TOMORROW, THURSDAY, JULY 6 is the fiftieth anniversary of the Nigerian Civil War also known as the Biafran War. Like tomorrow, July 6, 1967 was also a Thursday. It was like any other day except that it has since gone down in history as a day when the argument and the low-intensity battles of the preceding several months came to head. It has since gone down in history as the day that brothers and friends officially traded guns and artillery against one another and began to shoot. For 923 days we were ambushing, bombing, maiming and killing each other. When it was all over on Tuesday, January 13, 1970, an estimated one million souls had been wasted.

Wars, civil wars especially, do not elicit good memories and ours certainly does not and never will. But this year’s anniversary is significant; it is the 50th, the golden jubilee and jubilee stands for freedom; it stands for liberty, it represents release.

It is also coming at a point when some people, many of them either unborn or too young to understand what war is; who never experienced its dislocations, its heart-rending separations, the deep physical and emotional wounds and the tragic irreversible loss of human lives, are blaring the music of hate and division blissfully unaware or in denial of the consequences of their actions.

We at Kingdom Men Global Network have noted the trite truth that those who started our country on the journey to July 6, 1967 were men. The ones who did everything to cause the war were men. The ones who omitted to do something to avert the war were men.

Unfortunately, the ones who died as a result of thirst or exhaustion or hunger or from bullet wounds were predominantly women and children. Were statistics available, we would have found that of the one million estimated lives lost to the madness, anywhere between 70 and 80 percent of them would have been women and children.

Today 47 years after the end of the war, the people preaching hatred and threatening fire and brimstone if the rest of us don’t bow to their will, are men, the Lord God’s Accountability Officers (remember ‘Adam, where are you’)?

No, we cannot repeat our tragically costly errors! That is why the next edition of KINGDOM MEN’s BREAKFAST ROUNDTABLE is discussing, THE MEN NIGERIA NEEDS NOW or put another way, The Men Nigeria Needs in this Year of Jubilee! And to lead the discussion is a man of God, an elder statesman, Professor Anya O. Anya, who has graciously agreed to share with you and me his revelation on this season of our national life. It will open all our eyes to the great destiny that awaits us.

You know what? If you love your wife and children, if you love your sisters and younger ones; if you recognise your God-given responsibility to love, protect and provide for them; and you are in the Lagos area on Saturday July 8, 2017; please drop everything else and attend this meeting. Venue is Bluenest Hotels, 9, Osolo Way, Ajao Estate, off Murtala Mohammed International Airport Road. Time is 8am – 12:30pm.

The Professor will be joined by Very Reverend Sunday Onadipe, Rector of the Methodist Theological Institute Nigeria. And you will also have the opportunity to say your mind or ask any question during the interactive session.

Come with an open mind; come with your friends. Breakfast will be served. You, your family, your ethnic nationality and our nation will be the better for it, in the name of Jesus.