WAR IS A SHAMEFUL THING
NNOLI SYLVESTER CHIKELUE@sylvesternnoli140312
9 months ago
The formerly black coloured hairs have suddenly become reddish grey due to the sprinkled dust and sand heaps on them as a result of a physical combat which broke out among siblings in the farm settlement of Lukas. Is it not rather too easy to convince brave men that death obviously comes more to those who fly in disorder than to those who remain together and present a firm front to their common enemies? It is worth noting that Lukas was actually a foster parent who had taken these siblings under his auspices from their tender ages. He has been nursing them warmly like his biological children from that early stage till they were all of ages.
Lukas was so physically and morally constituted to have seen everything through a highly coloured medium. He knew that a time will come when there would be pandemonium in the household because he sees through their minds. That was why he wasn’t in a haste to give them absolute control of the enormous wealth which they have been craving for. The hankering nevertheless, became so persistent because Odera, one of the siblings will never relent in a struggle for a course. He was at the helm of the struggle, struggle for freedom, struggle for self esteem and struggle for himself and his siblings to become an independent entity. Timi and Nasiru, his siblings were not left out or behind in the struggle too. They were working so hard together like an affable team. Their love for one another knew no bound. They needed that wealth control because they believed that they were going to run the farm business more than their foster father, Lukas. Apparently, such instinct is natural in human, more especially at a point that they have become of ages with their individual families to cater for.
The combine pressure and persistence from the unrelenting siblings took Lukas off his heels and he was not left with much option than to yield to their quest. Eventually he resigned from the administration of the family business and handed over the mantle to Odera, Nasiru and Timi. He pleaded with them never to be self centered and urged them to be unflinching in their farm dealings and above all, that they should carry the rest of their siblings along with fairness and equity because beside the three of them, other siblings also exist in that household.
It was like a dream come true for the siblings. This new dawn brought showers of joy in the atmosphere as they celebrated in grand style with colourful occasion, inviting friends and well-wishers to commemorate with them in the freedom day which they tagged ‘memorable’ and have decided that they will be celebrating it annually as a remarkable day.
Feelings of celebration have come and gone but the big challenge of piloting the affairs in the farmland stood tall like a tree before Odera and his siblings knowing that their father has gone on a compulsory leave in a far away land. They had an impressive beginning for sure, labour was shared evenly among the siblings and their offspring, interest too and it was like a team work. Everyone does an appropriate thing at an appropriate time to ensure that their family farm becomes embellishing more than ever. They observed that the soil texture differs in their farmland so they put that in mind while planning. For instance, in the northern part of the farmland, groundnut flourishes immensely over there. The western part was richly endowed with cocoa plantation while palm fruits spread across the eastern part of the farmland. The siblings and their families all disseminated like air across the whole farmland and every one of them was contributing the best he could to ensure a steady farm growth. Their collective efforts made the farmland to be evergreen and enviable in the eyes of other farm owners because it grew to be a giant among all farms within that region. Other farmers normally come from far and within to learn new ideas and also exploit from their produce.
As months turn years in to their escapade, a bitter blessing emerged. How can showers of blessing become bitter? Down beneath the farmland, lies enormous liquid natural resources. They never knew that their farmland was richly endowed with crude. This finding came at a time when there was a great demand of crude in the society they lived in. That gave rise to a greater stream of revenue so the siblings all joined hands to exploit from the new venture. For them, they believed that they have found a venture that pays more with lesser stress or labour but what they fail to realize is that nothing comes cheap in life except the air that we breathe.
This oil boom gradually started eating up their time, though it was mushrooming them with more wealth but they started losing focus on agriculture which was the cynosure of all eyes. They became so hesitant in the cultivation of cocoa, groundnut, palm fruits and the breeding of animals like they use to, rather they resorted to buying these produce and animals from other farms with the money which they generate from the crude. Greed steps up, corruption too and selfishness arrived uninvited and lived in the minds of these siblings. All they started envisaging was to quench their selfish desires. Everyone was much concerned about acquiring an enormous wealth for him and his immediate family members. Hatred emerged, lies, evil plots and deceit became traditional, and the long enjoyed unity was jeopardized. No one cares about his siblings any more but his progeny. It was really an awful situation because it became a scramble for wealth and power. You know what happens when people no longer go for their areas of specialty but interest. Nasiru started seeing Odera as a great threat and that brought about scuffle between them. They hardly agree on any issue unlike before and this brought great brouhaha in the farm. Timi at that point was pussyfooting, probably because he lost confidence in both of them but the big question remains, who does it right?
Things do not just happen, they are caused. At this juncture, the continuous chaotic state in the farm started calling for a schism. Odera was calling on his siblings to see reasons why they should separate by dividing the control of their farm so that everyone should be in control of a sector but Nasiru kept objecting abruptly to that saying that their foster father would frown at such. But what happens when the compatibility is no longer there? Chaos! Odera was alleging that he is not getting a fair share from their oil revenue so he kept insisting on the alienation, but all to no avail. These were the situation that led to power wrangling and exchange of blows called fighting. That was the fight that got them blind not to see that they were family or rather that they were raised beneath the same roof because findings showed that they were not actually biological siblings. Each was lost at some point at a very tender age in life and was found by their foster father, Lukas who brought them together and raised them beneath the same roof.
