Why Are Nigerians Beating The War Drum? We Want Peace

Biafra, Biafra sounds like an echo from Venus. It might seem far from us but it is close enough to wreak havoc. It appears too close to tear us apart not only that it could destablise our forward march and obliterate our relative peace, if we ignore the tell-tale sighs After the 1967-1970 Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War, one might think Nigerians are war weary and wouldn’t ever dream about war or dare to have one.

But that seems to be a far cry. It appears some eminent Nigerians have already begun to beat the war drum. They’re using the world’s most powerful information tool the Social Media or the New Media to convey their disconcerting messages. Yes they’ve taken to WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook and organised what seemed like press conferences to beat the war drum. Frankly, nothing about it seems cool. It all points to one direction and one thing only—War.

Ironically there are already wars all around us. There’s war in the east and there’s war down south. The west might seemingly look good for now but we cannot throw a dice here. And we cannot gamble with our hard won relative peace. In fact, I will spare my readers with the contents in those videos. I am not going to repeat anything said on those clips. Rather I will take this opportunity granted me here today by the Almighty God to beat the peace drum.

And I like to start with this humble question without taking sides:

My people do we really want war?
I think the conflicts around us speak volumes. The ongoing war in South Sudan the world’s youngest nation should send us enough wrong signals as proud people of this great continent. Last month the United Nations warned that the conflict in that country has caused the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis. It says nearly 3,000 people stream across the border into Uganda daily, which already hosts at least 800,000 refugees.

Just consider DR Congo, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia whenever you’re musing on engaging in any battles-- be they fratricidal, ethnic or tribal war. Think about Iraq, Afghanistan, they may be far away but the news hit home hard. Sure if that isn’t close enough how about our fight against Boko Haram a branch of the Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant.

Have we forgotten about the bombings of our churches and mosques and the kidnappings of our young girls? Since 2009 Nigerians have been fighting this group testing our peace and strength. And now we want to throw that peace away to the dogs?

Also, consider the little ones-- our children, our women, our mothers and wives, our sisters and daughters. Let’s think through whatever decision we’re making today and tomorrow. We may not see eye to eye with one another, be they Yoruba, Igbo, Ijaw, Kanuri, Fulani, Ibibio, Tiv and many more. However, we cannot afford another brutal war. We don’t want another bloodbath, another war that will bring untold hardships upon our people including the surrounding neighbours.

History they say is the study of past events. Interestingly those events make us become a better people when we learn them well, do away with that which caused to sin in the first place and imbibe the virtues thereof.

I think the Biafra war which happened over forty years ago must remind us all that war isn’t good and it isn’t cool. War is expensive and devastating. That three-year, bloody conflict with a death toll that numbered more than one million people must inform us that we will be held account tomorrow if plunge our nation into turmoil or another war. We will be viewed as wimp because we failed to give peace a chance and we failed our young ones.

The Biafra civil war began just seven years after Nigeria gained independence from Britain. And it was precipitated by the secession of the southeastern region of the nation on the 30^th of May 1967, when it declared itself the independent Republic of Biafra. It was no more one nation; brothers had no mercy towards their brothers as the guns rang across the four corners of Nigeria the international community intervened. But we’d slaughtered enough people, spilled enough blood, devastated many homes and caused many to flee.

Why are we talking about secession today?
Some scholars have blamed Nigeria’s former colonial master Britain for carving out of the west of African nation without regard for preexisting ethnic, cultural and linguistic divisions, Could that be factor in what is brewing today’s conflict?

Historically, Nigeria has often experienced an unreliable peace. It had been plagued with decades of ethnic tension in colonial Nigeria. At t the time political instability reached alarming proportions among independent Nigeria’s three dominant ethnic groups. They were the Hausa-Fulani in the north, Yoruba in the southwest and Igbo in the southeast.

12400. years after Nigeria’s independence , precisely on the 15^th of January 1966, the Igbo launched a coup d’état under the command of Major-General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi in an attempt to save the country from what Igbo leaders feared would be political disintegration. As fate would have it that coup failed and widespread suspicion of Igbo domination was aroused in the north among the Hausa-Fulani Muslims, many of whom opposed independence from Britain.

The fear of Igbo insurrection spread over to the Yoruba west which would engender an alliance sort of between Yoruba and Hausa-Fulani countercoup against the Igbo six months later. A military officer General Yakubu Gowon led the countercoup and he would mete out punitive measures against the Igbo. With passage of time the animosity between Igbo and the Yoruba Hausa-Fulani on other side grew stronger and stronger.

Things had shaped up and a possible war seemed inevitable. Barely two months after Biafra declared its independence, diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis failed. Then on Thursday 6 July 1967, the federal government in Lagos unleashed a full-scale invasion into Biafra.

We want peace and not war. Not another Biafra!