A
pan-Igbo sociocultural organization, “Nwannedinamba”,
hosted a memorial service in suburban Washington DC on May 27, 2000
for the souls of 1.5 million Biafrans who perished during the Nigerian
Civil War. The presiding priest for the service and Resident Bishop
of Freedom Lutheran Church, Bishop Inyama, remarked while preaching
the sermon that the persecution of Ndiigbo during the Civil War
was instigated by hatred and ingratitude by fellow Nigerians.
He recalled
that Ndiigbo provided the intellectual manpower and know-how that
opened up most parts of colonial Nigeria as teachers, evangelists,
artisans and traders in remote parts of the country, especially
the North.
He deeply lamented that the reward for Igbo input in building the
pre and postcolonial Nigeria were pogroms and ethnic cleansing that
precipitated the Civil War. He admonished Ndigbo in the US to support
pan-Igbo organizations in their areas of domicile so as to be able
to wield greater force that is required for the continued struggle
for the redemption of Ndigbo.
In
an address to the congregation, Prof. Maurice Iwu, one of the trustees
of the organization, urged Ndiigbo to be more tolerant of each other’s
perspective on the means to deal with our predicament in contemporary
Nigeria. He opined that, since Ndiigbo have been rendered powerless
through marginalization, they have no other choice but to utilize
their ingenuity to force the Federal Government to begin to address
Igbo concerns, even if that would require increasing their “nuisance
value” as they see fit.
Other groups held similar memorial activities throughout the big
population centers across the US. It is projected that future annual
commemorative activities for Biafra will include exhibits and lecture
series.
