Memory and Peace: Collection of Essays

By Francis Anekwe Oborji

The Latin adage “Si vis pacem, para bellum” (if you want peace, prepare for war) is usually interpreted as ‘peace through strength.’ It expresses the idea that being armed and ready to fight in order to defend oneself is a viable way of keeping the peace. However, the truism of the adage is expressed by the author who argues for peace and sustainable development of Africa at large in the light of the Nigerian/Biafra struggle. He intellectually equips readers with memories of the past lest the mistakes of history be repeated. The author uses the power of the pen as a weapon mightier than the sword, to discuss the structures of peace in the African context. He weighs in a balance, the need for restructuring and the right for self-determination; the way to freedom and collective effort towards development. This volume contains articles that propose potential and functional solutions to the perennial challenges presently facing Nigeria as a country. Interestingly, the reflections recommend steps towards cordial reconciliation and the liberating spirit that would catalyze the restoration of an emerging nation (the Republic of Biafra). The volume further expands the ongoing ideas and thoughts on a variety of issues that offer roadmaps to the contextual problems of the indigenous people as well as the Christian Mission and evangelical witness. Furthermore, the author goes on to demonstrate that when dialogue is employed, peace makes its way in the hearts of the citizens, which ushers in the flourishing of good governance and economic growth. Hence, justice, equity, peace, equal rights and opportunity become the bedrock upon which every nation-state is supposed to be founded.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664137202

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Copyright © 2020 by Francis Anekwe Oborji.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Website

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Rev. date: 11/10/2020

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Contents

Abbreviations

Dedication

Preface

Foreword

Editors’ Note

Part 1

Memory and Peace: Nigeria and The Return of Biafra

Section I

Nigeria and The Absence of ‘Mea Culpa’

CHAPTER 1

Python Dance Killings: Biafra and the Conscience of the World

CHAPTER 2

Nigeria and the Missing Cenotaph: 50 Years after the Biafra Pogroms

CHAPTER 3

Blood of the Innocent and a Nation in Denial: Drummers of Genocide

CHAPTER 4

Another Side of Nnamdi Kanu Phenomenon: A Theological Appraisal

CHAPTER 5

Biafra and Nigeria’s Missed Opportunities

Section II

Restructuring Nigeria

CHAPTER 6

The Sultan and Amalgamation of 1914: Matters Arising

CHAPTER 7

The Center or Pluralism of Centers: Which Way Nigeria?

CHAPTER 8

Nigeria’s Coat-of-Arms Concepts of Unity and Faith

CHAPTER 9

Cultural Mythologies and Violence in Nigeria

CHAPTER 10

Between Politics and Economy: Competing Stories of Nigeria and the Style of Jesus

CHAPTER 11

The Danger of Restructuring Without A Referendum-Constitution

CHAPTER 12

Moses’ Leadership Style and Alternative Story for Nigeria

CHAPTER 13

The Victims Need Justice, NOT Military Occupation

Section III

The Peace of Christ and Nigeria

CHAPTER 14

Jesus’ Nativity Narrative: Implications for Inclusive Leadership

CHAPTER 15

Living the Memory of Paschal-Event in Nigeria Today

Part II

Religion and The Problem with Nigeria

Section I

Religion and Politics in Nigeria

CHAPTER 16

Religion is Not the Problem with Nigeria

CHAPTER 17

Religion Is Not a Civic Knowledge

CHAPTER 18

Fighting Corruption is NOT the Mission of Christian Religious Leaders

CHAPTER 19

Ministry of Religious Affairs is NOT the Answer

CHAPTER 20

How A Religion Dies: The Future in the Present of Nigerian Christianity

CHAPTER 21

The Governor and His Choice of Fetish Deities for Oath-of-Office

CHAPTER 22

Is Christianity on Trial in Nigeria?

Part III

The Problem with Nigeria

CHAPTER 23

The Problem with Nigeria is Ethnic-Hate NOT Hate-Speech

CHAPTER 24

Is This The Vindication of the ‘Five-Percenters’?

