A Biafra supporter cries during a rally in support of Nnamdi Kanu in
Abuja, December 1, 2015. Dutch lawyers have filed a case against
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari for alleged crimes against humanity
against pro-Biafran activists. | Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters
Femi
Fani-Kayode, a prominent thought leader in Nigeria, writes this
two-part essay to commemorate 50 years of Biafra, the Land of the Rising
Sun – and remind Nigerians of the country’s dark history with regards
to relations with the Igbos. You may read the first part of this essay HERE.
What is even more revealing and brings
home the true horror of what transpired during the war itself was
provided by Mr. Anayo Johnpaul, a historian and public commentator. He
wrote as follows:
“Shocking revelations of the hatred for
Igbos and how the north used the Nigerian Federal troops and locals in
the South-West and North to commit genocide with the help of Great
Britain and America during the civil war.
“Permit me to share some excerpts from the confessions of the perpetrators.
“I want to see no Red Cross, no Caritas,
no World Council of Churches, no Pope, no missionary, no UN delegation.
I want to prevent even one Ibo from having even one piece of food to
eat before their capitulation. We shoot at everything that moves and
when our troops march into the centre of Igbo territory, we shoot at
everything: even things that do not move”- (Benjamin Adekunle,
Commander, 3rd Marine Commander Division, Nigerian Army to French Radio
Reporter).
“All is fair in war and starvation is
one of the weapons of war. I don’t see why we should feed our enemies
fat in order for them to fight harder”- (Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Nigerian
Minister of Finance, July 28, 1969).
“Until now efforts to relieve the
Biafran people have been thwarted by the desire of the central
government to pursue total and unconditional victory and by the fear of
the Igbo people that surrender means wholesale atrocities and genocide.
But genocide is what is taking place right now and starvation is the
grim reaper. This is not the time to stand on ceremony, or go through
channels or to observe diplomatic niceties. The destruction of an entire
people is immoral objective, even in the most moral of wars. It can
never be condoned”- (Richard Nixon, during the presidential campaign,
September 9, 1968).
“Federal troops killed, or stood while
mobs killed, more than 5000 Ibos in Warri, Sapele, Agbor”- (New York
Times, 10th January, 1968).
“It (mass starvation) is a legitimate
aspect of war”- (Anthony Enahoro, Nigerian Commissioner for Information
at a press conference in New York, July 1968).
“Starvation is a weapon of war and we
have every intention of using it against the rebels”- (Mr Alison Ayida,
Head of Nigerian delegation, Niamey Peace talks, July 1968).
“The Igbos must be considerably reduced in number”- Lagos Policeman quoted in New York Review 21 December, 1967).
“One word now describes the policy of
the Nigerian military government towards secessionist Biafra: genocide.
It is ugly and extreme but it is the only word which fits Nigeria’s
decision to stop international Red Cross and other relief agencies from
flying food to Biafra”- ( Washington Post editorial, July 2, 1969).
“In some areas in the east, Igbos were
killed by local people with at least the acquiescence of the Federal
forces, 1000 Igbo civilians perished in Benin in this way”- (Max Edward
Reporter, reporter on the ground – New York Review, 21 December 1967).
“After Federal forces took over Benin,
troops killed about 500 Igbo civilians after a house to house search
with the aid of willing locals”- (Washington Morning Post, 27 September,
1967).
“The greatest single massacre occurred
in the Igbo town of Asaba where 700 Igbo males were lined up and shot as
terrified women/children were forced to watch”- (London Observer, 21
January,1968).
“Federal troops killed or stood by while
mobs killed more than 5000 Ibos in Warri, Sapele, Agbor- (New York
Times, 10th January, 1968).
“There has been genocide on the occasion
of the 1966 massacres, the region between the towns of Benin and Asaba
where only widows and orphans remain, Federal troops having, for unknown
reasons, massacred all the men”- (Paris Le Monde, 5th April, 1968).
“In Calabar, Federal forces shot at
least 1000 and perhaps 2000 Igbos, most of them civilians.”- (New York
Times, 18th January,1968).
“Bestialities and indignities of all
kinds were visited on the Biafrans in 1966. In Ikeja Barracks (Western
Nigeria) Biafrans were forcibly fed on a mixture of human urine and
faeces. In Northern Nigeria numerous housewives and nursing mothers were
violated before their husbands and children. Young girls were abducted
from their homes, walking places and schools and forced into intercourse
with sick, demented and leprous men.” – (Mr Eric Spiff, German War
Correspondent, eyewitness, 1967).
“650 refugee camps, contained about
700,000 haggard bundles of human flotsam waiting hopelessly for a meal,
outside the camps, was the reminder of an estimated four and half to
five million displaced Kwashiokor scourge, a million and half children,
suffer(ed) from it during January; that put the forecast death toll at
another 300,000 children. More than the pogroms of 1966, more than the
war casualties, than the terror bombings, it was the experience of
watching helplessly their children waste away and die that gave birth
to, a deep and unrelenting loathing. It is a feeling that will one day
reap bitter harvest unless.”- (Frederick Forsyth, British Writer,
January 21st 1969).
“The Nazis had resurrected just here as Nigerian forces.” – (Washington Post, editorial, July 2, 1969).
