Our grandchildren will ask, "Did it really happen?"
This is one of the many aspects of our Nigerian story that will not go away as the revisionists would wish.
This is one of the many aspects of our Nigerian story that will not go away as the revisionists would wish.
I think that it was a year ago that I had weighed in on "Asaba" following other commentary by the likes by Uche Ezechukwu, Benjamin Udodigbo and others. The Nigerian state has invested so much capital lionizing the late General Murtala Muhammed. I was old and enlightened enough to hold my ground and not to buy into the narrative that he was some sort of hero. His presence on the Murtala currency note does not change that. Sad as his death was in that February 13 coup, I understand that some people impacted by the ASABA MASSACRE actually celebrated his demise. Sad! That's how united we are on this topic.
Talk no ill of the dead? Really?
How then do we write authentic history? It was almost fifty years after the event that I came across the archives of The University of South Florida. Here records, written, photographic, audio, video etc have been safely stored where those who argue, like Holocaust Deniers, that it NEVER happened, cannot destroy. Very reluctant contributors like Chief Phillip Asiodu, an arch-Unitarist had no choice but to let himself be interviewed.
How then do we write authentic history? It was almost fifty years after the event that I came across the archives of The University of South Florida. Here records, written, photographic, audio, video etc have been safely stored where those who argue, like Holocaust Deniers, that it NEVER happened, cannot destroy. Very reluctant contributors like Chief Phillip Asiodu, an arch-Unitarist had no choice but to let himself be interviewed.
Years ago at Stanford University, I had a close friend Engr Peter Ojogwu, a native of Asaba a couple of years younger. He never spoke about "Asaba." But for his interview with USF researchers decades later, I would never have known that he passed through that particular Golgotha. He was not up to fifteen and miraculously survived because other dead and injured piled over his young body. Does anyone want to relive his experience when the "gallant" Nigerian troops came closer to finish off those still twitching with point-blank shots? Anyone? Hero my foot!
In an earlier outing, I had tried to debunk the widely held perception of Murtala Muhammed as a competent military strategist and commander. To me one illustration sufficed, the Abagana Ambush. I had opined that in a better organized military, Muhammed would have been court marshaled. Not in Gowon's military of anything goes. I still wonder whether that debacle is being case-studied at Nigeria's top military academies as I had proposed. Sad.
From this The CableNg report about strong-arm censorship at Nigeria InfoFM Radio, we glean the following.
"The Asaba massacre occurred during the Nigerian civil war. Troops had invaded the houses of civilians, who they claimed were Biafran sympathisers.
About 700 lives were reportedly lost in the incident.
The 50th anniversary of the event is expected to hold in Asaba, Delta state capital, with dignitaries like Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate, Donald Duke; former governor of Cross River and Matthew Kukah, bishop of Sokoto diocese, in attendance." Etc, etc.
Will this event (still) hold? Will Gen Gowon attend? What of OBJ, IBB and Gen Godwin Alabi-Isama? Will the hateful advocates of "No-Hate-Speech" mantra not seek to thwart it? Time will tell. It is indeed bizarre to strive to undermine a story line over which a former Nigerian Military Head of State and "war hero" has offered a public apology. Granted that many of his compatriots from the "core north" distanced themselves from his stand, but General Gowon spoke for the record.
https://www.thecable.ng/cheta-nwanze-i-was-sent-off-air-for-discussing-asaba-massacre
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