HOW CAN WE BE SO EASILY FORGETFUL

1 JUNE 2016 HOW CAN WE BE SO EASILY FORGETFUL? Today we remember all the victims of the Biafran Conflict (1967-1970), which cost over 2 million lives. It was exactly 49 years (May 30, 1967) when Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu said to the people of Eastern Nigeria: “Believing that you are born free and have certain inalienable rights which can best be preserved by yourselves; Unwilling to be unfree partners in any association of a political or economic nature; Rejecting the authority of any person or persons other than the Military Government of Eastern Nigeria to make any imposition of whatever kind or nature upon you ….. Now Therefore I, Lieutenant-Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, by virtue of the authority, and pursuant to the principles recited above, do hereby solemnly proclaim that the territory and region known as and called Eastern Nigeria together with her continental shelf and territorial waters shall henceforth be an independent sovereign state of the name and title of The Republic of Biafra.” This declaration was rejected outright by the Yakubu Gowon-led Federal Military Government of Nigeria, and the ensuing war led to Africa’s biggest and bloodiest bloodbath ever. On this day we reflect on our journey as a people and as a nation. We remember the thirty thousand innocent men, women and children who were slaughtered in the pogrom of 1966/67 in Northern Nigeria, which forced Ojukwu to make the declaration. It was so benumbing the then Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon said in September 1966: “I receive complaints daily that up till now easterners living in the north are being killed and molested and their property looted. It appears that it is going beyond reason and is now at a point of recklessness and irresponsibility”. He could not protect the people and would not let them protect themselves. We remember the thousands who died fighting to defend our people – for our today they gave their yesterday. I personally remember my uncle, Echebiri Ibe, cousins – Everest and Rufus and three other cousins, plus the 16 other young men from my village who did not come back from the war. We remember the victims of the Asaba Massacre who were gathered at the town centre and shot on a day when the war had supposedly ended. We remember the hundreds of Igbo girls forcibly taken away to the North into slave-marriage by the conquering Nigerian troops, including my cousin, Joy Ibe. We remember all those who were criminally dispossessed of their houses and other assets in Port Harcourt under the shameful guise of “Abandoned Property.” handled by today's Senator DAVID MARK. We remember Governor (Dee) Sam Mbakwe who fought, albeit unsuccessfully, for these assets with every fibre of his being, so much that he earned the sobriquet, “Weeping Governor” - Mbakwe lives! We remember the Biafran Scientific Community – Gordian Ezekwe, Roy Umenyi, Felix Oragwu, Ugah Aguata, Ben Nwosu, Emma Osolu, Sam Orji, Njoku Obi etc., who experimented with almost everything - from refining oil to the Ogbwunigwe cluster bomb, to missile technology. Their genius and bravery helped to prevent a total annihilation of our people. We remember the war wounded who have suffered decades of neglect, after being dumped at the War Disabled Persons Camp at Oji River in Enugu on the 11th of July, 1975, by Ukpabi Asika , the Administrator of East Central state, who described our war veterans as “irritant invalids and remnants of Biafra.” We remember! We remember the Irish Missionaries who not only evangelized our people but stayed with them all through the war, with many getting killed in the process. We remember the Kwashiokor children of Eastern Nigeria, victims of a deliberate campaign of economic blockade. Being a Biafran war child myself, I could have been one of those severely malnourished children whose image shocked the whole world, and inspired the founding of the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) (Doctors Without Borders). We remember the international organizations who had the heart to fly in relief materials to the starving children of Biafra, despite the ban by the Nigerian Government and the risk of being shot down. We thank the American Jewish Emergency Effort for Biafran Relief, Canairrelief, Caritas International, Church World Service, The Holy Ghost Fathers - Africa Concern, The Red Cross, Oxfam, Save the Children Fund, UNICEF, The World Council of Churches (WCC), and others. We remember those countries that formally recognized the independence of Biafra - Gabon, Haiti, Côte d'Ivoire, Tanzania and Zambia, and those which did not give official recognition but provided support and assistance - Israel, France, Portugal, Zimbabwe, South Africa and the Vatican City. We will not forget those who criminally employed starvation as a weapon of war, against international law and against all standards of human decency. We remember and we pray for them. We remember those who used fiscal policy to finish what bullets and bombs could not. We remember those who left every Igbo man or woman with TWENTY POUNDS only, no matter how much they had in the bank prior to the conflict. The result is that when the “Indigenization” policy was launched in 1972, no Igbo was in the position to buy into the companies being “indigenized” We remember! As we remember today we must resolve to fight evil and injustice no matter who is doing it and no matter who is suffering. Evil is evil, injustice is injustice, terror is terror and corruption is corruption. And for those who are not bothered because it is not their problem, there is a message for you. German pastor and theologian Martin Niemoller was an anti-communist and early supporter of the Nazis until Hitler insisted upon the supremacy of the state over religion. He was eventually imprisoned in 1937 until the fall of Hitler. Reflecting on his own experience and on the general apathy of German intellectuals towards the rise of Nazism and the systematic elimination of their chosen targets, Martin Niemoller wrote: “First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist; Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew; Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.” WE REMEMBER....... (Fada Henry Ibe).