₦airaland Forum

Many Nigerians from other trips are suffering the same thing but this government don't care about them because there are not Muslims. God will judge u one day

Is clearer that is religious war

Dikoye Oyeyinka, 33, has been billed as one of the most promising Nigerian writers of his generation.


He went to some of the finest schools in his West African homeland but says that like the majority of his classmates he “didn’t know about Biafra until I was 14”.

When he did begin to find out about the brutal civil war that nearly tore Nigeria apart, it was not in the classroom.

Instead it was a schoolmate in his dormitory who showed him a separatist leaflet demanding Nigeria’s southeast break away from the rest of the country.


Before then Oyeyinka had known nothing about how leaders from the Igbo ethnic group declared the independent state of Biafra in 1967.

He knew nothing of the conflict that resulted and the 30 months of fighting and famine estimated to have cost over a million lives before the secessionists surrendered 50 years ago in January 1970.

ALSO READ: Ojukwu and Contemporary Biafra Agitations
“We’ve had a very brutal history, the older generation went through a lot of trauma,” Oyeyinka told AFP.

“We just sweep it under the carpet, pretending nothing happened. But without knowing our history we will repeat the same mistakes. Our history is a succession of deja-vu.”

It was to try to break this cycle of ignorance that the Oyeyinka wrote the novel Stillborn – a historic epic about Nigeria from the days of British colonial rule in 1950 to 2010.

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In it the civil war is the pivotal event.


– ‘Our history, our conflict’ –

Unlike other famed Nigerian writers such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, with her novel Half Of A Yellow Sun, or Chinua Achebe’s memoir There Was A Country, Oyeyinka is one of the few non-Igbo writers to have dwelt on the conflict.

“An Igbo friend got angry at me and said ‘You can’t write about us, it’s our conflict’,” he recounted.

But Oyeyinka insists that all Nigerians need to be made aware of what happened.


“We need to address these traumas ourselves, as a country, otherwise we are a tinder box ready to explode.”

While in the rest of Africa’s most populous nation many know little about the history of Biafra, in the former capital of the self-proclaimed state at Enugu the memory of those years lives on.

READ ALSO: South African president vows not to privatise power utility
Biafran flags — an iconic red, black and green with a rising golden sun — make appearances on the front of buildings and hardline separatists still demand independence.


The security forces — deployed heavily in the region — are quick to stamp out any clamour for a new Biafra.

At the end of the war in 1970, Nigeria’s war leader Yukubu Gowon famously declared there would be “no victor, no vanquished” as he sought to reunite his shattered country.

The leader of the breakaway Republic of Biafra, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, went into exile for 13 years before being pardoned. He returned to Nigerian politics but was detained for 10 months in prison.


Leading Nigerian intellectual Pat Utomi says that many Igbos — the country’s third-biggest ethnic group after the Hausa and the Yoruba — still feel marginalised.

One key event was when current President Muhammadu Buhari — then a military chief — seized power in 1983, and stopped the only Igbo aspirant to get close to leading Nigeria since the war from becoming head of state.

“In the early 1980s, people had forgotten about the war, but this succession of poor leadership brought bitterness among the new generations,” Utomi said.


‘More divided’
Nowadays any incident — from the closure of the only airport in the southeast last year to the sacking of Igbo shops by customs officials in economic hub Lagos — can cause grievances to flare.

“It’s important to deal with history, to write it down. In Nigeria, we try to cover it up,” Utomi said.

“We are more divided today than we’ve ever been before the civil war. We learnt nothing from it.”


ALSO READ: Our agitation is not just for Biafra but for betterment of all trapped in this government – IPOB
In order to try to heal the rifts, Utomi helped organise a “Never Again” conference aiming to bring together key cultural and political figures to discuss the lessons of the Biafra war half a century after it ended.

He is also a patron of the “Centre for Memories” in Enugu, a combination of a museum and library where visitors can come and “dig into history”.


‘History is essential’
History itself has been absent from Nigerian schools.

The current government reintroduced it only from last term as an obligatory subject for pupils aged 10 to 13, after more than a decade off the curriculum.

“Teaching history is essential to build our identity as a country, and defend our patriotic values,” said Sonny Echono, permanent secretary at the education ministry.


But schools still remain woefully short of qualified history teachers and there is no unified narrative about the civil war which does not figure in the lessons.

“We need to teach the war in our schools,” said Egodi Uchendu, a history professor at University of Nsukka, in the former Biafra territory.

“Eastern Nigeria is completely different from how it was experienced in other parts of the country. We need to bring in the different angles to it.”


ICYMI: Remembering Biafra in border closure
Chika Oduah, a Nigerian-American journalist, has crossed the country to collect hundreds of testimonies of the victims and combatants of the Biafra conflict which she publishes on her website Biafran War Memories.

She says that for many of those she interviewed it was the first time they had retold the horrors of the period.

“A 70-something former soldier… broke down crying, when he told me how he lost his brother during the war.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/01/fifty-years-on-nigeria-struggles-with-memory-of-biafra-war/

The Igbo's are getting ready to separate if they refuse to allow them this opportunity. Watch you think they are fools

If an Igbo man didn't become President the call for Biafra will come harder because all the igbo politicians will join the strongle , watch out

ezenwajosh:
you mean the owners of lagos traveled to their village n lagos was no fun anymore now your DUMB ASS might understand why your elders are fighting all they can to make sure BIAFRA DOESN'T HAPPEN.....JUST ONE SEA PORT IN ONITSHA LAGOS WILL BE EMPTY A WEEK

The fact

Brandstudio01:
Just Imagine American Senators Reminding Nigerian Lawmakers their Jobs.

