Mr. Nwakanma,
My point exactly. I appreciate that you were able to make it more succintly than I did. If, as an adult during the Nigerian civil war and someone who witnessed some of the horrors of the war, I do not know all these things with which you are educating me, imagine how much our children would know about that momentous period in our nation's history.
Definitely, you have your own point of view about the war, and with some measure of education you are able to tell a story that is totally devoid of any culpability from your side, others, from the other side probably have stories as thorough as yours, but from a different point of view. As a matter of fact, there may be many more sides to the narrative that are out there.
It is the fusion and critical analyses of these stories that will make for the History of the Nigerian Ciivil War which we can now pass down to ALL our children.
The objective of such an exercise is NOT to castigate or ridicule any side. We all have our own biases about the war which we call facts. If however, we plant these biases into the consciousness of the coming generations, the process of nation building becomes even more difficult. The tendency to become overly suspicious of the intentions of others will be heightened. We easily crawl back into our own little cocoons at the sound of the slightest disagreement. That would mean that we would not have learned much from the war.
When I read on Facebook our other social media about our take on any Nigerian issue, I see constantly that most issues are approached with the flavour of the war. This means that our children do not have the capability to view one another as Nigerians. That is sad.
I can tell you, that having lived in different areas of North America for quite some time, I have seen and withessed the difficulty of Nigerians of different tribes in coming together to discuss Nigerian issues. This means that instead of coming together to highlight our combined strength as Nigerians, we choose to sink as individual tribes of Nigeria.
That again is very sad.
FAKINLEDE
On Friday, March 3, 2017 at 12:23:42 PM UTC+1, Kayode J. Fakinlede wrote:
'No victor, no vanquished."
This pronuncement, to me, is the greatest blunder of our civil war. I can almost say that it is at the bottom of the continued aspiration by a segment of our society for secession.
Of course, one could not have blamed the government of young Ganeral Gowon. It was reasoned then that in declaring that neither side won or lost the war, everyone would have learned his lesson and our nation would be at peace forever more.
What we see now is a blantant misplacement of historical facts and grotesque caricatures being made of those whose intentions were noble. But more importantly, we are seeing agitations where none should have arisen and from the side that was vanqished in the war. The factual victors, having remained silent for so long, are now being painted as carnivores and murderers.
Anyone who was an adult during the civil war will definitely not wish another one on Nigeria. Lessons have been learned and honestly, not too many of these people agitate for secession or any form of upheaval, regardless of his tribal origin. It is those who were yet unborn or too young to experience the realities of war that would think it is child's play.
But the truth is that they do not know better. They receive information, not history, from their parents. In most instances, while the intenions of the older ones may not be for agitation, a vanquished people will always tell a story of their mistreatment and their heroism in the face of all odds.
A factual history of the civil war must be taught in all our schools to all our children. This is not to put any segment of our nation down. It is reasonable because this event marks the singular greatest period when, but for providence sake, Nigeria would have disintegrated. Moreover, people badly informed of the mistreatment of their forebears are bound to react negatively to their perceived malefactors.
This subject needs not be given a name that would be derogatory to any side. It can just be called 'The Nigerian Civil War'. Therein all our young ones will learn as a subject matter: the events that led to the war; attempts to resolve the issues so war could be averted; who were the initial aggressors; who took part militarily in the war; who were the heroes; the parts played by our own leaders either in preventing or agitating for war; the parts played by others in trying to prevent war; how the war was prosecuted; how the war was brought to an end; life after the war; attempts to rebuild; the lingering issues arising from the war; the effects of the war on our present political life; important dates in the process; etc.
There is so much to teach our children and they should be properly and factually taught. Some smart person once said that whoever forgets the past is bound to repeat it, or something of that nature.
I rest my case
Fakinlede K
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