Coming after the alleged killing and destruction of properties of Hausa people in Aba, and the alleged killing of IPOB members by the Nigerian military, Nigerian Facebook user, Ifemkpa Kenneth Chuba, has written an interesting piece!
Enjoy below….
” Its easy to start a war, but even more difficult to stop one, since
its beginning and end are not under the control of the same man. Anyone
even a coward, can commence a war, but it can be brought to an end only
through the consent of the victor.”
Sallust Jugurtha LXXXVIII.
When I was a just a kid, I had this affiliation for burning candles. I
would go on it endlessly for hours, fiddling with the melted wax, toying
with the flame, there were moments I
see myself as a dragon ( Daenerys’ targaryen dragon if you like)
breathing out fire more or less like the burning candle. My mum’s
warning fell on deaf ears, ” a child that plays with fire always get
burnt “, she would say. But as you know, boys will always be boys, until
eventually I burnt my finger and everything changed.I stayed away from candles, cold turkey. Although it took me a while to
fight my ‘candle-demons’ and a longer time to distance my imaginations
from dragons, I did get over it. But my change of attitude and divine
“calling” for candles wasn’t just because I got burnt but well rooted in
the fact that an imposing scar on my finger never left my sight or
subconscious mind. I learnt my lesson with a reminder as a souvenir.
1966 through 1970 was a horrible year for Nigeria. The Biafran war was
terrible, lives lost on both sides, starvation, genocide, billions of
dollars lost, practically the economy stood still while we hacked
ourselves to death. Now, fast forward to 2017, deja vu? well maybe or
maybe not, we ourselves will decide.
Why is the history of the
Biafran war never taught in schools? how come I only had a fragment of
the slightly biased but distorted story from my father and the painful
but bloated version from my mother?. How can I understand the pangs of
the Biafran war if we pretend it never happened? Why does the Government
think I can’t start another war now that I am grown? History has a way
of repeating itself. Violence begets violence.
The Buhari
Administration has to thread carefully, this country can’t survive
another civil war, we almost collapsed under boko haram and MEND. A
different approach is needed, there must be dialogue. If they could
negotiate with terrorist how much more IPOB. Southeasterners should
should apply caution and unwarranted provocation that will lead to
lost of life.
We toyed with burning candles in the past and we
seriously burnt our fingers, we hid the scar and threw caution to the
wind….. Let’s unwrap that scar and learn from its demons or we might
get BURNT AGAIN.
#PrayForPeace.