By Jude Atupulazi
Last Monday and Tuesday, the streets of Igbo Land lay desolate and forlorn. It was said the people of the land were forced to stay back in their homes from where they peeped fearfully from their windows like caged animals, all because of a voice note by one fool to the effect that Biafra would be launching their newly purchased armoured vehicles on the 21st and 22nd of October, and that no one should venture out.
But since that Monday, however, up to the time you are reading this, I have been searching to see just one of the armoured vehicles launched by Biafra but I’m yet to see any. It has eventually gone down as yet another example of how foolish and stupid we have become as a people, having allowed a bunch of even more foolish and stupid people to lead us by the nose. God! When did we lose it? How did we come to this sorry state of affairs in Igbo Land?
It wasn’t as if this situation suddenly befell us. All the signs were seen in the early days of the renewed agitation for Biafra after the one by Ralph Uwazurike, under the aegis of Movement for the Actualization of a Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).
In Uwazurike’s time the agitation was hardly violent and many people felt for them any time they were arrested by the police. In fact, any time the police displayed items captured by them we would see stuff such as metal gongs and Biafra flags and emblems. Finito!
But as the new group which came by the name of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), entered the fray, the agitation suddenly started taking a violent bent. Threats were issued to people against coming out on certain days to avoid being wiped out. Prisons (I refuse to call them correctional centres because they are not) were raided at night and inmates freed. It was suddenly as if Igbo Land was fighting a guerilla warfare in peacetime.
Discerning folks saw how all those things would pan out if not checked and started shouting out warnings. But those warnings fell on deaf ears. Many people were lost in the euphoria of the new brand of agitation which had them skipping their businesses on certain days. The Igbo Nation started witnessing bloodshed, with most of the fallen being their brothers and sisters.
Those who tried to point out that what was unfolding was a stupid way of fighting were cowed into silence by threats and intimidation. Others saw what was unfolding as a necessary sacrifice for the Igbo Nation to be freed from those holding them hostage in Nigeria.
But what the people behind the chaos never bothered to pause and ponder on was if the way they were going about it was likely to yield the desired result. They failed to answer vital questions such as if what they were doing affected their so-called adversaries in Abuja.
They could provide no answers when told that what they were doing was akin to a man who was angry with his neighbours and decided to burn his own house to ”teach his neighbours a lesson” and tell them how angry he is.
Indeed, the entire idea of the new Biafra Movement is steeped in absurdity of the highest order. It is something that is casting a big question mark on the wisdom of the Igbo man. It is such an absurd thing that one hardly knows where to begin to analyze it and how we got to this point.
Really, arguing with these people is a waste of time as they have become so brainwashed that you are stupefied by their arguments. At times you get the feeling that they are really the ones seeing you as mad. Have you ever been called a mad man by a mad man? That will surely give you an idea how funny it feels to hear them talk to you.
As I said earlier in this write up, I have been searching for the armoured trucks said to have been launched by the modern day Biafrans without yet seeing where they are parked. But one thing I don’t understand is why people will be told to stay indoors when such a great development as the launch of armoured trucks is happening, especially when such trucks are the ones to be used in liberating us from our enemies.
I was talking with an okada man from Ebonyi State last Tuesday and I couldn’t but feel stupefied by the level of his gullibility honed by years of brainwashing. I first asked him what caused the latest stay at home ”order” and he told me it was because of the launch of Biafra’s armoured vehicles. Now let me try and reconstruct our conversation.
Me: ‘Why were we asked to sit at home on Monday and Tuesday?’
Okada man: ‘Because Biafra is launching armoured vehicles.’
Me: ‘Where were they launched and where were they parked?’
Okada man: ‘I don’t know.’
Me: ‘Why don’t you know? Did they park them in the skies?’
Okada man: ‘I don’t know what to say but rest assured that by December this year we will all see the armoured cars.’