CHAPTER 25

Blame Not the Youth and Social Media for Nigeria’s Woes

CHAPTER 26

When Nigeria Was Last Respected in Africa: Kudos to Benue State

Section II

Nigerian Christianity, Workers and Seekers of Miracles

CHAPTER 27

Complicity of Silence on Healing Ministry Aberrations

CHAPTER 28

The Danger of Christianity of Workers of Miracles in Nigeria

CHAPTER 29

Jesus is the Savior and Truth, Not Just a Social Reformer

Section III

The African Challenge and Model Leaders

CHAPTER 30

The Danger of Power as Invincibility: Lessons from Things Fall Apart

Bibliography

About the Author

Abbreviations

Dedication

Blessed Cyprian Iwene Tansi

&

All lovers of Peace

Preface

Colonialism and Neo-Colonialism remain concepts that truly captured the awful past and present dysfunctional character/experiences and predicaments of African nations in their struggle to be truly independent nations. The Berlin Conference of 1885 superintended the partition of Africa and scramble by European colonial powers to obvious detriments of these nations. Long after the attainment of independence by these African nation states the experience of neo-colonial trappings demonstrated in international political relationships remain landmines that continue to keep these nation states on their knees and completely dependent on these Western European colonial arrangements and trappings.

Nigeria attained independence from the British colonial masters in 1960. The situation report in Nigeria long before the independence remained that of struggle between the Muslim North and the Christian South. The British presence in Nigeria saw in 1900 the creation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates along with the Colony of Lagos. The later was merged with the Southern Protectorate as one administrative area in 1906.

Sir Fredrick Lugard was the architect of the emergence of Nigeria through the amalgamation of Southern and Northern Protectorates on January 1, 1914. The nation was to contend with the feature of pluralism because of its multi-ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural differences and diversities. This structural feature has led to certain conclusions that Nigeria for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria is one state but many nations¹ and a federation only in name². For C.T. Gotan it is a nation of nationalities,³ while Obafemi Awolowo saw it as a mere geographical expression,⁴ and Abubakar Tafewa Balewa (who later became the first Prime Minister of the nation), affirmed that we are only one country in paper.⁵ Here lies the fundamental challenge of the nation’s leadership, who are evaluated and assessed to the extent they are capable of managing effectively and efficiently this pluralism which is an essential character of Nigerian nation.

In this work, MEMORY AND PEACE which is a collection of Essays from Revd Fr Prof Francis Anekwe Oborji, the erudite and celebrated priest and full-fledged Professor (Professore Ordinario) assigned the Cathedra (Chair) of Contextual Theology in the prestigious Faculty of Missiology, at the Pontifical Urban University, Rome. With fundamental education background and Bachelor’s Degrees in Philosophy and Theology, Prof Oborji ordained in 1989 lunched into the deep for a great catch for his graduate studies in Missiology at the Pontifical Urban University. He finished his Licentiate and Doctorate degrees in Summa Cum Laude Probatus (First Class Honours Pass). This extraordinary feat led to his teaching appointment at his alma mater at Pontifical Urbaniana University, Rome first as an Invited Professor on October 15, 1999 and with other intermittent promotions till his present exalted status of Professor Ordinarius, the highest rank of Professorship in the University teaching profession.

Since then and in the recent past, Fr Prof F. A. Oborji has brought his avowed learning, experiences and expertise to bear on contextual interpretation and responses to issues besieging our nation, Nigeria, Africa and the world. In his recent reflections titled: Nigeria, Beyond the Intrigues of African ‘Nation-State’ which continued from his earlier reflections titled: Nigeria at the Dilemma of Absence of ‘Unity of Spirit’ and Nigeria’s Neo-feudal Representative Democracy at Crossroads, Fr Prof Oborji harped on the intrigues of international politics in its relations to African nation states and the selfish survival mechanism of a typical African ruler, taking Nigerian state as a case study. Continuing he lamented thus:

For instance, in Nigeria, and the other most troubled West African States, this led to what experts have called shadow states, behind which rulers used formal statehood merely as a facade, to conduct what became essentially personal survival strategies. In Nigeria, in particular, it is known as Cabals- what is supposed to be central government is no under the control of Cabals, a gang of three or more persons, unelected individuals, drawn from the President’s own clan and religion....The African ruler makes use of the primitive divisive elements of religious and ethnic differences in his nation state to his own advantage. That is, the trappings of the colonial arbitrary boundaries become a major weapon to use for the personal survival of the African ruler. Ethnicity and religious bigotry take a centre stage in the politics of survival of many African rulers. Again, to feel secure in his post, the African ruler feels that the only way to achieve his ambition is to surround himself in office with people of his clan-ethnic group, renegades he recruits from other federating ethnic groups. This exactly the situation in Nigeria today.⁶

This position was the repeated position of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) in most of their communiqué that follows their annual conferences and especially that of the Pastoral Statement issued by the Catholic Bishops of the Onitsha and Owerri Ecclesiastical Provinces at the End of their Annual Inter-Provincial Meeting on December 18, 2003 on Building a Just Democratic Nigeria: Restoring The Rights of the Igbo People. Reference is made to other similar efforts on Biafra and Nigerian/African predicaments: Emefiana Ezeani, In Biafra Africa Died: The Diplomatic Plot, 2016; Simeon Onyewueke Eboh, Biafra: God’s Judgement on Nigeria-Reflections on the Theology of History, 2016; Chudi Offodile, The Politics of Biafra and the Future of Nigeria, 2016; Uchenna Nwankwo, Shadows of Biafra, 2018 and lots of interventions from MASSOB and IPOB leadership.

In Nigeria, it is a movement from one predicament to another especially on Corruption which is endemic and second nature in Nigeria, Marginalization, Moral Laxity and Insecurity occasioned by Boko Haram insurgency, Onslaught of Fulani herdsmen and indeed the Islamization agenda of Moslem/Fulani leaders through the secret and full blown membership of Nigeria to Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the full blown implementation of Sharia criminal law in the Northern States in utter defiance of the Constitution that maintained that Nigeria is a Secular State. In relation to this phenomenon, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria stressed:

In the past we have stressed that a secular state, understood as the non-adoption of any religion as a state religion or giving preferential treatment to one religion, promotes the principle of equality of all religions before the law. Given the existence of multi-religious groups with divergent interests in the country, the violation of the secular nature of our nation cannot occur without grave threats to peace and stability. We wish to state anew that the adoption and full implementation of Sharia law by some States in the Northern part of Nigeria is flagrant violation of the secular nature of the Nigerian nation. Its introduction and extension into the domain of criminal law have given rise to the trampling of the rights of innocent and law-abiding citizens, who cannot seek redress in law courts on account of well-founded fear of threats to their lives and property, and those of their families.⁷

With the above background, Fr Prof Oborji was to address very concretely in a convincing manner and from the grounds of contextual theology the issues related to Nigeria and the Return of Biafra and the right to self-determination, Restructuring of Nigeria unto true federalism, Religious Response to Nigeria situation and the obvious need for good leadership rather than rulership in Nigeria.

I send my appreciation to Rev Fr Prof Francis Anakwe Oborji the author of this Collection of Essays and the Editors Rev Frs Ikenna Okagbue and Kenneth Nnaemeka Ameke for the honour to put up this preface of the long sought reflections from Fr Prof Oborji, I highly recommend it to all men and women of goodwill especially those interested in understanding the issues in Biafran agitation for self-determination, the obligation of Nigeria to ask for mercy for the awful things meted to people of Igboland and indeed the response of gospel and Christian religion in our Nigerian contextual situation.

Revd Fr Prof Anthony B. C. Chiegboka

[e-mail]

[phone]

Foreword

This work is a master piece that will go down in the history of Nigeria. It highlights the ills of the political genesis of Nigeria that kept her in the mess she found herself today. As a guru, the author provides solutions that would help the country come out of the woods. One observes with dismay in this work the insensitive and inhuman acts being perpetuated on the people of Nigeria by the present Federal Government. Every page of this work is tensed with shocking revelations, unbelievable but real stories what has happened and are happening before the eyes of the future generation of the country. So sad. These events print multiple questions in the mind of the reader. One would even ask if the colonial masters that amalgamated the Northern and Southern Nigeria in 1914 if they have human souls at all. Intensive reading will convince the reader that the amalgamation was one of the man inhumanity to man that up until today is condemnable in human history. And that the colonial masters still exercise their negative influences in Nigeria till date is embarrassing.

