By Tochukwu Ezukanma<\/p>\n
Haunted by the systematic atrocities of war, the American Civil War hero,
\nGeneral William Sherman, in a speech, shouted, \u201cI am tired and sick of
\nwar. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a
\nshot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for
\nblood, more vengeance and more desolation. War is hell.\u201d Yes, war is
\nhell. War is an infernal monster that racks, devours and devastates.<\/p>\n
Following its final gasp, Biafra died in January 1970. And all over the
\nerstwhile Biafra the pains, sorrow and ravages of war were palpably
\nevident. A proud and resourceful people broken by the horrors of war
\ntottered out of the last hold-outs of Biafra, with their future hinging
\nprecariously on the whims of Yakubu Gowon. Hundreds of thousands of
\nyouthful and able bodied men, the cream and promise of their people, were
\nno more; their skeletal remains strewn around battlefields and makeshift
\ngraves. More than one million civilians had died from starvation and other
\nafflictions of war. Many once lusty, ebullient and confident young men
\nwere reduced to wobbly and feeble public wards by the crippling and
\ndisfiguring injuries of war. The unyielding lament of inconsolable mothers
\nand widows were depressingly earsplitting. Igbo land lay completely
\nexhausted and totally powerless at the feet of a battle-hardened army
\ngiddy with victory.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, lately, starry-eyed, impressionable and excitable Igbo
\nyouths, led by charlatans and cranks, have been agitating for Biafra. The
\ncountry has already fought a gruesome war against secession, and the
\nNigerian constitution is unequivocal in its stance against it. And to the
\ngenerality of Nigerians, it is an anathema and the talk about it is
\nsacrilege. So, secession demands the defiance of the collective will of
\nNigerians and trampling of the Nigerian constitution. It is unlikely that
\nthese can be done peacefully; it must involve war. Although I did not fire
\na shot or hear the cry of the wounded in battle, I vividly remember the
\nhorrors of war. For example, in early 1968, the Nigeria Air Force, with
\nits Soviet-made MIG fighter-bombers, attacked Aba. After their bombing and
\nstrafing of the city, the people of the city erupted into something of a
\ncollective wailing because so many people, mostly civilians, laid death.
\nAmong the dead was a successful medical doctor, Dr. Onyejiaka. Years
\nlater, at Ngwa High School (located outside of Aba), a somewhat withdrawn
\njunior student with a grave demeanor and an aura of innocence caught my
\nattention. He was the son of the late doctor. He must have been about
\nseven years old when the war rendered him fatherless.<\/p>\n
In my neighborhood at Orlu lived a widow. One day, Biafran soldiers
\narrived at her house bearing a crude coffin. It contained the remains of
\nher army officer son killed in battle. She stood before the opened casket
\nof her fallen son. Overwhelmed by grief, she ranted hysterically: my son,
\nmy hero, farewell; when you get there, greet your father; when you get
\nthere, greet your sister that was killed by a bomb at Aba; etc. I was
\nbowled over. Unable to repress my emotions, I wept. The soldiers, hardened
\nby the repulsion and revulsion of war, betrayed no emotion. After a
\nperfunctory ceremony that included attentions and salutes and a number of
\ngun shots into the air, they disappeared with the coffin. Such grim scenes
\nand their attendant jolting and irretrievably shattering of the lives of
\nparent(s) were replicated tens of thousands of times in Biafra. The
\nremains of army officers were retrieved and buried but those of the other
\nranks were left where they fell. I did not grow up in my village. As such,
\nI have a very limited knowledge of people in my village. But I am still
\nprofoundly troubled by the excessive number of the dead from amongst the
\npeople I know in my village. So many cousins, uncles and neighbors,
\nsometimes the family\u2019s only son, and sometimes, two sons of the same
\nparents, were snuffed out by the war. War decimates a people, especially,
\nthe youth. It eviscerates a people; strips them of virility, vigor and
\nvitality.<\/p>\n
The leaders of the neo-Biafran movements and their supporters are young
\nmen and women, mostly, born after the civil war. They are crying \u201caloud
\nfor blood, more vengeance and more desolation\u201d because they have
\n\u201cneither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded\u201d
\nand also, have neither seen nor lived through the terror and misery of
\nwar. Thus, they cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, imagine what
\nwar is. Before the start of the civil war, the peoples of Eastern Region
\nof Nigeria, mesmerized by Ojukwu\u2019s oratory and histrionics, and
\ncompletely unable to imagine the specifics of war, romanticized war.
\nSimilarly, pro-Biafran activists, in their total incapability to envisage
\nthe realities of war, are romanticizing war.<\/p>\n
But there is absolutely nothing romantic or alluring about war. In the
\nwords of Martin Luther, \u201cWar is the greatest plague that can afflict
\nmankind. Any scourge is preferable to it\u201d. This worst of all plagues has
\nafflicted the Igbo once, and as a people, we must forestall another
\naffliction of this plague. Thus far, Igbo leaders have been ambivalent of
\nneo-Biafran activism. They have not demonstrated courage and resolve in
\naddressing the issue. The Igbo leadership should squarely address the
\nissue. It should demand that pro-Biafra activists snap out of their
\ndelusion, and channel their youth, talents and creativity to more
\nconstructive ends. For Biafra is dead. The thought of its resurrection is
\nfantastic absurdity, and the attempt at its resurrection is criminal
\nlunacy.<\/p>\n