War became their August visitor and they no longer thought about the shame associated with it rather they all embraced it. They were all throwing hard blows on each other with no regards to the fact that they were family. Days ran into weeks, weeks into months, months into years but the fight still persisted, bringing about destruction of individual properties and lives. A divided family will surely be blown off like ashes in the wind. Hunger stroke them, sicknesses ensued and their weary bones became so feeble, all because of the family crisis which was not supposed to loom over them. There is absolute nothing they stand to gain in such a fight but shame and doom for their family. Who has war favoured? Non I guess because war can even victimize the victor.
A peace negotiation was called eventually with the help of their few family friends who was so bordered with the trend of event. This brought an end to the physical combat but the psychological effect remained. Apparently, that was because trust left the home to an unknown destination. The fight brought absolute division in the farm, not in respect of wealth control but more of emotional. The younger siblings merged with the older ones in the course. Odera on the other hand still persisted that the control should be separated; he believed that the revenue from crude was not distributed evenly among the sibling. He kept alleging that Nasiru was so selfish and wanted everything for himself and family. The price of freedom is never cheap. Even in his wildest dreams, Odera never believed that being independent which he had wished for would be that difficult for him to attain because Nasiru became too dominating. Nasiru was everywhere and all the strategic positions in the farm were headed by himself or his immediate family members. Timi was helpless on his side but out of frustration, he dances to the tone of Nasiru who occasionally made some juicy offer to him for being faithful and loyal to him. Such was the situation at the farm. No one was thinking about honour. No one was thinking about family prestige and pride. All they cared about was their personal interest. Such was how the nature’s blessing became so bitter in Lukas’s farmland.
No doubt they say, when two elephants fight, grasses suffer the most. Their children and women suffered greatly in the unspeakable atrocities while the fight lasted. Widespread trauma caused by the atrocities and suffering of these conflict created extensive emotional and psychological stress to everyone in the farm and every activity in the farm was disrupted, creating room for social disorder, catastrophic collapse because the labour force was affected. These negative effects stood tall before them and it started cropping up to the siblings that they were far much off their track so they stopped abruptly for a while to see how far off the grid they have suddenly become, so they paused in regrets and in shame. For they all knew that it was not supposed to be like that since they were family and should always act like one.
Time heals all wound, they say but in most cases, patches of such wounds remain to always remind us about the past. Such patches never left Odera who felt that more harm and injuries were inflicted on him because Nasiru used everything within his disposal to fight him, having being more in control of their farm’s resources.
An adage says that it is always safer to go in search of a black coloured sheep during the day time because when it gets dark, it will be so hard to figure out its location. Odera and his siblings should have known this better and take aside their grievances, selfishness and hatred in order to move their farm forward. A farm that was so rated the greatest is being in a shamble. They barely feed their families and great sufferings had befallen on them. And in the midst of these, none of them found himself faulty. Rather they kept pointing accusing fingers on each other. Family is good but where there is no compatibility, it becomes the worst union one can imagine. All that Odera wished for at that juncture was for the farm to be evenly splinted so that everyone will hold on to a particular section. But Nasiru declined for a simple reason, he felt that he was more in control of the entire farm. But they all saw how devastating the effects of conflict could be. They all saw how the greatest farm ever known in the region turned to lose its fame, how can they not rally round together to settle their differences?
The awful quandary suddenly became a thorn in the flesh for everyone in the farm. Malfeasance became the order of the day. They became a community that rewards incompetence. They became a community that is closing its mind to lynching and shutting down normal reasoning. They became a society designed to allow the worst emerge on the top in many respects, what a shame? How can a people justify all things in the name of politics and individual benefit? How can family members blackmail each other due to differences in perception? A farm that they all built collectively has suddenly turned to a community which is in conflict with herself, where impunity became rife. The strife gave birth to cynicism and absent of thought. Issues were swept under the carpet depending on who holds the broom and everything can be covered depending on where the umbrella tilts. Seemly educated ones in the community run away from speaking out in the front of evil so that they will be seen as ethical. Evil doers are now glorified by men who pretend to be gently men. They no longer have regards to the legacy they will leave behind.
The greater percentage of the effects of war is baneful but the hunger for battle still echoes in the Lukas farm despite the deep scars which the previous crisis brought on them. Conflict rises at any slight provocation. It’s so shameful to see family members mobilizing juveniles to destroy properties belonging to fellow family members. It is so awful to see someone kidnapping one of their own for ransom. All these threaten the peace and unity in the farm community and battle still hovers round their community. Apparently they are still blind not to have seen how inverted the previous fight made them. They are still blind to have seen that they are marred for life. They are still too blind to figure out that war is a shameful thing.
