By Emeka Alex Duru
(08054103327, nwaukpala@yahoo.com)
Certain experiences refuse to go off the mind. Try as much as possible to push them behind, they keep coming. I had one in the dying days of the 1969-1970 Nigeria-Biafra Civil War, when as kids, we were at a point forced out of the comfort of our homes to brief exile inside the bushes far from the village, in response to the ceaseless shelling and raids by the ravenous federal forces.
In our uncertain state, every noise from an approaching fighter jet, signalled death. But in our childish innocence, we saw the entire thing as fun and the temporary relocation as an excursion. What we however never forgot was to dive into a nearby ditch for cover at the sound of an aircraft whether it was from “our people” or “the enemy”, as we heard elderly ones say. Days later, we were set to return to the village. The paradox of fun in an atmosphere of uncertainty and imminent death, had ended. We had palm fronds tied on our wrists and were asked to chorus; “One Nigeria”! The war or rather, the field hostilities had ended! With that, the Biafran enterprise had been brought to an abrupt end and the heroic endeavours of a people to take their destiny in their hand, terminated. To paraphrase iconic Professor Chukwuemeka Ike, it was sunset at dawn.
Back home, the realities of the 30-month strife starred in the face. Houses had been ransacked and precious items stolen. Some were razed and the owners displaced. As in the words of the poet, John Pepper (JP) Clark, they were like fish doped out of water belly wise. It was confusion everywhere. The teaching that war is an ill-wind that does no one any good, sank in.
That was exactly the memory that surged back to my mind last week from two related incidents concerning Lilu community, in Ihiala local government area of Anambra State and another from Agwa, Oguta council, Imo State. In one of such displays, a viral video captured a man addressing indigenes of Lilu. He assured them that normalcy had returned to the community and they should return to their homes. The precise location where the clip was shot, was not stated. One thing was however clear; from the faces of the distraught villagers, it was certain that they still lived in fear; fear of their future and fear of the unknown.
A virtual account of the true situation in Lilu by the Palace Secretary, Dominic Okoli, at a function by the Amnesty International, a foremost non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), brought the message home in more gruesome form. Lilu is one of the communities cut in the crossfire between the Nigerian military and the so-called unknown gunmen and agitators for a separate state of Biafra.
Since 2020 when the operations started, Lilu has been reduced to a ghost town, community life obliterated and its streets deserted. According to Okoli, 25 villagers have been kidnapped, many killed, while 30 houses have been razed. The traditional Ruler of the community Igwe Godson Onyediri, along with many notable residents, are currently in exile while their mansions in the village have been reduced to ashes. The Town’s New Yam Festival which holds every first week of September has not been observed in the last five years. “In Lilu, you can smell tension and death in the air”, the Palace Secretary cried.
It takes an experience to appreciate it. Being uprooted from one’s homestead and made a refugee in another man’s home, is one nasty experience that should not be wished to even an enemy. Even if Lilu indigenes eventually find their ways to their villages, the impacts of their present dislocation will linger in the years ahead. Some may not survive the shock. 55 years after the Civil War, many families and communities in Igbo land are still counting their losses.
Nduka Ozor narrated similar disturbing incidences and unlawful killings in Agwa, Oguta local government area, Imo State, lamenting how a community that was ordinarily blessed with arable land had been rendered uncertain following the discovery of oil in its bosom. But what pained him most was the climate of insecurity that had enveloped the Town. For illustration, he played a video of his relation, a lawyer and retired police officer, who visited home but was abducted and butchered. As if killing him was not enough, the assailants phoned the family to go and pick his corpse where it was dumped. At this point in the narration, Ozor was seized by emotion. He wept. There was pin-drop silence in the hall. The picture was gory and horrifying.
As it was in Lilu and Agwa, so was the ugly story in some parts of Orsumoghu, Isseke, Ihiala, Owerre Ezukala, Awa, Umunze, Isulo and some other communities in Anambra state. On the Imo axis were Orsu Ihiteukwa, Awo Idemili, Awomamma, Orlu, Mbano, Okigwe, Ihitte-Uboma, Izombe, and other areas where gunmen held sway, leaving in their trail, blood and destruction. Bereaved families paid ransom to bury loved ones.
The trend resonated in almost all the states in the South East. Security agents sent to restore peace in the area, have equally not helped matters in their approach. Consequently, the zone has been flowing with blood of the indigenes and residents. A detailed report by Amnesty International, titled, “A decade of impunity: attacks and unlawful killings in South Est Nigeria”, stated that 1,844 people were killed in the region between January 2021 and 2023. In Imo alone, 400 people were mowed by gunmen between 2019 and 2021. The Director, Amnesty International Nigeria, Isa Sanusi, was clearly at pains reeling out the figures. These are of course, documented accounts. Some of the casualties were not recorded and would remain unaccounted.
Now, this is a zone not at war. That should give every right-thinking Nigerian and indigenes of the zone cause for worry. In its 2016 national human development report for Nigeria, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) rated the South East the most human security secure geopolitical zone in the country. UNDP defined human security as safety from chronic threats such as hunger, disease and repression as well as protection from sudden and harmful disruptions in patterns of daily life whether in homes, jobs or communities.
Unfortunately, nine years after, the zone has lost its ambience; the tranquil environment that had enabled its people put their spirit of industry and enterprise at work. In place of peace, insecurity and lawlessness have taken over. The region is currently mentioned as byword for violence and insecurity. This is a huge irony. Leaders of the South East and the federal government owe it a duty to restore peace in the region.
Those agitating for justice and equity for the zone have strong points. But while pushing the agenda, caution should be applied to avoid inflicting more hardship on the same people who are already squeezed to the corner by hardship. The people who fend for themselves through daily activities, cannot be continually shut out of their businesses by the weekly Monday sit-at-home order. Doing so would mean punishing them more.
In same way, the security agencies in South East should rise beyond their present narrow-tunnel vision of blaming every crime in the region on self-determination agitators. There must be a clear line of demarcation in explaining outright criminality and activities related to self-determination. The South East has bled so much. Let the glimmer of peace that seems to be returning to the zone be encouraged and nurtured.
*DURU is the Editor, TheNiche Online Newspapers, Lagos