Femi Fani-Kayode: A Searing Pain

January 15, 1966, was a day Nigeria came of age. Some young elements went on a killing spree and by the time they finished, Nigeria had lost its virginity.

I recently read Chief Femi Kayode’s rehash of the happenings and I ran into the toilet to vomit. Such barbarism unleashed on mostly unarmed citizens by so-called well-trained soldiers remains quite confusing.

So, they were corrupt, they mismanaged the economy and they engaged in nefarious activities and because of that you castrated them in front of their wives? You plucked their eyes and tied them to the back of land rover jeeps and drove them down rough roads till they died?

Nigeria must confront this barbarism with a view to not letting it ever happen again. The wickedness of that day continues to permeate our dealings through the so-called revenge coup, the civil war where man’s wickedness to man was institutionalized, down to the terrorism that we face today in some parts of the country.

No respect for human dignity. Why pick up a prominent politician and beat him up in front of his family? Why kill a pregnant woman with her husband after jollying and partying with them the previous night?

It is for this reason that I have decided to give a voice to those women and children who woke up to the carnage of that January morning, watching with fear the mauling and mutilation of their fathers.

We must connect to our humanity, we must respect human dignity, we must listen to the cries of the helpless, the weak and the innocent.

Once you enter a police station, it is slaps and kicks; the man kicks and slaps his wife, soldiers will brutalize you for wearing camouflage and the big man will get you beaten to a pulp if you refuse to come into his house to deliver a package.

I have commissioned Prof Yerima the erudite professor to execute a stage play that will look at it from the angle of the children and mothers who were irretrievably traumatised that day. We need to see their tears, hear their cries, listen to their voices, just maybe it will trigger a national redemption.

I have heard that the issue is very sensitive. For me, it’s not about the raison d’etre or the politics or whatever, it is about the humanity of it all. Why the barbarism? That is the question that must be answered. Thank you!