Earlier, Mazi Osita Ebiem eloquently brought to the attention of the Igbo the unacceptability of the “advice” rendered by purported Igbo “leaders” to the Igbo victims of ongoing Jos genocidal murders and mayhem, where “Jos” has become a symbol for the unending ethnic cleansing and pogrom directed against the Igbo residing in Northern Nigeria. Such “counsel” came in the form of a threat that the Igbo would retaliate, henceforth, by killing Northerners living in Igboland as a matter of policy.
Earlier, Mazi Osita Ebiem eloquently brought to the attention of the Igbo the unacceptability of the “advice” rendered by purported Igbo “leaders” to the Igbo victims of ongoing Jos genocidal murders and mayhem, where “Jos” has become a symbol for the unending ethnic cleansing and pogrom directed against the Igbo residing in Northern Nigeria. Such “counsel” came in the form of a threat that the Igbo would retaliate, henceforth, by killing Northerners living in Igboland as a matter of policy.
We want to repudiate, in the strongest and unequivocal terms, this counsel, advice or threat, regardless of origin or source, for several reasons. First, those so-called leaders were not authorized by the Igbo to speak on our behalf; Igbo Oha has made no such decision nor promulgated “such policy.” Second, “Reprisal” is not “Igbo way” since the result is to have the blood of the innocent on your hands and on your head: this is “aru”—abomination, in Igbo tradition and culture. Collectively, the Igbo are still reeling from the spiritual and psychological burden of the consequences of Slavery wherein our forefathers participated in the selling of our own people; the psychic damage and scar are still there. (There is a plan in the inceptive stages to have a Global period of atonement capped by a day of formal expression of remorse and apology—but this is an urgent matter for another day.) Reprisal killing is antithetical to Igbo; its negativity and psychic burden are not anything that the Igbo collective want in addition.
Third, the Igbo residing and being killed and injured in Northern Nigeria have not asked Igbo Oha officially for advice or for help in the matter. What they have done so far is continue in the futility of asking the Federal government of Nigeria for protection when it is obvious that starting in 1966, that has never happened: the government of Nigeria either looks the other way, or tacitly supports all malevolence against the Igbo in Nigeria—whether in or outside of Igboland. These Igbo residing in Northern Nigeria continue, like a broken record, asking for the identification, arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators when in fact the perpetrators openly and publicly announce who they are and what they are going to do and then proceed to do exactly that, and there is nothing that the Nigerian government can do or wants to do effectively about it. Those Igbo have also gone to the Northern Nigerian leaders to praise them in nauseating sycophancy, going as far as awarding “peace prize” to them, if you can imagine that; yet the killings and destruction continue. Then, the same Igbo, hoping to get some sympathy, declared how they stay neutral, “minding their own business” especially in Jos area proper, even as everything around them sears and burns, wherein they do not support their fellow Christians to ward off Northern Muslim attacks, and obviously would not join the Muslim to attack the Christians there. Hardly do they realize that such is viewed as “selfishness” and self-centeredness or indifference, and would never endear them to any of those Northern parties, but would rather draw scorn, loathe and mercilessness against them—just like the facts show.
Thus, and fourth, the Igbo writhing and dying in Jos / Northern Nigeria today have made their own choice: for reasons best known to them and other arguments that might be surmised, they have chosen, of their own volition, to live in mortal danger and mayhem, to live with the reality and fact of their own death and destruction at the hands of a vicious, programmed and determined group operating a thoroughly lethal environment. These Igbo have made their own bed so, and they choose to lie on it so.
If the Igbo still, and constantly, living in fear and suspicion and insecurity in “Jos”/ Northern Nigeria had asked Igbo Oha for counsel, we would have given them the only wise counsel in this circumstance: Leave! Not, “stay, arm and defend yourselves.” Not, “stay, prove and exercise your right as Nigerian citizens free to live in any part of Nigeria you so desire” because, and rather obviously, the Nigerian so-called constitution (even if it could protect the Igbo after over 40 years of being designed to punish and pepper the Igbo), stops where the Islamic Nation of Northern Nigeria begins; for the Muslim North, this means the entire North, and soon, the entire Nigeria, and Sharia rules.
Igbo Oha would have wisely counseled the embattled Igbo in Northern Nigeria to leave the North. And they will re-state the Igbo proverb about the grasshopper that was had for dinner by Okpoko the noisy bird, for rationale and emphasis. Relocate to anywhere else but there. Preferably, to Igboland / Biafraland, where they can help develop their own land and make a positive impact on Igbo nation-building. Otherwise, find another African country or go beyond the continent where you can do business in safety. Yes, it will be tough and rough-going, at least initially, but, then, you can pursue and build up and grow your trade without constantly looking over your shoulder for the next onslaught that would for sure raze your business and property and injure, if not outrightly, kill you. The daily angst and anxiety generated by the insecurity, mayhem and murderous circumstances surrounding the Igbo in Northern Nigeria does in fact lead to physical / medical, psychological, psychiatric, psychic and spiritual disease. It takes a huge toll, over and above the killings and maiming per se.
If you, an Igbo, raise your hand and strike or strike down a Northerner living in Igboland / Biafraland because his kith and kin in Northern Nigeria participated in the ongoing pogrom against the Igbo choosing to live there, you are on your own, guilty as hell for murder and mayhem. The Igbo collectivity does not and will not support you or condone this gratuitous act of aru. The aggrieved Igbo living in the North have not asked you to do this on their behalf. So, you have to face your own self, your own conscience and your own Chi, and whatever human laws can prosecute you for such a dastardly crime. Those Igbo staying back in the Hell known as Jos / Northern Nigeria today have made their own choice—to live in Hell; if you commit a reprisal act, you are saying that you want to join them in your own Hell. That’s your bloody business as an individual. The Igbo collectivity will not be complicit or get involved or implicated in any way in such individual act of abomination.
As for the Northern Nigerian marauders whose only pleasure in life is to spill human blood and smell the smell of burning flesh and burning property, and whose only groove in life is to listen to the wailing voices of innocent and inconsolable victims of unfathomable atrocities, we have nothing to say to you because it is clear that you could not understand the Universal Human Language. Take a look at yourselves in the Mirror of Humanity.
“Reprisal” is anti-Igbo way: the Igbo will never support or condone it. We have enough collective burdens, as it were, needing rectification. Anyone engaging in Reprisal is on his criminal own. The victimized Igbo remaining in Northern Nigeria have made a conscious choice to stay there; so be it for them. Our advice for them is, LEAVE. We do not do Reprisal, which is abhorrent and abominable—aru.
Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
Nwa Biafra
A Biafran Citizen
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });