BY: ORIMOLOYE, Ifeoluwa
I shall in fact employ Ogbeni la’s manner of expression, if that is the only way I can set my tongue loose from this spell. Should I say that I am confused? Rara ooo, certainly not, A kii gbo aburu lenu aboore, A priest isn’t meant to relay/break a (bad) news, A priest is not supposed to in fact speak (ill) in the negative, as it is an abomination. I have reassured myself, times over and over again, that I am not going to be captured or caught in the nets of Chinua Achebe telltales, despite the fact that a host of friends got convinced. I shall not suddenly become an apologist of Chinua Achebe’s message. I have repeated it several times, that my issue with the “tales from Biafra” is the blame game. In contrast to the turns of blame game, I am opined to the fact that our destiny lies in our hands, Nigeria or Biafra, anywhere we find ourselves, we are supposed to face the reality after every situation, of course nobody should be blamed for another’s misfortune, even with the limitless number of choices and opportunities that man has always (encountered) been presented with. So, no blame game, accept destiny, get on your feet, move forward and progress…no lamentation.
This was the perception that I nursed even as I launched forcefully, albeit curiously into Chinua Achebe’s book, but I carefully read between the lines, whilst my counterparts in voraciousness read the book within a period of a day of two. The practical exercise of reading between the lines isn’t favorable, because up till the present moment, I haven’t finished the book I started about three weeks ago, while in fact those who started reading after me had gulped down the contents in a rush, two days is a bit of an understatement. I read in-depth, wanting to find out the miracle (contained in the book) that is capable of stealing emotions…But at last, I became emotion-laden. I share in that grief popularly referred to as the ‘civil war’. Achebe was able to ‘restore my tongue’, by channeling his message through my vocal cavity. By relaying the message which forms part of my review, I shall submit by saying: “When all has been said and done, I see the call for Biafra (intent upon the 1967 – 1970 declaration) coming because of the fact that the crusaders of the Biafran interest felt, in the very first place, that the country (Nigeria) wasn’t fulfilling its responsibility as a sovereign state to its citizens –a considerable number- (this is asides the ulterior motives relating to the marginalization, the coup, and the 1966 pogrom) and it in fact lacks what is expected of a progressive nation. Evidently, the corruption and the sad retrogression that hovers about 1960 (hitherto) was not impressive. The citizens in question (bounded by a common ancestral source) felt the need to, as a people with common interest resist oppression, and create a state that would be ‘conducive for their dreams’, a state that will be created in order to correct the lapses of the original state (Nigeria) and turn the lapses into fortunes and greater opportunities, and that is what I think of the first ever, initial Biafra. There was collectiveness and sense of a belonging that is peculiar to Biafra and it relates to self-determination. I saw also, all of that enthusiasm die with the proposed sovereign state of Biafra (that is in relation to the story of Chris Okigbo etal). I observed Achebe’s use of the word ‘pogrom’, and after sober reflections, I don’t know if I am an apologist or that initial resistive-individual with a parallel mindset’…” Achebe has done it again, I might have been caught in a synonymous manner as the scenario of his book, GIRLS AT WAR.

Well said OGBENIIFE...

....There Was Indeed A Country.....



(....Most Nigerians have this tiny bit of hope in Buhari...He seems to be Nigeria's last Hope....I pray he succeeds in restoring 9ja's Sanity....else.....**i can't really tell what will happen next**).....


....Ka Chineke mezie Okwu........