MUST YOU HATE BIAFRA TO MAKE A POINT

This is in response to; “Oguchi Nkwocha's Lambent-Witted Repost to Bokor's March Madness”, written by Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr. and posted in Modern Ghana of 27th March 2011. Oguchi Nkwocha's Lambent-Witted Riposte to Bokor's March Madness Earlier Oguchi had written in response to an article by Michael J. K. Bokor in the same newsmagazine that spoke about the betrayal of some African nations by fellow African nations in the ongoing Libyan crisis. http://www.modernghana.com/news/321474/1/a-response-to-dr-michael-jk-bokors-have-nigeria.html

Ordinarily I would not have been drawn into this line of argument if it were not that it deals with a matter of life and death: The Genocide in Biafra. Genocide is a heinous crime that makes every sensitive human person to cringe any time. It is sordid and horrible, and such happened in Biafra and on Biafrans and, it was committed by Nigeria and Nigerians.

In my opinion one of the most important problems facing today's generation of Black Africans is making light of weighty issues or trying to obfuscate matters that are simple in order to arrive at a no-goal road. The other thing that is quite disturbing is watching how the people expend so much energy in trying to build a future without a past. And then the other worry is the tendency to turn very straight paths into topsy-turvy rigmaroles all in the bid to promote private and petty vendetta at the expense of progress and a victimized people.

Biafra was and still remains one of the most haunting ghosts of human history. And just forty years after, how would anyone dismiss such a sordid and heinous human indignity against their fellows today with a simple wave of the hand. If for any reason we let such flippant and careless moments to slip by us then one cannot help but ask; Do we really have reasons for living or we are just existing and anybody any time can simply feel uncomfortable with the way we are and, decide to run us into the ground without any adverse consequences against the aggressor? Such is what such dismissal entails. Also we need to add this simple caution that because the terribleness happened to your neighbor and not to you, does not immunize one from a similar fate some day.

And very important too, every responsible member of the human community needs to watch out for this false sense of security of pretending that because the terrible injustice is happening so far away from where they are then it will never get to them.

Kwame in his article succeeded in insulting all the good reasons that Oguchi set out to present to the reading public about Biafra. Biafra is the greatest tragedy and the worst of all manmade or natural disasters that has happened on the African continent since the time of recorded history. Please go and check it out for yourself. Dr. Oguchi Nkwocha is a direct victim of that genocide and has ever lived with the scar and you have only told him that he can talk of other “important” things next time and never about the Biafran Pogrom just because you do not believe in it. You have completely disregarded or cared less about Oguchi's (a fellow human being's) feelings and pains in your bid to propagate your Biafra-hating faith.

The guilt of the Biafran murder will remain the burden of all generations of Africans, both countries and individuals, until justice has been obtained for the victims. The true academic arrives at conclusions based on informed and well-considered premise. And for the sake of knowing can Kwame tell the readers how he arrived at the conclusion of the assertion that Biafra was and still is an ambitious project? Biafra was and still is a project of survival. A project of a people who were and are still faced with the imminent threat and actual danger of total annihilation. Biafran people wanted and still want to survive, just like yourself Kwame, your family members and all other inhabitants of this Earth. Now, why would you or anybody classify that as an ambitious project?

By his article Kwame clearly and openly declared himself an Igbo/Biafran-hater, an enemy of justice, life and everything that stands to good reason and the preservation of human dignity. By this position he chose for himself a very terrible and dangerous station in life, a position that does not promote any peaceful and just world. Igbo/Biafran people have never been against the well-being of either their neighbors or all other peoples that they encounter in their day to day interactions, so the question is why should Kwame or any other choose to elect themselves as their overlord who want to make sure that they, Biafrans do not complain when they have been unjustly mistreated?

Let us consider for one moment a few things that are at stake in the matter. In that way we would establish for Kwame and any other person in the same frame of mind why he should have acted with caution and some respect towards Biafra and everything that she stands for.

Biafra; the nation was declared on the 30th of May 1967 by Emeka Ojukwu and the elders of the Biafran state in a frantic effort of self-preservation. He, Ojukwu and the elders wanted to save whatever that remained of their persecuted and battered people. As at this time of Biafra's declaration, a hundred thousand of Biafrans had been criminally murdered and their property looted by Nigeria and its citizens.

In a bid to make peace an agreement was reached in Aburi Ghana but Nigeria quickly broke that Aburi Accord and continued the killing of Biafrans with bombers and tankers right into Biafra's territory. At the conclusion of that real madness (not March Madness, as Kwame “playfully” [a very bad taste] titled his write up), 3.1 million people have been murdered by Nigeria in the worst genocidal war that has ever happened on the continent of Africa. I want you to think about it: 3.1 million fellow human beings were killed for who they were and not for any crime that they committed. Oguchi and his family and millions of other people were in the middle of that MADNESS and now you are telling him not to talk about it for the mere reason that you, Kwame does not believe in it.

May I respectfully ask you sir; What do you believe in? For you, is there anything like humanity and life? Should these things be respected in the interest of the preservation of man's continued existence on Earth? In your opinion, should Igbo/Biafran people be part of this humanity? Should their continued quest to be allowed as members of the world community, separate and sovereign continue to bother your faith and must you always say it to the face of Igbo/Biafran people that you hate them and their desire to live in life and in dignity and as they would choose (self-determination)?

You could have found other topics even within the referred to article to write about and thereby vent your disjointed, bombastic and unfounded display of vituperations on the person of Bokor. Next time, sacred matters like the Genocide in Biafra must never be dragged into a vile and sordid arena of private and petty personal squabbles. That is sacrilegious and all Biafrans everywhere both those dead and living feel very nauseated and offended at this gross display of desecration and insensitivity. Maybe you will one day find some decency and courage to redo this unwarranted display of Igbo/Biafra-hatred but I doubt it very much if these people you have shown so much disrespect will find enough strength to forgive you.