[Opinion] ​"Vultures Still Feasting in Our Forests": Why Fr. Angelo Unegbu Claims the Biafran Genocide Never Ended

 ​Every year on May 30th, the people of the South East and human rights advocates worldwide pause to remember the millions of innocent lives lost during the bloody Biafran war. The customary prayer on everyone’s lips has always been Ọzọemena—a deep, emotional plea meaning "may it never happen again."

​But in a chilling, timeless editorial from Catholic priest Fr. Angelo Chidi Unegbu, the cleric confronts the Nigerian state and its leaders with a hard, unavoidable question: How can we say "never again" when the bloodshed and structural neglect have never actually stopped?

​"The Vultures Are Still Feasting"

​Fr. Angelo completely refuses to sugarcoat the current security and economic realities facing the region. Looking past the official historical records that claim the war ended in 1970, he draws a straight line to the everyday trauma still being experienced on the ground.

​"How can I pretend that the genocide has ended when I still hear the gunshots, when vultures are still feasting on human cadavers littered in our forests and surroundings, when the cries of the wounded and dying, and the weeping of mourners are still being heard from far and near?" Fr. Angelo writes.

​He points out that the heavy presence of military roadblocks, police checkpoints, and ongoing extrajudicial violence are proof enough that the region is treated more like an occupied war territory than a true part of a unified nation.

​A Nationwide Crisis of Elite Negligence

​While Fr. Angelo’s piece focuses heavily on the historical and current wounds of the South East, the core theme of his write-up hits on a broader, undeniable truth: the total negligence of the Nigerian leadership. Fr. Angelo explicitly calls out "those who refused to give us jobs, build roads, hospitals and other basic amenities." He notes that 52 years after the federal government rolled out its post-war program of the "3 Rs" (Reconciliation, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction), the people are still waiting for a practical implementation.

​This leadership failure is no longer just a South East problem; it has become a nationwide epidemic. We see the exact same pattern of governance failure in the recent, heartbreaking security breakdown in the West—specifically the brutal abduction and killing of teachers and students in the Orire Local Government Area of Oyo State.

​When a government consistently fails to secure the borders of its schools, fails to protect educators, and leaves forests across the country to become breeding grounds for bandits and terrorists, it is practicing a form of passive genocide against its own future. Whether it is a youth in the South East pushed into desperate migration across the Mediterranean Sea or a school teacher in the West targeted in their classroom, the root cause remains identical: an elite political class that simply does not care.

​The Demand for True Justice

​Ultimately, the editorial argues that the ongoing unrest, kidnapping, arson, and economic paralysis plaguing the nation today cannot be separated from the root causes of our historical conflicts. The ultimate solution remains what it has always been: a return to true equity, accountability, and regional empowerment based on cultural, economic, and political alignment.

​Unfortunately, within the corridors of power in Nigeria, merely asking for a peaceful referendum, structural restructuring, or basic accountability is still treated by the political "shareholders" as an act of provocation.

​As long as systematic inequality and security negligence remain the order of the day, holding onto the word Ọzọemena becomes a hollow ritual. True remembrance requires acknowledging the bleeding wounds of the present, confronting the leaders who allow it to happen, and realizing that until every Nigerian is safe, the war has never truly ended.