The solution to Nigerian problem in the mind of the author calls for a holistic restructuring of the political values of the nation-state. Any partial approach to it will cause more genocide and continuous ethnic-cleansings that has long begun in the country. The author succinctly put it this way: The route to peace and co-existence among diverse peoples and individuals in any plural society and community is justice.

Indeed, this work is a treasure to any reader who has the interest of knowing the riches God has lavished in this nation-states called Nigeria. The stumbling blocks to enjoy these gifts of God to the people of Nigeria are corruption and bad leadership. This has brought Nigeria to a great danger and her disintegration is in view. It is this bad leadership not the agitation of Biafra that will bring an end to Nigeria.

Mazi Nnamdi Kalu has done nothing wrong in exercising his democratic right in Nigeria. The effort to kill Mazi Nnamdi Kalu and the genocide committed in his home town, the continuous killing of the Igbos, killing of Christians and others all over Nigeria have increased the agitation. Progressing in this work, one observes how the insensitivity of a bad leadership that insists on the unity of a multicultural, plural society and community crashes daily. This is because this bad leadership does not believe in equality of persons, in human live, in human dignity not to talk of the obedience to the rule of law. The author cleverly reveals that unity does not come about through deceitful slogan, media sponsored blackmail, harassment of opposition members, intellectual, ethnic cleansing of perceived enemy groups, disobedience of Court orders.

This bad leadership is immense in religious bigotry with which they call for the establishment of the Ministry of Religious Affairs as a way out of the woods. This is not the solution in a multicultural and plural society. In the mind of the author, restructuring of the political system is the solution to Nigerian quagmire. Religion is not the problem in Nigeria. To establish the Ministry of Religious Affair is a diversionary act to the call of restructuring and a means of extinguishing Christianity in Nigeria and perpetuate Islam in Nigeria.

But until the younger generation whose future is been toiled with take their future into their hands Nigeria will continue to be in this mega mess and would not provide an enabling environment for talented young people to thrive in the 21st century. It is not understandable how the old generation who still live under the debris of 1960 mindset are still on the wheels of the nation-building. This old generation and the Federal Government that dance and wine with terrorists will surely put a death nail in Nigeria not the agitations of those young people against the irresponsible leadership of the government in power.

This work is supposed to be in the hands of every Nigerian.

Rev. Fr. Dr. Innocent Dim

Editors’ Note

In the beginning verses of Genesis 4, Cain killed his own brother, Abel out of jealousy and hatred because the Lord favoured Abel due to Abel’s generosity in using what God had blessed him with in order for him to bless the Lord. I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper? (Gen. 4:9) Cain replied when God asked him the whereabouts of the brother he had murdered. Among other interpretations, Cain’s reactional question symbolizes the spirit of unwillingness and irresponsibility towards the care for the other closer to one. Accordingly, his action did not go without a consequence. Then God cursed Cain saying; What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand (Gen. 4:11). Cain’s question, thus, becomes a classic Biblical question which response reechoes in the present Biafran-Nigerian question insisting on justice and responsibility. These passages of the Bible are applicable to the consequences of the genocide carried by the Nigerian military during the administration of General Yakubu Gowon. The genocide was directed against the people of Biafra. Like in the case between Cain and Abel, one wonders why the predicament of the Nigerian state remains uncertain to date. This raises the question, will there be a reparation or restructuring that will appease God and the spirits of the dead, and heal the wounds Nigeria inflicted on her brothers?

In the African cosmology, there is an understanding of communion between the living and the dead. The dead and their memories are believed to have some degree of impact on the activities of the living. Given this African cosmological perception, one imagines what could offer solutions to the social and political challenges facing the Nigerian state in the present time. Would reparation constitute a kind of structure that would enable reconciliation between the living and the casualties of the Nigerian genocide? This would guarantee the honour and harmonious relationship between the patriots who had sacrificed their lives in the pursuit of freedom and the contemporary citizens encountering Nigeria’s perennial problems emanating from the imposed amalgamation of the North and South which benefits Britain.

