THE IMPACT OF THE NIGERIA CIVIL WAR IN THE LIVES OF TEENAGERS AND CHILDREN
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
War as defined by Webster’s Dictionary “is a state of open and declared, hostile armed conflict between states or nations, or a period of such conflict” This captures a particularly political – rationalistic account of war and warfare, i.e. that war needs to be explicitly declared and to be between states to be a war.
War, in its judicial sense is a contention carried on by force of arms between sovereign states, or communities having in this regard the right of states. The term is often used for civil strife, sedition rebellion properly so called, or even for the undertaking of a state to put down by force an organized bodies of outlaws.
The continent of Africa has been highly susceptible to intra and inter-state wars and conflicts. This has prompted the insinuations that Africa is the home of wars and instability, most pathetic about this conflagrations is that they have defied any meaningful solution and their negative impacts have retarded growth and development in Africa while an end to them seems obscure. What then are the causes of this unending wars in Africa? How far have they impacted our younger generation and how far have they weakened cohesion, unity and potential development of the African continent?
The history of Africa as a continent “is replete with conflict” (Alabi, 2006: 41) one may even assert that the major current that runs through Africa from North to South, East to West and central is conflict and wars. Since the 196o’s, series of civil wars had taken place in Africa. Examples include; Sudan (1990-1995), Chad (1965-85), Angola since( 1974), Liberia (1980-2003), Nigeria (1967-1970), Somalia (1993-1999) and Burundi, Rwanda and Sierra Leone (1991-2001).
But apart from civil wars Africa has also witnessed a number of intermittent border and inter-state conflicts notable among which are the following:
I. Nigeria-Cameroon dispute over Bakassi Peninsula since the 1970s
II. Algeria-Morocco conflict over the Atlas, Mountain area in October 1963
III. Eritrea-Ethiopian crisis between 1962 and 1979
IV. Somalia-Ethiopia dispute of 1964 to 1978 over the Ugandan desert regions
V. Chad-Libya crisis of 1980- 1982
VI. Kenya-Somalia Border war 0f 1963-1967 in which Somalia aimed at recovering its lost territories including the northern frontier district of Kenya.
VII. Tanzania-Uganda crisis in 1978-79. (Barkindo et al, 1994: 279-321)
Current wars in the African continent Include;
Ø The Boko Haram Insurgency in Nigeria (2009- present) The Islamic fundamentalist group Boko Haram is waging a war against the Nigerian government and against the Christian Community in Nigeria.
Ø The Central African Republic War- (2012- present) Rebels seized several major cities and towns as they advanced on the capital city of Banjul in December, 2012
Ø Burundi coup attempt(May, 2015) An attempt to overthrown the Incumbent president of Burundi, Pierre Nkwrunziza, ended in failed coup and confusion as to whether or not the Military Mutineers had foreign backing.
Ø Congo wars (1998- present) Beginning in 1998, Congo (Kinshasha) has been wracked with civil war rebellions, presidential assassinations and foreign intervention and invasions to mention but a few.
Causes of wars and conflict.
Conflicts in Africa may be said to have been caused by a multiplicity of factors such as: arbitrary borders created by the colonial powers, heterogeneous ethnic composition of African states, Inept political leadership, corruption, negative effect of external debt burden and poverty.
Types ofwar
1. Hegemonic War.
As defined by Ezine articles, is a war over control of the entire world order. The rules of the international system as a whole, including the roles of world hegemony. This class of war is also known as global war, World war, General war or systematic war.
2. Total war.
A warfare by one state waged to conquer and occupy another. The goal is to reach the capital city and force the surrender of the government, which can then be replaced with one of the victors choosing. In total war, the entire society of the enemy is considered a legitimate target.
3. Limited war.
Includes military actions carried out to gain some objective short of the surrender and occupation of the enemy. E.g. the US led war against Iraq in 1991 retook the territory of Kuwait but did not go on to Baghdad to topple Saddam Hussain’s Government.
4. Civil war.
This refers to war between factions within a state trying to create, or prevent, a new government for the entire state or some territorial part of it. The Nigerian Civil war 1967.
5. Guerrilla war.
Includes certain kinds of civil wars. It’s a warfare without front lines. Irregular forces operates in the midst of and often hidden or protected by civilian populations. The purpose is not to directly confront an enemy army but rather to arrest ant punish it so as to gradually limitits operation and effectively liberate territory from its control.
Teenager/ Adolescents and Children: Their Nature.
A teenager, or teen, is a young person whose age falls within the range of thirteen to nineteen years. They are called teenagers because their age number ends with “teen”. Usage by ordinary people varies, and also varies in different societies. Most societies traditionally had a formal ceremony to mark the change from childhood to adulthood. A child (plural form is children) is a person who is not an adult yet, or who has not reached puberty.
Theoretical Framework.
The Nigerian Civil war: A synopsis.
