Authors Chxta
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#Nigeria tells us that today is #ArmedForcesRemembrance Day, a day set aside for our “heroes” in uniform.
We'll do well to remember the lives that have been lost to various atrocities in this blood-stained country of ours...
While there is no doubt to my mind that many officers in @HqNigerianArmy are heroes, think Sani Bello who saved the life of Gen. Ironsi’s ADC, Andrew Nwankwo, or Usman Jibrin, who flew many Igbo officers to safety during the pogroms of 1966...
or even Mohammed Shuwa, who ensured that Igbos were protected in the area under his command, the fact is that on the balance, @HqNigerianArmy has a murderous reputation, and as I once referred to them, are an equal opportunities brutaliser.
is only an arm of @NigeriaGov, and this video attempts to chronicle some of the atrocities committed in #Nigeria, by both state and non-state actors.
This is one of the tragedies of #Nigeria.
The number of people who have been killed in mass atrocities in the country since “independence” perhaps gets close to the 100,000 mark.
Imagine that!
We'll do well to remember the lives that have been lost to various atrocities in this blood-stained country of ours...
While there is no doubt to my mind that many officers in @HqNigerianArmy are heroes, think Sani Bello who saved the life of Gen. Ironsi’s ADC, Andrew Nwankwo, or Usman Jibrin, who flew many Igbo officers to safety during the pogroms of 1966...
or even Mohammed Shuwa, who ensured that Igbos were protected in the area under his command, the fact is that on the balance, @HqNigerianArmy has a murderous reputation, and as I once referred to them, are an equal opportunities brutaliser.
is only an arm of @NigeriaGov, and this video attempts to chronicle some of the atrocities committed in #Nigeria, by both state and non-state actors.
Video: A brief history of mass atrocities in Nigeria https://t.co/83iQ71cegm
— SBM Intelligence (@sbmintelligence) January 14, 2021
This is one of the tragedies of #Nigeria.
The number of people who have been killed in mass atrocities in the country since “independence” perhaps gets close to the 100,000 mark.
Imagine that!
I can't but help coming back to this thread. I owe Uncle Gbenro a bottle of cognac for it.
Let me build on it a little...
Prior to when Carlos Zappa renamed Ahaba to "Asaba", ndị Oshimịrị were quite an intertwined people who knew their kin.
As such, you could not "kpa alo" in Ahaba without a priest from Nri present.
This kinship is seen in the names. Onicha Mịrị, Onicha Ụgbo, Onicha Olona, as examples, the first being the great market town, the last two being on the west side of the great river, Ori mịrị...
Then Carlos Zappa came, and renamed Ahaba to Asaba, while TE Dennis renamed Onicha to Onitsha.
A hypothetical child, let's call him Chukwudebe Isichei, born exactly 120 years ago today in Asaba, knew himself as being Onye Oshimili, as did his cousin across the great river.
The year Isichei was born, a strange company, the Royal Niger Company, without his elders' consent or even knowledge, passed over "ownership" of his village to the British Crown, and the cartographers went to work.
Isichei became a "Southern Nigerian" from Onitsha Division.
Then on Isichei's 14th birthday, his Southern #Nigeria was "amalgamated" with a strange land called Northern Nigeria, and he was told that himself and those people whom he had not much in common with, except perhaps the colour of their skin, were now from the same country.
Let me build on it a little...
Prior to when Carlos Zappa renamed Ahaba to "Asaba", ndị Oshimịrị were quite an intertwined people who knew their kin.
A short note on ethnicity.
— Gb\xe9nr\xf3 Ad\xe9gbol\xe1 \u0646 (@GbenroAdegbola) December 27, 2020
A lot of these labels are mere identity. Useful labels though.
Identity is important
Many don\u2019t know their own parents were not even born Nigerians.
Most were a strange, now defunct nationality called British West African.
As such, you could not "kpa alo" in Ahaba without a priest from Nri present.
This kinship is seen in the names. Onicha Mịrị, Onicha Ụgbo, Onicha Olona, as examples, the first being the great market town, the last two being on the west side of the great river, Ori mịrị...
Then Carlos Zappa came, and renamed Ahaba to Asaba, while TE Dennis renamed Onicha to Onitsha.
A hypothetical child, let's call him Chukwudebe Isichei, born exactly 120 years ago today in Asaba, knew himself as being Onye Oshimili, as did his cousin across the great river.
The year Isichei was born, a strange company, the Royal Niger Company, without his elders' consent or even knowledge, passed over "ownership" of his village to the British Crown, and the cartographers went to work.
Isichei became a "Southern Nigerian" from Onitsha Division.
Then on Isichei's 14th birthday, his Southern #Nigeria was "amalgamated" with a strange land called Northern Nigeria, and he was told that himself and those people whom he had not much in common with, except perhaps the colour of their skin, were now from the same country.