This volume titled Memory and Peace contains articles that propose potential and functional solutions to the perennial challenges facing Nigeria presently as a country. Interestingly, the reflections recommend steps towards cordial reconciliation and the liberating spirit that would catalyze the restoration of the Republic of Biafra. This volume further expands the ongoing ideas and thoughts of Rev. Fr. Prof. Francis Anekwe Oborji on a variety of issues that offer roadmaps to the contextual problems of the indigenous people as well as the Christian Mission and evangelical witness. Even though the reflections did not address the different complexities arising in the Nigerian state, but through his narrative and critical approach, he dares and engages the topics Nigerians passively avoids, that is, the Biafran question.

The volume has two parts of three sections each. In the first part, the author, Prof. Oborji argues for a transition from the lack of sense of guilt of the Nigerian state to an awareness of peace and restructuring the country. Leadership, as contained in this book, is reviewed from the perspective of service to the needs of the people, dedication, assuring security, and atmosphere of freedom in a country they call their own. The root of violence in Nigeria, the agitation, and call for restructuring is the presence of inequality that persist in Nigeria likened to a curse placed on her for eternity. The imposed amalgamation of north and south, the imposition of Sharia Laws on ‘secular states’, are considered to continue to trigger more than ever the call for restructuring and self-determination. The difficulty to produce selfless and people-oriented leaders who look beyond ethnic and religious bigotries in the present Nigeria State is seriously discussed as contained herein.

The solutions to all the above, according to the author, should begin with dialogue with victims of police and military brutality in south Eastern Nigeria, especially the IPOB. Besides, the author recommends an official state-burial and mourning for the death of those killed during the Python Dance II and other occasions to the political leaders of the Southeastern governors. This spiritual exercise is envisaged to conciliate and heal the different aspects of the brokenness experienced by the Igbos over fifty years after the 1967-1970 civil war. As such, the pro-Biafra youths who restored the quest for freedom yearned by their fathers, have sustained this process to respect the victims of the Biafran war. In accord with the ideals of the African cosmological belief, this is seen as a move in the right direction.

Furthermore, the author goes on to demonstrate that when dialogue is employed, peace makes its way in the hearts of the citizens. Besides, good governance and economic growth are expected to flourish in the state. In addition, justice, equity, peace, equal rights and opportunity become the bedrock upon which every nation-state is supposed to be founded. This will create a political and economic environment for leaders to fulfill their promises as well as for cultures that encourage human productivity and flourishing. In the presentations of the author discussed in this volume, Nigeria needs a new beginning and a new structure.

For this reason, the goal of restructuring, and peaceful and civil agitation for self-determination point towards the dreams for a better Africa. Africa at large, therefore, must seek to rediscover and reinvent herself. It is in this light that Africa can fruitfully engage and relate with the Western world where justice, equal rights, freedom, and opportunity are strongly upheld to some reasonable degree. Reiterating the importance of mutual dialogue among Africans entails justice for the dead, victims of the war and genocide, and justice in terms of sharing resources. From the foregoing, one discerns that the inclination to sustain unity without justice over the government’s care, protection and fairness to her citizens should be reviewed.

In the second part of this volume, Prof. Oborji explores the issue of religion and the problems in the Nigerian context. He examines religion and politics in the country of the Christians in the public square, especially in the political arena. He argues for the distilling of the original focus of Christianity in the face of rising aberration. He delineates how Christian religious leaders should therefore be a voice of the voiceless in the struggle for freedom, justice, self-determination, peace and evangelical Christian beliefs in persecution by the Islamic jihadist. Prof. Oborji in the final chapter employed Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart to proffer an alternative use of political power for African leaders without the sense of might that is oppressive, violent and domineering.

Happy Reading!

Part 1

Memory and Peace: Nigeria

and The Return of Biafra

Section I

Nigeria and The Absence

of ‘Mea Culpa’

Chapter 1

Python Dance Killings: Biafra and

the Conscience of the World

When Mrs. Rosa Parks, the quiet and seamstress whose arrest precipitated the nonviolence protest in Montgomery, was asked why she had refused to move to the rear of a bus, she said: It was a matter of dignity; I could not have faced myself and my people if I had moved."⁸

Well-meaning citizens from all sides of the divide in Nigeria have been warning the government to thread with caution the Nnamdi Kanu question. The reasons for the warning are not far-fetched. One of which is that as things are now in the country, Nnamdi Kanu is no longer a private citizen. Love or hate him, Nnamdi Kanu has transformed himself into the most visible public figure, a symbol of Igbo question and collective aspiration as a people in the entity called Nigeria.

