past ten years, her daughter stood akimbo, looking at me as I entered earlier than his father.

If she had taken a look at herself in the mirror; she would quickly know that I am not his father, but yet she starred further, knowing that anybody could be his father. It is a weird experience that after ten years; a man is coming back home to answer a father. But while I waited and watched her carelessly expect the man that would eventually be her father from that day onwards, I lost myself to the thought of what she has passed through for ten years.

Her father finally made it to the compound; she is the carbon copy of the man, but she was coy and was told to greet her father. She casually walked to his father and greeted under directive and his father held her about her shoulder and called her name. Some other persons had come to welcome his father; so there was no time to share that fatherly sentiment. But I walked to her father and asked him what he thought was why his daughter casually approached him without emotions.

“To her; after ten years, a man was just brought back and told is her father, I think she doesn’t know the meaning of fatherhood or had the idea, she would take time to understand and connect the feeling”, her father said to me and extended greetings to people that visited.

The little girl walked back to her seat and looked on like every other person that came; she must have been communicating with her father and mother but has never seen them back home. But when I approached her again and sat beside her; I asked her few questions. She talked childishly and coyly; but her guardian told me she is a bright student, always first in class, outstanding talent. Her father also told me that he often tell her to study hard and always come out first position that he would come back and buy her a prize.

When I tried to know what she discusses with them if they happen to call and she was around for a call; her father told me she always ask them when they would come back. That same question was the one she put across to me “When will my mother come back?”

The next day; I received a picture via my email; with a strange name who claimed to be the spokesman of General Innocent Orji. He captioned the picture Princess Orji, the daughter of Mrs Onyekachi Orji who is languishing in Onitsha Prison for nothing.

I investigated and found out that all her father could do was to give her daughter his cap and took a picture of her. That picture he may have used as screen saver; knowing that since ten years ago, that was everything he had and could achieve. But what her father cannot deny is the pain of his inability to timely bring back her mother to her.

Authored by Ifeanyi Chijioke

Editor/Publisher: Chinwe Korie
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Email: ckorie17@gmail.com
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