BIAFRA AT 50 (1)

The symptoms that led to Biafra are still all pervasive, writes Sonnie Ekwowusi

BIAFRA SYMBOLISES THE SUFFERING AND THE OPPRESSED PEOPLE OF NIGERIA WHO ARE YEARNING FOR FREEDOM AND JUSTICE

The 50th anniversary of the declaration of Biafra was marked yesterday. Among the events marking the anniversary was a national Conference on the Biafran revolution. The conference took place last Thursday at the Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua Centre, Abuja. It was the first national Conference on the Biafran revolution. The theme of the conference was: “Memory & National Building. Biafra: 50 years after… a sober reflection.” The conference was sponsored by the Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua Foundation with the support of the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA). The objective of the conference, for me, was to reflect on how Nigeria’s faulty start blossomed into monstrous injustices and oppression which led to the declaration of Biafra, and, how 50 years after Biafra, Nigeria is still battling those injustices and oppression.

Despite the conscious efforts to erase Biafra from our collective memories, Biafra continues to occupy our spaces. Who could have imagined that 50 years after the defeat of Biafra, the Nigerian political class and intelligentsia would be sitting down somewhere and discussing Biafra and the lessons Biafra hold for us in Nigeria? Who would have thought that young Nigerian literary talents who were not even born during the Nigerian Civil War can become adept at weaving their great literary works around Biafra and the Biafran revolution? To venture into answering these questions, Biafra is simply a metaphor for the political imbalances and socio-economic and political injustices in Nigeria. Biafra clearly transcends its past and present protagonists and prosecutors. Once at a public gathering at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite stated that Biafra declarant Emeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu did not declare war against his fatherland but declared war against corruption and injustice in Nigeria. In other words, Biafra is neither secession nor rebellion nor something invented by one Nnamdi Kanu to promote disaffection and fan the ember of disunity in Nigeria. Biafra symbolises the suffering and the oppressed people of Nigeria who are yearning for freedom and justice. Biafra perennially questions our failed federalism, the social and political imbalances, inequalities and injustices and the skewed political appointments in Nigeria. That is why the Biafran revolution will continue to be relevant in Nigerian politics and in the study of the Nigerian political culture.

Emeka Ojukwu was prophetic when he wrote in his article with the title: “On Nigeria and the Revolution,” that the Biafran revolution is a continuing process. By this he meant that the revolution is not necessarily a revolution that has to do with clashing of arms but one that is in the minds and hearts of many people. Every nation derives meaning and purpose from radical change in principles, opinions, sentiments and affections that augur well for the well being of the people. That is why after 50 years, Nigerians are still reminiscing in search of meaning and purpose in the Biafran revolution. At the national conference last Thursday, Chief Dubem Onyia opined that Nigerians should be allowed to memorialise the war without security clampdown on them. Government, in addition, should set aside a day to memorialise the war so that different Nigerians would come to terms with what happened during the war so that the spirit of Ozoemena (may another war not break out again) will be better lived. Ohaneze Ndigbo leader Chief John Nnia Nwodo stressed the need to acknowledge that so much blood was spilled during the civil war. Midway in his speech, he requested all to stand up to observe a minute silence for those who were murdered during the civil war. He regretted that reconciliation, reconstruction, and rehabilitation ended up being a convenient post-civil war catchphrase without any fruits resulting from it. He regretted that at the end of the civil war every bank deposit of any Biafran was reduced to 20 pounds. Besides, the indigenisation decree obviously robbed Igbos of their property after the war. Generally, Nwodo observed that Nigeria is dying. He said that Nigeria is not working for lack of consensus on how Nigeria should be governed. “We have a federal government which ought to be owned by all Nigerians but which unfortunately is now owned by a few individuals. We don’t want a Nigerian owned by people from one part of the country. We want a working federalism”, he said.

Earlier in his keynote address with the title: “Greater together than apart,” Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN said that our frustration should not be transmuted into hatred. We are greater together than apart. Our frustrations should not drive us mad. We have forged many friendships across board. Debates should be encouraged on how we can exist together. We cannot forget the past. Chinua Achebe said in his book that a man who cannot tell where the rain started beating him cannot know where he dried his body. Every new generation can take a new direction than its predecessor. We cannot allow the prejudices of the past to hold us captive,” Osinbajo said.

In his comical and amusing speech, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR stated that Nigeria went into the war at the outset to reconcile and reunite the estranged Biafrans into one Nigeria. “We thought we would end the war in three months but it took us 30 months and the federal side nearly lost it,” Obasanjo said. Obasanjo, you will recall, received the instrument of Biafra surrender from Phillip Effiong at the house of Chief Banjamin Obijiofor Atuchukwu (The house ought to be called the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation House) in Amichi, Nnewi-South Local Government Area, Anambra State in 1970. He said that the Nigerian soldiers protected the civilians and civilian targets during the war. “We wanted to recapture Owerri but I could not put any artillery in Owerri. We had to protect civilians. Whenever we saw civilians we protected them”, he said.

Immediately Obasanjo finished speaking, conference moderator Prof. Pat Utomi regretted that the Nigerian side did not protect the Biafran civilians during the war. He reminded Obasanjo about the Asaba civilian massacre in which he (Utomi) was almost killed. He said that the Nigerian soldiers had finished lining them up them for execution when a God-sent person suddenly appeared from nowhere and rescued him.