October 20, 2001
Hope? Hoping for what? I remember Akano Jack. I remember the marines that gave birth to the present Nigerian Navy. How time has gone.
I look at the mirror and cannot keep count of the white hairs sprouting all over my head. I remember NNS Anansa, the Calabar naval base. I remember NNS Ibadan.
If I am not mistaken, that or NNS Sapele was the one bombed by the Biafran B26 bomber. The Lieutenant Commander was killed even after being rescued from the sea by the Ijaw Coxswain. Then we had NNS Ibadan [2]. I remember, Ogoja and the tragedy, when lots of her men fell overboard and drowned, and of course the flag ship NNS Nigeria. If truth be told, these were just coast guard gun boats. But that was our navy.
I remember NNS Ekpen, this one had a wooden deck and was a favorite of us base boys, as your feet did not get burnt while scrambling into the galley. My favorite was NNS Enugu. The cook was an Eboe man who had a special Okporoko recipe. So now you know, they were Eboes fighting on the
Nigerian side.
I remember the sailor nicknamed S.S Darlington. I remember one First Lieutenant, Big Boy Mohammed. I remember being at the base when it came under aerial attack. NNS Enugu was the ship that had docked. I remember the quartermaster firing off one of the two antiaircraft gun on board and the immediate query. Quartermaster, who told you to fire?
I am a child of the Navy if you are wondering, and please do not confuse or compare me with those shabby barrack boys who had no access to the sea to go swimming. I am very sensitive and touchy about that. What was I supposed to do in a war in which starvation was a legitimate weapon? Survive first of course, and the navy was my mother.
Could someone tell me it is not true. Akano Jack, Absent? The only officer I knew who will let us base boys eat first before him.
Nothing lasts forever. I remember Akinwale Edet Wey was an orphan nurtured by a Calabar woman who lived on Egerton Street. Today, his navy is attacking a 70 year old Calabar woman, uprooting her from her house before tearing off the roof. This navy has lost its head.
Please stop threatening us with moving the naval base out of Calabar. Go with your navy. Your sitting duck navy, without air cover. Calabar does not need the navy. The navy needs Calabar. Take it somewhere else and lets see how many times you will run aground on a treacherous sandbar.
Ask those who know, Calabar was the underbelly of Biafra. You do not fool around with a large piece of land that is surrounded by water, has an air base and is easy to defend, and re supply.
Who are these boys who are not contented with providing security at stadium events? Who heads the navy? A four star general, whom I have more combat experience than. How many ships, submarines and aircraft are under his command?
Where do these boys get their promotion from anyway? Tension is mounting in the English speaking side of Camerouns and an air force general is telling me not to worry? I have never attended a war college but something tells me that when your neighbor’s thatch house is burning, you should start preparing.
Do these generals know the geo political implications of a possible Camerounian civil war? Have they ever heard of the National Council of Nigeria and the Camerouns? But for Zik’s tossing of Eyo Ita, chances are, that English speaking part of Cameroun would have been in Nigeria today. The fallout would have been the reduction of the Eboe majority in Eastern Nigeria but an overall more populous Eastern Region in the Nigerian equation.
Do they know the bonds that exist between the people of Calabar and their relatives in the Cameroun? What of the potential refugee problem? Olorun mi o ! Where have you gone Akano Jack?
What am I supposed to hope for? As I sit here pondering the twilight of my life. I remember coming home with my share of the rice and stew, the Nigerian flag and a plastic cup.. I don’t drive a cab no more.
I currently work as a night watch man with time on my hands. I turn on the television set, and I see Osama telling me that the world is divided into two, the faithfuls and the rest of us. My black skin and my history of suffering is no protection. I look back home and all I am hearing is ‘Islam means peace on my terms’ and ‘Christianity is love their ethnic member as thy self’. Am I supposed to pack up and go home based on hope?
Gone are the days when I thought all I had to worry about on getting home was witchcraft. Now, I have the navy and these fanatics to contend with.
To whom it may concern. Honorable Alhaji Mikhail Asuquo of the Cross River State House of Assembly who was the lone voice that voted against the bombing of Afghanistan because he is a Muslim, is not a relative of mine. He does not come from my senatorial district. I will be very happy to supply the US government with the latitude and longtitudinal coordinates of his home town. Ditto, for that of the Ijaw Alhaji who has thrown the Ijaw National Council into disarray.
I would also not hesitate to tell the Ayatollahs the home address of Archbishop Mbang if I know it, ‘just to balance the equation’. And if Aremu thinks he is smart, because he has opened a mosque in Zamfara and is now a Chrislam, that Bill being pushed by NaAbba, about future trial of human rights abusers at the Hague is specially tailored for him after he leaves office.
Why should I be telling him this? I envy the man with his ugly face and portly figure.
How come he gets all these pretty women fawning all over him. Life is unfair.
How did I end up this way? If I tell Prof. Peter Ekeh that the whole of the Rio del Rey and Bakassai Peninsula extending into a large chunk of the present Camerouns was under the control of my great grand father, which means I have the sole right to the mineral deposits of that region. He probably would say. Orok, you unlettered bum, laying claim to an oil region!
But it is true. I am waiting for the Nigerian government to finish their case with Cameroun, then I will stake my claims. I have the documents to prove it. And as an aside, I intend to sell the sole mining rights only to the Americans. My people never did trust the French anyway.
Am I dreaming? What else is there to do when you are a maiguard? Instead of going around knocking people off in the hope of landing seventy two virgins after you are gone. Did you say seventy two? Now, that is a tempting thought., but knowing my luck and at the rate Umaru Dikko and his cousins are going, I might end up with ten, and one of them would be cross eyed, especially since I would start haggling over the guarantees.
Biko, leave me with my dreams, what is there to hope for?
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Leave Me With My Dreams, What Is There To Hope For?