MWO Audu Linus’ marriage warrant

IN this harsh episode called life, as Mary Whiddon of Chagford in Dartmoor found out on October 11, 1641, tragedy often strikes at the moment of joy. Whiddon, who had just exchanged marital vows with her beau at the Church of St Michael the Archangel, was basking in the adulation of cheering crowds when a bullet wended its way through the crowd and silenced her forever. The culprit was a scorned suitor who had for months lamented his unrequited love. Till today, brides still lay flowers at Mary’s grave to ward off marital curse. Whiddon got married but had no taste of man. Her epitaph read that she died “a matron, yet a maid.” Those were days of virtue. Today’s manners are completely different, and I yield the floor to British songwriter Craig David:  “I met this girl on Monday/ took her for a drink on Tuesday/We were making love by Wednesday/And on Thursday and Friday and Saturday/We chilled on Sunday.”

A Warrant Officer, Class1 is no ordinary mortal; he is an NCO so integral to military life. But once out of uniform, like any other soldier, he can only take things slowly. He cannot bulldoze his way through the civilian population. As a soldier, Master Warrant Officer (MWO) Audu M. Linus had apparently survived many wars. He had survived deadly missions and triumphed over adversity. He had seen both good and bad days; watched comrades fall, supervised trainings and received plaudits or rebuke as the case may be. But as Cyprian Ekwensi informs us in his epochal novel of that instructive title, you may survive a war but not Survive the Peace. In the Bible, the soldier Abner survived the war but did not survive the peace: he died at the very moment peace came, cut down by wicked men.

A soldier’s retirement is supposed to be a time of peace, the time when he learns the strangeness of disobeyed orders, but MWO Linus had committed an offence just before putting off his uniform: he had fallen in love with a young Igbo beauty. His pre-wedding pictures took the internet by storm only weeks ago. Over to the Nigerian Army spokesman, Onyema Nwachukwu: “The Nigerian Army (NA)… received information on the gruesome, barbaric and most despicable manner in which members of IPOB and its armed affiliate, ESN, murdered, in cold blood, two soldiers, MWO Audu M. Linus (retired) and Private Gloria Matthew, who were on transit to Imo for their traditional wedding. Apparently, the soldiers had embarked on the trip to fulfill the traditional marriage rites. Ironically, the fact that one of the soldiers, Matthew, hails from Nkwerre Local Council of Imo, did not prevail on the sensibility of the dissidents. This dastardly act clearly portends the deep seated hate, desperation and lawlessness with which foot soldiers of IPOB/ESN have been unleashing terror on Ndigbo, whom they claim they are on a mission to protect and emancipate, as well as other innocent Nigerians, who are resident or transiting the South East.”

General Nwachukwu may or may not have read “Why separatists should not be trusted with power,” but his statement confirms my thesis on the power of bloodshed. And the problem, really, is that this world never really ends its wars, as the characters in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies who are rescued from certain death in a deserted landscape but are plunged into what is still probably a war, must learn to their utter chagrin. And so MWO Linus pulled out permanently from war but died while prosecuting the peace. He was an honourable man: he loved his lover too much to treat her like an afterthought. He loaded his van with yams, soft drinks, cash and other requirements of culture. He had found a gem in Igboland and no one was going to stand in his way. But alas, this Certified Gunman did not reckon with the menace of the South-East’s Unknown Gunmen. He would have been accompanied with heavy artillery of men had he still been in uniform, but this was the time of peace. He was abducted with his bride, who was raped and then beheaded just like he was. His marriage warrant was wasted and aborted. He survived the war but not the peace.

Emma Powerful, IPOB’s spokesperson, has crafted this cant: “No true Igbo will hurt an in-law, how much more a married daughter (Ada) in Igboland. Even the ancestors will avenge such wickedness.” This is mere rhetorical nonsense. ESN has murdered countless numbers of people in cold blood and IPOB has made no lamentation about them. Let the NA spokesman come forward again: “This gruesome murder, in which they did not spare their own child, clearly depicts callousness, impenitence and is a brazen act of terrorism perpetrated by IPOB/ESN.” I concur. Only on Wednesday this week, the UGM stormed the Ariaria International market Aba, Abia State, decreeing yet another Monday holiday, this time targeted at President Muhammadu Buhari’s Ebonyi May 5-6 visit to Ebonyi State. Market (wo)men, apparently protecting dear life, hailed them to the high heavens as they wielded the weapons of war.

But the UGM are not the only cancer that must be excised from Nigeria. There are the bandits of the North who trade in death, blood and pain. Only a fortnight ago, they shot dead a newly elected councillor, Alhaji Nasiru Magaji, alias Nasiru B.S, in Gozaki town of Kafur Local Government Area of Katsina State. They then abducted the two wives of the slain councillor, but later released them, apparently after having had them to their fill. While the president’s wife summons rogues to a feast, women are being raped and beheaded by outlaws created through state lawlessness.

At this very moment, Master Warrant Officer Audu Linus and his wife lie under the cold earth, betrayed by the nation they served. They wanted to legitimise their union as dictated by religion and culture but the blood-thirsty hounds that co-govern Igboland dispatched them to their untimely graves. I mourn this great couple cut down by cruel freedom lords. When Yoruba kingdoms revolted against Oyo tyrants ages ago, it was partly in rejection of the practice by Oyo guards of tasting women about to get married ever before their husbands exercised that responsibility. Life is meaningless when couples cannot even consummate their union, and when outlaws feast on married women before their (the women’s) legitimate lords, butchering them for sport. It is not known if Mary Whiddon’s murderer was ever apprehended but I hope the killers of Gloria Mathew are caught and hanged before the sweltering hot sun.

Thank you MWO Linus and thank you Pte Gloria Mathew for your service to the nation. May the Good Lord comfort the families you left behind.  To my readers: may you survive the war and Survive the Peace.

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