War Songs...

Pic credit: www.nybooks.com

I heard that the war lasted two and a half years. I also heard that many souls were lost. To be specific, we had One Hundred Thousand military casualties and between Five Hundred Thousand and One million Biafran civilians died from starvation.

Those are statistics I got from the net. I was not there at the time. The truth is; most of us chanting war songs and heating up the nation were not there during the civil war. Another truth is that most of us are so used to living the good life that it would be impossible for us to survive the throes of a civil war.

We have never gone without sleep for months unending neither have we ever been forced to listen to the deafening sound of bombs tearing down homes, missiles uprooting trees and the agonizing misery of loved ones dying in our arms while we look on helplessly. We have never gone and cannot live for months without a sumptuous meal; fasting from food for six hours is even an uphill task for some of us. We cannot live without our internet not to mention going without portable water or no health care. We have never walked for days while hiding from the enemy lurking in the dark. We have never seen children die in their thousands from starvation; sisters serially defiled and pregnant mothers decapitated.

Yes, we have never seen land mines tear men apart, have never woken up to the smell of death, brutality, heart wrenching tears of people either writhing from pains or being massacred. We don’t know what and how it feels to clutch onto the last strands of hope while wondering when and if the embers of war would ever die out. Those are just snippets of tales from survivors of the Nigerian civil war. Survivors who pray never to see another war in their lifetime. Nothing is ever gained from wars and violent crisis.

A wise man once said; only a fool who does not know the pains of war, rushes to the battle field. Indeed, our country is in recession, our nation is facing pockets of ethnic and religious crisis and rivalries. No doubt we have heard of the devastation in Syria, the reverberations of war in other African nations but I know we do not want our nation to be plunged into that darkness. We might have unsettled scores and lingering old ethnic tensions, but we must choose to tow the path of peace and not war.

We must learn to accommodate our limitations and rise above the mistakes of our fathers. We must unite despite our diversity and resist the urge to spin the wheels of our already advancing nation backwards. We have a duty to douse the fiery fire of hatred raging within us and learn to love. It is time for us to embrace peace and unity. We must refuse to accept the war songs.