Joe Igbokwe presents his book in Lagos, IGBO: 50 YEARS AFTER BIAFRA

WHEN A WRITER IS SILENT, HE IS LYING.

Being a brief address presented by Engr. Joe Igbokwe at the media presentation of his book, ‘Igbos; 50 Years After Biafra at Genesis Hotel GRA Ikeja.

A writer has no luxury of silence. He must speak out through his writings. That is exactly what I have done in this book, Igbos; 50 Years After Biafra. The book is a historical overview of what has happened with my people in fifty years after the end of the Biafran civil war on January 15, 1970. Through this book, I have done my utmost best to keep commitment with my calling as a writer. I have spoken out. I have refused to keep silent. My voice has been raised and I hope my people will hear me.

As at today, a dark cloud hovers over my people. When we should be dealing with the effects of the war and trying our possible best to mitigate it and place our feet again on the throttle, we are on the brink of another war. Misguided youths are yearning for war and calling for blood-letting. Security agents are being rampantly killed and maimed and police stations are being razed in an inferno that will consume all if care is not taken.

We are into the second 50 years after Biafra and all the visages of 1966/67 pre-war era are all too evident today. Mayhem has been unleashed on Igboland and there is palpable fear and ennui pervading everywhere. It is like the morbid days of rage are being replayed in exactly the same manner it was played in 1966 and 1967.

But in the face of the engulfing mayhem, voices of elders have ceased to speak. The religious and traditional leaders have decided to wax silent. The socio-cultural and political groups in Igboland have embraced unhealthy silence. The unknown gun men and his bloody cohorts are running rampage, visiting destruction, blood-letting and fear all over Igboland. It is at this dangerous cross that those who should speak have willingly lost their voices. I hear they are silently enjoying the bloody orgy and quietly stoking the burning fire. If they are mindful of the consequences of their actions, I don’t know but it is a people doomed to perdition that gladly repeat the same mistake in a little space of time.

So today, I am speaking out through my book, Igbos; 50 Years After Biafra. I am calling on all Igbo elders, religious leaders, traditional rulers, wisemen, politicians and statesmen not to behave like that proverbial negligent elder that watched as the goat delivers while tethered. I warn that the consequences of the present conspiratorial silence will be too ghastly for us to contemplate. Those that are silently approving the whirlwind that is being sowed in Igboland today should be careful lest they hand over to their children a memory that would be too ghoulish to remember. Those who are gloating over the present tempest and wild wind that is blowing over Igboland should be ready to bear a permanent burden that will hunt them even after they have departed this world. Those that are mischievously encouraging the bloodbath that is presently being perpetrated in Igboland should desist from their evil acts because war knows no friend or enemy. Whoever rushes to war certainly doesn’t know that war means death.

I have spoken. we can’t bear to have a history that repeats itself in quick succession. Let those that have sowed political capital in encouraging bloodletting in Igboland desist and learn the productive ways of playing politics. Let those who are overtly and covertly prodding Igboland to another war because of their political mistakes and lack of vision know that they will be consumed in their deadly perfidy. History is my witness and such history is what is embedded in my book, Igbo’ 50 Year After Biafra.

When a writer is silent, he is lying. I have not kept quiet so I am not lying.

Thanks for your time.

Joe Igbokwe