Nightfall in Edumoga Ehaje! Who Will Console The Bereaved?

Who Will Console The Bereaved?

By Ogiri John Ogiri.

From time immemorial, mother nature bequeathed a convivial climate of peace and tranquility on Edumoga Ehaje, in Okpokwu Local Government of Benue State. And for a very long time, the land basked in the benevolent congeniality of mother nature. The people wallowed in the security and sweetness of their communal life. Strong, determined and resilient, they pursued Agricultural practice of crop farming with pride. With fervour, they plied their occupation with the result that in seasons and out of seasons, they experienced bumper harvests, churning out huge quantities of grains,yams, cassava, rice etc.  Arguably, their staunch farming efforts contributed tremendously to the elevation of Benue State to such an enviable status as the FOOD BASKET OF THE NATION. Edumoga people are proudly peasant farmers.
Their hospitality knows no bound as the people are intrinsically and inherently receptive as they welcome visitors or strangers with open arms supported with unselfish smiles and motives, feeding them generously without counting the cost to their comfort. No wonder, other Idoma people call them ‘Edumebe’. Egged on by their instinctive and generous spirit, they gladly welcomed the Fulani pastoralists in their land when the latter sought a place to graze their cattle. And that became their albatross.
For only a fortnight ago, after some Edumoga Ehaje communities of Omusu,Okpolikpo,Okpolikpo and Okana-Olaidu, having been drugged by the sedative pills of disarmament for the sake of peace by the ‘powers that be'  and the law-abiding youth of the communities, having surrendered their arms and ammunition, charms and amulets, in the fore-lorn  hope that peace, like a river, would flood their land unencumbered, the same visitors they had harboured for years suddenly mobilized their foot soldiers and attacked the people ruthlessly.
Yes it happened. The unfortunate and greedy inheritors, ruthless conquerors of territories, carriers of petals of blood and pains, and clandestine angels of death, attacked the people. Yes, the blood-thirsty invading marauders descended on the communities, and the weak, defenceless and vulnerable suffered unthinkable martyrdom in the most inhuman circumstances. The age-long peace and tranquillity in Omusu and her environs in Edumoga Ehaje has been stolen. The once fearful, menacing youth of the communities watched helplessly as their kiths and kins were being butchered to death-having given up their arms and ammunition to a pseudo peace move by the government some few minutes earlier. In the wake of the heinous attack, bodies- some mutilated, of many inhabitants of the communities littered the land like filths on a ghetto street. Oh, what a wicked act of man's inhumanity to man!
The congenial lands of the affected communities in Edumoga Ehaje have suddenly lost their ambience and soothing relevance. The hitherto air of conviviality which had, before now,  provided fascinating rhythms to which strands of hairs on the people’s skins as well as grasses and leaves danced in uncontrollable ecstasy, has suddenly become a network of thorns with kaleidoscope of painful colours, choking the body as the air seems to blow, with gentle pride, swords of blood and pangs of death from one corner of the village to another.
And now, the land mourns without consolation. Yes, Omusu, Okpolikpo, Okpliho and Okana, have been thrown into and forced to swim in a huge sea of tears. Darkness of sorrow has engulfed the land. The people wail and lament as sorrow, like a horse whip, tortures them ,tearing their fleshes through to the bone marrows. They have refused to halt crying. The whole areas have been flooded as painful tears, like a river, gushes forth from their eyes and streams down the valleys of their chests. What is more painful? The memory of their loved ones hacked down in cold blood by the ruthless angels of death has continued to resist erasures. The pangs of pains is indeed painful.
Edumoga is bereaved! The people wail and lament! Who will console the bereaved? Who will console the men, women and children of Omusu, Okpolikpo, Okpliho and Okana? Oh, who will console the Idoma nation? Who will ease the sorrowful pains of the Benue People? Who will heal the injuries in our hearts?
Our hearts are heavy as we bury victims of man’s inhumanity to man. Yet, what shall I say other than to wish them a safe journey to heaven? And like Khalil Gilbran, a Lebanese writer wailed  in his great book “The Prophet” ,
“You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light. If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.
Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?
Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?
For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.”
Rest in peace! Fallen heroes and heroines of Edumoga! Rest in peace fallen heroes and heroines of Idoma nation! Rest in peace fallen heroes and heroines of Benue State! Until we meet to part no more.