Same dudes talking about Hate Speech Bill.
What a time to be a Nigerian in history

Anyway, I will Build a Professional Logo for your Product or Company For 2k Only. Offer valid Today Only. See my info below to Chat me up

The 9 Assembly is nothing than rubber stamp

Since your first tenure till now the country is still going backwards, why can't you give the people what they want. I thought you are a Christian

Why didn't they mention other national? Where did the 11 others come from?

Guyman02:
The names comprises more of other tribes than Igbo, the Lagos -Ibadan online media will soon ignore this news till further notice

Imagine if there were only Igbos in that list, by now you would have seen 20 different anti Igbo topics on Nairaland FP on the same topic like this.

1. US FBI discover another $10m in Okekes account in Russia - Nation
2. Okeke should resign as chairman of Okeke and Sons enterprise to save the image of Okeke Airlines. SERAP
3. EFCC opens investigation into Okeke activities...
4. Okeke started his business with amnesty funds of Niger Delta - Oduduwa Online
5. Okeke should travel to Jamaica to clear himself - Leadership
6. Ohaneze calls for release of Okeke..... Vanguard
7. Okekes baby Mama wows in Bikini........ NgeneUkwenu
10. US Courts to request for extradition of Okeke to face charges of fraud....... Sahara Reporters

why do the hate Igbo's ?

See the deplorable condition of Calabar itu road, we where in this bad spot for 5 hours. I call on the federal government to give this road urgent attention because many have lost their lives in this same road, is a federal road.

mcmbonu:
Osinbajo is like a democrat thew same as Goodluck J

what do you expect he educated onlike some people

Is already happening, 2023 they will come to Yuroba again to have another deal, oh
Vp

Mission accomplished

delamb01:
I thought Local Governments now receive their federal allocations directly from the federation account. Or are they demanding for what was due to them before the advent of the LG financial autonomy?

The financial autonomy didn't work in Abia

Is like the financial autonomy given to local governments in Nigeria did not work in Abia State , the state is still holding back local government salary up to 4 months

Rolandonyi:
Please quote me if i am wrong. The guy has spent so much money on Abia politics since 2015 and needs to recoup his investments. He is not coming to work for Nigeria but to loot. Mark this quote!

if you know Oga you can't say this

PhenomenalMorgan:

I just pity "checks and balances" in this 9th assembly
Anything the executive brings, sharp sharp na so them go stamp am, no containing the excesses of the executive!!!
Like it or not guys like Saraki and shehu sani made the senate what it was supposed to be!!! An institution that checks the executive!!!

correct

Hope is not testing the microphone, if this killings dont stop some people will be disgrace soon

Abia state, are we really curse?

Mmmmmmm, Antichrist laoding ....... Christians will understand

We will not vote for a man who is defending his brother's that are killing Nigerians by calling them just criminals, God will judge him and his supporters

Nigerians should give him credit for he has tried in agriculture

BREAKING!!!

Gen . TY Danjuma explodes

Retired Lt. Gen. Theophilous Danjuma yesterday asked the people of Middle-Belt, South-West, South-South & South-East to forget all about 2019 Elections but to first fight back the Fulani murderous invaders and reclaim their lands which are now under Fulani occupation.

General Danjuma stated unambiguously that President Buhari is the direct founder and sponsor of Miyetti Allah and had concluded plans to provide safe heavens for all West African Fulanis in the entire SOUTH and the MIDDLE BELT. He made it clear that War had already been declared, going by the spate of relentless killings here and there, lamenting that helpless victims are predominantly Christians.

The retired General warned that Buhari has used Tinubu to divide South-West and that plans are underway to overrun Yoruba Kingdom and make them subordinate to Hausa-Fulani Oligarchy.

He equally lamented that from secrets file obtained, the conquest of Yoruba would commence as soon as they are through with Middle-Belt reqions. And that soonest they take hostage of Yoruba, their brothers from Sudan, Guinea, and other West African descent would combine to fight South-East and South-South.

Danjuma regretted that while the rest of Middle Belt and South are under invasion led by Army Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Buratai, our politicians are playing to the gallery, giving Buhari all necessary supports.

Danjuma opined that at present the Presidency has been taken over by Miyetti Allah and has vowed to retain Buhari in power even if it means shedding the blood of any opposition. Stating that should the people fail to rise now and put an end to this, either you are a moslem after 2019 or in Exile.

Note:
War has been going on in Taraba and parts of Jigawa States and hundreds are killed daily. In Kaduna few days ago more that 220 persons were killed by foreign mercinaries imported by Buhari's Fulanis.

As I write this, information coming that Imo State shall be the hotbed because of its centralised location and once it is captured, the entire SE/SS is gone. And that Imo governorship election shall be used to ignite the Holocaust.

Stay tuned.
Cpd

He should go and pay salary to those workers he is owing especially LGA , Teachers etc

I attend a program at international conference center in the capital of Abia state and met my namesake Prof Paul

A lot of people have died because of Biafra, i don't think this people will ever give up this struggle

This is hate speech, you will not go free

The federal government has made it so because they don't want the east and south to develop

Op you wan finish me abi chia, i remember how i use to enjoy this things when i was in Cameroon

You know those behind the killing the call their names keep shot