THE GO-TO-NIGER STORY
June 21
(THE BITTER STORY OF MY PEOPLE DURING THE CIVIL WAR)
By Barr. Elvis Sonny
Abonnema is
a large town in the Kalabari kingdom founded in 1882 by notable Kalabari Chiefs
in the old Kalabari kingdom. It is a community made up of people who love peace
more than anything. They show love even to strangers. Everybody was welcomed in
Abonnema irrespective of your origin.
Brotherly
love existed all through until political difference infiltrated the people in
the 1960’s political era.
The
different political views led to impenitent attitude towards one another. This
bad blood would be later fuelled to a collateral explosion by the advent of the
Biafran Civil War. Thereon, the hatred grew among the people. It became an
opportunity for the biafran soldiers to perpetrate all manner of inhuman
maltreatment on those people they perceived or tagged saboteurs of the declared
Biafran regime with the aid of those who are in their good books and who of
course are of different political parties and idea before the war began.
Behold, the
stage was set for atrocities in the once peaceful Abonnema. The Biafran troops
saw themselves as gods on earth. They coveted our properties and beautiful
women; raped the ones vulnerable. They took away foods of indigenes to their
camps. Those who were bold enough to speak against the pogrom shot dead or tied
up at the waterfront to face the fierce heat of the sun until life is drained
out sliver by sliver.
Children
battled with starvation, pregnant women abandoned without medical attention and
young men forcefully conscripted to face the Nigerian army which many never
returned till today. An uncle of mine was a victim too (God bless his soul).
Many potential men wasted in the line of all these and as a result rendered
many women widowed.
The entire
atmosphere was tense. Every gathering was seen as the gathering of saboteurs.
Young men no longer walked in peers how much more in groups. As we say in local
parlance, OYO (on your own) was the case: it was now every man for yourself. Houses
were looted by the biafran soldiers.
The whole
scenario was as if God had abandoned the people of Abonnema to die. Everything
was like hell on earth. The hunger and pain was totally unbearable. The people
cried to God to save them.
Fortunately,
God intervened in the matter. The Nigerian army launched into Abonnema. The
Biafran soldiers hearing this information organised to evacuate everybody in
Abonnema to an unknown place in Ibo land. The evacuation was to be made through
the defunct Royal Niger Trading Company place. The plan was to take them to
AGADA and from there the exodus would formally begin. This was how the word,
Ga’a Niger was coined. Ga’a in ibo means “GO-TO”. Thus, Ga’a-Niger means Go-to-Niger: meaning
the people should go to the Niger company (Royal Niger Trading Company) where
the evacuation would commence. At about 7 am June 21,1968 the people started parking their
loads, starving children, sick persons, old persons, pregnant women and any
item of survival available. It was like the children of Israel leaving Egypt.
As the
people were on their way to Niger company, the Nigerian troops landed in
Abonnema around 12 pm through the creek called ALICE OKOLO. Air strikes and
land strikes began. The Nigerian army laid siege of the town and overpowered
the biafran soldiers. Some of them jumped into the river and drowned while
other that escaped through the creeks died of starvation and the flowing tide
of the river.
And so,
peace returned to Abonnema. A thanksgiving was held to mark the freedom of the
people and a declaration that every June 21 be set aside to commemorate the sad
event in honour of the heroes and those who sacrificed their lives to save
Abonnema and all those whose lives were taken as a result of false allegations.
A cenotaph is
placed in the town square in Abonnema to honour all the victims. Abonnema lived
happily ever after.
My people,
war is never an answer because eventually every war still ends up in a round
table. Let us avoid war in any way we can. This brief history is not intended
to hate the Ibo man. All those that committed these crimes are all dead. Love
the Ibo man as your brother and treat him well. This write-up is to help us
know where we are coming from so that we do not make the same mistake.
So many
people only instigate and want war because of their personal gains just as we
have seen how the political differences fuelled the atrocities during the civil
war: people who were once brothers fingered their own brothers to be killed
because of the political differences.
It is also
worthy of note to say here that many countries that supported the biafran regim
only did so because they wanted to sell their arms to them. Likewise any
country supporting Nigeria during war is only doing so to sell arms to Nigeria.
War to some is a business especially the Western countries. How come they never
fight themselves but they have enough arms to sell? The answer is that they
know the African countries would always fight out of political greed and so
they instigate war or support a side in the war to sell their arms.
Even as we
now have two major political parties in Nigeria, let us not use it to kill our
brothers. As the General Election approaches in 2019, do not kill your brother
for political gains.
WE ARE ALL
NOTHING BUT DUST AT THE END OF OUR EXISTENCE.
ONE LOVE.
PEACE.
Barr. Elvis Sonny
(07019226797)
Am in love with this site and its contents
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