Opinion: Biafra is a country whose time has come »y

A few months ago the entire world witnessed a marriage between agitation and solemn remembrance. An entire region was shut-down as the spirit of a country that once was, came alive.

Teary-eyed elders sat in silence and reminisced about a period of darkness that scarred their lives forever, while the hopeful young ones, idealistic as ever, chanted songs about a country which is to come.

From Onitsha to Aba, they have continually gathered to sing songs of redemption and songs of an ever elusive freedom from a country they no longer feel a part of.

50 years on and the problems of yesterday are still the problems of today, the loud call for secession is stronger than ever.

Da Rose my mom’s elder sister occasionally sings Biafra songs from her kitchen, some days the songs are victory songs about Biafra’s triumph that never was, at other times sorrowful songs about wartime.

Da Rose is a retired nurse who worked with the Red Cross during the war, one can say she had a front row seat in the theatre of a war that should never have happened.

I have spent loads of time listening to her narration about war time and none of her tales are happy.

Sometimes she narrates stories of entire families being wiped out and at other times stories of folks who survived on human flesh during the war.

Nigeria adighi nma but Agha bu ihe ojo {Nigeria is not good but war is a bad thing] she always ends up saying.

One day during one of our discussions I asked Da Rose what she truly wanted, She paused, staring for long into nothing in painful silence for close to a minute and then in a somewhat wistful tone, She said: “Achorom ka Udo Chia”{I want peace to reign}.

The scars of war still evident in her heart informed this conclusion, but secession must not always be bloody and to be fair to the Biafran agitators, they have been peaceful.

For a lot of Igbos, a tribe of more than 33 million people inhabiting the southeastern strip of Nigeria. Every new day is a day closer to freedom, freedom from marginalization, freedom from unfair written and unwritten laws and ultimately freedom from Nigeria.

For these Igbos. their dreams about Biafra is a confusing one. A look at the map of Biafra tells its own story, the Biafra of the civil war which had sections that took part in a war they knew nothing about is not the Biafra of now.

The non-Igbo states of the Niger-delta are clearly not Biafra lining and Biafra itself has a plethora of sub-ethnic nationalities who enjoy highlighting their differences.

Then there is Nnamdi Kanu, a polarizing figure in Nigeria who clearly has the heart of the new generation of Biafran agitators. Time spent in jail has enhanced his stature beyond what it could have ever been and now he is a problem whose solution will be difficult to Nigeria’s clueless Leaders.

Nigeria’s own problem paints a picture of incompetent leadership and mind-boggling injustice and there are few reasons to believe that Nigeria’s problem would not later become Biafra’s problems. This problem, though, is a story for another day. I have my doubts about Biafra and no one truly knows how it would all end but you get the sense that beyond her workability as a nation, maybe just maybe, Biafra is a country whose time has come.