Help the Healing Happen
M. O. ENE
Friday, April 4, 2008
Greetings, my friend!
Ten years ago, I instituted the Nigeria-Biafra Memorial Lecture with the slogan: “Let the healing begin.” This was a time when the mere mention of Biafra was almost taboo even outside the shores of Nigeria. Since then, a whole lot of water has passed under the bridge. This is neither the place nor the time to rehash events of the past decade, and this is not about Biafra per se.
Of everything that has happened since then, one thing remains unchanged: the worsening condition of disabled war veterans at Oji River. The need to restore the dignity of these physically and psychologically traumatized men and their families need not be underlined. The few remaining individuals (about 50) live the darkest memories of our lives; they stand guard as painful reminders of an era we will rather forget. They have helped to keep the pain alive for almost forty years. It is about time we softened the burden.
PERSPECTIVE
Healing is not just about forgetting and forgiving, it is about learning the lessons of what happened to us and using it to improve the lives of all our future generations. The war veterans at Oji River could disappear any day or pass into history, and we would never hear of them.
Then what?
Here is what I submitted on Friday, May 30, 1997 in the inaugural memorial lecture titled, Beyond Biafra: What Biafra did to us and what we did with it:
“There is probably nothing more symbolically annoying in the entire Biafra aftermath than the status of Biafran veterans at Enugu-Onitsha Expressway, precisely at Oji River/Ugwuoba sector—the so-called ‘Wounded Knee’ Junction.”
Then you read the Ahiara Declaration:
Biafra will give special care and assistance to soldiers and civilians disabled in the course of the pogrom and the war. It will develop special schemes for resettlement and rehabilitation. The nation will assume responsibility for the dependents of the heroes of the revolution who have lost their lives in defence of the Fatherland.
These brethren have mounted a guard of dishonor, a badge of shame on our collective responsibility as a people. We build mansions and palaces and leave them out there in the open, exposed to the elements—hungry, hurting, and helpless. No, I will take that back: we care—we stop long enough to drop naira notes and massage our conscience and move on. We plan to build factories for wheelchair-bound veterans, and some have even proposed farming!
Read again from the Principles of Biafran Revolution:
The
Biafran revolution believes in the sanctity of human life and the dignity of the
human person. .... In our society, every human life is holy, every individual
person counts. No Biafran wants to be taken for granted or ignored, neither does
he ignore or take others for granted. This explains why such degrading practices
as begging for alms were unknown in Biafran society. Therefore, all forms of
disabilities and inequalities which reduce the dignity of the individual or
destroy his sense of person have no place in the new Biafran social order. The
Biafran revolution upholds the dignity of man.
For almost forty years, we have reduced the dignity of these men, who are representative remnants of the revolution, because of their disability. This is the irony of ironies. Do we still ask what is wrong with our society? It does not bear to think what those who moved on, unburied and unmourned, would think of a race for which they laid down their lives.
PROPOSAL
I propose this day not just to resolve the ironic reality of a sad and sorry situation but also to build a legacy on the continued sacrifice of these men and their families. I propose to raise money for a monthly sustenance benefit so these men can stop begging along the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway.
Here is how it will work: A group of volunteers will solicit $10:00 ONLY from every Igbo person worldwide each year. If 6,000 good people chip in this amount, we will raise $60,000.00. For 12 months, starting May 30, 2008, every one of the approximately 50 remaining veterans will receive at least 10,000.00 naira EVERY month. Based on the minimum wage of state civil servants in Enugu State, the regular income will help these men keep body and soul together and remove the stain of begging for sustenance.
PROJECT
The format of this project is not cast is stone. When I first mooted it to a select group of friends on Friday, December 7, 2007, I foresaw the usual discouraging but founded skepticism of our people. I knew the finger-pointing and name-calling distraction will come. Anyone who has dealt with our organizations knows that accountability is the bane of our people’s charity efforts. Surprising, everyone has been supportive and, in this case, accountability is not only necessary but also mandatory to endear donors to the project.
Along the line, the project can accommodate any other brilliant ideas, but the forte is to collect enough money to establish a foundation for the welfare of war veterans at Oji River. Eventually and if successful, the project could be expanded and extended to veterans of the future. For now, however, the strictly nonpolitical and nongovernmental effort will focus on helping the Nigeria-Biafra War veterans at Oji River. It is a question of national pride and transformation, for which future generations will remember us all.
Immense thanks.