April 21 2020 | The Biafra Telegraph
One of the events, or circumstances, or situations, that
never crossed any person's thought, mind or imagination, is the present freeze,
which the whole world is experiencing simultaneously.
There is no gainsaying the fact that every activity in
the whole world is presently under a total lock down, starting from political,
to academics, sports, entertainment, commercial, religious, transportation,
construction, agricultural, hospitality, and even inner room activities.
The cost, or the devastating impact of this worldwide
lock down, is as incalculable as it is asphyxiating. The deeper implication of
this lock down on the economies of various countries is not only gloomy, but
equally frightening, as it is obvious that things can never be the same again.
It is also very clear that the disruption of activities
occasioned by the sudden and unexpected cancelation, or rescheduling of events,
has brought unquantifiable losses, from which many people, organizations,
groups, states, and even countries, may not recover, and which the immediate
effect has been, as it has been established, the death of many people.
The lamentations and wailings that have been heard across
the world, by reason of the hunger compulsively imputed on the people, as a
consequence of the near self-imposed quarantine, as necessitated by the
unavoidable social distancing, have been as deafening as they are unsettling. (We
said "near self-imposed quarantine" because one is only advised to
restrict one's movement to the comfort of one's home, with all the necessary
provisions made well ahead of time).
It is at the backdrop of the above that we can juxtapose
the present situation with the era of the Biafran genocide, which Britain used
Yakubu Gowon and Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria to commit against Biafrans,
murdering over six million (6m) Biafrans within a period of three years.
Without going into the details of how Britain
deliberately schemed and initiated a genocide against the Biafrans (whom they
prefer to refer to as Igbo), and eventually murdered over 6 million Biafrans,
it needs to be stated that Britain executed the genocide against Biafrans, as
an act of vengeance against Biafrans, for standing up to them, in their many
atrocious and inhuman acts, in the course of their imperialistic and
exploitative colonialism. No wonder Britain unleashed the full weight of her
venomous murderous inclinations against Biafrans, using the fraudulently
concocted contraption and criminal enterprise called Nigeria as a cover.
It must not be forgotten that the Biafran genocide, which
Britain used Nigeria to commit against the Biafrans, and bamboozled the world,
through the use of the uncommon advantage provided by the lair-ological BBC, to
nomenclaturize the genocide as a Civil War, lasted from 1967 to 1970, which, in
all intents and purposes, was approximately three years.
Within these three years, Britain, which had perfected
and deployed the starvation strategy in other places, introduced the same
weapon of starvation against Biafrans, speaking through the greedy dog, Obafemi
Awolowo. (Don't forget that Awolowo was convinced into believing, and
consequently declaring, as Britain spoke through him, that "starvation is
a legitimate weapon of warfare").
To maximize the lethal impact of this starvation as a
"legitimate weapon of warfare", many economic policies were reviewed
and adopted by the government of Nigeria (under the superintendency of
Britain), to ensure that not as much as ordinary water was available to
Biafrans, leading to the prohibition of EVERY IMPORT into Biafra. (The story of
ceding Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon is connected to this policy, but it is
story for another day).
As if prohibiting the importation of the basic food
necessities against Biafrans was not enough, Britain under the cover of
Nigeria, carried out the most dastardly, inhuman, cruel, brutal, tortuous,
acrimonious, criminal, unbearable, and sadistic, if not unpardonable act of
mass murder against Biafrans, which was the enforcement of the LAND, SEA, AND
AIR BLOCKADE against Biafrans.
It was while Biafrans were grappling with the reality of
this blockade that Britain, in the words of a British government official, was
"streaming Russian made heavy weaponry into Nigeria, for unceasing and
indiscriminate bombardment of the confined Biafra territory".
Any person that hears about the unceasing bombardment of
Biafra may not be able to picture the scope of the cataclysmic devastation
rained upon Biafrans by Britain, but imagine where people are compelled to flee
their homes without as much as having a shirt on their bodies, and trekking
endlessly to no particular destination. After many days, such people settle, in
the middle of any forest, as refugees. That becomes a refugee camp.
Now, begin to picture the type of schools, hospitals,
churches, markets, farms, etc, that will be operated and operational by the
people being in the above described condition and situation.
It was in the condition described above, that Britain,
under the cover of Nigeria, was raining "the heavy weaponry being streamed
from USSR" upon the Biafran schools, churches, hospitals, markets,
residential homes, individuals, and worst of all, refugee camps. No need to
emphasize that every economic activity, including farming, was completely
disrupted, or shattered, or in most cases non-existent.
This was exactly how it was in Biafra for three years,
which compelled Biafrans to convert every living organism, and every
green-leafed plant (including even non-green-leafed plants) to food. This situation was what gave rise to such titles of some
prominent writers as TOADS FOR SUPPER. Many other titles which actually
taunted, mocked, ridiculed, and jested about the tortuous moments for Biafrans
abound.
It is in the light of the above tortuous, excruciating,
debilitating, devitalizing, and prostrative death by instalment, to which
Biafrans were subjected for three years, that we look at the devastating impact
of the COVID-19 LOCKDOWN, which is barely three weeks old.
Without wastefully expending time, it is a known fact
that all over the world, the dire consequences of the lockdown have not just
been overwhelming, but equally startling.
In advanced countries, from Europe, to Australia, to Asia
and America, because of these few weeks of lockdown, have horrific and
horrendous stories not been heard, about the barbarism of people, who not only
threatened to kill and eat members of their own household, but actually went
ahead to kill their family members as well as themselves, out of frustration.
Have the nations of the world not been compelled to be
distributing food packages from door to door of their various citizens? Have
various governments of the world not initiated what they termed COVID-19
palliatives, which include not just food package delivery, but equally huge
sums of money, as a way of cushioning whatever uncommon impact resulting from
the lockdown fallout.
The most ironical of all these is that the same Britain
that deployed and enforced starvation against Biafrans, is the same country
that is doing all it can, to ensure that no citizen of Britain is subjected to
the torture of hunger for one day. Not only that Britain distributes food
package from door to door, Britain has equally budgeted, and is distributing at
least, eight hundred pounds (£800), to every British citizen, at regular
intervals, in the various phases of the lockdown.
Down there in Africa, and Nigeria in particular, the
people that mocked Biafrans for living in refugee camps, eating cassava leaves,
rats, lizards, toads, and every other uncommon eatable, have been gratefully
relishing all that they mocked Biafrans for. Even as we write, it has been
reported that the rate at which armed robbery has exponentially increased, has
made the prospects of survival in the urban cities of Nigeria very gloomy.
The desperation with which the world is seeking a
solution to the COVID-19 pandemic is quite telling. No wonder some countries
have resolved that they must experiment their vaccine on Africans.
It may need to be pointed out specifically, that this
COVID-19 plague, for which the whole world is running helter-skelter, to the
point of locking every activity down, has not claimed up to five hundred
thousand lives in the whole world. It was this same hypocritical world that
kept silent, while Britain, under the cover of Nigeria, murdered six million
Biafrans, in whole long three years, in which Biafrans saw their ears with
their eyes, and the world pretended that it meant nothing to it.
It can therefore be seen from the above, that what Biafra
bore and endured for three years, the world is finding difficult to
accommodate, in just a few weeks, yet it was the same world that kept silent
while Biafrans died in tens of thousands, every single day, for three years.
Written by:
Okwunna Okongwu
For: Lagos State Media
Edited by:
Ngozichukwu Ada-Dav
For: Lagos State Media
Published by:
Chibuike John Nebeokike
For: Lagos State Media
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