THERE WAS TRULY A COUNTRY WHOSE CHILDREN DIED THAT WE MAY LIVE

By Nkem Ossai

An Igbo proverb tells us that a man who does not know where the rain began to beat him cannot say where he dried his body. …Chinua Achebe.

I had prepared to go to school but my loving parents stopped me because of the uncertainty of the coming new nation. I was in elementary 4, a proud senior when education meant a lot.

The day has broken like many other days except for the palpable anxiety in the air. Before then we have heard that Lt. Col. Emeka Ojukwu will bring about a new country for the people of the East. The expectation was very high and joy was written on every man’s face. This was so because, it appeared like the only hope of the Igbo people and of course the entire Eastern Region.

I was then just a child but I understand the joy and anxiety of my parents. This was because; before this day, thousands have returned home from ‘Ugwuawusa’ (the North). These returnees were called refugees. Then, I didn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘refugee’ but I did recognize that those who came back from ‘Ugwuawusa’ were called the refugees. They have told the tale of how thousands have been murdered in cold blood: of how women and children, even the pregnant women had their unborn fetus brought out and decimated.

The wait for the early morning broadcast from Ojukwu was like forever. People had gathered in groups around those who had transistor radios. It was eclectic. It was sobering. It was like a wait that will never come.

The Biafran sun had glided in its natural place quietly inviting the universe to witness the birth of his new baby. Then, came the hour and the moment. The beautiful Biafran Anthem began for the first time. At the end of its rendition a golden voice in queen’s English thundered: “FELLOW countrymen and women, you, the people of Eastern Nigeria: Conscious of the supreme authority of Almighty God over all mankind, of your duty to yourselves and prosperity; Aware that you can no longer be protected in your lives and in your property by  any Government based outside Eastern Nigeria” and so on and so forth… Biafra was born.

This marked the great and historical moment of the birth of the new nation. Like a colossus that he has been, Ojukwu’s voice was full of bravery, courage, a new beginning and hope.

And so the Republic of Biafra was proclaimed. That was after years of suppression under Nigeria: after endless and senseless tribal killings and destruction of Igbo properties in the North. And so Eastern Region, the fastest growing economy in West Africa was declared the Republic of Biafra with it’s capital in the present day Enugu and Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu becoming its first leader.

Ojukwu, an Oxford educated historian and one of the finest soldiers that Nigeria ever produced, assumed the responsibility of the new state with the powers and encumbrances.

Biafra was declared a sovereign nation on May 30, 1967, by the then Eastern Region Governor, Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. However, beyond the euphoria of this new nation came the genocidal action of Nigeria that culminated in the pogrom that is not known anywhere except the planned extermination of over 6 million Jews by German’s Hitler. It lasted thirty months and remained one of the bloodiest.

What lesson is to be learned from this past callous experience? The lesson to be learnt is in today’s remembrance of over two million Biafrans that died in the senseless civil war: a war of attrition, a war that should not have been fought if not for Gen. Gowon’s arrogance. As they say, peace is always better than war.

Ojukwu declared Biafra to save his people that Gowon was determined to exterminate in order to impress his colonial masters (the British) who were bent on teaching Igbos a lesson. No wonder Gowon called the war a week’s police action believing in the might of Britain being behind him. History has now taught us a grim lesson (that is if we have learnt anything). Recent actions by the powers that be shows nothing, absolutely nothing has been learnt.

For those who were not born then, a hard lesson could be learnt from the Russia Ukraine war. Putin had thought that he could run down Ukraine in weeks. Two years after, the sound of guns and booths are becoming heavier and heavier with each side wasting the lives of their citizens by hundreds of thousands and with nobody capable of predicting it’s end.

May the Lord grant the souls of those who lost their lives, a true rest in peace.

We can never forget our heroes.