Regardless of how one may detest his rhetoric and approach to the Biafran question, the events in the last few days – military invasion of Igboland could not have been the best way to address the Biafran question and Nnamdi Kanu phenomenon. The government failed on this matter. The late elder statesman Maitama Sule, during the Northern Elders’ Forum congratulatory visit to the then President-elect, General Mohammed Buhari after the elections in 2015, counseled him with these immortal words of wisdom:

With justice you can rule Nigeria well… Behind every crisis anywhere in the world is injustice. The solution to that injustice is justice... Justice is the key. Do justice to all irrespective of tribe, religion or even political inclinations. Justice must be done to whosoever deserves it. The world itself can never be governed by force, never by fear or by power. In the end, what governs is the mind, what conquers is the spirit. And the weapon of mind and spirit that conquers is justice.⁹

I wonder how Malam Maitama Sule (last Cicero from the North), who just passed away few months ago, will be turning now in his grave, seeing that those advice of his served nothing to all those he counseled. The Malam would be asking in his grave today, ‘what type of mindset took hold of all those people who authorized and ordered this latest military invasion and carnage in Igboland – South Eastern Nigeria, fifty years after the Biafran pogrom?’ Where is their sense of humanity?’ Have they lost their conscience and sense of being?

This is because no relatively conscious individual with sense of humanity will remain unmoved after seeing the footage of the video clips of those helpless young people of pro-Biafran youth movement, tortured and humiliated by the Nigerian army of the so-called Python Dance II. The renewed militarization of South Eastern Nigeria last week is disaster, a scare that will live with us for many years to come.

In fact, I am yet to recover from the shock I experienced after watching those video clips. I never thought that such man’s inhumanity to his fellow human beings is still possible in this 21st century and in my homeland too. I felt in full measure our collective shame as a people. Seeing those terrible images and video footages showing Nigerian army, with their armored carriers and other sophisticated weapons torturing, humiliating and killing innocent youth of pro-Biafra movement for no just reason, I wept not just for my country, but for entire humanity. In fact, the world seems to have lost its conscience and sense of humanity in what happened last week in my country home of South Eastern Nigeria. As one person describes it, ‘what happened to those young people in South Eastern Nigeria is an attack against our collective existence as human beings. Our humanity was reduced to its lowest ebb.’ This reminds me of the immortal words of the founding father of modern state of India, Mahatma Gandhi:

It has always been a mystery to me how men and women can feel themselves honoured by humiliation of their fellow human beings. (Mahatma Gandhi).

I am sorry for appearing too passionate on this matter. I have no alternative. I have to. I just want to free my conscience, pray for my people and country by honouring these last victims of military brutality in my homeland with this article. Personally, I am very worried. I wonder whether I will be able to finish the article. Again, I am yet to recover from the shock of those images. May God help us! Quo Vadis?

The truth is that after watching what the Nigerian army did in my country home of South Eastern Nigeria last week, I felt wounded in my being as never before. I know that many of my people felt the same way. A good number is still to recover from the shock. We are in really trouble now than before with what the Nigeria army did in Igboland last week.

That ill-advised action of the government and military in South Eastern Nigeria last week is now making most people of Igbo extraction, who never took Nnamdi Kanu and his group serious to begin to think otherwise. Many of my foreign friends from Europe, America and Asia who sent messages of sympathy because of that incident used the word "new martyrs of Biafra" in reference to those young victims of military brutality in South Eastern Nigeria last week. This is where we are now with this case!

Our present article is in honour of the victims of that infamous Python Dance II of the Nigerian Army that invaded South Eastern Nigeria for almost two weeks now. The article is not about portioning blame to any party in this crime against humanity committed in my homeland of South Eastern Nigeria these last days. Because the whole system that allowed this thing to happen is rotten inside-out.