To place the present assignment in proper perspectives, a brief historical account of the events that produced the Nigerian Civil War is Germaine here. According to Emeyonu,“At the dawn of independence, achieved on a platter of gold in 1960, few years after this, it became apparent that things were not moving as they should, some well- meaning Nigerians started getting concerned as to where the country was drifting to. By 1966, there were prolonged political disturbances which eventually culminated in the military coup that claimed so many lives.”(155)
The Northerners reacted violently and a counter coup followed in July 1966, in which many eastern political and military leaders were killed. It was this retaliatory coup that brought Yakubu Gowon (a Northerner) into power. For the Easterners, there was no security or assurance of protection of their lives and property outside their region, hence the desire to secede which gave rise to the birth of Biafra on 30th May, 1967. The federal government quickly decided to force them back to the federation and so war broke out on 6thJuly, 1967. It is against this background that the Nigerian Civil war broke out. To the ‘Biafrans’ it was a war of survival and to the federal government, a war to keep Nigeria one.
As often the case, creative writers make contemporary issues the subject of their writing Eddie Iroh is a postwar writer who in his two already published novels, Forty eight Guns for the General andToads of War. Prose works as chukwuemeka Ike’s Sunsetat Dawn, Achebe’s Girls at war, IsidoreOkpe who’s The Last Duty, Festus Iyayi’sHeroes among others owe their thematic root to the Nigeria Civil War.
Eddie Iroh’s novel is preoccupied with presenting horrifying aspects of the War. The book is divided in three phases which are preceded with a prologue and end with an epilogue. His Forty-eight Guns for The General brings out the harrowing and horrifying incidents of the Nigerian Civil war as Nigeria and Biafra fought in four major cities of the former Eastern Region: Enugu, Port Harcourt, Calabar and Onitsha. In effect, he has shown that not only was life in each of these towns disrupted, but the destruction in human life and property was wanton. Both soldiers and civilians suffered untold hardships, deprivation, hunger and starvation.
In a war situation, many die of hunger neglect, heartbreak, constant air raids, bullet wounds and families are torn apart Cyprian EkwensiinSurvive the Peace comments on this horror. ElechiAmadi in Sunset in Biafra says as much, so also does Frederick Forsyth in The Making of An African Legend.
Writers who either write to support the Biafra nation or the Nigeria nation project consciously or unconsciously one ironic conclusion and that is the real victims of the civil war were innocent and ordinary citizens most of whom did not know what the war was all about According to Emenyonu, ElechiAmadi’sSunset in Biafra is
“A personal account (autobiography) of Amadi’s experiences
during the civil war. He was opposed to the Biafran session and therefore maintained a loyal stand to the Nigerian cause.
He was tortured and harassed repeatedly by the Biafran Civilian and military leaderships and this hardened his stand against the Biafran position in the conflict (pg.172).”
Thus Sunset in Biafra is written with understandable bitterness. The book has seventeen chapters and the title of each chapter is a summary of the authors experience in a particular situation of event.
In the text,Amadi was moved from one detention camp to another until his area was ‘liberated’ by the federal troops and he rejoined the Nigeria Army actively for a while but even when he was not actively deployed in the army, he still remained loyal to the Nigerian cause until the end of the war.
IsidoreOkpewho’s second novel The Last Duty(1976), his first being The Victims (1970). The novel was about the Biafra-Nigeria war which was characterized by violence, greed, fear and lust.
Alabere in her review of The Last Duty says that:
The novel focuses on the casualties of war, how these
Circumstances, deprivations, the hardship, the zeal
to survive, changed people is a summary of this book. (n.p web)
The central characters are Aku, Wife of a man unjustly jailed for suspected pro rebel activities, Major Ali Idris a federal Commander assigned to protect the village and its citizens and Toja a selfish Local chief and rubber farmer who seeks to use the circumstances of war to his own advantage. Under the very intense pressure of war their behavior debases every moral virtue. The novelist uses dramatic monologue to capture their inner conflict that is a feature of the pressure that engulfs them.
Emeyonu further comments on The Last Duty,Okpewho
“Tries to show his readers other aspects of the war rather than
the shooting aspect. In the face of fear, violence and corruption,
there were individuals who still maintained their self-respect and
conducted themselves according to the dictates of their conscience
by doing what honor and fair play demanded”(157).
We can see this in Oshevire’sdefense at his trial on the allegation that he collaborated with the enemy.
“MrOshivire, is it not safe for us to assume that the reason you
Saved that boy had to do with your wife being herself a samba? . .
I saw that boy as a minimum human being and that was my only
Concern. I felt deeply moved to see human life in danger (pg. 20)
Most books on war are expected to deal with the physical casualties of war like devastation of farms and residence, mass killing of soldiers and civilian, missing children and rape. But this book deals with casualty that is insidious, invisible psychological wounds that is the effect of man’s inhumanity to man.\
The Impact of War on Teenagers and Children in NgoziOnyioha Orji’s Teenager atWar.
NgoziOnyioha-Orji who is gradually establishing a reputation for dealing with issues of child abuse through her novels hails from Nkoporo in Ohafia local government in Abia state. The Umuahia based author has three novels to her credit. Her debut novel, Teenagerat War was co-published with the Nigeria Education Research and Development Council (NERDC). Her second novel was The Accused, The Condemned, The reprieved and TheKnots of Karma.
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