KWENU: Our Culture, Our Future

The turn of the Tiv

M. O. Ené
NJ, USA
Wednesday, October 31, 2001

PREAMBLE 
The Reverend Dr. Martin Niemöller was a prominent Protestant pastor in post-WW I Germany. His epic piece has been quoted extensively in the wake of the Nigerian military massacre of the Tiv of Gbeji, Vaase and Zaki-Biam to encourage everyone to join the condemnation cart. I am not writing to "object"; no, I had "objected" until my pen ran dry, and I began to hear myself scream! From Kaduna and Kano killings, Shagamu slaughters, Maiduguri massacre, Bauchi butchery, and Nassarawa nightmare to the current terror in Tivland, it is a wacky world all over. Chief MCK Ajuluchukwu called it "terrorism pure and simple," and "the nation cannot tolerate such an action." Says who? What's new under the Sun? First, there are a few things we must note about the immortal words of Niemöller: the true historical context and the different English versions. Thirdly, couldn't we find an apt native quote? Finally, does the quote really apply? So I thought of calling this piece "Martin, Mathew, and me."

MARTIN 
As we all know, Adolf Hitler was a product of democracy. He was dully elected the Chancellor of Germany. An ex-soldier, he had hang-ups about the defeat of Germany in the First World War, in which Martin Niemöller had served as a submarine commander. With the prevailing socioeconomic situation in Germany at the time, the man went to town with an impressive conservative Christian rhetoric spiced with unbridled nationalism. So it was easy for many Protestant ministers, including Niemöller, to believe in and to support the National Socialists, Nazis.

Niemöller was in the good book of Nazis when they came to power in 1933. His autobiography, "From U-Boat to Pulpit" was praised and promoted by Nazi media. It became a bestseller. Then Nazism unveiled its true colors, pushing racist doctrines through the churches. Many churchgoers and clerics accepted. A group led by Niemöller opposed the Nazification of the Protestant churches and denounced the doctrines of Rosenberg and other Nazi leaders. A great majority sat on the fence and watched as Hitler consolidated his power. Eventually, the entire country came under his iron-cross grip, and he stepped out to invade Poland. The rest you know. 

On June 27, 1937, Niemöller told his congregation: "We have no more thought of using our own powers to escape the arm of the authorities than had the Apostles of old." He was right. On July 1, they came for him. He was confined to a prison in Berlin. On March 2, 1938, a Special Court tried and acquitted him of the main charge: "'underhand attacks against the State." For the lesser charge of "abuse of the pulpit," he was fined 2000 Deutsch marks and sentenced to seven months in prison. Having served eight months in jail, the court set him free. On his way out, Gestapo re-arrested placed and placed him in "protective custody." He was confined in concentration camp, until the Allies freed him in 1945. 

So, what has this historical piece got to do with the massacre of Tiv people in 2001? Simple: The power of written words and the fact that, as Edmund Burke said, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men [and women] to do nothing." Yes, we need many more people to "object." Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, weighs in: "What happened in Benue is more dangerous than any other thing in this country." Really? What's new under the Sun?

MATTHEW 
On the historical aspect of the story, General Matthew Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo fought a war as a commando commander. Like Martin, Mathew wrote a popular autobiography (My Command), and he also suffered incarceration in the hands of, arguably, Nigeria's closet Hitler before becoming a born-again Christian. The similarities end here. Matthew went on to become President Olusegun Obasanjo. Obasanjo has warned everyone that the Nigerian Government … oops Army is not going to get squeamish about shedding blood. So, when his former army commander, whose house was razed and his kinsmen killed, complained bitterly, the Commander-in-Chief advised him not to take it personally! Hear General Victor Malu: "He [Obasanjo] said that I should not take it personal. That was his word as I have just told you. If I don't take it personal, I don't know what this means." [Vanguard and ThisDay, Saturday, October 27, 2001]

I guess what Obasanjo meant was that a shipload of oil or some serious contracts could be "awarded" to absorb damages -- as long as the ex-military muscleman maintained the muteness of the morgue and tried not to talk up the scandal. Of course, taking it personally could mean that the acclaimed professional General Malu had meted out similar treatment to others, as in the Odi odium. Malu thinks there are no comparisons because "On our way to Odi in 1999, three soldiers were killed and five wounded by heavily armed civilians who ambushed us on the way." Really! And the town was pulverized?

Whatever Malu thinks, Chief of Army Staff General Alexander Ogomudia (in whose hood Odi situates), would not discuss with his immediate predecessor in office. Even when President Obasanjo ordered immediate cessation of military activities in the area, Ogomudia vowed that that would be after they (the soldiers) "disarm the militia, restore normalcy, and arrest the culprits." In other words, the military is in town to stay! Question: Who is in charge of the army? Never mind; just hazard a guess.

ME, MOE
 Like Martin and Matthew, I served in a military force at war; unlike them, I have no hang-ups about the war proper. Like both gentlemen, I wrote about it, albeit fictionalized ("Jaundiced Justice"). Like both, I have undergone my own religious metamorphoses, and I have also looked the evil of power in the eyes, called it what it really is, and walked away. So, what's new under the Sun? In the first Nigeria-Biafra War lecture (Friday, May 30, 1997), I remembered those who didn't make it thus far from the murder mayhem of the sixties. Under the theme "Let the healing begin," I prayed that never again should the sick senselessness of the war be visited upon any people:

"Never again shall a people be set upon because of their ethnicity, an accident of birth, and butchered like unwholesome Christmas chickens; never again shall the males of a community be lined up and butchered like stray dogs; never again shall man deny basic nutrients to the children of a living God as a weapon of war; never again shall human beings be reduced to the base of bestiality and to the depth of depravity; never again shall a people, any people, be so traumatized by the idiocy of those who should know better…."

