Viewing page 22 of 100

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

A MESSAGE TO BLACK ACTIVISTS ON THE NIGERIAN CRISIS

LINDSAY BARRETT

THE NIGERIAN CIVIL WAR represents one of the most significant active symbols of the African struggle for a larger measure of self-determination and unification of the exploited peoples of the non-white world being pursued today. Baldly stated, the Nigerian Civil War represents the confrontation between the positive need for unity in the national politics of Africa and the temptation to seek to continue the subservient status of the continent through the fragmentation of its parts. The tragedy is that this confrontation is not as openly ideological in terms of white vs. non-white interests in Nigeria as it was in the Congo. But the fact is that at an even more profound level than in the Congo this is the true nature of the forces that keep the Nigerian Civil War going. The Federal Government of Nigeria has waged a most benevolent war against the forces of division ever since 1967. This is a fact that must not be lightly passed over. I have worked in war zones for more than a year now and have been an eye-witness to the fantastic restraint of the Federal Troops; quite the opposite of the picture of naked howling savagery painted by secessionist propaganda. Had the surface quarrel that gave rise to the crisis remained the only issue in the war, reconciliation might very well have been effected within a few short months of the start of the war. But if we look back quickly on the way in which the crisis was brought into being we will discern that these deeper influences were at work every step of the way. Post-independence Nigerian politics like post-independence politics in most of Africa was largely controlled not by the desire of the masses but by the manipulations of foreign power politics and international economic interests.

Lindsay Barrett works with the Nigerian Federal Government in Enugu as Head of the Information Department of the East Central State. This article does not necessarily reflect the official views of the Nigerian Government. It represents instead Mr. Barrett's conclusions drawn from personal observations over the past two years, as he has lived in various parts of Nigeria and spoken with Nigerians from every part of the nation. This is the first of a number of articles which FREEDOMWAYS will publish on the tragic situation in Nigeria. 

212

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-13 11:08:44