Nigerians were also Killed by Biafran Soldiers by Femi Fani-Kayode
POLITICS DIGEST- When the skeptics say that it is impossible for 800,000 Nigerian civilians to have been killed by Biafran forces during the civil war because the war was fought on Biafran and not Nigerian soil it nauseates me.
This is an example of the very real dangers and consequences of believing your own propaganda.
Quite apart from that there is nothing worse than intellectual dishonesty and historical revisionism.
My question to them is as follows: was the area that is known as the South South and the Mid West ever Igbo territory?
Did the Biafran forces not begin the war by launching a massive military offensive throughout those areas and capturing and occupying them for months in an attempt to conquer the entire South until they were stopped at the battle of Ore in Yorubaland and pushed out inch by inch all the way back to Igbo land and eventually Enugu where they surrendered?
Was it not the 3rd Marine Commando, led by Brigadier Benjamin Adekunle, that led the counter offensive that kicked the Biafran army out of the South South and Mid West and liberated those areas?
Was it not General Shuwa of the 1st Division that attacked the Biafran forces from the North and routed them in a succession of battles and that caused them to retreat back to Igboland?
Were those non-Igbo areas that were liberated by our forces not part of Nigeria before they were occupied by the Biafrans and renamed Biafra?
Were Port Harcourt, Yenagoa, Buguma, Warri, Benin, Uromi, Uyo, Ekpoma, Calabar, Asaba, Agbor, Ozoro and so many other towns in those occupied areas not originally Nigerian until they fell?
Were people not living there before the war and before the Biafran Army came and were those people not non-Igbo Nigerians?
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The idea that the civil war was only fought on Igbo soil and that no Nigerian civilians were killed by Biafran forces is factually incorrect.
It is also absurd and a function of ignorance, delusion and deceit.
Most Nigerians (including yours truly) have constantly acknowledged the fact that 3 million Igbo civilians were killed by Nigerian forces during the civil war and some (again including yours truly) have expressed deep regrets and offered countless apologies for it.
Why can’t you be charitable enough to do the same for the 800,000 Nigerian civilians that were killed as well?
We live with the pain of their loss every day yet we bear it with a dignified silence attempting to put all behind us and move on.
That does not mean we should forget them or act as if they never existed.
That does not mean we should sit back and accept your denials of these equally heinous crimes against humanity and cheer you on when you say they never took place.
Do our civilians that were killed not deserve a tear as well?
Were they not human beings too?
Did they not also have red blood running through their veins?
Can you not bring yourself to at least acknowledge that Nigerian civilians were also murdered by Biafran forces and express at least a little remorse about it?
There were no angels in that war. It was a thoroughly evil affair and may we never see the likes of it again.
Both sides committed unspeakable atrocities and both sides fell short of the glory of God. Both sides must ask God and one another for forgiveness.
Take it or leave it, that is the bitter truth.
It is only when both sides acknowledge these bitter truths and express remorse for it that love and lasting peace can be achieved.
Without it we shall keep going around in circles and living a lie.
Know the truth and let it set you free.
Femi Fani-Kayode is a former Minister of Aviation
