The venue was a German restaurant. It was a tale of horror, anguish,
trauma and loss. The narrators are my friends from the Middle East:
Palestine, Syria, and Iraq. They are united by their horrible
experiences. The Syrian admitted having lost close to 32 relatives to
war; the Palestinian could not place the exact number after counting up
to 15; the Iraqi broke out mid-way in tears recalling how their senior
prefect in school, his best friend was bathed in his own blood following
a bomb-attack in front of their school dormitory. We sat soberly
looking at the drinks we had ordered as emotions were running higher in
what was meant to be a pleasant evening outing. In that mood swing my
mind was flashing back home. When we rose to depart, they chorused:
“Felix, war can never be an option.”
Check it out. World War I killed as many as 8.6 million people; World War II, 50 million. Look at the horror of Auschwitz, Hiroshima, Vietnam, the Zionist invasion of Palestine, the uprooting of settled populations, the ongoing expansionist wars and Hezbollah’s terrorism. In the Balkan conflict, NATO’s attack-jets fired weapons tipped with depleted uranium: 10, 000 rounds in Bosnia (1994-95) and 31, 000 in Kosovo (1999).
European soldiers who served there are now dying of leukemia, or suffering from a range of symptoms including cancer, fatigue, hair loss, and sleeplessness. Since 1945 several minor wars, guerilla combats and conventional weapons have taken some 15 million lives. The conflicts and civil disturbances in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Ireland, Serbia, Chechnya, some Central and South American countries, and virtually every part of Africa have taken more than one can document.
Here we are beating drums of war in Nigeria. It looks easy as it can be entertaining but Lebanon reminds us of how a civilization can be reduced to ruins because of war. Nigeria has intractable problems. These problems have tap roots many times extending beyond ethnicity to elitism. No Igbo man who has been promised even a position of local council chairman in 2019 can accept Biafra agitations. Man is just that way. Nothing less!
The Arewa youth may call the Igbo anything they want but Biafra remains a child of necessity. Be that as it may, a starving man in Abakaliki and the one in Zamafara are united by one factor- hunger. Sometimes, what a hungry man in Abakaliki needs to put regular menu on his table may not have been held in Abuja or by a Yoruba man maltreating the Igbo. It could just be that his brother who is elected a governor has used it to build an estate somewhere across the moon.
I believe in if-we-can-not-be-accepted-then-we-must-go, but I believe stronger that if we cannot hold our present Igbo leaders accountable, the situation may get worse when we get Biafra. Resistance to anything is like trying to change the outside picture after they have been transmitted. It is a futile pursuit. The answer is to go within and emit a new signal with thought and feelings to create a new picture.
Today we face threats that are real, serious and many. If we have fought so hard and achieved so little, we need to adopt radically holistic strategies and spare no sentiment. We have moral duty to crush the political stereotypes that have burdened us and weighed down development in Igbo land. To send stronger signal to Abuja, we must demand for accountability from our elected sons and daughters. We must drain all political ponds in Igboland, expose all the hippos, grab and suffocate them one after the other.
Secondly, if we must win international admiration in this agitation, we must be more civilized in use of hate speeches no matter how provoked. Civility is a trade mark of a gentle man when he disagrees with his neigbour. Rwanda experience is not far away from us. Hate speeches lead to war. No one should pray for war more so when both soft and hardware of national security lie in the hands of the enemy. War spells doom at a time the entire world is busy fixing different regional problems.
At present, IPOB has a defined direction but more or less no strategy. This conveys the urgency of proper articulation of strategies in manners that respect international laws without also compromising the interest of the group it seeks to liberate. For instance, threatening against elections in Southeast may appear attractive but purely untimely and self-defeating for many reasons.
On the part of the Arewa youth, they should not in the least see the Igbo agitation is selfish. If they admit that other regions are suffering the same poverty, they should rather channel their energy in demanding accountability from their leaders who are known to have amassed greater percentage of national wealth without developing their region. I join my friends to remind the Arewa youth that war is not an option.
Check it out. World War I killed as many as 8.6 million people; World War II, 50 million. Look at the horror of Auschwitz, Hiroshima, Vietnam, the Zionist invasion of Palestine, the uprooting of settled populations, the ongoing expansionist wars and Hezbollah’s terrorism. In the Balkan conflict, NATO’s attack-jets fired weapons tipped with depleted uranium: 10, 000 rounds in Bosnia (1994-95) and 31, 000 in Kosovo (1999).
European soldiers who served there are now dying of leukemia, or suffering from a range of symptoms including cancer, fatigue, hair loss, and sleeplessness. Since 1945 several minor wars, guerilla combats and conventional weapons have taken some 15 million lives. The conflicts and civil disturbances in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Ireland, Serbia, Chechnya, some Central and South American countries, and virtually every part of Africa have taken more than one can document.
Here we are beating drums of war in Nigeria. It looks easy as it can be entertaining but Lebanon reminds us of how a civilization can be reduced to ruins because of war. Nigeria has intractable problems. These problems have tap roots many times extending beyond ethnicity to elitism. No Igbo man who has been promised even a position of local council chairman in 2019 can accept Biafra agitations. Man is just that way. Nothing less!
The Arewa youth may call the Igbo anything they want but Biafra remains a child of necessity. Be that as it may, a starving man in Abakaliki and the one in Zamafara are united by one factor- hunger. Sometimes, what a hungry man in Abakaliki needs to put regular menu on his table may not have been held in Abuja or by a Yoruba man maltreating the Igbo. It could just be that his brother who is elected a governor has used it to build an estate somewhere across the moon.
I believe in if-we-can-not-be-accepted-then-we-must-go, but I believe stronger that if we cannot hold our present Igbo leaders accountable, the situation may get worse when we get Biafra. Resistance to anything is like trying to change the outside picture after they have been transmitted. It is a futile pursuit. The answer is to go within and emit a new signal with thought and feelings to create a new picture.
Today we face threats that are real, serious and many. If we have fought so hard and achieved so little, we need to adopt radically holistic strategies and spare no sentiment. We have moral duty to crush the political stereotypes that have burdened us and weighed down development in Igbo land. To send stronger signal to Abuja, we must demand for accountability from our elected sons and daughters. We must drain all political ponds in Igboland, expose all the hippos, grab and suffocate them one after the other.
Secondly, if we must win international admiration in this agitation, we must be more civilized in use of hate speeches no matter how provoked. Civility is a trade mark of a gentle man when he disagrees with his neigbour. Rwanda experience is not far away from us. Hate speeches lead to war. No one should pray for war more so when both soft and hardware of national security lie in the hands of the enemy. War spells doom at a time the entire world is busy fixing different regional problems.
At present, IPOB has a defined direction but more or less no strategy. This conveys the urgency of proper articulation of strategies in manners that respect international laws without also compromising the interest of the group it seeks to liberate. For instance, threatening against elections in Southeast may appear attractive but purely untimely and self-defeating for many reasons.
On the part of the Arewa youth, they should not in the least see the Igbo agitation is selfish. If they admit that other regions are suffering the same poverty, they should rather channel their energy in demanding accountability from their leaders who are known to have amassed greater percentage of national wealth without developing their region. I join my friends to remind the Arewa youth that war is not an option.