What matters most is keeping aflame the noble principles which the departed ones pursued while alive. Causing harm to the living, putting the future of the youth on the cliff, disrupting the life of the people and economy of the region, instigating chaos, lawlessness and loss of lives in the South East, cannot be a way of remembering the Biafran fallen heroes.
By Emeka Alex Duru
In the last three days, substantial parts of the south east zone have been under confusion. Various groups, known and amorphous, have been in frenzy, compelling the residents to stay indoors in honour of relations who lost their lives during the 1967-1970 civil war and other acts of injustice directed at the people by the Nigerian state.
Two rival factions of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) are prominent in the exercise. One, which claims authentic loyalty to the group’s detained leader, Nnamdi Kanu, had fixed Thursday, May 30 for the lockdown, describing it as “Biafra Heroes Day”. Another faction, led by a certain Simon Ekpa, who resides in Finland, issued a conflicting directive, saying that the sit-at-home would last for three days – May 29, 30, 31.
Both organisations warned that on the stipulated days, markets, schools, banks, government, and private businesses must remain shut and that the entire South-East locked from 6am to 6pm.
In between the two factions, faceless goons and groups also emerged, seizing the social media and releasing scary audio messages, warning the people on the dangers of stepping out of their houses for whatever reasons while the order lasted.
In response, the state governments and security agencies in the zone have been advising the people to ignore the sit-at-home directives. Notwithstanding the assurances, the people are scared. They are torn between complying with the order by the IPOB activists and the assurances by the government.
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Each of the choices has impacts. Obeying the IPOB order entails the people staying at home with the attendant socio-economic consequences. Already, the fate of over 300,000 students slated for the West African Examination Council (WAEC) General Certificate Examination (GCE) scheduled within the period, is uncertain. Denying them the chance to sit for the exams, amounts to mortgaging their future and that of the zone.
On the other hand, daring the groups, may attract uncertain results. Those suspected to have flouted the order in the past, had had nasty experiences, if ever they lived to tell their stories. The dangers are thus, real on both sides of the divide. It is like standing between the devil and the deep blue ocean.
The fears by indigenes of the region played out in a forum of senior media practitioners, during the week, when a member hinted on his intention to visit home but sought clarifications on the situation of things in the region. A particular audio recording which dished out threats on those that ever defied the sit-at-home order, unsettled him. In desperate search for encouragement, he reached out to his colleagues for advice.
“Ndewo nu (Greetings to you all).
“Biko (Please), how true is this (the audio video he forwarded to the group platform)? ☝ Can anyone authentic the information in the video?
“I want to visit my village, in Anambra, tomorrow, Wednesday, May, 29. I will fly down to Asaba airport and travel by road to Azia, in Ihiala.
“Please, our people in the east, should assist me with the true situation of things. Many thanks”, he wrote.
The responses from members of the group were prompt and precise. Some advised him to be sure of situations before travelling, while many were emphatic that he should shelve the trip.
That is the state of the hopelessness in the zone. Developments in the region are disturbing. The South East, which had led the pace in development in the country, has become a laughing stock among other Nigerians. Come to think of it! That was a zone that had produced men and women of class in all aspects of national development.
Eight years ago, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) had rated the South East the most human security secure geopolitical zone in Nigeria. The verdict was contained in its 2016 national human development report for the country. This is no longer the case. In place of development, chaos, insecurity and outright lawlessness have taken roots.
The zone is currently comatose, literally. In the absence of committed and trusted leadership, fleeting characters have taken over, prancing about as champions and defenders of the people. It is in that light that the near state of anarchy in the area can be appreciated.
The Igbo, as a people, honour and remember their departed relations, especially those that laid down their lives for noble causes. The gallant Biafrans that paid the supreme sacrifice in defence of their people against bestiality of the Nigerian federal forces and their foreign collaborators, are worthy to be celebrated. Making out time or moment to remember and appreciate them, is commendable. The Jews do so at a certain time of the year when on a particular day, by 12.00 pm, wherever they are, they observe a minute silence for their compatriots who lost their lives in the 1941-1945 Holocaust.
It is fit and proper for the Igbo to do so for their people. The first sit-at-home exercise in the south east was carried out on May 30, 2014 in remembrance of Biafran soldiers and indigenes of the zone who lost their lives in before and during the 1967-1970 Civil War. It recorded substantial compliance by the people who saw it as a way of hounouring their fallen heroes. The directive became an annual event subsequently, and was largely observed in orderly manner. Things started going awry following the re-arrest and repatriation of the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
The present controversial weekly sit-at-home directive, which largely takes place on Monday, was issued by the IPOB on August 9, 2021, to prevail on the Federal Government to release, Kanu who is currently in detention. Each time such order is issued, markets, schools, banks, motor parts, and even worship centres are shut and vehicles withdrawn from the roads, either out of fear of imminent danger or in solidarity to the cause. Anambra State alone losses over N19 billion any day the exercise takes place. Other states in the region have their own tales of economic losses on such occasions.
Even when the IPOB high command had relaxed the weekly Monday directive, renegades in the group have disregarded the instruction, going ahead with the enforcement, in the process, disrupting movements and economic activities with violence. That is what is panning out in the three-day sit-at-home regime in some states in the zone.
But it should not be so. Shutting down the economy of the entire region and practically detaining the people for three consecutive days, cannot be in the interest of the living nor the dead. Remembering fallen relations, should be a solemn affair.
Beyond that, what matters most is keeping aflame the noble principles which the departed ones pursued while alive. Causing harm to the living, putting the future of the youth on the cliff, disrupting the life of the people and economy of the region, instigating chaos, lawlessness and loss of lives in the South East, cannot be a way of remembering the Biafran fallen heroes.