A wound can heal, but the scar it leaves on our bodies will be a constant reminder of what caused the wound. It’s been 50 years after the end of the Civil war, but nothing has changed.
Everything that caused the war are still in place today, and they are even worse than they were.
One of the greatest wrongs Nigeria did as a country is to hide its past and practically blocked every discussion about the civil war.
That was a war that took the lives of over 3 million people, mostly children.
I read the former Head of State Ibrahim Babangida few days ago when he said Nigeria didn’t push the Reconciliation part of the 3Rs enough. I faulted him because he chose just one out of the 3Rs and not all of them.
Was there RECONCILIATION?
Was there RECONSTRUCTION?
Was there REHABILITATION?
The answers to these are emphatic NO!
NYSC which is a form of reintegration and reconciliation has outlived its usefulness.
None of the soldiers that took part in the war was rehabilitated. Most of them had PTSD.
They were all dumped somewhere and nothing was heard about it again.
Nobody reconstructed anywhere in the Southeast! Every success we have made today is as a result of individual efforts and not from the government.
If there was Reconciliation, there won’t be such hate as it’s in Nigeria today. We loathe each other a whole lot and still live in perpetual suspicion of each other.
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The punitive policies of the war are still in place 50 years after, and that’s the reason why there’s no functional sea port or international airport anywhere in the old eastern region.
All the federal presence where also abandoned . How can the country move forward with these kind of policies 50 years on?
From the way Buhari is running Nigeria presently, there’s every likelihood that we will slide into another civil war, and no nation will survive it.
The concept of one Nigeria is dead, as ethnicity, bigotry and tribalism is still the order of the day 50 years on.
Nigeria as a country has refused to learn and move on, but it’s still down licking its wounds, while smaller countries like Rwanda has made serious progress.
Oil was refined with ease by the Igbos during the war, but 50 years after, no Nigeria refinery is working.
The Biafrans built missiles and made a lot of technological advancements, but today Nigeria has retrogressed.
The fibers holding Nigeria together is as thin as a thread and would cut off anytime soon. 50 years on, the struggle for Biafra is still alive and gaining momentum! It only shows that Nigeria is not one and can never be one.
– Odumodu Gbulagu
Africa Daily News, New York
