George Odok Jnr|15 September 2017
I had thought that the operation code-named “Python Dance”, which the Nigerian Army launched in the South East in the twilight of 2016 meant something special in military parlance. I thought it represented an idea, which could make sense only to the initiated.
But its translation into Igbo as “Egwu Eke” in the second phase of the operation has exposed the ordinariness of the expression. What we have is not even a translation. It is outright transliteration. In this regard, Python Dance means nothing other than the dance of the python.
How does the python dance? Does the python even dance? Does its snaky and dodgy movement amount to a dance? Even if we associate this snake with dancing, how does that represent what the army did in the South East last year and which it is doing again now?
As a matter of fact, there is a contradiction between what the python represents and the allusion being made to it here. Tropical pythons are generally docile and nonvenomous. One, therefore, wonders how this attribute fits the military operation in the South East.
Even though the expression, as employed by the army, has no semantic value, the activities of soldiers in carrying out the operation in the South East tell us in clear terms the intent and purpose of the exercise. It is about oppression and suppression, harassment and intimidation. It is about brute force, and abuse and
curtailment of human rights.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai, has, in his own words, said it was about raids, cordon and search operations, anti-kidnapping drills, road blocks, checkpoints, and ultimately, a show of force to curb the rising threat to national security in the south eastern part of the country. This declaration by Buratai is punitive in intent and purpose. It is a provocative dance; a slap on the face and an assault on the mentality of the people of the South East. I do not see the python playing this role. What I see is a sting, a calculated violence on the sobriety of a people.
The operation, to all intents and purposes, is aimed at provoking a war. Government is clearly the aggressor here. The Biafran agitators, whom government is targeting in this operation have made it clear at all times that theirs is not an arms struggle. They are not interested in warfare. So, who does the government think it wants to provoke into war? If the idea is to intimidate and beat the people of the South East into line, then it will be ultimately counterproductive.
Those who seek to preserve the unity of the country by bruising and brutalising the body and mind of a section of it may end up achieving the very opposite of their mission.
George Odok Jnr
Is a journalist
