The October 1967 massacre of able-bodied men of Asaba descent was brought to the fore recently. The occasion was a church service at St. Augustine Catholic Church, Ibusa in Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State where the birthday anniversary of late Augustine Nduka Maijeh was post humously marked.
At the occasion, Mr. Augustine Nwanze-Maijeh, the first son of the late Maijeh called on the federal government of Nigeria to compensate the families of the victims of the massacre. He recalled that he was about five years old at the time of the killing of the armless, harmless and innocent men.
By the way, a massacre is an event necessitating the killing of people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is mainly used to describe a targeted mass killing of civilians by an armed group of persons or an individual. This is the exact description of the 1967 occurrence. The massacre operation led by then Lt. Col. Murtala Muhammed who was the commander of the 2nd Infantry Brigade of the Nigerian Army left between 373 and 1,000 men dead.
A massacre like this was not the first in Nigeria. Though circumstantially different, there was another one carried out on the 18th day of November, 1949 by the British colonial Masters against Coal miners at Iva Valley, Enugu in the Eastern region of Nigeria. Mazi Greg Nwachukwu Onoh dragged the Federal government of Nigeria, British government and Head of the Common Wealth and others to court on behalf of the 21 families affected by the attack some years ago but the outcome of this has remained unknown to many Nigerians.
Unlike the pending cases of calls for reparations or compensations of massacred Nigerians, the Tulsa race massacre of 1921, one of the most severe incidents of racial violence in U.S. history that occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma, beginning on May 31, 1921, and lasting for two days, leaving between 30 and 300 people dead, and destroying Tulsa’s prosperous Black neighborhood of Greenwood, known as “Black Wall Street is currently a subject of attention in the USA. A whopping sum of $105 dollars has been proposed for payment as reparations to the affected members of the country’s society.
Arising from the decided case of Tulsa in USA therefore, the call by Mr. Augustine Nwanze- Maijeh on behalf of all affected Asaba indigenes in the episode has not only become apt but also as a basis for addressing all other pending cases of injustice meted out to many Nigerians at one point in time or the other. It will, in fact, mark the beginning of Truth and Reconciliation efforts towards truly bringing the country together once again.
Though, all the compensation requests in Nigeria are geared towards the answers to a common problem – bad governance, it is important to first of all recognize that those problems exist and that their resolution requires collective inputs from citizens. In arriving at this, it is equally necessary to look into the reasons that led the nation to her present condition of hatred amongst the federating units and individuals.
During the last ‘End Bad governance’ protest, it was observed that the different regions of the country observed it in different ways for different reasons but all pointing towards the direction of lack of confidence, love and trust for one another. The youth of Northern Nigeria engaged themselves in destroying lives and properties in addition to foisting Russia’s national flag on citizens. In the same vein, a section of the Southwest of the country was promoting ‘Igbo must leave Lagos’ campaigns. For the South East, it was a sit-down-look game.
Arising from these, it has become imperative therefore for the federal government to urgently set up a Truth Commission to holistically wade into the reasons for the current state of affairs. There is no need for a new constitution. The only two major items lacking in the present one are love and discipline which cannot come without continuous spread of relevant knowledge in addition to the political will power of the current crop of leaders to sincerely focus on ‘Nigeria first’ attitude over quest for future election victories and regional allegiance.
For the avoidance of doubts, a Truth Commission, also known as a Truth and Reconciliation Commission or Truth and Justice Commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoings by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state actors also), in the hope of resolving the conflicts left over from the past. It is often focused on the past with a view to correcting errors there from.
Given the speed with which things are degenerating with tendency towards worst scenarios, the truth commission must be mandated to examine the issues of tribalism and nepotism in Nigeria. There is no proof of any tribe actually creating its citizens in peculiar ways. And if all are created by God, it becomes inhuman for one to discriminate against the other. All the major ethnic nationalities must come with their grievances against each other, going forward.
Those that have contributed in one way or the other to the issue of bad governance in terms of corruption, nepotism, fraud, electoral manipulations, and human rights violations and so on must be identified properly in order to bring them to at least a position to render appropriate apologies from them or sanctions for their unpatriotic acts.
Elements in the 1999 constitution, as amended that are constituting problems must as well be pointed out for the attention of experts and those saddled with the responsibility to correct them. For example, quota system and federal character should hence forth not be allowed to take the place of competence.
There are many who are seeking for entirely new constitution that will grant economic autonomy to states or geopolitical zones while others want the retention of the present federal system with reduced cost of governance. So, addressing the Asaba massacre and its consequences so far will definitely help point the country to the path to true nationhood while avoiding similar actions in the future.
