Again, the "unknown soldier" cometh!
Whispering Drums With Maigani by Musa Ibrahim
"To save your world you askedI must say that during my college days as a literature student, I was not so much an admirer of Auden for the simple reason that my interpretation of Auden never always conformed with that of my lecturer. With so many other poets to study, I began to concentrate more on those that my lecturer often agreed with my opinion on them - Walt Whitman, Alexander Pope, T.S. Elliot and W.B. Yeats. As it were, Auden was therefore relegated to the inner recesses of my lumber brain until during the final exams when we were asked to examine the symbolism in W.H. Auden's "Epitaph of an Unknown Soldier".
this man to die.
Would this man, could he see you
now ask why?"
That year was 1976 and the political fortunes of Nigeria was still firmly in the grips of the military who were about to celebrate their tenth year in government. Prior to this "black" day May 15, 1976 (the day of the examination), I had read in the Daily Times a story of a man that had been "thoroughly beaten to the point of death" by what the reporter called an "unknown soldier" while crossing a major street on his way to work. At the time of reading the story, Auden was far from my sub-sconscious mind.
But on this day as I sat gloomily reading the question on Auden for the tenth time without knowing how or where to begin, suddenly, hey-presto, and like a man who has been groping in the dark for God-knows-when, there was a snap and an illumination showed in my hitherto numbed intellect. I do not know what backward sweep of memory or what freak was responsible, but within minutes I was recalling all the activities of the "Unknown Soldier" that had been reported in the press for the past ten years. Bold headlines stared at me as if I could reach out and grab them. Some read: "Arson Committed by Unknown Soldier" Judge declares; "Man gunned down by Unknown Soldier"; "Kunle Adepeju killed by unknown soldier"; ...I was excited as the list became endless, and suddenly I knew what was required in Auden's question. I started writing furiously.
I told my lecturer that Auden's poem, "Epitaph for an Unknown Soldier" was a satirical assault on a society whose leaders are bent on its people's moral rectitude but feeling and acting at the same time that they are above the law, and that the only way to show this superiority is for the leaders to flout these laws with impunity. I told my lecturer that as far as I could see, Auden's satirical assault was directed at the military leadership of Nigeria and narrated the reports of crimes, anomalies and acts of indiscipline committed daily against the people by trigger-happy soldiers. I ended that it is these trigger-happy soldiers who have no scruples in term- inating a man's life that are often termed "unknown soldiers" in order that they can escape identification and subsequent conviction by the law courts; and charged that for a society to be regarded as sane, all its citizens must be governed by the same rules, regulations and decrees.
That was eight years ago and it was not until 1979 when the civilians came into government that the press ceased to talk about the "Unknown Soldier". But two weeks ago on a visit to Nigeria, I was again reminded of the past on reading a newspaper report which stated that a certain person was found unconscious at the Eko Bridge in Lagos after having been attacked by "unknown assailants". When the man came to after several hours in the hospital, he reported that his assailants were uniformed men whose identity he could not recollect and suggested mockingly and with bitterness that they must be "Unknown Soldiers".
Curiousity drove me to make further inquiries and what I began to stumble on were enough to make my system cold. It appears that from the first day of January 1984, when the military once again littered the streets, the activities of the "unknown soldiers" were also resurrected. Already, the criminal activities that have been perpetrated by the soldiers against defenceless Nigerians in just over six months have reached an alarming length. Sadly, none of these soldiers who often hide under the clever banner of "unknown soldier" have been apprehended. Recently, Chief of Army Staff, Major-General Babangida talked of a code of conduct for the soldiers. I started to rejoice but had to think again and ask: Code of conduct for the known or unknown soldier?
Pehaps, another decree by the Idiagbon Legal Assembly would help me out of my utterly helpless dilemma. I am waiting.
Africa dreams on...
Twenty odd tottering years and more have elapsed since African leaders met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to make the whole world know that they have a dream for a solidly unified African community. With one voice, the leaders sang a familiar hymn that reminded them of their common destiny, heritage and misfortunes. Vows were taken, resolutions made, and aspirations and goals set. The dream, a royal road to the unconscious, was launched.Twenty years after, Africans are still dreaming. But it is not the dreams of yesteryears. They are dreaming new dreams. The dream of yesterday gave birth to the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), whose only achievement to date has been the scramble year in, year out, for its hosting by the ever increasingly dictatorial African leaders. It is the pomp and pageantry associated with the hostings as the OAU torch passes from one leader to another that is legendary. That aspect of its history removed and the OAU remains an organization that threatens vagueness, verbose and waffle. And so, when recently I heard one of the founding fathers of the fraternity, the indomitable Mobutu of Zaire declare the club sine die, I could see the old dream crumbling into a dark abyss of oblivion.
The new dream is to nurture regional groupings and forget about a continental one. The wisdom in this is the realization that when the founding fathers embarked on a grandiose continental club, it was their respective political ambitions that were paramount and not the unity of the African continent - this much Mobutu has confessed. Today, there is more realism in the new dream which has seen the birth of two conspicuous regional groupings: the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference (SADCC).
While the continental club was aimed at achieving personal gains, the regional groupings are geared towards economic emancipation of the people, and nothing can be more soothing to a continent that is beset with poverty and disease than this.
When Comrade Robert Mugabe came to London a fortnight ago to address the SADCC, he stressed that the organization's primary aim is to achieve economic independence for the entire region as well as reduce the region's independence on South Africa.
In a similar vein, one of the charters of ECOWAS stresses the need to be self-sufficient in all spheres of human endeavour as well as reduce dependence on the West European Capitalist nations.
What these regional groupings have done, is identify those problems that have confronted the African race for quite some time and try to come to terms with them. Such realization is portrayed in SADCC's motto: "Progress and problems."
With such new dreams and such challenges and realizations, time will come when Africans alike will come down from their lofty ivory tower, sing in unison, clap hands and say: "Even though we ain't what we wanna be, thank God we ain't what we was."
