Blast from the Past-Aftershocks of the Nigeria Civil War-Book Review By Tony Iyare

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Past ReviewBook Review

Title-Blast from the Past-Aftershocks of the Nigeria Civil War

Author-Ukoha Kalu

Pages-347

Reviewer-Tony Iyare (International Journalist & Development Consultant) Phone-08033046943, 08056801180. E-mail: ehiame2009@gmail.com or ehiameton@yahoo.co.uk

As a contribution to the growing number of literature on the 30 month old infraticidal Nigerian Civil War, this compelling book titled Blast from the Past-Aftershocks of the Nigeria civil war by my colleague, friend and brother, Ukoha Kalu is a refreshing and interesting fictional prose account of a war that underscore the raging national question in the world’s largest Black nation that was cobbled together by Lord Luggard exactly 100 years ago.

This book is being launched against the backdrop of the recently concluded referendum in Scotland which has rekindled interest on how to effectively manage separatist agitations in different parts of the world. We need to profusely thank the writer for renewing our thoughts on this pertinent issue and thrusting it to front burner.

But the question will be why do a fiction of a living story. When an acclaimed columnist and former Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch Magazine, Mr Ray Ekpu was once confronted on why he does not write fiction, his response was that he does not see the essence of writing fiction when all the social and political issues are alive and raging around us.

Many may also wonder why Ukoha Kalu opted to do a fictional prose account of the Civil War with fictional characters when the crises of the national question that led to the Civil War are still alive and raging around us.

Some are yet to resolve whether Biafra was a national or secessionist question. More than 40 years after the Civil War, the country’s political plain is still awash with different groups professing disparate ideas and angling for either confederation or a total break up of the Nigerian space.

As much as we pretend that everything is fine, we are daily confronted with these rhetorical questions some of which are posed by the writer. With the heightening level of religious and ethnic bigotry-tribalism, statism and corruption, can we safely say the Civil War has ended in Nigeria? How effectively have we dealt with growing inter and intra regional struggle for primacy and pre-eminence?

With rising agitations for independence by Scotland, Wales, Quibec, Tibet and other parts of the world, can we afford to sweep the raging agitations for devolution of power in Nigeria under the carpet and simply continue to govern ourselves the old way?  Have we fully come to terms with inter and intra nationalities dialogue amongst the different peoples in Nigeria? Why have we opted to govern a multi-religious and multi-ethnic country along a unitary path, clearly away from the federalist vision of our founding fathers?

The outcome of the recent referendum in Scotland cannot be simplistically reduced to a triumph of the No vote but underscores the expediency of devolution of powers. With a 55% to 45% close shave between the Yes and No vote, it is clear that Scotland cannot be governed the old way.

If Scotland that has been in a 307 years union with United Kingdom did a referendum on independence, why have we prevented same in Nigeria? If a little over 5 million people are allowed to conduct referendum for independence, why have we denied same for the Igbo or Yoruba ethnic nationalities who together must be close to 70 million people? Even the Ijaw that are smaller in population are much bigger than 50 nations that are members of the UN.

Can we say we have learnt anything from Biafra? In what way have we managed disparate agitations for self determination in different parts of Nigeria?

Perhaps more challenging to Nigeria’s existence is the affront by Boko Haram, a group led by Abubakar  Shekau which like its international soul mate, the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), is more adept at foisting its brand of Islam anchored on Wahhabi doctrine, on a multifarious and multi-religious country.  Thousands of people have been killed since the group began its assault about 10 years ago with several people rendered homeless particularly in the north east region of Nigeria.

The issues around the Civil War is alive around us. The curtain was lowered only recently for some of the dramatis personae of the Civil War like Biafran leader, Gen Odimegbu Ojukwu who died a year ago, Brigadier General Benjamin Adekunle, commander of the 3rd Marine Commando who died last week while Major General Mohammed Shuwa who commanded the northern sector of the war was cut down recently in the Boko Haram offensive in Maiduguri.

From Frederick Foresyth to Chimamanda Adichie and Ukoha Kalu, different writers of the Biafran story have sought to express their literary license and freedom.  We cannot therefore fault Kalu for opting for a fictional prose style.

Fiction writing according to Wikipedia, is the composition of not factual texts. Fictional writing often is produced as a story meant to entertain or convey an author’s point of view. The result of this may be a short story, novel, novella, screenplay, or drama, which are all types (though not the only types) of fictional writing styles. Different types of authors practice fictional writing, includingnovelists, playwrights, short storywriters, dramatists and screenwriters.

Just as a painter uses color and line to create a painting, an author uses the elements of fiction to create a story:

 

The elements of fiction are: character, plot, setting, theme, and style. Of these five elements, character is the who, plot is the what, setting is the where and when, theme is thewhy, and style is the how of a story. This work adequately reflects these characteristics.

 

Some writers opt for a rather pedantic and turgid style or what is sometimes perceived as a riot of form and content and do not see the need to weave their account in such a way to deeply sustain the interest of the readers.

This book printed in the United States by a frontline outfit, Xlibris Publishing Company and with a design that readily complements the subject is different. The draft also had the benefit of passing through the editing rigours of Dr Chidi Amuta, one of the country’s most distinguished scholars of Sociology of Literature.

In a rather lucid account, the writer seeks to strike a chord and symmetery between literary form and content, making it a compelling read not only for further discourse of the Civil War but also for literary appreciation.

From how many survived by eating human parts to being sodomised by persons much older, Kalu sought to paint the dark sides of a war that pushed many in the defunct Eastern region to live in conditions worse than the pristine condition of the early man as they battle for survival.

And before we began to resort to narrow and parochial ethnic shells, he told the story of how Nigerians lived in settings which threw up polyglots as they picked up several languages spoken in their respective neighbourhoods raising a poser as to whether that Nigeria is still possible.

This is depicted by the writer as he explained how the “unadulterated” Igbo mother of his fictional character was at ease with exhaustive conversations in Hausa and easily switched into Efik or Yoruba depending on whom she was holding court with.

So from a pan-Nigerian setting we’ve all receded into our cocoon ethnic shells which has arrested national development and dimmed the vision of our forebears. Perhaps the inability to foist a genuine and admirable national assence is a bi-product of the successor cyclical and near rudderless and marauding elite, which have not given much to cheer since after replacing the first generation elite.

In spite of the immense human and material resources, Nigeria’s level of development remains abysmal as it is ranked 152 out of 189 countries in the current United Nations Human Development Report. Countries like India, Singapore, Brazil an Malaysia that were at per at independence are now light years ahead of Nigeria.

More than $400 billion have been stolen by its elite in the first five decades of oil production, an amount that is said to be more than the British aid to sub-Saharan Africa in the same period.

Average Life Expectancy still hovers around 43 years while mortality rates for children and their mothers remains one of the highest per thousand in the world.  Meeting the different indices of the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) by 2015 remains a mirage.

As a reviewer, I’ve not attempted to regurgitate everything said in the 347 page book but to whet your appetite about the need to read it as part of the compendium of the growing story of the Nigerian Civil War. It is my view that all those who yearn for a new Nigeria should indeed get a copy of this book.

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