Our article is not also about the activities of the pro-Biafran movement of Nnamdi Kanu – IPOB. I am not a fan of that group and don’t intend to be one tomorrow. I never met Nnamdi Kanu. I do not even know who he is. I do not also share his ideology neither do I approve of his rhetoric approach. More importantly, I do not also pray for Nigeria to breakup.

I write as a concerned citizen. I have every right to weep for my country and people when things are not going well and to rejoice with them in moment of joy. With this article, I want to encourage and give hope to ourselves, people of South Eastern Nigeria whose humanity have been wounded gravely by the infamous Python Dance II of the Nigerian army. The militarization of South Eastern Nigeria last week and inhuman crackdown on Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB pro-Biafra youth movement have worsen our situation. The incident has even blossom Nnamdi Kanu’s visibility and significance of his movement globally. Proscribing and rebranding them terrorists have made the matter worse. We forgot we are repeating here the experience of African National Congress (ANC) and Nelson Mandela in South Africa under Apartheid regime. At the early stages of their struggle, ANC was outlawed and Mandela rebranded terrorist-communist by the Racist Apartheid regime. Today, many years after that incident, history is on the side of once outlawed ANC and terrorist-communist Mandela.

We have made the mistake of throwing away the baby with the water. Biafra is a philosophy, an idea in the collective experience of Igbo people in Nigeria’s recent history. The philosophy or idea of Biafra is greater than Nnamdi Kanu. It lives on in the heart and soul of every Igbo. An idea never dies as long as those who hold it live on – generations after generations. This is the truth.

Nnamdi Kanu is Not the Problem

In this all-important issue, what has become clear to any discerning mind is that Nnamdi Kanu is not the problem. Because whatever happens, Nnamdi Kanu is entitled to his style of speech and request to achieve his Biafran self-determination through the legal means of referendum. Nigeria as a democratic society is supposed to be a free state where people have freedom of expression, personal opinions, association and right to practice their political activism in accordance with the known laws as done in civilized countries. IPOB groups in various countries of the globe hold their rallies without any harassment. The Police in those countries provide them with protection. The group is legally, registered as peaceful youth movement in foreign counties where Igbos reside today.

The question is, ‘why can’t Nigerian state accord Nnamdi Kanu and his group the same recognition, respect and protection as they have in foreign countries during their rallies and activities?’ Why not allow the use of rule of law and order in this matter. Why should differences in political discussion and vision for the country be the condition for torture, humiliation and extra-judicial killing of innocent citizens in South Eastern Nigeria? Why can’t Nigerian government choose dialogue instead of violence in dealing with Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB youth movement? Must we settle everything with force and intimidation? Again, why term political activism of referendum for self-determination as terrorism? Why kill our young people who want to engage the leadership of the state with political dialogue of referendum for self-determination? Furthermore, why proscribe their movement and activities? Why declare them as terrorists and dangerous to the country?

In other words, why is the Nigerian government and military after Nnmadi Kanu but did not see anything wrong with the utterances and activities of Arewa youth coalition which issued pre-genocidal quit notice to the Igbos residing in Northern Nigeria? Why go after Nnamdi Kanu and his group while those who are circulating hate song and genocidal music in Hausa language against the Igbos in the North are left free? Why go after Nnamdi Kanu while the government is granting general amnesty to all captured members of the dreaded Boko Haram Islamic extremist terrorist militants?

Again, why is the government and its’ military security agencies going after these Igbo youths’ non-violent movement but left untouched the marauding Fulani herdsmen militants who roam around every nook and corner of the South East and elsewhere with their AK47, killing people and raping women in our farms and villages? Why is the government and security agents after Nnamdi Kanu and his group but left to move freely in the streets of Kano in Northern Nigeria, those young people who murdered Bridget Agbahime, an elderly Igbo trader and Christian in Kano last year?

These are my worries. They all point to the fact that the problem is not Nnamdi Kanu. We are faced with the problem of lost of sense of humanity in many individuals today. I mean the lost of our sense of humanity and dignity as human beings created in the image and likeness of God. But we should not forget that any offense against human dignity anywhere in the world is not only an offense against God the Creator, but also an offense against all human beings everywhere. In other words, what happened in South Eastern Nigeria last week is no longer a local problem. It should concern the world community as a whole. Our humanity was attacked in South Eastern Nigeria. The world as a whole should rise and condemn it.

