By John Nnia Nwodo
1. I am grateful to
Shehu Musa Yar Adua Foundation, Ford Foundation and OSIWA – the co-sponsors of
this event for your kind invitation. I commend your foresight in convening this
conference, the first major conference discussing Biafra
outside of Igboland. Nigeria.
In hosting this conference the Yar’Adua Centre, which is best known for
promoting national cohesion, honours the legacy of a great patriot: Shehu Musa
Yar Adua. He died building bridges of understanding across our nation. I salute
his family and associates for sustaining the legacy of Shehu through the works
of this Foundation.
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| *New Biafran Leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, taking the oath of office as the Head of State of the Republic of Biafra (May 1967) |
2. It is significant
that you have chosen to harvest sober memories of Biafra.
By so doing, you help us to wisely situate today’s talks of Biafra
in the proper context: namely, as an opportunity for nation building; and not –
as an invitation for invectives or recrimination.
3. 50 years ago, Nigeria faced disintegration by the declaration
of the Republic
of Biafra. Biafra was
born out of the political crisis which engulfed Nigeria at that time. The crisis
began with the struggle for leadership in the Western Region of Nigeria, the
declaration of state of emergency in the West, the coup of January 1966, the
counter coup of July 1966, the pogroms, the declaration of Biafra
and the commencement of a police action that turned into a three years civil
war.
4. I hope that our
gathering today may contribute to the body of knowledge or body of lessons from
the war. Lest we forget, there is wisdom in the words of George Santayana that:
those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it. That is why I thank
you for the chance for us to collectively remember, reflect, hope and seek ways
to build anew.
5.My most heartfelt
reflection is that in the Nigeria-Biafra conflict, we can and should
acknowledge the sacrifice – in blood, suffering and toil – by millions of
citizens on both sides of that divide. They shared a common hope for their
sacrifice: namely, that out of that war, we shall build a nation where no man
is oppressed. The only difference was that for one side, Nigeria was
that nation. For the other it was Biafra.
6. Let us spare a
thought for every victim of that conflict and the crises before that: the
leaders and the soldiers, ordinary men, women and children. Each one loved
life; had hopes and dreamt dreams. They died prematurely and often, painfully.
7. For those of us that
survived the war and others who came afterwards, we are both heirs to the
sacrifices of fallen brethren. Let us commit ourselves today and always to
their hopes for peace and justice. Anytime that we are violent, anytime that we
are unjust in the exercise of our public trust, anytime we lower the ideals of
this nation, we betray them; and we act as if they died in vain. As we honour
their memory, today my worry is not only about the rising feeling of
marginalization of Igbos or any other group but that our nation may emerge from
this conflict a more united and prosperous country.
