Orsu Carries The Burden For Biafra -By J. Ezike

When I made a trip to Orsu, I found my place of origin mired in armed conflict. Anxiety arose to wage war against my peace of mind. I listened to the murmurings and hushed conversations slithering out of the wary mouths of people who didn’t want to be heard. As if anxious of the fate that would befall them for speaking or narrating their collective ordeals.

I knew silence in the face of such tragedy was a wise thing. Still, I strongly resisted the option of hiding my reality in silence, a reality that left the people of Orsu feeling abandoned and afflicted.

What strikes me most when I think about this reality is the genocidal killings of the innocents. It is the sort of killing that seems political even by the measures of war.

I recall my conversation with some people and the stories of their tragic reality. I listened to the male youths who did not want to be seen or heard. As if it was forbidden to know too much, or see too much. There was no doubt severe pain in their voices as they began to narrate their suffering and the loss of their loved ones. There is practically no publicity in the face of this ongoing atrocity. Male youths in Orsu are strategically being killed for no just cause. And for the past one week since I visited Orsu, I began to organize in my mind with a rebellious anger, how to translate into words the ordeals of a people persecuted for their involvement in the Biafran struggle for independence.

I wish to state here that what the youths of Orsu are seeking has its footnotes on the UN Charter on human rights. It has no peculiar place in the British self-determination agenda in Europe, as well as Quebec’s independence movement and its quest to be partitioned from Canada. It is called the politics of freedom because politics requires a conversation between the government and the people.

Almost every single indigene of Orsu today is an activist, actively seeking a peaceful conversation that aligns with the enshrined clause of self-determination. It is no crime to publicly speak about Biafra or express the desire to be free from Nigeria. This united voice for Biafra that reveals the collective aspirations of a people certainly deserves a universal attention.

To bleed the flesh of a people whose souls have pledged allegiance to Biafra is a crime that may provoke a violent resistance – a resistance that may end up incurable and engaged to endless tragedies.

I have learned long ago from the experience of Brexit that self-determination is not a crime neither is the call for Biafra denoting a call for war. Orsu was previously a peaceful haven. It was only few years ago, after I had stood at my father’s grave and had spoken to him through our ancestral land, that I could unlock the puzzle and correctly interpret the disaster from an objective stand point.

I had spent much of my time in Orsu trying to understand the war that had befallen my place of origin and why we could not boast of power supply, accessible road network, telecommunication network, security and other basic amenities. I couldn’t understand why Orsu became the cesspit of warfare, accommodating tragedies and bloodshed against the blind flush of justice, all in the hope of decimating the united voice of freedom..

Whenever I’m being asked what the war is about, I’ve usually avoided the temptation to respond. But I always have an autobiographical response to sum up my observation and experience as a revelation of the bloody Orsu experience.

I’ve learned not to lean onto silence or to accept that particular reality but to affirm a conviction that opposes the war against my Orsu brothers and sisters. Orsu, at the moment, carries the burden for the resuscitation of Biafra. Orsu has spoken and fought in the struggle and has its name in history’s time.

The temptation of pretending as if Orsu is at peace will never be favourable to me or any indigene of Orsu and Nigeria at large.

Finally, there is an inherent danger in Orsu that threatens the land and it’s indigenes. Such disaster are only increased when the government lacks the wisdom of leadership; the diplomacy that can cure violent resistance.