Thursday, March 31, 2005

My history taught me that Nigeria was founded by a Briton called Mongo Park and that the amalgamation of this entity called Nigeria was done by Sir Frederick (later Lord) Lugard.

We all learnt about the efforts of our forefathers, who fought to give us a free Nigeria. I cannot remember precisely the date, in the year 1966 when they told us this war started, but I can never forget that the war ended in 1970 because my old man died exactly that same year.

I was also taught that the Federal government of Nigeria declared "No victor, no vanquish." I beg to disagree with that phrase.

The victims of that war are the youths from the East, many who lost their parents. My family still has till date, a victim who does not know where he hails from. This man has been living with us since the age of four.

We were told how the Igbo were slaughtered in Kano and how Dim Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu led the war. I was also made to understand that Chief Obafemi Awolowo who was jailed in the East by the then Federal government for treason was freed by the Biafran government. The chief according to

My teacher was to go back home and declare the Oduduwa State however; when he got back to Lagos, he teamed up with the same government that jailed him to make life unbearable for the same Igbo race that freed him. This chief being a highly intelligent man was the man who according to my elders, actually won the war.

The chief I was told came up with the idea of changing the national currency and blocking food aids to the East. The Biafran government threw in the towel because thousands of children from the East were dying daily as a result of hunger.

My elders further said at the end of the civil war, people from the East who owned businesses in Lagos, Port-Harcourt and the Northern State and ran away when the war broke out were given twenty-five pounds by the Federal government to start a new life. This is all I could remember, this account may not be correct, I stand to be corrected!

Why I went down this memory lane is because the innocent boys and girls, men and women who were not even born when this war broke out are paying the price for a war fought in the 60's with their future and lives. Take a trip across Nigeria, there is virtually no place, no hamlet, or city you cannot find an Igbo man on flight. It is a common saying that power belong to the Northerners, the West, the economy, while the Igbo are in-charge of commerce . Which commerce? Petty trading?

Visit Onitsha main market, go to Ariaria main market in Aba; make another trip to Alaba international market, or Ladipo; Yaba spare market, Surulere spare parts market all scattered in Lagos, in the morning hours, you will see tens of thousands of youths who instead of going to school are forced due to poverty to start learning petty trading, some of them at a very tender age. You need to see these little kids inside some dinky, dirty looking shops struggling to learn how to trade instead OF being in the classrooms.

In the night time, drive around the major cities, pay a visit to the night clubs and pub houses, the ladies of the darkness who want to go home with you for a fee mainly are from the East. You will be shocked however to find out that the cheap lady you took home is an undergraduate, who in her quest to pay her school tuition took to that dangerous way of life. Sometimes, many of them are not so lucky. Some met their end in the hands of criminals, who most times ganged rape, maim, or even kill and dismember their bodies for moneymaking rituals. I once made a record on Miss Adline, a young Igbo girl who had her two eyes plucked out by men who wanted to get rich over night in Lagos. We all saw what has become of that helpless Igbo girl today.

In Lagos Nigeria, I use to live in Ajao Estate and every evening, there was this spot where you can find girls who could win "miss world." I frequented this joint, mingled with some of these pretty women who when you get close to them, you will discover are Igbo girls in Universities and colleges. One thing is however noticeable when you interact with them, they can barely make a correct or complete sentence. When you ask them how they pass their classes they will tell you "money answereth all things." The truth is that their teachers make good money from them. You ask yourself, how this young girls will face the future as graduates, when they must have completed their university education.

What kind of leaders are we preparing for the future. Poverty, that seven letter word which everybody dread is the reason why tens of thousands of Igbo youths are passing through hell in Gabon, Libya and some of these tiny African nation.

There was a time some Igbo boys found a haven of rest in Gabon. During the Christmas holidays, they usually visit home with big cars, their peers In these Nigerian villages who are not properly informed took the risk of their lives traveling thousands of miles on rickety food boats to Gabon. Some of them don't even make it, you hear every now and then how these ships sunk killing a whole lots of them.

In the mid 90's,many were deceived to think rushing to Gabon is like going to America. The truth only dawned on them after settling down and maybe with the saving they made in Nigeria, they started a little business. You could spend about one year trying to put your business together but, as soon as things set out, the French-trained police will swoop on them like a bees. These ruthless French-trained police, I was told, do not care about human lives. They take away these harmless boys; if you are lucky, you would come back with broken limbs; if not, your family way back home are given the sad news about the lost of their beloved one.

You cannot own a business in Gabon without running the risk of having it destroyed by their state French-trained police.

As I write, thousands of youths from Mbaise in Imo State of Nigeria are stranded in Gabon. They live in the streets and in fear. I keep in touch daily with some of these boys who want to go back home. The Nigerian Embassy is not doing anything to help these youths.

I made arrangement for a stranded boy to go back to Nigeria. He told me it was better for him to commit suicide than going back through the same way he came. This youth cannot go back by air because when he, like others went there, they had no papers. I am told if you get to the airport, you would be arrested and tortured by the police.

You read over here about hundreds of boys from the eastern part of Nigeria who died in Sahara Desert while making their way to Libya. You probably heard how most of them were killed in that country after so many years. You heard when thousands of them were deported back to Nigeria and the action the federal government of Nigeria took. Daily, the youths, our leaders of tomorrow, risk their lives to see how their poor families, victims of the Nigerian civil war, can survive hunger and poverty caused by the war.

In their attempt to seek greener pastures they end up being killed in these hostile African countries. If war had not broken out in Nigeria in the 60s, the Igbo land should have been among the most developed nations in the world. The land is still bleeding from the war. Her youths are still dying of hunger caused by the war. Our young girls, our future mothers, are being killed daily by callous men who took advantage of their plight. I ponder everyday what will become of the Igbo generation in the next decade.

The federal government of Nigeria owe it a duty to bring these boys back to Nigeria. These youths left their towns and villages because the government could not provide for them. These innocent children are still suffering from the war which ended in 1970.

Since there was no victor, no vanquish, the eastern part of Nigeria should not be like a zone conquered, defeated, and abandoned forever. I have traveled around Nigeria, you cannot find portable drinking water in any village in the southeastern part of Nigeria. No electricity, no motorable road. The war between the federal government of Nigeria and the republic of Biafra has not ended! The peace we are enjoying right now is a peace of the graveyard!

Emma Agu…‘alaabama‘

President, CastleHill Studios