“The loss of life from starvation
continues at more than 10,000 persons per day over 1,000,000 lives in
recent months. Without emergency measures now, the number will climb to
25,000 per day, within a month and 2,000,000 deaths by the end of the
year. The new year will only bring greater disaster to people caught in
the passion of fratricidal war, we can’t allow this to continue or those
responsible to go free.” – (Senator Ted Kennedy appeals to Americans
Sunday November 17, 1968).
“Myself and the same UNICEF
representatives went on to convey something of what lay behind this
intransigence: Among the large majority hailing from that tribe who are
the most vocal in inciting the complete extermination of the Igbos. I
often heard remarks that all Nigeria’s ills will be cured once the Igbos
have been exterminated from the human map.” – (Dr Conor Cruise O’Bien,
21 December, 1967, New York Review”. (CONCLUDED).
As harrowing as these words are they accurately and graphically capture the mood and horrific essence of the civil war.
They also reveal an inconvenient truth
which is as follows: that the Nigerian people and General Yakubu Gowon
owe the people of the east a sincere and unwavering apology for the
barbaric and criminal manner in which they conducted the civil war.
We also have an obligation to make
restitution to them, offer them compensation for all they have lost and
to bring to justice all those that were directly or indirectly involved
in the commission of the barbaric and hideous atrocities and crimes
against humanity that were visited upon the Igbo civilian population and
defenceless Igbo women and children.
I refuse to describe the killer of
children and the murderer of women and defenceless civilians as war
heroes. My conscience does not permit it.
If the German people could find it in
their hearts to ask the Jews to forgive them for what they did to them
in the Second World War, the Nigerian people should be big-hearted
enough and strong enough to ask the same of the Igbo.
Such a course of action does not diminish or weaken us: it makes us more humane.
And neither do I believe that offering
them “more cake” as President Olusegun Obasanjo has suggested can make
up for all that we have subjected them to over the last 51 years.
The last person that suggested the
offering of cake to the irate masses and victims of injustice as a way
of calming them down and getting them to stop their agitation for
emancipation was Queen Marie Antoinnete of France. That was in 1789.
Unfortunately it did not go down too
well and a few weeks later the French revolution took place and both the
Marie Antoinette and her husband King Louis XV1, together with much of
the French royal family, courtiers, nobles and landed gentry were
arrested by the Jacobins, publicly humiliated, tried in the people’s
courts of law and had their heads chopped off with a guillotine.
That signified the end of the monarchy
in France, the demise of the long rulership of the proud and
distinguished royal Bourbon lineage and family and the beginning of the
great French Republic which changed the face of Europe, the history of
world and which endures till today.
So much for the offering of cake as a
panacea or solution to the unjust and barbarous treatment of the
oppressed and the deprived.
I do not believe that the dream of
Biafra can be shattered and obliterated by promises of cake and a few
crumbs from the masters table.
And neither do I believe that they can
be wished away or destroyed by reckless and dangerous attempts to break
their will and dampen their spirits by killing them in the streets or
incarcerating them indefinitely or with threats of wiping them off the
face of the earth and total and complete annihilation.
I am a man of peace and I believe that
war is evil. It is the darkness that seeks the darkness. It is utterly
repugnant and manifestly destructive.
It is a complete and total descent into madness, barbarism, hell, chaos and inhumanity.
Those that glorify it or encourage and endorse it any shape or form are either shallow, naive or simply insane.
It is the will and law of God to fight
for freedom, equity and justice. Our cause is just. What we must NOT do
is use violence or shed blood.
Yet despite this fundamental principle
which I hold dear, one thing that I know is this: If, God forbid, there
were ever to be any major conflict or war in our country again the Igbo
would not be left to fight it on their own.
If, God forbid, there were to ever be a
round two of our civil war I have little doubt that this time around the
entire south and the Middle Belt would stand together as one against
our common oppressors and those that kill and slaughter our people at
will in the name of ethnic supremacy and faith.
I pray that it never happens and I hope
that we either restructure the country or peacefully go our separate
ways before it is too late.
Those that resist that course are playing with fire and are sitting on a keg of gunpowder.
When it ignites no-one will be left
standing, no-one will come out whole and no-one will escape being
amongst the victims of the cataclysmic and horrendous events that will
follow.
As a matter of urgency we must pray
fervently for peace in Nigeria. We must counsel and encourage restraint,
understanding and patience from all sides.
Most important of all we must find it in
our hearts to display and express a high degree of regret and
contrition for what we did to the Igbo, pay them compensation and make
restitution for what we subjected them to before, during and after the
civil war. God demands it and justice requires it.
Until this is done every Nigerian,
including yours truly, should hold himself partially responsible for the
atrocities that have been committed against the Igbo in our country
over the last 51 years.
May the souls of all those that lost
their lives on both sides of the divide during the course of our civil
war rest in peace and may May 30 1967, the day that the war started 50
years ago today, be acknowledged and set aside as a day of honor for the
unsung heroes of the Biafran struggle.
Femi
Fani-Kayode is a lawyer, a Nigerian politician, an evangelical
christian, an essayist, a poet and he was the Special Assistant (Public
Affairs) to President Olusegun Obasanjo from July 2003 until June 2006.
He was the minister of culture and tourism of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria from June 22nd to Nov 7th 2006 and as the minister of Aviation
from Nov 7th 2006 to May 29th 2007. He tweets from@realFFK.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
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