Nnamdi Kanu: A Mistake that Can Still be Corrected

by Atupulazi Jude           

   

That Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has been ungrateful to the Igbo elders and elite who clamoured for and negotiated his release from detention is no longer in doubt. What is however the issue now is that Kanu is biting off more than he can chew. By his daily utterances and actions, Kanu is steadily pushing the Igbo Nation to the edge of anarchy and at the same time threatening to let his army of unreasonable and violence prone rabble rousers loose on innocent people.

Of late, Kanu has been traversing parts of Igbo Land drumming it into the ears of people that there should be no election in Anambra State. Kanu's stand on the November 18 election in Anambra State is nothing short of loudly inciting his unruly group against the rest of us ''sane'' people, the consequences of which will be nothing short of disastrous.

One may wonder why I've described his group as unreasonable and unruly. Well, only those who are unruly and unreasonable will lay siege to a governor of a state in a church, shouting that they do not want an important election which the governor is powerless to stop.

Before then, they had also done a similar thing to a governorship aspirant, Godwin Ezeemo, also in a church. One would have thought that the simplest thing for them to do is to choose not to be part of that election, rather than forcing others to shun it.

But before I go further, it will be good for us to refresh our minds with that incident at a church in Ekwulobia, Anambra State, last Sunday, according to a news report in the Punch Newspaper.

Excerpts

'IPOB Attempted to Attack Governor'

Scores of youths and women, suspected to be members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, on Sunday, attacked the Anambra State Governor, Chief Willie Obiano, at St. Joseph's Church Catholic, Ekwulobia, Aguata Local Government Area of the State.

Our correspondent gathered that the governor attended a church in the area but had hardly settled down when some youths and women, who adorned Biafra insignias, and chanting Biafra songs, besieged the gate of the church shouting , “No election in Anambra State''; ''We want referendum''; “No referendum, no election”.

Advancing in droves towards the gate of the church, the governor's security men rushed and locked up the entrance. A source stated, 'As their (IPOB) confrontation with the police continued, the IPOB numbers continued to enlarge. I think they were reinforcing from Onitsha. As their number continued to increase, the governor's security operatives had to smuggle him out of the church.'

But a member of the governor' s press crew, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the governor left after addressing the church at the end of the Mass.

The source stated, 'The governor was not smuggled out of the church. The issue was that the security men had to stop the agitators at the gate of the church when they started shouting, ''No election'', ''No election''.

'The governor even addressed the issue while speaking to the congregation and assured them that there would be election in the state.

The source recalled that the governor said that nobody could stop the election in Anambra State and pointed out that most of the anti - election protesters were not from Anambra State.'

When contacted on the telephone, the Anambra Police Commissioner, Mr. Garba Umar, confirmed the incident, warning that the police would no longer tolerate what he saw as impunity.

Garba said the intention of the protesters was to attack the governor and wondered why it should be in a church.

About two weeks ago, a group of youths, suspected to be members of IPOB, allegedly disrupted a church function attended by the governorship candidate of the Progressives People's Alliance, PPA, Mr. Godwin Ezeemo, at Odoekpe, Ogbaru LGA of the state.

Now, one can see that the Biafra agitation, long touted to be non-violent, is on the verge of losing that tag.

For one, just as the police chief noted, why must such an ''intended'' attack be in a church? Again, why are these rabble rousers intent on forcing others to boycott an election? And, chief of all questions, why is it always Anambra?

Even Kanu who has been instigating the felons masquerading as Biafra agitators, is not from Anambra State. But he wastes no time dashing down to Anambra to spew forth what I would call rubbish in the name of Biafra.

In the reign of Ralph Uwazurike, former leader of the Movement for the Actualization of a Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, they also opposed a major exercise and that was the census. They not only opposed that, they forced people exercising their civic duties to shun the exercise and in the process, some lives were lost and property destroyed.

They did not know that stopping the census from being held was tantamount to stabbing ourselves, being that the politics of census in Nigeria has always made our people lose out. But that time, our people became the ones hurting themselves.

I pointed out in my earlier write up that Kanu is pursuing a pipe dream for as long as he believes he can get Biafra alone. I pointed out that Kanu had served a purpose after which he was no longer needed. For that, I said he should be commended and then asked to take a back seat and allow those with the right mental faculty to carry on where he stopped, seeing that even in the highly unlikely event that Biafra was achieved, it won't be the current canvassers of Biafra that would be the leaders. I said they won't be the leaders, or even be anywhere near the power corridors simply because they are uneducated.

I also made it clear that allowing Kanu to go the way he is headed would only lead us to anarchy.

Well, immediately the publication came out, some people who had obviously been brainwashed on the Biafra thing, descended on me with hostile comments via SMS. Their action only portrayed their level of understanding, for is not the uneducated that does not tolerate contrary views?

Now everyone can see that I have already been vindicated early in the day by the actions of Kanu and his gullible followers. The way things are shaping up now, if Kanu isn't caged soon enough, a time will come when his foot soldiers will be uncontrollable. Already they are beginning to look like a strike force which can be easily mobilized to attack people and cause mayhem. But what they do not know is that they can also be mobilised to their early graves.

If the Biafra agitators complained about being shot and killed by the country's police and army during the time they claimed to be non-violent, is it now they are steadily toeing the path of violence that they won't die?

Imagine a scenario where they had succeeded in barging into that church and attacking the governor. Do you think the governor's security would have folded their hands and watched them attack their boss?

Imagine also a scenario where people come out to vote in the election and scores of IPOB's supporters attempt to drive them back. What would happen? In the ensuing violent confrontation, wouldn't it be an open invitation to the police and army to mow them down?

It is possible that Kanu himself won't be part of the people in the streets. He will possibly be in the comfort of his home urging them on to their possible deaths.

Kanu may have been released from prison but I am beginning to believe it was one huge mistake by the Igbo leaders to have aided his release.

Already, Kanu has broken many of his bail conditions. He has been talking to the media and he has not only been in the company of more than ten people; he has been in the company of hundreds of people at a time. It is as if he is begging them to come and re-arrest him, the same way it appeared as if he purposely came down to Nigeria to be arrested after all he said against the federal government on Biafra Radio.

Today, Kanu is opposed to the stands of the Igbo leaders. He already probably sees himself as the authentic leader of Ndigbo. Just to watch the way his supporters eulogize him is enough to make you think he is the second Odumegwu Ojukwu. But he sadly lacks the better qualities of Ojukwu. If anything, his thinking and actions border on something being slightly wrong somewhere in his upstair department.

For even for one fleeting second thinking himself a leader of the Igbo Nation is enough to send him to psychiatrists. He lacks what it takes to be one. He is just a child of circumstance, or at best, an accidental hero.

He should however be tackled and reined in now before he sends some rash thinking people to their deaths. These days one is getting used to the idea of seeing hordes of people driving wildly in tricycles, buses or motorcycles, waving Biafra flags. They are the people who have no visible means of livelihood and have all the time in the world to look for trouble and happily doing so.

If nothing is done to hold this young man in check now, only God knows what the days ahead will portend. It was a mistake to let him out, but let that kind of mistake not happen again. It will however repeat itself if those concerned fold their hands and watch. They have nearly succeeded in attacking the governor and if they could contemplate that, who wouldn't they attack next?

It just vindicates the title of my earlier piece here which was: ''Kanu, Danger in Incubation?'' It seems as though the incubatory stage is nearly over.

Ndigbo, correct this mistake!