By Tochukwu Ezukanma<\/p>\n
To characterize a scale of mass-murder that defied the English lexicon,
\nRaphael Lemkin coined a new word, \u201cgenocide\u201d, from the Greek word
\n\u201cgeno\u201d, meaning tribe, nation or people and from the Latin word,
\n\u201ccide\u201d, conjugated from \u201ccaedere\u201d \u2013 to kill. He was writing
\nabout the Nazi policy of deliberate, systematic extermination of entire
\nnationalities in Axis-occupied Europe. Although the forces of secession
\nin Nigeria has endlessly bandied around the word \u201cgenocide\u201d, there
\nhas never been any act of genocide in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Leading up to the civil war, there were two anti-Igbo riots in northern
\nNigeria in May 29th to 31st\u00a0 1966, and September 29th to early October,
\n1966, and an anti-Igbo coup of July 29th 1966. In the two riots, about
\nten thousand Igbo were killed but the Biafran propaganda bumped up the
\nfigure to 30,000. And in the anti-Igbo coup, Aguiyi Ironsi and about 300
\nIgbo soldiers were killed.\u00a0 These were in reprisal to the January 15th
\n1966 coup by one Yoruba and four Igbo majors that killed the two most
\nimportant Hausa\/Fulani political leaders and four highest ranking army
\nofficers, without killing any Igbo leader; insulting of the memory of
\nthe most important northern political leader, Ahmadu Bello, by Igbo
\nliving in northern Nigeria: and Ironsi\u2019s Decree 34. Following the
\nSeptember\/October pogrom in the North, there was a half-hearted reprisal
\nkilling of northerners in Eastern Region; a few hundred of them died.<\/p>\n
During the war, in some rare cases, both Nigerian and Biafran soldiers
\nmassacred civilians, either in hate or suspicion. At Asaba, the Muritala
\nMohammed commanded Second Division, out of hate, murdered 500 to 700
\nIgbo. In Ikot Ekpene, Ogoniland and other Biafran minority areas,
\nBiafran soldiers, out of suspicion of sabotage, murdered thousands of
\nBiafran minorities. But there was no plan or attempt, on either side, to
\nexterminate any tribe or nation.<\/p>\n
After the capture of Enugu by federal forces, my cousin, and her family
\nreturned to Enugu. They ran a restaurant, selling food and drinks to
\nNigerian soldiers and Igbo civilians. Like the Igbo that lived behind
\n\u201cEnemy Lines\u201d, they lived their lives and went about their normal
\nbusinesses till the end of the war. That is, as the war raged, some Igbo
\nlived in parts of Biafra already captured by Nigerian soldiers, and the
\n\u201cvandals\u201d, \u201cgenocidal maniacs\u201d did not kill them. As the war
\nended, the Nigerian government, with its \u201cgenocidal policy\u201d,
\nreleased Biafran prisoners, both soldiers and civilians. Ironically,
\nBiafra had no prisoner to release because, in our \u201csaintliness\u201d and
\n\u201cgodliness\u201d, we had killed every Nigerian soldier we ever captured.
\nThe Nigerian government had no genocidal policy, and the Nigerian army
\ndid not wantonly kill Biafran civilians. It was a fact attested to by
\ninternational observers.<\/p>\n
As in every war, people died in the Nigeria civil war. Soldiers died
\nfrom two armies fighting and killing each other, and civilians died from
\ncollateral damages of war, mostly air raids and hunger. Since the Second
\nWorld War, the bombing and strafing of civilian centers have been
\nlegitimate acts of warfare. Had Allied warplanes, in a sustained bombing
\nraid, not destroyed sections of the German city of Dresden and killed
\nabout 25, 000 (some estimated 50, 000) German civilians? So, as the
\nNigerian Air Force bombed and strafed civilian centers in Biafra, it was
\nin exigencies of war, not in an act of genocide. Since history, people
\nhave starved in wars. In the First World War, about 750, 000 Germans
\nstarved to death, and in the Second World War, millions of people died
\nfrom hunger. TV footages of wars around the world, like in Yemen and
\nSyria, show images of starving civilians. Was it not self-deceit for
\nBiafrans to expect that their enemy, the Nigerian government, will feed
\nthem?<\/p>\n
As Chukwuemeka Ojukwu finally ran away, Biafra surrendered
\nunconditionally. And it became evident that the talk about a planned
\nextermination of the Igbo by the Gowon government was colossal nonsense.
\nWe were pleasantly surprised by the federal forces: they were
\ndisciplined and benign; they bothered no one and killed no one.<\/p>\n
In his book, Why the Jews rejected Jesus, David Klinghoffer, wrote that,
\n\u201cWidespread misinformation poisons a culture\u201d. The lingering grip of
\nthe misinformation of the Biafran propaganda on Igbo minds is poisoning
\nIgbo culture, psyche and mindset. The belief in the lies that, for no
\noffense of ours, all the other ethnic groups of Nigeria, unified by
\ntheir relentless hatred against us, massacred us, drove us from Nigeria
\nand still followed us to our home region to fight us and exterminate us
\nis psychologically ravaging the Igbo. It fills us with angry,
\nbitterness, hate and suspicion. With the Igbo collective mind laden with
\nso much anger, resentment, hate and distrust towards Nigeria and other
\nNigerians, we cannot experience the full depth and dimensions of our
\npolitical life in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
For our own good, we must start freeing ourselves from the
\npsychological, emotional and sentimental fetters of Biafranism. Despite
\nthe intrusive availability of accurate information on the civil war,
\nmany Igbo prefer to cling to the falsehood of the Biafran propaganda.
\nThus, they remain captives to the past, Biafra, and giddy with the
\nexcrescence \u2013 abnormal outgrowth \u2013 of Biafra, neo-Biafranism.
\nNeo-Biafranism is a flight into fantasy. It makes them reject a real
\ncountry and grasp at a daydream country, which is a major source of our
\npolitical dilemma; it enervates us, politically, and erodes our
\npolitical relevance in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Already, our political fortune has plummeted to a lamentable low. A
\nproud and resourceful people that once held sway across the entire
\nspectrum of the Nigerian social life now whimper over trivialities, and
\nprattle like political destitute and beggars. And a people, once led by
\none of the greatest political minds of the 20th Century, Nnamdi Azikiwe,
\nare now being hoodwinked by a blustering ruffian, vulgar parvenu, and
\ninexhaustible liar, Nnamdi Kanu.<\/p>\n
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes in Lagos, Nigeria<\/p>\n