The reaction to Nnamdi Kanu’s life-imprisonment verdict has revealed something deeper than public opinion on his movement. According to a concerned Southeast resident, the judgment reopened a wound many Nigerians pretend does not exist — a wound that has shaped the emotional, political, and social reality of Igbo people for more than five decades.
He explains that even Igbo people who disagreed with Nnamdi Kanu, who never aligned with his ideology or methods, still received the news with mixed emotions. And those feelings, he insists, had little to do with Kanu as an individual.
“The War Ended — but Igbo People Never Healed”
He argues that the Nigeria–Biafra war may have officially ended in 1970, but the trauma never truly did. There was:
no proper reconciliation,
no national acknowledgment of the devastation,
no structured healing process,
no rebuilding of trust between the state and the people.
Because of this, he believes every major national event involving the Igbo becomes a reminder of pains that were never treated.
> “The judgment touched that wound. It exposed how fragile the so-called peace has always been.”
A Region Scarred by Five Years of Fear
He recalls a haunting trip from Orlu to Ihiala through Awo-Idemili — a journey that left a permanent mark on his memory.
What he saw was not a town.
It was silence.
It was absence.
It was fear.
Empty streets
Abandoned homes
People displaced from ancestral lands
Communities swallowed by uncertainty
He says the last five years left emotional ruins that many people do not even know how to express.
Families scattered.
Children raised in fear.
A people forced to accept trauma as normal.
“Many Initially Embraced Those Who Later Destroyed Them”
He points to a painful truth: many communities welcomed those who later displaced them — born out of desperation, frustration, and a yearning for hope in a country where they had long felt unheard.
But the outcome was catastrophic.
Lives were lost.
Homes destroyed.
Thousands kidnapped or killed.
And, according to him, there is hardly any Igbo person today who doesn’t know someone — a friend, a neighbour, a relative — who fell victim during this period.
“We Watch. We Don’t Speak. And We Repeat the Same Mistake.”
He warns that Igbo people are making the same historical mistake made after the war — assuming that time alone can heal trauma.
> “Time cannot heal what a society refuses to confront.”
Today, the average Igbo person lives with:
emotional exhaustion,
distrust,
generational misunderstanding,
and the burden of historical silence.
“Ala Igbo Needs Real Healing — Not Silence, Not Pretence”
He concludes that if nothing intentional is done, the wounds will simply bleed into the next generation.
> “Ala Igbo needs genuine healing — thoughtful, truthful, and deliberate.
We have carried this burden long enough.”
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