Among the people referred to as Biafra, there are different principles by which they live and even name their children. One of those is the principle of Ozoemena, which is both a name and a statement. When something horrible happens, maybe a family is bedeviled by the serial death of their children, a new baby could be called Ozoemena. The same goes for people who had one misfortune or the other. The ultimate misfortune is the evil of death. Although a resilient people, every other thing but death is tolerable to Biafrans. But there is so much a people can take.
Today marks the 53rd Anniversary of the declaration of Republic of Biafra by then Lt. Col. CO Ojukwu, the Ikemba Nnewi and Eze Igbo Gburugburu. That declaration, which resulted from Gowon’s decision to ignore the Aburi Accord, led to a genocide which is erroneously called a war. In hindsight, everybody wants to tell the story in a way that justifies his actions and inactions, but the truth remains unchanged. The massacre which had started in the north, forced Biafrans to run to the east for their lives. The government of the day under Yakubu Gowon implicitly supported the displacement of Biafrans by refusing to stop the madness. Already pushed to the walls, Biafrans had no where else to run, so they declared a republic and defended Biafraland, and for 30 months Nigeria got more than she bargained for. No thanks to Britain, Ozoemena!
Every time leaders fail to discharge their duties and make lame excuses, people die physically, emotionally, psychologically, mentally and otherwise. It doesn’t matter whether you are a military leader like Gowon, or Business leader like Bill Gates or Civilian leader like Trump, the principle is the same. You can kill a people by killing their hope, their enthusiasm, their confidence in themselves and their commitment to you. I refuse to point fingers but Gowon has not yet explained why he wasted almost 3 million of my people between 1967 and 1970. I do not care who thinks otherwise, the international court of justice should summon Gowon before he dies, to explain what he did with the blood of the soldiers, the children, the women, the elderly and all manner of people killed by the barrels of the gun and through starvation. More people probably died of kwashiokor than by the barrels. How shameful! Ozoemena !
Today, the music and the beatings of war that filled the air by this time 53 years ago are here again, and maybe louder. This time, not only are the Arewa youths threatening sulfur and brimstone in the north, the Fulani herdsmen have occupied all the bushes and forests of Biafraland with their AK47 and their cattle waiting for further instructions. Everyday, we hear about farmlands destroyed, crops eaten up, people threatened/harassed and people’s lands illegally occupied by herdsmen and their cattle. In Dunukofia, Anambra State for example, women were shown weeping and wailing for their farmlands that have been decimated by cattle. We are worried about the food insecurity that is imminent with Corona virus, now we have to worry about cattle eating up whatever is available on the farms. What are the poor village women farmers supposed to do against men with AK47 in the bush? Does Buhari want these women and their children to die of Kwashiokor and all manner of nutritional marasmus, again?
Not once has the President of Nigeria condemned this ugly trend in the strongest possible terms. Even when these Fulani herdsmen have killed and wiped out entire villages, the presidency called them “herdsmen-villagers clashes”. There is a difference between clashes and onslaughts. Attack is not the same thing as fight…there is always a root cause to a problem and it is only when a people have agenda that they brush over issues and make them sound mild for political gains. This government needs to learn from the government of Gowon how to not let a situation degenerate to war. if this war begins, Nigeria will probably become history. When they are treating you for diarrhea and you start manifesting other serious symptoms, do you have a deal with the spirit of death and the evil forest? Ozo emena!
This music that herdsmen and the people that gave them AK47 are playing, when the dancers start dancing to it, may it be well with both parties. Today in Biafraland we remember, with tearful eyes, all those who died for the struggle. Although the government has refused to give them befitting burial, we observe a moment of silence for them and we pray that their souls will continue to rest in peace. The reality is that people have died, government is suffering from leadership leprosy but the Spirit of Biafra cannot be quenched, not even by the whole forces of Nigeria and Britain put together. We are a peace loving people, we do not advocate for war, but we cannot abandon what Biafra represents for her people. Biafra would have been 53 years old today but Nigeria seems to have learnt nothing in 53 long years. After the war in 1970, Gowon gave every Biafran that had a bank account before the war 20 pounds (GBP), and those that had no bank accounts got nothing. Out of that nothingness a great multitude of entrepreneurs have been raised in 50 years. Today, we weap, not for Biafra, but for Nigeria because it seems at last, by current trends, Biafra will survive Nigeria, because before Nigeria, Biafra existed. Long live, the spirit and the ideology called Biafra.
@MezieOkolo is a leadership analyst at www.mezieokolo.com