Our humanity was wounded in South Eastern Nigeria last week by the military and all of us have the right to reclaim it, reaffirm our dignity as human beings created in the image and likeness of God. This is what I am doing in this article, to reaffirm our wounded humanity in South Eastern Nigeria last week and cheer up our people whom I know, like myself, felt have very bad because of that incident. We need not be downcast. Rather let us reaffirm our humanity and continue the struggle for better tomorrow. The battle is won not through violence but through love and forgiveness. Let nobody be violent again on this matter.

History tells us that the path to freedom and justice is always a long one and hazardous. It requires faith and determination, not violence. It is spirit of love and forgiveness that wins the battle. Nobody or people had ever achieved these noble ideals harboring rancor, bitterness or animosity against their perceived oppressors. You win your oppressor through love and large heart. This is what everyone needs at this time of trial. After all, all of us have fallen and in need of grace!

However, this does not mean that the offense against human dignity committed in South Eastern Nigeria by the military of the infamous Python Dance II, should be swept under carpet. Otherwise, such violence and military brutality against innocent civilians will continue to befall us in our beloved land. Because this is not the first we are witnessing such military brutality and extra-judicial killings in Nigeria in recent times. Yet it has continued to occur unabated. No matter where any individual comes from, his or her life is sacred before God and human beings. No one has right to kill or take away life of innocent persons, no matter the circumstance. All religions and cultures of the world affirm this golden truth.

My Worries and Hope for my Country, Nigeria

The great Sheik Uthman dan Fodio, was accredited to have said that, conscience is an open wound. Only truth can heal it. In fact, any person of conscience will find it difficult not to speak out and condemn in clear terms the inhuman treatment meted out to those young people last week in South Eastern Nigeria by the military.

After seeing those terrible images – footage video clips of the military maltreatment of those young people, I began to wonder about the fate of those other victims of army brutality of this magnitude against the civilian population, secretly going on at the same time in various parts of South Eastern Nigeria. No matter how one may like to interpret it, nothing justifies what the Nigerian army did and are still doing to those young fellows in South Eastern Nigeria today.

We are talking of human life, reckless killings and waste of human blood of our young people by our own security agents. How have our army metamorphosed into their present state – killers of their fellow Nigerian citizens from South Eastern region? This is my worry! Have our military men and women and their commanders lost the sense of the sacredness and meaning of human life? Have they lost the sense of respect to human dignity?

Many today in Nigeria, especially, in the old Eastern region are experiencing a kind of alienation from Nigerian state as presently structured, in a way never experienced before since the end of Civil War in 1970. It is very disheartening that despite the ongoing agitations and the call for restructuring or devolution of power from the center, those at the corridors of power seemed not to be ready to listen and dialogue with the people. Nigerian government chose violence against their own citizens through military might instead of dialogue. This was what caused the confrontation last week in South Eastern Nigeria between the military and the civilian population. It is therefore not just the case of Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB pro-Biafran youth movement.

Moreover, apart from the way Nigerian government is handling this matter, one should be worried also by the near silence of world powers. As Wampeters and Granfalloons noted in their book, Biafra: A People Betrayed: The Biafrans kept telling the outside world that Nigeria wanted to kill them all, but the outside world was unimpressed."¹⁰ The event of last week confirmed the above observations of these two aid workers who visited Biafra during the Civil War. So far, Jean Claude Junker, President of European Union, is the only world leader who had expressed concern over the recent incident in South Eastern Nigeria, especially, the rebranding of IPOB as terrorist organization by the military.

Till date no world leader or body has reacted or condemned the inhuman treatment of those young people by the military in South Eastern Nigeria. Not even African Union or ECOWAS has uttered any word. One is sure nothing is going to be said about it either in the ongoing United Nations’ General Assembly in New York. Where is the conscience of the world? The real condemnations so far are coming from common masses through social media outlet. The mainline Televisions, Radio stations and Newspapers in Western countries and Asian giants don’t care either. It appears as if the world