Hey fellas! How you doing? *in Wendy's voice and hand thing* lol.
So, today was an exciting day for me😆 There's a new museum to be built in Enugu. A museum for Ndi Igbo, to preserve their culture, history and stories. A centre for memories of sorts. Daniel, a guy in my faculty, told me about it and invited me to join them in doing the background work of researching, organising meetings and interviews and just curating information, generally. And well, since my summer was already looking a bit bleak and uneventful, I said yes. Plus, I really wanted any reason to be able to leave the house. Legit reasons though, not just to gallivant around town. And also on the plus side, I'd learn too. I figured I've been too passive about this whole Biafra, Civil war history thing of ours for too long. So I said yes. And frankly, it's been as fun as it's been educating. Although on the down side, some of our interviewees are like the most boring people on the face of the earth. And there are also those of them who just can't seem to stop talking and digressing, just like I'm doing now. Lol.
Anyway, so today, we interviewed one of the big shots in the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War. We interviewed Colonel Ben Gbulie. He was one of the top plotters of the first ever Military coup in January 1966, what most people know today as the 'Igbo Coup', which was later sabotaged. He has met and worked with all the big names like former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the late Major Gen. Odumegwu Ojukwu, the late Gen. Nzeogwu, and several other movers and shakers. He is a small but witty old man. He is still quite coherent, his memory is intact and he did not seem to talk endlessly like most old people are wont to do. Ben Gbulie is a pleasant man and he made the interview feel very easy-peasy. I remember feeling a bit nervous before meeting him because we were told to go do our research on him first and Google had a lot to say about him.
But when we met him at the Sports Club today around noon, he seemed like an easy old man. He was dressed in a short sleeved, stripped shirt, neatly tucked into a pair of black trousers, and was seated at the reception lounge, talking with a friend. When we introduced ourselves, he quickly excused himself and led us into another room (he called it 'the cold room' ) for the interview. I will not bore you with all the details, technicalities and information we got about the war today but I will tell you one thing though, and that is that war is a terrible thing. There's so much more to it than meets the eye. The only people who agitate for it are people who have never witnessed it before. Do not listen to all the hogwash, do not let anyone play on your ignorance. You don't have to have all the details before you know where to stand. Peace is a better option. It will always and forever be.
Col. Gbulie took his time to listen to all our questions and he tried his best to answer them intelligently. Unlike, some of our previous interviewees, with him, there was no classified or coded information. Before the interview, he gave us his word to give all information to the best of his knowledge and I think he did a pretty good job at it. During the interview, I was sitting at his immediate left and Mercy flanked his right, next was Emeka, then Daniel our camera guy and then, there was Miss Nneoma, our guide. I remember looking at his skin and thinking of well fed babies. Col. Gbulie's memory is so good that he even gave exact dates of events and people's names and hometowns. He went further to show us a big scar on his leg which he got from a war injury and he kept repeating,
"...the only man who dies is the man whom God has destined to die. There is a greater Force behind the things we see..."
And I believe Him. All these recent ruckus about Biafra and the need for secession has left me feeling all sorts of ways. Personally, I'm sitting on the fence. I just really want peace and calm. If secession without bloodshed and violence will bring that, then by all means, let's secede away! But if unity and tolerance and coexistence is the only way peace can reign, then please, let's choose unity. There's really no need for all the noise and trouble.
What are your thoughts?
Have you ever been interested and/or involved in the fight for Biafra, past and present?
How much do you know about all that we've been through? How do you feel about it?
Please, do leave me your comments. I want to know what you guys think.
Sadly, Daniel hasn't sent me the pictures we took of and with the Colonel today. But when he does, maybe I'll put one up on Instagram.
How are things with you?
Have a good night 💞💞
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