THAT THEY DID NOT DIE IN VAIN-A literary/historical discourse on post-civil war Nigeria.
“THAT THEY DID NOT DIE IN VAIN” is the motto of the National War Museum.The National War Museum contains the collection of weapons and materials used in the Nigerian Civil war and other wars before it that have become obsolete.Many people have died in these war for one cause or the other.
The book insists that the laudable causes for which they died be sustained,exploited and and leveraged upon for development.For this, the book is not only relevant to our post -civil war discourse and development but futuristic as per our development plans.Only then would the many people who died,not have died in vain!The author discusses the Nigeria Civil War through the said motto of the National War Museum.
The,book, a discourse on post- civil war Nigeria, is best understood through excerpts from the FOREWORD to the book, written by the National War Museum Curator, Mrs Mercy Ukamaka Aduaka viz: “this book is one of the greatest accounts of the civil war and it is unbiased”.
This first sentence of the FOREWORD alone, merits a pause for proper understanding. Accounts of the civil war abound but whether they are unbiased is another thing. “Unbiased” is that most important aspect of any of such accounts. Should bias of any sort howsoever caused,erode the confidence readers repose in the work of art,it destroys the fundamental foundation for which it is historically coveted.
Any distortion,falsehood, half truths,misrepresentations,lies in any historical undertaking,makes nonsense of the endeavor. The bad news is that there are many of such biased accounts in our history books.
It is not only the National War Museum that boldly attests to the unbiased nature, content and relevance of subject matter of the book “THAT THEY DID NOT DIE IN VAIN“. Many authors subscribed articles to the epochal work on the Nigerian Civil War titled, “THROUGH THE EYES OF THE CHILD“.
Only the accounts/articles of about twenty five authors were selected.That the contribution of the author of THAT THEY DID NOT DIE IN VAIN titled ‘I LIVED TO TELL THE STORY’ merited a place in the said book, speaks volumes of the authenticity of his writing on the Nigerian Civil War and its post war discourse.
Also some of his poems from his volume of poetry titled, “THE LAST OF THE MUSE” replete with imagery, etc, to the War were used to illustrate and elucidate some themes and scenes of the War in “THAT THEY DID NOT DIE IN VAIN,” bears eloquent testimony to the must read nature of the book.He had written: “this book is a literary/historical discourse on the post -civil war Nigeria through the motto of the National war Museum.
“The Civil War is the most important landmark in the history of Nigeria since independence, the most unfortunate accident in the task of nation- building and the National War Museum which commemorates it, the highest collection of the Nigerian Civil War weapons that are no longer in use.Especially for using the phrase – “that are no longer in use” he had been lambasted for being too hard to the museum. He had readily responded “but that’s the truth”. indeed it is the truth that had come to make his accounts unbiased!
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