at this morning,
dear reader of the Orbit, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)
remains a political prisoner, and a prisoner of conscience in Nigeria. Kanu continues to be held,
against his will, and against the laws of the federation of Nigeria, whose courts have declared that he has broken no laws, and has no case to answer over the matter on which he is being held.
Kanu’s continued detention is now no longer a personal matter between Nnamdi Kanu and the Federal Government of Nigeria, it is now an insult to the Igbo.
I will come to this in a minute. But let me quickly outline the Nnamdi Kanu story, for those who do not know, or who may have forgotten, or who have been absorbed by too much flux of time, and who may now be extremely fatigued by the drag of this case. As at 2015,
Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was an ordinary Nigerian, and actually, quite unremarkable.
Even back at High School, at the Government College, Umuahia, where he was my junior by one year, he was neither remarkable, nor did he show any inclination for politics.
Folks who were with him in Cozens House, down the very foot of the valley from the hill where my own House, Simpson, stood on the College drive, remember him as a little headstrong and stubborn.
But beyond that, Nnamdi Kanu was like us all, aspiring to the careers, and to live his best life in Nigeria, and make his own contributions.
He was admitted to the Law School of the University of Nigeria, but left for the United Kingdom to complete his studies,
when he allegedly felt that UNEC Law was not offering him the kind of education he desired.
But the next time we saw him, he was campaigning for Goodluck Jonathan.
There is an extant video of Nnamdi Kanu in London, joining other Nigerians to protest the surge of the Boko Haram, and the insurgency in the North,
which had spurted and was clearly orchestrated during Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure. Boko Haram appointed him their sole liaison and negotiator with the Jonathan administration.
Boko Haram was originally intended to create a targeted chaos, make Nigeria ungovernable,
and compel some kind of political leverage for these powerful northern interests. Its stated public goal was to dismantle the constitution
of the Federation of Nigeria, impose the Sharia, and Islamize Nigeria. Many Nigerians,
like Mazi Nnamdi Kanu saw through this anti-Nigerian ploy, and protested loudly, arguing as he did in that video,
that the violence orchestrated by Boko Haram and its sponsors would sadly disintegrate Nigeria. He did not want a disintegrated Nigeria, at As at this morning,
dear reader of the Orbit, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) remains a political prisoner, and a prisoner of conscience in Nigeria.
Kanu continues to be held, against his will, and against the laws of the federation of Nigeria, whose courts have declared that he has broken no laws, and has no case to answer over the matter on which he is being held.
Kanu’s continued detention is now no longer a personal matter between Nnamdi Kanu and the Federal Government of Nigeria, it is now an insult to the Igbo.
I will come to this in a minute. But let me quickly outline the Nnamdi Kanu story, for those who do not know, or who may have forgotten, or who have been absorbed by too much flux of time, and who may now be extremely fatigued by the drag of this case.
As at 2015, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was an ordinary Nigerian, and actually, quite unremarkable. Even back at High School, at the Government College, Umuahia,
where he was my junior by one year, he was neither remarkable, nor did he show any inclination for politics. Folks who were with him in Cozens House, down the very foot of the valley from the hill where my own House, Simpson, stood on the College drive, remember him as a little headstrong and stubborn.
But beyond that, Nnamdi Kanu was like us all, aspiring to the careers, and to live his best life in Nigeria, and make his own contributions.
He was admitted to the Law School of the University of Nigeria, but left for the United Kingdom to complete his studies, when he allegedly felt that UNEC Law was not offering him the kind of education he desired.
But the next time we saw him, he was campaigning for Goodluck Jonathan. There is an extant video of Nnamdi Kanu in London,
joining other Nigerians to protest the surge of the Boko Haram, and the insurgency in the North, which had spurted and was clearly orchestrated during Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure.
Boko Haram was originally intended to create a targeted chaos, make Nigeria ungovernable, and compel some kind of political leverage for these powerful northern interests.
Its stated public goal was to dismantle the constitution of the Federation of Nigeria, impose the Sharia, and Islamize Nigeria. Many Nigerians, like Mazi Nnamdi Kanu saw through this anti-Nigerian ploy, and protested loudly,
arguing as he did in that video, that the violence orchestrated by Boko Haram and its sponsors would sadly disintegrate Nigeria. He did not want a disintegrated Nigeria, at that point in 2012, when he joined the protest for Nigeria in London.
Then came the elections of 2015, Muhamadu Buhari’s coalition, the APC, using the threat of violence and sectarian uprising, pushed Nigeria to its limits. Muhammadu Buhari himself promised a blood tide if he lost the election.
These threats of violence, many Nigerians believed, pushed Jonathan to concede the election of 2015.
As he famously said, not a single drop of the Nigerian blood was worth his political ambition.
In the minds of Jonathan’s supporters like Nnamdi Kanu, however, the use of violence, and the threat of violence was the cause for Jonathan’s
“thoughtless” and “cowardly” concession. A mistake, in their estimation, and it rankled. But it also left an important example: threats can create political leverage in Nigeria.
Muhammadu Buhari also did not leave folks like Nnamdi Kanu much choice. In the very first statements of his presidency at the United States
Institute for Peace in Washington DC, the newly elected president Buhari was asked what he would do to bring political unity and restore Nigeria’s politically riven landscape. Buhari did not mince words.
He was not a man who really minced words. He was very straight in saying he would discriminate against those who gave him only 5% of the votes.
He very clearly triggered a political conflict. His immediate policies were unambiguous: he isolated the Igbo of the South East, just as Tinubu continues to do in his policies.
Buhari was the first president of Nigeria to introduce brazen, discriminatory,
and intensely prejudiced policies in the federal government. Of course, Ahmed Tinubu, the current president who succeeded Buhari has taken cronyism, nepotism, chauvinism, ethnic bias,
and favoritism to the next level, but it was all started by Muhamadu Buhari, who created the gold standard for bullshit. These men have very little ideas about how to govern, and inspire a multiethnic society and nation like Nigeria.
Their provincialism – the fact that they know nothing beyond the Maginot line of the regions where they are spawned – might because. But it has proved to be dangerous for Nigeria.
The political and economic isolation, and the brazen, and selective discrimination against a very distinct region of Nigeria lends fuel to interminable conflicts. That was the basis on which the IPOB was formed, led by Nnamdi Kanu.
The question that must really be asked is, what drove this very active pan Nigerian advocate, once committed to the indivisibility of Nigeria, to seek secession and self-determination? The answer is quite simple. Self-
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