Come 2001, men were lined up and killed -- as in Asaba and elsewhere in Igbo heartland; their food was stolen, escapees were shaken down for nickels at checkpoints down the road. Dogs fed on corpses unburied. (In Afghanistan, meanwhile, Americans drop bombs and food; and the Afghans bury their dearly departed with all due respect.)

No one should condone the killing of law-enforcement officials, and those who perpetuate such heinous crimes should be caught and subjected to the full force of the law; however, no decent government retaliates in such a trigger-happy fashion as in Odi or Gbeji. Not even in wars should government agents involve in such barbarism. Then again, before harmattan there was winter; there's nothing new under the Sun. The good people of Biafra didn't kill anyone; rather, they were the ones killed all over, from Calabar to Kano, from Mushin to Maiduguri and from Sapele to Sokoto. And this was why I was tempted to title this piece: "Biafra lives: It's the turn of the Tiv."

BIAFRA LIVES 
I am not trying to diminish the tragedy in Tivland. No. I have said several times that the things we do to each other savages do not do unto their own. I have it on print that the death of any person distresses me, and that no one has the right to kill another -- no matter what! My prayers go to the suffering families of both the slaughtered soldiers and the massacred masses of Munchiland too. May we all seek and secure solace in prayers.

Biafra lives. It lives because no one is addressing the injustices that lead to it, and we are yet to imbibe its lessons. Many have even forgotten. In Wole Soyinka's "Open Sore of a Continent," he offered that Ogoni agony was the first ethnic cleansing! Now, Fawehinmi says nothing like this has happened. And MCK is seeing "terrorism" for the first time!

Biafra might never have been desired if the ineffective 1960s leadership had done the right thing and done it right. It did not take a messiah to see that the Igbo were getting a raw deal in a country they had opened up and embraced with all their hearts. Today, the Nigerian leadership is far from doing the right thing by the Ogoni, Zango-Kataf, Ijaw-Itsekiri-Urhobo peoples, even the Jukun and Tiv, and the faceless nameless masses. This prolonged plunder of Nigerian nations is the plight of all. We must talk about it. ASAP.

Sadly, many Nigerians still don't get it because there is truly little learnt. The expectation continues that utopia shall emerge out of this misery of a colonial contraption we call Nigeria. So, whenever I use the mantra "Biafra lives," think of the immortal words of Lewis Obi: "[Biafra] is a living testimony of political wickedness which time will not heal because it is both physical and psychological. …. And the power of Biafra remains that, as an idea against political oppression, it can never die." [African Concord, 7 July 1997]. So, you see, we have native quotes too. And that was why I was tempted to title this work: "Of Other Quotable Quotes."

QUOTABLE QUOTES 
President Obasanjo's braggadocio, or the arrogance of Aremu, is sometimes very troubling. At the height of an impending impeachment, he went on a tour of spiritual churches proclaiming "I dey kampe." Good; but, when the lives of people are at stake, a little milk of human kindness is needed. In November 1999, he sent the army to demolish the Niger Delta town of Odi, where local militants had murdered 12 policemen. When he visited Odi, he was expected to apologize; instead, he lectured them on how to be grateful for his having "saved" them from Biafra! Asked about rumors of coup, Obasanjo said the people would come out and stop the soldiers. Now, tell that to the Tiv of Benue.

In Europe the other day, he was asked about the Kano killings, where more people were killed than in Afghanistan: "I don't worry." He wasn't worried because more killings were coming, or Kano's Governor Kwankwaso really misinformed him. Whichever, when he makes it to Zaki-Biam, Benue State, do not expect an apology from Baba Sege, the president; he will find something to tell them, say: "Sebi say your soldier brothers giv' am to Odi and Ndiigbo too"! You want to bet?

But President Obasanjo is not a walking megaphone of Papa Ajasco insensitivity. He often makes a lot of sense and, you have to give it to him, he mastered Nigerian politics so well he has transformed every major player but General Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) into a pawn of sorts. In 1998, soon after his release from jail, Obasanjo visited the United States. He spoke with McLord Obioha of New York-based "The Nigerian & Africa." Asked if he would apologize -- as Yakubu Gowon had done in Abakaliki -- for his past actions, especially to Ndiigbo, now that he had walked through the valley of the shadow of death, Obasanjo scoffed at the idea. However, he revealed what at times looked like he had a good grasp of the solution to our problems when he is on this side of the screen. I call it "Sermon in New York." Obasanjo has since shredded the script; he is now kissing up to special interests. They are not objecting to terror in Tivland, and they won't object when they come for Obasanjo.

CONCLUSION 
Obasanjo may be on the right track, albeit it at a turtle timeframe. He instituted the Oputa Panel. We have all screamed and emitted emotions most raw about genocide and games and massacres and marginalization. Some like General Haruna wouldn't apologize for war crimes; generals like IBB, Alhaji Abubakar (AAA), and Buhari won't show up to talk. Now, shall we move on to the Truth Commission, as Obasanjo proposed in the Sermon? Maybe a properly constituted panel, with the power to grant pardon and to prosecute, could do the trick -- now that his regime has given almost every Nigerian nation something to talk about. Thereafter, we would reconcile and proceed to the national conference, as Obasanjo himself proposed in the Sermon.

Then again, Obasanjo did not foresee Sharia. In his lackadaisical politics and initial naïveté, he thought it would go away. And then there was September 11, 2001. And four Pakistani illegal immigrants surfaced in Ota preaching Jihad… only, to them, "jihad" means spreading the words of Allah. In Baba's backyard! The way things are shaped up, I hear John Donne's bell tolling for a national conference of ethnic nationalities. The alternative is better-imagined and shuffled around pepper-soup joints than analyzed on worldwide web.

Everything else is embellishment.