Global Issues
2020 Anti-Igbo Pogrom -By J. Ezike
“This is the time to take stock, learn from the experience and know how to prevent it in the future.” Speaker of House of Representative, Femi Gbajabiamila
“This is not the time to apportion blames…” Governor Lagos State Babajide Sanwo-Olu
I shall begin this article with a short story.
In the early hours of the morning in Lagos, a “mysterious explosion” struck the central point of the triangle that connected Festac Town, at the North East, Trade Fair and Ojo, at the North West and Satellite Town at the South. The central point was Abule Ado, an “Igbo village” within the triangle that connected all of the above mentioned regions. The explosion which shook the earth at 9am Lagos time made a devastating impact on over 300 houses, including Catholic schools, churches, residential and commercial buildings. It was on the 15th of March 2020. And it was on a bloody Sunday morning.
Faraway in North America, I had woken up at exactly 2:00am, in the midnight. It was an unusual awakening, as if I had been nudged from sleep by a strange hand. I had no plan to rise up early and write or publish as it were during one of those preplanned hours of hard work. I couldn’t understand the feeling that seized my peace. I had suddenly lost the joy of sleep and resolved to keep a vigil, in silence. About two hours later, a distress message from a friend in Satellite Town hit my phone. I was notified of a great disaster which he had witnessed and was unfortunate to be one of the victims. He was my childhood friend during my teenage years in Iba Housing Estate, somewhere around Ojo local government area of Lagos State. We had played soccer together on the red soil of the ghetto. His name was Biola.
On Saturday the 14th of March 2020, Biola had attended a “white wedding” in Festac Town and was scheduled to join the newly married couples for the thanksgiving service the following day in a church within the same location. At about 8am, there was no sign of tragedy until the 9th hour that showed interest in the deaths of Igbo civilians. An explosion had erupted in Abule Ado. It was seismic, it was extraordinary and it was massive. The impact travelled beyond 20 kilometers with the deft command of a war sound. Such was the magnitude that even the roof of the parish was blown off by the mysterious explosion. Biola and hundreds of others survived with serious injuries. He had sent me pictures from a hospital in Festac Town. Interestingly, he had told me that his family based in Sango Otta had felt the impact of the same explosion that devoured Abule Ado and some parts of Festac, Trade Fair and Satellite Town on the 15th of March 2020.
And I wish to add here that as a resident of Amuwo Odofin my family and I were one of the targets of the bomb blast in Abuleado. My address information had been leaked by “government officials” to ensure that I am part of those that would suffer the damage. “They know themselves.” But I will not go further.
End of story.
Now, the Nigerian government’s misleading press statements had shown desperate attempt to exonerate itself and disregard this astronomical disaster as a national tragedy. And all we saw on the news were “officials” denying the “real cause” of the explosion and why it had to happen in a place where most of the houses and business outfits were predominantly owned and occupied by the Igbos. Eyewitnesses had argued that the cause and impact was beyond what the media had been fed to publish.
From what we saw, and based on the war-like damages done to over 300 buildings coupled with its widespread vibration around Lagos and Ogun State, this tragedy cannot be equated with a pipeline explosion. Neither can any right-thinking human being attribute the cause to the blunders of a fictitious truck or a gas station or a notorious vandal.
What happened on that bloody Sunday morning that would live in infamy was a pure act of terrorist attack, a systematic anti-pogrom on the Igbo people by the Islamic government of Nigeria!
Of course there is a golden rule that supports the idea that in any bombing raid, there must be “collateral damages.” Therefore, any casualty other than the Igbo in this government-sponsored pogrom will be seen as nothing but a collateral damage. Without mincing words, the Igbo people of Biafra were the target.
Before of our eyes, some military and police officers had weighed their thoughts from an experiential background and concluded that the explosion that took place in Abuleado was far-flung from what the Islamic government of Nigeria had paid media houses to write and publish. The facts of the matter are being flogged into thin air to pave way for a pseudo-historical account of what really happened.
The truth is rooted in the time, place, geographical location and the demographics of the population. We do not require the omniscience of a god to unfold the mystery. An intelligent head can solve the math by adding one and one together.
The lies of Aso Rock and the Sokoto Caliphate are certainly not appealing and cannot exchange the truth of the explosion with tales by moonlight. And no amount of rhetorical stunt, conspiratorial silence and deceptive innocence can defeat the truth that it was a BOMB EXPLOSION premised on four elements.
The time was on a Sunday morning. The place was a business and residential area, the location was central to Festac Town, Satellite Town, a Catholic School and a Trade Fair Complex and last but most important the demographics showed that a great concentration of the Igbo people and Christians lived and worshipped there.
Therefore, it must go down in history that on the 15th of March 2020, the Islamic government of Nigeria carried out a systematic anti-pogrom on the Igbo people in Lagos. With over 300 buildings (houses, churches, schools and businesses) bombed down and many lives destroyed. It was a terrorist attack and it was well planned and well targeted. The conspiracy is glaring and the silence of those responsible for this heinous atrocity is apalling.
By the virtue of the press statements by government officials who appear to be in defense of Aso Rock and would rather not “apportion blame” or investigate the “real cause” of the “mysterious explosion” that did not affect the NNPC pipeline as confirmed by staff members but instead choose to “take stock” of the casualties and damages, is enough evidence to indict Nigeria and its fraudulent existence!
I want to believe that some of us who have paid the dreadful price for pledging allegiance to One Nigeria must have learnt their lessons. Today it was Abule Ado, Festac Town, Satellite Town and Trade Fair, tomorrow it could be Ikoyi, Lekki, Maitama, Asokoro or even faraway in Northern Nigeria.
Certainly, the Abuleado bomb explosion has validated the theories and postulations of those who believe that Nigeria is a war zone in disguise. And world should take note of this latest anti-Igbo pogrom. Furthermore, this has stressed the vulnerability of Lagos which boasts itself as the commercial capital of the devilish enclave. And the cruelty of Aso Rock in response to the bomb blast is not merely a formality but a hint of the many terrible things yet to come. One thing has been promised by Nigeria: Human blood must flow to guarantee its existence.
The South, especially the Igbo must now decide if they must continue to serve as the “sacrificial” on that bloody altar of Unity!
