A Nation without Memory

Between April and July, 1994 over 800,000 Rwandans (mainly Tutsis) were murdered in 100 days of civil disturbance and genocide. What triggered one of the world’s worst orgies of bloodshed and murder was the assassination of the country’s President when his plane was shot down by Hutu extremists as it came in to land at Kigali Airport. When asked in 1995 whether he wanted to remember or forget the harrowing incidents, a Rwandan government official was quoted to have said: 'We must remember what happened in order to keep it from happening again. But we must forget the feelings, the emotions, which go with it. It is only by forgetting that we are able to go on.'

These were prescient words indeed from a tiny African country from which our giant Nigeria has a lot to learn. In building a new and vibrant Rwanda, they never forgot the past. All the cases of murder and arson were thoroughly investigated, culprits were identified, and leading instigators and ringleaders of the genocide were arrested and tried by an International Tribunal set up by the United Nations for the purpose. Several convicted ringleaders and instigators are serving life sentences today. In addition, detailed records of the massacre are being maintained, and annual memorial ceremonies are observed in Rwanda in order to remember what happened and learn from the mistakes of the past.

Nigeria has gone through several natural and manmade disasters in its fifty years of existence as a nation. Let me recount just a few here to buttress my candid view that a nation which forgets its past is likely to repeat the same mistakes with even more disastrous consequences for its citizens.

Firstly, we fought a bloody civil war between 6 July 1967 and 15 January 1970. For those of us who were witnesses to the tragic events which preceded the secessionist attempts of Biafra as well as the trauma and loss of lives which resulted from the war, it is mind-boggling that nothing is really being done to specifically commemorate the end of this unfortunate phase in our national life. In the first place, General Yakubu Gowon declared his “no victor – no vanquished” policy which meant that perpetrators of the genocides and pogroms which led to the civil war were never investigated and appropriately punished. Similarly, those who declared war against the nation went totally scot free. Our feeble attempt to maintain a war museum fizzled out several decades ago. To my knowledge, there are no physical monuments erected and maintained anywhere in Nigeria as a memorial to those who lost their lives either as victims of the pogroms in the northern parts of the country or as soldiers during the civil war. Millions of people lost their lives in this civil war, and have been completely forgotten by the nation. It may be true that we celebrate an Armed Forces Remembrance Day each year. My view is that it is a vague and ineffective ceremony which cannot replace the need for a befitting and well-organised Commemoration Day dedicated specifically to our civil war. Activities need to be planned to annually remember the unfortunate Nigerians who died as a result of the war, and constantly educate the younger generation about what led to the bloodshed. The economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions among our various peoples which led to the war are still with us today. As a nation which suffers from amnesia, we seem to be moving precipitously towards the same mistakes that may lead us into an even bloodier civil war from which Nigeria may never recover.

May 1 – 8 this year were days set aside as Holocaust Remembrance Days in America. As done every year since the end of the Second World War, Americans remembered those who lost their lives during the Holocaust in Germany. This year’s theme was “Justice and Accountability in the Face of Genocide: What Have We Learned?” In addition to official parades and memorial wreaths, all public schools were involved. Instructions and activities were planned and executed with the aim of teaching young Americans about the Nazis and Hitler. Every succeeding generation of Americans is thus given the opportunity to learn about the Nuremberg trials and convictions of perpetrators of the Holocaust and the Second World War, while imbibing the lesson that while justice and accountability were necessary in the aftermath of genocide, inaction in the face of crimes against humanity could be deadly and early intervention could save innocent lives. In a similar manner, there are anniversaries for almost all catastrophic events in America’s history, dating as far back as the civil war which was fought between 1861 and 1865 and has never been forgotten since then. Both the first and second world wars are remembered each year. The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks which killed over 3,000 innocent people on American soil were remembered in a massive and highly symbolic tenth year anniversary this September. Americans, as well as other civilized nations, are determined not to forget the past in order to build a greater future.

Why do we in Nigeria prefer to bury the past and forget our painful memories? How can we grow as a nation if we never wish to, or are too afraid to investigate and punish the guilty?

The situation is the same with our natural disasters. I was a witness to the deadly Ogunpa Floods in Ibadan in 1978. It had happened in 1960 when 1000 residents lost their homes, and in 1963 when 500 houses were damaged. I witnessed the loss of nearly a hundred people in 1978. The floods of 1980 gave Ogunpa national and international notoriety. Thousands of people lost either their lives or property and the city of Ibadan was devastated in that disaster. Poor town planning administration as well as criminal disregard for law, order and safety were identified as the causes of the damage, yet nobody was found guilty and punished. There are no memorials built to remember those who lost their lives, and there are no anniversaries to remember and teach others who were not witnesses to the disasters. Is it any surprise that Ibadan floods have recurred several times in the five decades since they started? This year’s flood which killed so many people and destroyed so much property is also being swept under the carpet, and will soon be forgotten. It is a vicious cycle, perpetrated by our collective amnesia.

In Taraba State, we have flood problems which we constantly forget until they happen again. In 2005 heavy flooding in Jalingo led to several deaths and destruction of homes. The government promptly compensated victims in order to help them relocate to a new site allocated to them free of charge. Everything was soon forgotten – the displaced victims took the money and refused to move. Town planning authorities looked the other way until this year when the floods came again. Over 3000 displaced persons are currently squatting in various makeshift camps after the August 2011 flooding of the same river. The problems may be small compared to Ogunpa, but that was how Ogunpa itself started – small until 1980 when the whole world noticed in view of the scale of damage and destruction. If we decide to completely forget what is happening in Jalingo, and nobody loses his job or is punished, the same floods will come with more vengeance in the future. We need to remember the past in order to prepare for the challenges of the future.