Take a fresh look at your lifestyle.

Born to cry and Die ~ By Nichogbuagu Peter Onyedikachukwu

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Victims of circumstances.

Nwa biara ije and his fellow kids.

All looking confused and wondering why they are suffering for something they know nothing about.

Nwa biara ije, I don’t know what you are holding in your hands but I know you wished it was the solution to the problem that have denied you mummy’s good soup and Daddy’s early morning Hug.

You are standing but your spirit is crippled, you are up physically but emotionally you are down.

Standing before your fellow kids, you look confused and in deep thoughts, you must be wondering why you can no longer play around.

You wonder why things have changed so fast, you use to sleep till the birds wakes you up with their songs, now it is guns and bombs that wakes you up from a sleep you can’t even close your both eyes to enjoy.

Nwa Biara ije, i can feel your pains and that of other kids, you have never killed anyone and you wonder why people should be after your life.

You asked for Daddy, they told you he was in the battle field, but you knew he was already dead.

You saw your mum crying and mourning your Dad, but anytime you ask, they lie to you that he is in the battlefield.

Your best friend was killed by his own family because he cries too much which gives the Nigerian Soldiers a clue of where the kids are hiding, his family was asked to kill him inorder to maintain total silent in the hiding camp.

His parents closed their eyes and threw him inside the river, you never believed that would be the end of his life, you thought he will swim out and join you guys later, which never happened.

You were all threatened not to make noise, that making noise or crying out loud is now a crime punishable by death.

You wondered when such law was passed, you use to cry in your father’s house without any death threat coming your way. Now, you can’t even cough anyhow.

You remembered your dreams your Dad promised to sponsor, how will this dream come true now that daddy is dead, these are the questions weakening your body and melting your soul.

You called one of the Biafran soldier and you asked him, What is my crime? I never asked for this war, I want my normal life back.

He took you somewhere and sat you down, telling you that they are doing this for you and the generation unborn. You argued that they started this war without the consent of you and your defenseless agemates, but the Biafran soldier told you that it happened so fast.

You told him you were hungry, that you haven’t eaten for days, you were shocked by the revelation he made, telling you that a certain man advised the Nigerian Government to implement a food starving strategy in the war.

He told you that anytime the Nigerian army gets the information that food would be supplied to the civilians, they will ambush the food suppliers and take the food away.

This explanation, couldn’t take away the hunger in you.

With teary eyes, you echoed a pitable Voice of a dying child, saying, “So, we gonna die of hunger”?

The answer to your humble question was YES but this Biafran soldier gave you a NO for an answer, just to give you Hope.

He looked around and saw many lizards running around and he told you to go inside and wait for your food.

You left and he runned after those lizards, killed and roasted them, He then cut of the head and tail so you won’t recognize it.

He added some raw pepper and garden egg vegetables he was able to grab in the bush.

He called you, Nwa biara ije, come with your plate, your food is ready.

You knew it wasn’t the normal food mummy use to cook with the grasccutter that daddy use to come home with before the War.

You saw this soldier running after those lizards, you were inside but you saw everything. You pretended it was a normal bush meat and you took it to your fellow kids for proper sharing.

It has been long they saw Food, so when they saw you with a plate of food, they were suprise and happy and then they asked, What meat is this?

As a matured kid, you jokingly told them to forget about the name of the motor and enter the motor. You all ate the lizards for days, weeks and months. You ate many unhealthy stuffs just to keep breathing which later resulted to Kwashiorkor.

A terrible disease that took your life and many other kids in the camp.

Nwa biara ije, Nwa Nichogbuagu can feel your pains. You died in a war you knew nothing about.

We will always remember you, other kids, Our women and all our fallen heroes. You are dead but your story Lives.

We say Never again.
Ozoemena

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