General Alani Akinrinade may not remember this story. He was involved, no doubt, and my source was a Biafran officer, Gogo Lemchi, whose last major political appointment was, Supervisory Councilor, Nkwerrre/Isu Local Government Council, Imo State while the general served as Army chief between 1979 and 1980.

We cannot  delete our past especially now that insecurity is threatening the polity. About this time 51 years ago, Nigeria was in turmoil. What started as police action became a full blown war when Lt. Gado Nasko powered the first artillery shots that signaled the beginning of the civil war.

Fifty years ago, a young man fighting on the side of Biafra during the Civil War entered record books when a Saladine Armoured tank was named after him,post humous. Corporal Nwafor, of B Company, 29 Battalion, 54 Brigade under 11 Division became a dead hero among his people.

FIFA preaches fair play to the soccer world. One Nigerian super star who was badly treated by club and country after achieving so much and sacrificing a whole lot is Emmanuel Anthony Oguejiofo Okala, Africa’s Best Goalkeeper in 1978.

Friends at war! That best describes the crisis that engulfed Nigeria between 1966 and 1970 for Generals  Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and Yakubu Chinwa Gowon were  buddies. As young officers, they wined, dined and did so many other things together.

General Yakubu Gowon  will be 84 in October 2018. For a man who became Africa’s youngest leader at 32 in 1966, I am sure in his quiet moments he seeks the face of God to right the wrongs of the past. My appeal to the people of the old East is to forgive him.

We cannot talk of Nigeria before the Amalgamation in 1914 for there really was no such country. Anyone who lived and died before that union emerged from the  Colony and Protectorates or better still, simply belonged to any of the groups that dotted the land.

History shall set us free. Those of us who understand comparative History will not fail to tell it as it is. About 51 years ago, Gen. Yakubu Gowon balkanized Nigeria into 12. Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, erstwhile governor of Eastern region, was appointed Military Governor of what was called ‘Central Eastern State.’

Blood on the Benue as we all see today must cease if we go through a highly spiritual process to pacify the souls of innocent Nigerians slaughtered in the second  half of 1966.The Middle Belt and the former Eastern region need to come together for good.

We must be learning from our past now. Those whose ears are still working, let them hear. This is time for reconciliation as blood continues to flow across the upper Benue. The East and Middle Belt will shake off the bloodletting of yore.

Edward Wilmot Blyden was born in 1832 to Igbo parents who were enslaved and sold to the new world. His place of birth, St. Thomas[now US Virgin Islands] did not stop him from holding on to his African roots. He relocated to Liberia, lived in Nigeria as one of the founders of Archbishop Vining Church, Ikeja and died in Sierra Leone on  December 12, 1912.

There is cheery news from the National Examinations Council [NECO]: Candidates are sure November/December Senior School Certificate [SSCE] results will be ready to enable them pursue admission into tertiary institutions in the coming session. Until August 2016, it was not always so.

Always at war but never apart, that is the story of Igbo-Yoruba ties. If they are not talking about rivalry between Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo, there is debate on the role played by Emma Ifeajuna and Victor Banjo in the Biafra war.

Dead men do not see, that explains why Alhaji Umaru Abdurrahman Dikko is apparently unaware of happenings in the country today especially one big inexplicable mind game between two men who were fingered in his abduction 34 years ago.

Those who do not know History are forever condemned to repeat it-Will Durant.