The East remembers...The Carnage of Agha Biafra...

The old man in this picture is blind and stands everyday at Arroma junction Awka begging those boarding buses to Onitsha for money while he sings the following words
             Agha o!
             Agha ajoka!
             Agha mesirim ike
             Shelling baram anya
             Nwannem nyere my aka o!
             Isi ajoka!

Papa sings this song over and over with outstretched arms begging alms. He says shards of shelling got into his eyes during the war and blinded him.
    Grandma said my father hadnt always been her first son...she had Nwachukwu before my father but he got lost while they fled from one village to another during the war.

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Yesterday,May30th was the remembrance day for the fallen heroes of the horrific and macabre genocide of 1966 by Northern Nigeria against Easterners. Ndiigbo declared the day a compulsory sit-at-home in honor of the dead. I was extremely pleased that it was a huge success.I read a lot of arguments and comments on social media about Biafra and whether or not it should stand and a lot of comments troubled me. I am neither pro nor anti-Biafra and the many reasons why is simply another matter for another day. What I find  disturbing is why a group of Nigerians simply trying to remember and honor their dead should cause so much unrest in the country.Why the massive military presence? If half this troops enter Sambisa forest Boko haram would be a forgotten issue. The way a greater part of our fellow Nigerians especially our leaders treat issues concerning the genocide of 1966 with nonchalance and disrespect is really sad. It is treated as one would a noisy fly at dinner...Why? Is the Nigerian government not supposed to declare May 30 a national holiday in honor of those who lost their lives in the macabre events of 1966? Is the rest of the country not supposed to commiserate with Easteners on this matter? Or maybe they have forgotten what a lot of Igbo's have chosen not to talk about or dwell on. The wicked attempt by Northerners to annihilate an entire people just because a few people at the top planned a coup and executed six Northern leaders. The coup was carried out by leaders from different ethnic groups(igbos inclusive) to curb the undemocratic means by which the Northern ruling sector perpetuate their over dominance in the Federal government to act as if the rulership of Nigeria is their exclusive right(up to this day). So Northern soldiers rose up in a well planned attack orchestrated by their leaders and slew Igbos in the North by the thousands, maimed them, burnt their properties and unleashed all kinds of horrors on them until they were forced to flee back to the East and fight for themselves and choose secession instead of death.
         The civilian northerners who had always blamed the Igbos for their own poverty and backwardness,claiming they had infiltrated their lands and stolen their own opportunities for advancement, rose up and began to slaughter Igbos like cows and help their military counterparts in maiming, raping and burning of igbos and their properties. No single text can fully capture the horrors of Igbos at the hands of Northerners in 1966. Yet we have forgiven and picked up the pieces of our lives and we have continued to thrive and to believe in the myth called "One Nigeria"
       If a part of  you bleeds, you feel its pain and if it cries u cry with it. If Nigeria is truly one and a part of you is crying out, not for pity and sympathy but for acknowledgement of wrongs done and at the very least a small sit-at-home in honor of their losses why do you need to aggravate the wounds further by intimidation with military troops? A little sensitivity is what is needed and will achieve far more than a thousand battalions. No woman in a good marriage where she is properly treated will want out of her marriage. There will be no need for military troops, if only our leaders can apply a little sensitivity here and a little adjustment there...there will be no need for divorce or mediators or lawyers...the marriage will be saved and all parties will go home happy and united.
          The East remembers... we remember how we bled and cried and starved...we remember our dead and all those who still live with the broken limbs and maimed parts from Agha Biafra to this day and the rest of Nigeria will do well to remember too.
     May 30, Biafra remembrance day has come to stay and we will do it again next year...not because Nnamdi KANU said so...not as part of a bigger plan to create Biafra...not for IPOB or MASSOB...but for all those that died during Agha Biafra...for Uncle Nwachukwu who we never found...and for blind old papa at Arroma junction who is still begging alms to this day.

(Ada Wagner)