Memory is an impressive thing. Memory is what ensures we remember the past and learn from our experiences. Memory is also fickle. It is said that the shortest pen is longer than the strongest memory. We are living in probably the greatest human era when it comes to memory preservation.
Previously, stories were written and told about great men and their exploits. Now ordinary folks can document their memory and perhaps a stranger would chance upon it in the near and far future and read about it when he stumbles upon a twitter page, a Facebook page or an Instagram account among others.


The old testament and the experience of the Hebrews is testament to the importance of memories. While the great are documented therein, multiple ordinary folk are also documented. In the numerous genealogies, you occasionally find mention of someone who did x, killed y and prayed z. A recurring decimal in the Hebrew account is also the building of altars and the celebration of holidays. One essayist said all Jewish holidays follow the same theme: they attacked us, we won, let's eat.


Modern human society may have moved on from having altars but memorials still persist either in the form of holidays, special days, monuments or memorials among others. Modern societies utilise this means to mark the grave injustice committed against people. WW2, Khmer Rouge and the Rwandan civil war provide examples of injustice that have been marked by memorials in different countries to hopefully prevent such untoward events from happening in the future. Such memorials are set up by the governments of those societies.


However, in a country averse to history in all its forms including teaching it as a subject in basic education, it is not surprising that the Nigerian government cannot point to one memorial except the tepid celebrations that mark the armed forces remembrance day.
To note, this is not due to the absence of injustice. Nigerian history is replete with incidents of injustice against people groups occuring during the post first coup pogroms, the civil war genocide, and under the different military and civilian governments in which entire villages were wiped out including Odi, Gbaramatu and Zaki Biam. Pat Utomi once described the Nigerian economy as a recursive one. All that is happening seems to have happened before and the cycle would repeat in the future. George Santayana is famous for his statement about people who fail to learn from history being condemned to repeat it. Events since 2015 have actually proven the prescience of this words and the truth in this statement. The irony though is that enablers of the key event of 2015 actually pride themselves as knowledgeable folks with a sense of history. In fact, a number of them lived through previous history.


How can societies claim to value lives when numerous deaths are treated as common statistics? How can societies heal when injustice is covered and completely ignored? How can societies grow when accountability is a foreign concept? Each time injustice is not resolved, it flourishes. The Preacher said Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. How can injustice be resolved when it is intentionally forgotten? We need memorials. We need justice. Time reveals all.


– Majekodummi O., wrote this piece. He is a Development Professional with a keen interest in Current Affairs.


MEMORY AND JUSTICE https://madukovich./2021/01/24/memory-and-justice/