Memory is important. Ncheta di nkpa. O di oke nkpa.

In the preceding essays, I had sought to draw attention to the unraveling of the cultural fiber of the Igbos. Using key totems and substantive pillars as metaphors, I sought to highlight how much ground the Igbos had lost in the past 50 years.

As I had argued elsewhere, it is profoundly disturbing that virtually all the pillars holding the Igbo house is in tatters. All symbols of greatness, affluence, industry, and learning among the Igbos are in decline, retreat and facing existential threats.

How then do we reclaim our pride as a people to take our rightful place under the sun? In the next 12 essays, I propose a few ideas worthy of thoughtful consideration and implementation.

First, we must remember. Yes, we must take stock of what happened in 1966-70, who did what to us, and account for what we have done and/or failed to do in the aftermath of the genocide of the Igbos in 1966-70.

If the Biafran genocide was the equivalent of an air crash, our attitude suggests that no search for the black box would be conducted. No interviews of the air controllers would take place. The survivors would not be asked questions. NOTHING, Absolutely NOTHING would be done to ascertain the cause of the crash.

50 YEARS after the civil war, it is embarrassing and shameful that we still do not have a definitive account of how and why we lost the war. 50 years after the civil war and genocide of at least 3 million Igbos, we still have not interrogated the facts and circumstances of that great tragedy.

What are the causes and factors that made the Igbos lose out? If we could lose a bloody civil war at a period when we were culturally much stronger, militarily experienced, and politically more cohesive than we are today, what current factors compensate for the weaknesses of today?

By 1960, the Igbos had not only matched the Yorubas in education but had in fact surpassed per capita in terms of graduates from universities across the world. At a time when Zaire had less than 25 university graduates to run a country larger than France and Germany combined, Igboland had produced hundreds of Ph.Ds in various disciplines. By the 1960s, Igbos had more than 1/3 of the officer corps of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

An Igboman, Major-General Aguiyi Ironsi was the highest ranking Black military officer in Africa. Culturally, the Igbos were excelling in music, sports, arts, and in the humanities. Politically, the Eastern Region was cohesive, and with peace in the southern, eastern, and western flanks, the Eastern Region represented a formidable entity. But we lost! Why? Have those variables responsible for the loss changed?

I argue that the time is long overdue for a post-mortem of the Biafran project. Much of what we have today in the name of accounts of the Biafran tragedy are no better than hagiographic babble and sugar-coated tall tales. It is significant that not even in graduate schools in Nigeria do we have courses or seminars devoted to a critical analyses of the Biafran tragedy. More than 80% of Nigerians aged 20 and below have no clue about the Biafran tragedy. There is no war fought in the western world in the past 2000 years which has not been studied and documented by Western scholars. None. Even the military manouvres in those wars are well documented.

If the Biafran tragedy had occurred in North America or Europe, I am certain that all facets of that tragedy would have been studied, analyzed, and appropriate lessons learned. But we forget too often and very early too.

Another level of amnesia is the disregard with which we have treated those who were massacred, murdered, or raped or dehumanized in that war. The Biafran war was arguably one of the worst in terms of the egregious war crimes committed against innocent civilians.

Even before the formal declaration of armed conflicts, hundreds of thousands of Igbos had been slaughtered in pogroms across the northern parts of the country. During the conflict itself, innocent women, children, and the elderly were routinely massacred in Umunede, Asaba, Owerri, Onitsha, Aba, et cetera. What happened to those grounds where their blood was shed? Nothing.

50 years after the Biafran tragedy, the victims remain nameless, faceless, and forgotten. No accountability, no justice done to them, not even a memorial service. The sites where their blood soaked the soil remain unhallowed. Not even schools in the South-east mention the Biafran tragedy in any school subject or course. Drive or walk round Igboland and there is not even a piece of stone to commemorate any of the many grounds where unarmed Igbos were massacred, and in some case buried alive.

I argue that if we must forward, we can and should do better in this regard. Ohanaeze or any Igbo umbrella organization should as a matter of urgency organize a yearly remembrance for those who were murdered in that conflict. We need to know who they were and give them a measure of dignity and honour.

And this brings me to the issue of war criminals and crimes of war committed during the Biafran tragedy. Again, we have been remiss. It is beyond belief that no one, not even a dead war criminal, has been brought to book for the egregious war crimes committed against millions of Biafrans circa 1966-1970.

A judicial account of war crimes is NOT a matter of vengeance. It is an issue of justice. It is a matter of high principle. Whether it was the food blockade (a war crime and a crime against humanity), massacres, mass rapes, et cetera, it is my respectful submission that sweeping those crimes under the carpet in the name of “no victor, no vanquished” is extremely irresponsible. Those who have kept quiet have also abetted the irresponsibility itself.

The fourth layer of worrisome amnesia is the neglect of those who gave their lives to the struggle, especially those scientists, technologists, and innovators who pushed the boundaries of technology in the most difficult circumstances. What happened to the Roy Umenyis, Ezekwems, et cetera?

With the exception of Ola Ndi Igbo, very little has gone the way of those giants by way of recognition. This phenomenon should worry any right-thinking person. If we are quick to forget the great engineers who made great inventions from nothing, what credibility should be attached to any claims made by...

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