Dear Leaders of South-East, just yesterday, May 30, in remembering the fallen heroes of the Nigerian-Biafran war, we were all in different locations, writing, musing and chanting “OZOEMENA” (meaning: It should not happen again); yet we sit and standby as our region has started burning, bleeding, crumbling.
We should all cover our faces in shame! But how can you claim to be leaders of a region you choose not to be responsible for? A region that was built with the sweat and blood of many; tell me, what do you plan to do with this new rivers of blood being shed on the streets of every state in the South-East? Will these crimson tides serve any use as the region crumbles on you; on us all?
Ozoemena, we say, mana ozo ka n’eme (it should not happen again, yet it is happening again). From Abia to Anambra; from Ebonyi to Enugu, down to Imo, the blood of innocent citizens flows like rivers; residents leave their homes with so much uncertainty each day; parents are not sure of returning home to their children, and neither are children sure of returning home to their parents.
You, our leaders, must rise up to your duties and begin to work to keep the South-East together and stable again. There will be no accolades for you in doing your jobs; the people voted you with the confidence that you will keep them and their property safe, that you will maintain law and order. No, you will not be awarded “Governor of the Century” nor “Man of the Millenium” for being late to save this occasion.
To leaders of other regions: This is not merely a South-East fight. Do we all remember how it started in the North-East? Now, we are still at the stage of the starting fires. This is a fight for us all, a fight for Nigerians, for Nigeria, to quench these fires before they become huge and untameable conflagration that will consume everyone.
We MUST come together and get this country safe again. If leaders before you did not do the ‘hard work’, you would not have had a nation to lead in the first place. So, you need to RISE UP to the task at hand!
Dear Muslims, Christians, traditionalists and the faithful of unorthodox worship, this is not a contest to determine whose religion will reign supreme over the others; that is only a ruse our common enemies use in disarming us. Interestingly, most of us know this but have chosen to ignore the voices of reasoning and of common sense.
We now have a common enemy who is keen on not even sparing the debris that will be left after this nation has been burnt down.
Dear over 300 nationalities in Nigeria, this is no ethnic war; it is simpy most of us against a common enemy. And we need to WAKE UP to the hard facts of the matter!
Dear leaders of Nigeria, if you are yet to awake to the brutal realities of what is going on in the country, please get in front of your television sets, get on the internet, get your radio sets and tune in; it is beyond heart breaking.
Signed
A Livid Citizen yearning for government action and responsibility.
