The Danger of a Single Story of the Biafran War

Posted on September 2, 2020

I was tagged to a post by my good friend Uzordimma Enzo Nzeribe. The post describes the Benue people as a cursed people who are suffering because they joined the Federal troops in the Civil War. The post typifies what Igbos normally call “Igbo bashing” if it is written about them. I often say the Igbos as a political block are still suffering from the sieged mentality of the Civil War. When Ikemba Ojukwu came back from exile, he advised them to break from the seiged mentality. An advice they are yet to take.

Everybody that fought against them in the civil war is still considered an enemy. Their prominent enemy is the Hausa/Fulani, they see them as demons, the Yorubas as Sellouts and Cowards, the Middle Belt as slaves of the Hausa/Fulani, the South South tribes like Ijaw, Benin, Urhobo, Itsekiri, Ikwerre as Traitors. They accuse these minority tribes of supporting the Hausa/Fulani in killing their people. They often forget that in the last 50 years, there have been a lot of intermarriages between the Igbos and other tribes and strong friendship have been built by former classmates, former NYSC colleagues etc.

They are quick to narrate horrible stories of how their people were killed at River Benue by Benue people and how Ijaws betrayed them, forgetting that the attack on returning Igbos were masterminded by undisciplined soldiers loyal to the Sarduana and not the Benue people. Similar killings of non-Igbo civilians returning from the East or living in Nsukka and Obolafor were also carried out by Biafran soldiers.

They always consider themselves victims, forgetting that the man who led them in the war ran away at the heat of the war. They will not tell you about the curfew they declared in Ijaw land and the genocide they committed there, how Ojukwu who was power drunk executed the Yoruba officer fighting for him, Victor Banjo and other officers like Emmanuel Ifeajuna and Philip Alale. They will not tell you how they killed over 1000 young soldiers from Benue during the war. To them, the blood of other people means nothing to their siblings. They have a particular narrative about the war which describes other tribes as murderers while Igbos as Angels, and they pass this narrative from one generation to another, making them to live in constant bitterness.

Their daughter, Chimamanda Adichie presented a paper at Oxford University about the danger of a single story. I will advise young Igbos to look for the video and watch.

Currently, there is an openning for Igbo Presidency, and instead of capitalising on the frozy relationship between the “core” North and the Middle Belt, by trying to win the Middle Belt over, they are still talking about a war that ended 50 years ago and how the Middle Belters killed their people. The Tutsis in Rwanda and the Jews in Germany have moved on. The Igbos should also learn to move on like the Efiks, Eket, Oron, Anaang and the Ibibios.