Me: ‘Are you for real? Where did the vehicles come from? From which borders? Did they drop from the skies?’
Okada man: ‘I have told you that it is true. We will know by December.’
Me: ‘But why should people be stopped from seeing such a wonderful thing as armoured vehicles that have been purchased by their country?’
Okada man: ‘You know what happens in this zoo country (Nigeria). If the government knows they will not allow it.’
Me: ‘If they will not allow it how then did the armoured vehicles come in?’
He had no answer to this.
Me: ‘Now let’s talk about the sit at home. In whose interest is it? Who is suffering from it? In what ways do our ”oppressors” in Abuja feel it?’
Okada man: ‘They will feel it because in these two days they lost revenue that they would have got from the Southeast.’ (This at least sounded more logical than all he had said earlier, I must admit)
Me: ‘Who between the Southeast and the Federal Government will feel the impact of the sit at home more? Don’t you think that by sitting at home you are playing into the hands of your enemies who want you to suffer economically?’
Okada man: ‘That is the sacrifice we have to pay.’
Me: ‘And while you sacrifice and suffer economically, the rest of the country is moving on, doing business, and you don’t care? How about when our kids miss their WAEC papers because of the sit at home directives? Who loses? Who gains?’
Okada man: ‘I’ve told you it is our sacrifice.’
Now you people can see that arguing with these people is a waste of time. There is nothing you can say that will convince them that they are wrong. I told the okada man to make sure that they won’t show him cut and join videos of armoured tankers and claim they are the ones they bought.
As it is, I will eagerly await December to see if those purchased tanks will roll into the streets of Igbo Land, or whether we will be told that a new date has been fixed. Indeed, I always marvel at the gullibility of their members.
I remember my friend who visited me one December 26 and told me to join their movement and get a good post because, according to him, the then American President, Bush, would be coming to Uga on that same December (31st) to declare Biafra. I believed he was joking and told him so. He flared up and said it was the problem with people like us who claimed to be educated. He swore that Bush would be coming four days from thence to declare Biafra.
My people, many years have passed now and Bush is no more the President and my friend has since died; yet, Biafra has not been declared. But while he lived, my friend continued to swallow all he was told about the coming of Biafra and he was also supporting the project with his scarce resources.
There are still many like my late friend today who swallow all they are told hook, line and sinker. When you argue with them they look upon you as the foolish one who needs deliverance. Nothing they are told by their manipulators seems absurd to them. They are like zombies and that makes them dangerous.
Sadly, these fellows seem to have overwhelmed the sane population to the extent that any man can do a voice note from the safety of his room, threatening to kill people if they come out on a certain day and post it. Everybody will take fright and scamper away like dogs, with their tails tucked between their legs.
That was the situation that triggered the last sit at home. A man did a video in which he showed armoured tanks and claimed the Biafran Government was going to launch such and then warned people not to venture out on the 21st and 22nd. The matter was not helped by the killings in Nibo, a day previously, which many thought were done by sit at home enforcers. Then the Southeast collapsed for two days, socially and economically.
Not even the statement by Simon Ekpa that Tuesday was not a sit at home day could make any impact. Ekpa is the man now in charge of what is known as the Auto Pilot Biafran Movement who lives in Finland from where he dishes out orders to his army of goons.
We have therefore reached a point where even a child can do a voice note of an impending doom and post and everybody will scatter. This is how bad things have become in the entire Southeast which used to be a safe haven.
Many are not yet aware that the entire idea of the modern Biafra is one big hoax, a private business of some smart crooks. Not even Nnamdi Kanu is able to stop things now as everything is indeed on auto-pilot. Even if you tell the Biafra agitators that Kanu has said there should be no more sit at home days, they will tell you they did not hear it.
What we feared would happen is happening today and perhaps those who earlier supported it out of sentiments are now regretting their decision. How late it has turned to be! We have no option but to stew in our own juice as the hoax called Biafra agitation continues.
