“THEY SAT IN SILENCE WHILE OUR LAND BURNED” – By Chioma Amaryllis Ahaghotu

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When Nnamdi Kanu was moving wild and unchecked, ordering the killings of civilians, police officers, and military personnel, none of the so-called leaders around him could call him to order. They all cowered in silence. Peter Obi was there. They all saw it.

For over four years, the entire Southeast endured crippling sit-at-home orders. Businesses collapsed. Families suffered. Innocent people di*ed. Yet not a single elder, not one “leader,” stood up to call a spade by its name.

They did not visit victims.
They did not comfort grieving families.
They did not acknowledge the pain of our people.

Instead, they remained safe in Abuja, abroad, and in town halls far from the Southeast—far from the very communities they expect loyalty and votes from—while those communities were bleeding and weeping at home.

Are Obidients not in Orsu, Lilu, Achala, Uli, Arondizuogu, Mbaitolu, Ideato North, Orlu, and across our villages?
Are these not the same communities expected to cast their votes?

My heart breaks for the victims who had to die because our leaders proved as spineless as the enemies they point at elsewhere. May the families find the strength to bear their pain. But I will speak on their behalf while others hold “dialogues” with their killers.

I will not cower.
I will not sugarcoat.
I will call a spade by its name—because the lives of Igbo people are worth far more than anybody’s strategic political calculations.

IPOB destroyed Ala Igbo. They brought homegrown terr0rism to our land. And we all saw it.
No one will gaslight us into calling them anything else.

Ndi Igbo value life. That is who we are.
No one life is more sacred than another.
No one man is more Igbo than the rest of us.

So no—I will not twist my words. I will not “wait my turn.” I will not keep quiet out of forced respect. Asokata unu anya, ekpuru Fascinator na isi gwa unu okwu! I will not avert my eyes.

The elders and leaders who watched while Kanu and his men turned Ala Igbo into a ticking time bomb will be called out—loudly.

We will go fact for fact.
Bar for bar.
Evidence for evidence.
Date for date—even if I stand alone.

Kanu used his radio to set our land on fire. And Peter Obi, with one single tweet, implied to the victims that their dea*ths were necessary for political diplomacy.

Onye gbuo ndi be m, we will have dialogue with him because of diplomacy?

By that logic, should we have held a dialogue with Evans the kidnapper to understand his motivations too? Since it appears we have all abandoned our conscience on the altar of political correctness?

Posterity will record every bit of this.

Let it be known that I did not stay silent. Elu na Ala ga agbara m aka ebe!

And the elders who sat in their homes while the goat delivered in captivity will not escape accountability. Their complicity will be named—one by one. Aga aju Ekwensu na olu ya niile.

When elders sit quietly while things spoil, we will call their names boldly when the audit begins.

I will speak—even if it means standing alone.

I have done it for eleven years without shaking.
And I will do it again.

So help me God.

— By Chioma Amaryllis Ahaghotu.