Another 30th May goes, and nothing happened - Chimezie Anajama

For two days now, i want to write this article but i don't know how to start. In my process of stalling, i used the opportunity to monitor the cyberspace, especially Facebook. I wanted to see how the ordinary Nigerian, not writers or bloggers, will remember it. I wanted to see what it meant to many of my friends and friends' friends, i wanted to know what really runs through the mind on this day. My disappointment:

The realization that the day in question was seen as another "normal" day for most Nigerians except for a handful that remembered to put a post or a picture depicting the un-normalness of the day.

Majority of the handful i saw were the Nigerians from Eastern part of the country. Even at this, many commenters encouraged the posters - some were even chided to stop arousing violent-prone posts - to "let go", "bury it", "it is already in the past" and so on.  I only laughed and went to the next post of a friend on the same topic.

One of the few handfuls was Wale Smith - from his name, i am guessing he is a Yoruba. These were his opening paragraphs to his post:

'''Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember their past are condemned to repeat their mistakes.
Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors are destined to repeat them.
Those who do not know history's mistakes are doomed to repeat them''

-George Santayana (1863-1952)
philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist.

Today is a solemn day for me. And for many others.

30th May 1966 reminds us the day Igbos were hunted down and gruesomely murdered in Northern Nigeria and parts of Western region. It began in the night of 29th May, escalated in the morning of the following day, and saw pogrom against the Igbo ethnic group of Nigeria. Children and pregnant women of Igbo origin were beheaded, the foetus of
pregnant women inhumanely removed and "lucky" ones had their arms and limbs severed. Indeed a Sierra Leonean
observer at that time had commented, 'the killing of the Igbos have become a state industry in Nigeria'.'
 
Wale Smith (click on the name)
May 30, 2015.

Why did i lift part of his article?

1. By the mere fact that my name is Chimezie Anajama, an Igbo,  if i had written something similar to Wale's, i will be termed Bias and a tribalist.

2. Like i noted, majority of the handfuls that remembered were Igbos, if i had quoted them, it will still be same them them tribal bigot things. So i am hoping that Wale will save me from that crucifixion and help me present my case in an unbias manner.

I am a young Nigerian, born around the 1990's. My generation was not near the generation before and after the civil war. The generation before was not near the next generation before and after the war. I am plenty generations after the civil war. Yet, as i was growing, i was socialized to live the civil war and its aftermath,  i was taught to hate before knowing a Nigerian without Igbo ancestry. I was indoctrinated to never trust the Hausa or Yoruba person in my life -marrying them is tantamount to ethnic betrayal. My elders, many who weren't born during the civil war, became my teachers in this. As i became older, i realised that the civil war never ended. The main war ended in January 30th, 1970, but till today, Nigeria is yet to stamp out the cold war of it. This aspect of war has become a generational heritage. That is why i laugh at people preaching "peace of the graveyard". The "let-it-goers" and co.

From the child becoming a toddler, to walking, learning to talk, and think for himself, he has received lectures that will sustain his lifetime in the art of sustaining the cold war of the civil war. This was the process i passed through. At a point, after extensive reading on the civil war, i made up my mind not to hate. But to always be assertive of my root. It was a personal decision. I owe no one an explanation.

One of Wale's commenters made a salient point. An Hausa. Lemme paraphrase, he said that they (Igbos) cannot kill our elders and not expect a repercussion.

For me, that is a very salient and important point. No matter what Nzeogwu will say were his reasons for the coup, no Igbo elder died. That means a lot.  We are all human beings. You, a foreigner, don't come to my land to kill an elder and expect to go scot free. A simple logic.

But i have read enough book on civil war to make me shudder on the pogrom of Ndi Igbo during the war. It began with my uncle's mountains of newspapers in Primary school. Many editors didn't elaborate. It came up in my Government class. The 3 R's of Gowon were added to what i knew previously.

Our teacher asked us to ask our guardians. An assignment. I waited for my uncle to return, ecstatic that i have learnt something new from school to flaunt to him in the evening.

He finished his meal. I waited till i saw smile perch on his face. I brought up my question.

He gave the longest hiss and said:

Don't mind that 3 lies that Gowon brought up. He camouflaged with them.

That question expired his smile.

I went back to my teacher and made my report.

He laughed and told me he does not expect any better from an Igbo man.

But whom do you think his response made deeper impression? You guessed right. My Uncle.

In the university, i began to discover myself. I began to yearn for more knowledge. I began to devour books. I wanted to marry history. I began to see reason why history should be compulsory in secondary school, and in university,  as a G.S. course.

I read Emeka, and the Biafran story by Frederick Forsyth. A trusted mentor told me Ojukwu fed and housed Forsyth during the war. Therefore, he was compromised. But the pogrom became clearer to me. I became to realise why my uncle should have hissed longer than he did.

Achebe's There Was a Country came out. I got it. Of course, it caused upheaval. It disturbed the long craved peace of the graveyard. I knew then that there should be a rewiring of thoughts in my head. I made my decision. I began to pay more attention to my language, quickly made Chimezie my first name, i began to realise why i should be me in everything. That was when i made the decision to forgive, but i can't forget. It made me to be more aware of where i am from and be less bitter. Another fantastic essay by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani on the civil war helped me better in reaffirming my belief on forgiveness.

But one thing that worried me afterwards was the unwillingness to speak of it by the populace. Nobody wanted to taint his perfect one Nigerian image with it, after Achebe's memoir. Everybody rescinded. I expected it to be  a topic in the next Confab, but like a leper lying on the road, the delegates chose their topics with the carefulness of a microscope, and let it lying there. During the last election, i saw its smell, i perceived it in the voting pattern between the Igbos and Northeners. Truth is, if there is election today, many will always go for "anyone other than a onye Awusa", and it is not that it is for the Easterners alone, the feeling is mutual among North and East.

Only the educated Easterners that saw beyond ethnic sentiments voted for Buhari.

There's the still cold war till today. If you want to pretend it does not exist, i won't. I am living a consequence of it. The Nigerian civil war never ended, it only metamorphosed and the unwillingness to remember it officially makes it more bitter than Alomo to swallow.

One of the best therapies to healing and really having peace is by talking and reflection. Nigeria should open a dialogue about the cold war after the main war.
For once, let everyone bring their grievances. Let the pretence of all is well should stop. I am also tired of seeing my Igbo brethren living in delusion of Biafra. Can we all truly talk and start genuine healing for once?

One of the fallacies of the war was the No Victor, No Vanquish. I don't want to choke in laughter biko. That phrase began the sweep-it-under-the-carpet mentality. It is the foundation of let-it-goers philosophy. A past that is still haunting you in  present is not a past. That past is still a present for you. The post- Civil war is  very present and we all should treat it so by having a day we reflect on it. A day, like the America's 9/11, Rwanda's int'l day of Genocide, Israel's day for the Holocaust, should be set aside yearly. And i feel a day after the Democracy day will be the best. It will make us to know the wound we sustained for the Democracy we are enjoying.  The prices we had paid to be together. Every region paid and lost something during that war. No region found it easy. When we all talk about what we lost, we can then stop postponing the anger, and yearly, we can confront our fears. I believe with time, more persons will forgive and we can really start building a nation-state and collectively say NEVER AGAIN.