I STAND FOR PEACE! WHAT ABOUT YOU?

Over the weekend, I read with pain the interview of Gen. Yakubu Gowon in one of the Nigerian dailies where he said that Nigerians have put behind them the bad memories of the 1967 civil war, and that those behind these pro-Biafra protests  don’t have an inkling what the Biafra war cost Nigerians.

After reports were carried in the papers last week that a number of pro-Biafra prostesters were arrested while demanding  the release of  the then-detained Nnamdi Kanu, the Radio Biafra Director who was said to have been arrested at the airport on his arrival from London; today the same papers have come out with a report from the Police that "no supporter of the Radio Biafra director was detained". Confusing isn't it?

Now whom do we believe? I'll leave that confusing part at that!

General Gowon mentioned that those involved in this campaign were being driven by just a few people and that majority of the Igbo people do not share the same view and  added that with Biafra, Nigerian democracy “is finished” even as he accepted  the fact that the protesters have the right to express their feelings.

A lot of people know that I don't really like talking politics, especially Nigerian politics, so as not to get myself and many others who share my views  worked up. Many of our parents who went through the civil war told us mind-blowing stories of their traumatic experiences and other peoples' experiences who did not survive the war. So to a large extent, I kind of agree with Gowon when he said Nigerians don't understand the level of pain/trauma those who witnessed the war encountered. 

I have a lot of Igbo/Ibo  friends. While some of them are pro-Biafran,  others are not and yet others are indifferent.

Pardon me or correct me if I am wrong as I always stand to be corrected. Given all that I've heard, read and seen so far in life especially as regards Nigeria, my intuition (which rarely fails) signals that Nigeria can only conquer all of its problems or challenges if we remain united as one solid nation devoid of any form of hatred for each other irrespective of tribe, class or whatever you deem fit to name it. Just like Gowon admonished that keeping Nigeria united was the objective for doing all that he did during the war which was what Odumegwu-Ojukwu also stood for and not in any way a disguised hatred for the Igbos, let's learn to live as one for any form of war would do us no good.

Having said enough, it's time to sheathe our different swords which includes the war of words on social media laden with tribalistic sentiments and  like the popular saying 'no victor no vanquished' let's all mingle and be merry.

On a lighter note, peradventure this Biafra is allowed, I can already picture (in my mind's eye) how a lot of Easterners would (proudly) be said to be travelling "abroad" whenever they intend to visit Nigeria thereafter *smiles*.

Nevertheless, if Biafra proponents still insist on the separation, PLEASE IS THERE ANYWAY IT CAN BE DONE WITHOUT VIOLENCE?

I stand for PEACE, what about YOU?