The Joy Of Slavery: The Painful Trial Of Some Deceived Ethnic Nations In Nigeria
In chapter 5 of Frederick Douglas work, "Narrative of The Life", Mr. Douglas said and I quote: "Our food was coarse corn meal boiled. This was called mush. It was put into a large wooden tray or trough and set down upon the ground. The children were then called upon and like so many pigs, they would come and devour the mush; some with oyster-shells, others with pieces of shingle, some with naked hands, none with spoons. He that ate fastest got most; he that was strongest secured the best place and few left the trough satisfied".
This has been our ordeal in Nigeria, but many have blindly refused to understand the curse Nigeria is to our existence and survival. In Nigeria, people have eaten worms in the place of food, others still drink from the same pit they toilet. Some parts drink oil and gas polluted waters, no grasses on their land for even domestic animals to eat and be healthy, yet they fight baselessly and accuse their own brothers, calling themselves "Niger Deltans" and insisting never to be identified as Igbos. What a pity! Yet, tarched and haunted houses are where they reside.
Albert Einstein said "He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed". Things have become so bad that people seem to have been denied their reasonings. So, they no long stop to question some anomalies. And that is what Sir Albert classified so well as being in resemblance of a dead state.
It may perhaps be fairly questioned whether any other portion of the African population could have endured the privations, sufferings and horrors of slavery we are enduring here in the name of "one Nigeria". For instance, there is absolutely nothing evil that has not been meted to the nation of Biafra today, yet entrapped in Nigeria. They have tried to cripple our intellect, darken our mind, debase our moral nature, obliterate all traces of our relationship with mankind.
And one thing that is most astonishing is how we have lived with the mighty loads of this most frightful bondage under which we have been groaning, since the 1914 amalgamation. We have been physically and mentally tortured and they have made us see our brothers as our enemies. Our brothers and sisters in the coastal areas are seeing their kit and kin in the upland areas as their worst enemies. Mental degradation and torture are the causes.
Now, we are more like happy slaves, jubilating over our misfortune. We are foolish slaves that fight our brothers and sisters instead of our chains. We are happy slaves in jubilation, dancing and urinating on the graves of our dead, killed by our real enemies.
What do we gain in all these? Izon (Ijaw) Urhobo, Isoko, Ogoni, Igbo, Niger Deltans, South-East or South-South people, are all brothers and sisters. Let us not give our enemies more chances to feast any further on our ignorance. We are better together than being divided. This is the glaring truth!
Written by Chidiebere Obulose
Edited by Ogah C.S. Maduabuchi
For Family Writers Press International.
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