Nigeria yet to confront demon of Nigerian Civil War 55 years after, owes youths apology, says Uwem Akpan
By Anote Ajeluorou
THE author of short story collection Say You’re One of Them (2008) and explosive novel New York, My Village (2021), Uwem Akpan, has declared that the ghost of the Nigerian Civil War that ended 55 years ago was yet to be buried, as it still haunts the collective memory of Nigerians, with the attendant result that the country has remained largely under-developed. Akpan also stated that consequent upon the country’s inability to develop, with everyone clinging to their ethnic nationality and religion as yardsticks for getting a slice of the national cake that power gives, the Nigerian youth has been left in limbo and is now desperate to relocate to all manners of unliveable places on earth just to survive. He called what adults have done to the young ones as betrayal of trust “for not giving a structure for you to thrive”. Akpan made these assertions in Ibadan on July 5, 2025 when he read at Bodija with a group of eager youngsters as his audience.
Akpan also paid tribute to the ancient city of Ibadan where he trained as a seminarian for a year and for the gift of a seasoned creative writing teacher who grilled and sharpened his scenic descriptive sensibilities. He said his reading tour to Ibadan was symbolic, as the city providid a part of the tragic events that led to the unfortunate Nigeria Civil War, as rooted in the senseless killing of Major General Aguyi Ironsi and his host and Military Governor of Western Region Col. Adekunle Fajuyi. Akpan noted that their deaths were part of what spiralled out of control for the young country and its youthful leaders and caused it to descend into chaos and war.
“Nigeria is very blessed, from the desert to the sea,” Uwem Akpan said. “In terms of mineral resources, Nigeria is very blessed. In terms of human resources, Nigeria is very blessed. Our brothers and sisters are holding it down everywhere in the world you find them. That comes from some energy. And I say to the young: there is nothing wrong with you! We have betrayed you, for not giving you a programme, a structure for you to thrive. There’s nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with the Nigerian youth. I want to emphasise that, because for many of you it’s very painful. I went to a public primary school. There was only one for expatriate children while growing up. The children of the local government chairman came to the same public school, so too the children of the police boss. So they paid attention to public schools back then. Anybody in my age range knows what I’m saying is true.”
He said the ubiquity of private schools for the rich and the abandonment of public schools for the poor has created classes out of citizens in the country with the result that foreign higher education for the rich has become the norm. This model, Akpan said, was not helpful to the development of the country, as it created a class of citizens different from the others.
Young audience members at Uwem Akpan’s Ibadan reading tour
“Then they started seeing schools as a form of business to venture into, and the children of the rich went to private schools and they abandoned public schools,” Akpan noted. “That’s why we are where we are now. That’s why you find Nigerians in Canada, like my two brothers; they have to adjust to the extreme cold weather. Their bodies are still feeling like Akwa Ibom in the rainforest. The people who are adjusting better are their kids. So the farther away you move the harder it is to adjust. That’s what we have turned our young people, to push them away to other lands.”
Akpan called for the urgent task of making Nigeria work, saying if the country were working he, like millions of others, wouldn’t be teaching abroad but would home mentoring the young ones.
“So how can we make this country to work? There’re a lot of things not working right now in Nigeria – insecurity, health care, education, power, etc. How can we make these work? Because if they work, our professionals will stay back in Nigeria. Our well trained people are working outside Nigeria. I will like to teach in Nigeria, too. So there’s nothing wrong with our youth – they’re very bright and smart. Let me tell you what happens in all these developed countries. An average graduate gets a job. When he gets a job, he gets a car, a house and a family and life continues. It’s not everyone who’s Bill Gates or Elon Musk or Beyonce; it’s not everyone who is like that, but there is a programme for the average people of that country. And they’re happy with life. We don’t have that here. Our middle class is disappearing; it’s either you’re very poor or very rich. We need to expand to give the Nigerian youth a chance.”
On the Nigerian Civil War that his new book, New York, My Village is about, he said Nigerians have shied away from confronting the war after 55 years, with the attendant implications of a stifled growth. Akpan noted that Nigeria was yet to confront the demon of the Nigerian Civil War, adding that the day Nigeria confronted the war the way Rwandans did their own 1994 genoocide and victors and victims face each and apologise and accept apologies, that’s the day Nigeria will start her upwards swing in terms of development.
“What does a man really need?” he asked, “He wants food and education for the children. If he’s able to provide these, people will not try to hide behind ethnicity or religion to get what they need to get. So, Rwanda has done very well, created jobs, created zero or next to zero corruption. President Paul Kigame is very strong on this. Once a minister is said to be corrupt and it’s credible, he takes you out of power and you face the music. Look at the pictures, narratives coming out of Rwanda; they’re doing better. We have not done that in Nigeria.
“Also, what has helped the Rwandans to grow is that they tried the leaders of the genocide, because you cannot have legal system to handle everyone. It happened after the World War II; it was the leaders who were tried. After the war, the Rwandans sat together and told themselves how the crimes were committed and they said sorry to each other. This is what they did that they’re able to live together, because the Tutsi and Hutu don’t have separate homeland spaces apart from each other like the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. They live among themselves.
“We’ve never been able to do this, Yeah, Yakubu Gowon did say, ‘No Victor, No Vanquished’, and promised to develop Igboland after the civil war in the three ‘R’ policy – Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation. But it never happened, but I’m very happy that the Igbo have always been smart and becoming smarter in developing their own area.”
Youngest audience member Wamiwa Ipadeola poses with Uwem Akpan at the Ibadan reading
Akpan said it’s not only the Federal Government that should be held for the lack of development across the country, noting that sub-national governments have a role to play the way Donald Duke of Cross River State who built Tinapa and set up Calabar Christmas Carnival, Godswill Akpabio who developed Akwa Ibom State and now Alex Oti whose story of development of Abia State is making the rounds, and making the people happy.
“If we waited for President Bola Tinubu to do what Oti is doing now, Abia people will wait forever,” he said. “Tinubu cannot ask Aba people to clear refuse. So this is beginning to happen. Put a good leader at the state level and your life is going to change a bit. And I believe an Igbo man or woman should aspire to the highest office in the land, just like anybody else.”
On culture, Akpan lamented that Nigeria’s local languages or mother tongues are being lost daily and nobody was addressing the regrettable decline – whether it’s Igbo, Ibibio, Tiv, Anang or Isoko, saying, “Even when these children live in their homelands and in their villages, they don’t want to learn the languages, they take it for granted; it’s like speaking oyibo is the thing. So, there’s a problem. People living in the cities suffer a lot of this. In Anangland, my cousins’ children can’t speak Anang when Ii to speak to them on the phone. They tell me to speak in English, because they can’t speak Anang. And I’m shocked. They’re thinking of going abroad where they think Anang or Yoruba, Igbo, Tiv, Ibibio will not be needed. The top Nigerian secondary schools these days are training the children to send to Harvard and outside. It’s a bad model. We are not doing enough with our languages, and once you lose the language half of the culture is gone.”
