By Oluchi Ibe
Yours is a rugged incarnation. Who will deny your exploits in Congo in the 60s, in Biafra, though with a little help in '67. You proved your mettle in Sudan, Lebanon, Somalia Liberia Sierra Leone. Yes, you were feared and respected. But guess what, that was when There was a Country!
Today, dear army, you do not have to look far to see how far down the road you have gone. Is it the base salary of your members? Poor! Is it the esprit de corps? Gone! Is it the brotherly inter ethnic/religious comraderie? Gone! Is it the physical barracks where you live? Horrible! Arms and equipment? Gone! Annual special budget? Gone! Eaten by your commanders.
Yet your minders and your Government send you out to kill and maim your own citizens who you swore on oath to protect. How have you fared in the last few decades with all the above listed? The almighty Nigerian Armed Forces could not defeat a ragtag youth group in the Niger Delta. You couldn't even force them to the negotiation table. You bribed them. The only act you have perfected, bribery. Another ragtag army of civilians called Boko Haram, ten years going, you are yet to know where they operate from. Though you have killed same BH leader ten times over and he resurrected same number of times. Your third civilian challenge, the bandits with their headquarters right up your anus in kaduna, yet not a scratch. The famed great Nigerian Army.
Amidst all these victories, yes it is only Nigeria that sees defeat as victory, you have opened a new front, in Biafraland. While we know that you have been given the orders for state of emergency operations, 'We who are about to die' receive you in Peace. You will flog, you will beat. You will shoot, kill, pillage and rape, your latest pastime, to intimidate us to abdicate, to frighten the people to recant. But have you ever asked - suppose your plan is the added elixir for our struggle? Suppose it pushes the few remaining unbelivers fully into our fold? Do you ever seat back and think?
For just asking to be allowed to live a decent life, what have we gotten out of life? Five hundred years of externally imposed slavery. A brutal colonial imposition. A devastating war of independence. A horrific containment and deaths in increments since 1970. And now this.
Do you have an idea what all these have turned Biafrans into? Should I do the thinking for you? Well, it has removed from us all that humanity that was once our hallmark. All that made us name the human person 'mma ndu, mmadu, madu,' the beauty of life! The summum bonum of the universe. That is why we respected life so much as examplified in the Igbo Holy Grail,Things Fall Apart's Okonkwo. Now Igbo has been reduced to hunting 'mma ndu.' Yet, Igbo refuse to cross the last line. Unfortunately that last line is about to be crossed. This your last push will set it off. It is already primed. That desperate dash of a suicide bomber. But for Igbo it will never be desperate. It will be calculated as they calculate everything and make headways with everything including the impossible. This your latest python jubilation will create the Igbo suicide bomber as your militarization created an armed opposition. Yes, we now live in the democratization of violence. We can all do it.
Let me give you a secret that portends this coming end of everything. Ask a young Biafran what his/her name is, he will reply 'my name is Late Okonkwo Okeke etc. Does it tell you anything? You are already fighting with the dead! The dead do not have anything to loose.
And a final word to the efulefus who have already started screaming, 'didn't we tell you they will declare a state of emergency?' I do not have a word for scums.
The Nigerian army, we who are about to die' salute you!
'Late' Oluchi Ibe
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