PASTOR Benjamin Chike Allison, the Chairman, Board of Trustees, Igbo Canadian Community Association, has urged the Southeast region to continue the remembrance of Biafran heroes.

He said the event would give voice to the deaths of millions of people that died in Biafra.

Speaking as the guest speaker at the Biafra Memorial Event, May 18 in Canada, on the topic ‘They Died That We May Live: In Remembrance of Our Heroes Past,’ Allison said those who died during the civil war deserved tribute.

“Tribute must be given to three million persons, mostly innocent babies, young children, and women, and the vast number of civilians who perished in Eastern Nigeria, called Biafra, at that time, and others who died in horrible massacres in places like Asaba, Nshiagu, Ogwashi Uku etc in Anioma kingdom of Delta State, during the short 30 months of the civil war in Nigeria between 1967-1970.

“In view of the increasing and repetitive and seemingly endless killings taking place on  daily basis in our dear country, Nigeria, today, in several places-the North East, assaulted and ravaged by Boko Haram with about 30,000 casualties; daily killings and massacres in Zamfara state; the many years of ethnic and religious conflicts and mutual slaughter in Southern Kaduna; in Plateau State, Jos, the land of my birth and upbringing, and particularly, in Barkin Ladi; the horrible decimation of lives of thousands of persons in Agatu, Benue State, and the mindless killings and terrorism of farming communities by Fulani herdsmen, who are clearly aligned and coordinate efforts with Boko Haram.

“It becomes very necessary that in the midst of the present climate of continued blood-letting that a remembrance such as this be presented in a manner that acknowledges the serious and monumental implications of the death of millions of our brethren in Biafra, but also in a way that points us all to the urgent and great need to begin conversations that will lead us quickly away from the very high social and political cliffs and the deep and bottomless canyon below wherein otherwise we are bound,” he said.

According to Allison, the tribute must be in a manner that may lead fellow Nigerian citizens and people of other nationalities to engage in a critical self-evaluation and introspection about their personal intentions, motives, and actions in dealing with one another. He likened Biafran killings to the massacre in Rwanda.

“There is poignant similarity between the horrific deaths of 3 million people in Eastern Nigeria and the 800, 000 slaughter and killings of Tutsis in Rwanda. The genocide in Rwanda was sparked by the death of the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, when his plane was shot down above Kigali Airport on 6 April 1994 by alleged Tutsi conspirators. The majority Hutu tribe retaliated by organizing a well-planned and coordinated systematic killings of Tutsis of all ages regardless of their innocence.

“In Nigeria, a group of army officers, mostly of Igbo origin and a Yoruba officer led a coup that toppled the civilian government and killed some of the leaders of that government. No Igbo leader in that civilian government was killed.  The predictable result was that non-Igbo army officers, particularly from Northern Nigeria, outraged by the killing of their leaders responded first, by exterminating a large body of Igbo officers in a counter coup. More than 30, 000 civilian Igbo population in Northern Nigeria were massacred.

“The people of Eastern Nigeria remonstrated deeply and there were employment of bellicose political languages by both the leadership of Eastern Nigeria and the military government in Lagos. Several meetings to defuse and resolve the differences were unsuccessful. Threatened by military action by the government in Lagos, Eastern Nigeria declared itself a separate Republic of Biafra leading to initial skirmishes and full blown civil war. The Nigerian government with the aid of Britain blockaded Biafra to force it into capitulation and the war continued on for two and half years and finally ended in January of 1970. This is where the similarity ends.

“In Rwanda, the Tutsi led Patriotic Front came back to win the war under President Kagame and built a model and viable nation from the ashes of their civil war. They cooperated with the world to not only punish the perpetrators of genocide, but also to put before the laden conscience of a world that kept quiet while the Hutu killings continued for 90 days, a well-documented history and memorial of those that died. The Rwandan government has ensured that the history of that sordid episode is taught in Rwandan schools and universities so that the lessons learnt from it are not forgotten.

“In Nigeria, the military class that won the war banned and suppressed information and open discussion about that war with the exception of the parts that glorified them. They even banned any formal teaching of the history of the Nigerian civil war in institutions of higher learning and discouraged meaningful discussions regarding it and the deaths of millions of people in Biafra,” he said.

– 27 May, 2019 @ 16:27 GMT |