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Letters & Opinions
On the Igbo genocide 2
Gavin Williams
2012-03-01, Issue 572
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/80366
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On all sides, it has been politics(s) among all political elites, to pass by them in public discourse. We need to recognise and understand our pasts to make sense of and act responsibly in the present. Ekwe-Ewke's rhetorical and indiscriminate accusations lack substantiation, even where this can be given.
Much of the story of the war and the events leading up to it is left out. Ekwe-Ekwe may have made himself familiar with the available accounts and analyses of the war, but there is no sign in his contributions to Pambazuka that he can do so. The complex history of Nigeria is too important to be substituted by blanket condemnations of the 'Hausa-Fulani'. They do not help younger generations of Nigerians understand the events, nor will it help them to engage responsibly in political action, in the context of venal political classes, deprivation of Nigerians outside their circuits, and violence against civilians and against people of other ethnic identities and against mosques and churches alike.