Nnamdi Kanu, Biafra agitation and government buffoonery

By Olaide Omideyi . . .

The agitation for Biafra is being given impetus by the government led by President Buhari and his ministers and advisers who seem bereft of ideas on what to do to take the wind out of the sails of these miscreants. Detaining Nnamdi Kanu was the worst response so far to the situation. Nnamdi Kanu has now assumed the status of a ‘cult hero’ and the government can be rest assured that once he is released, he will continue from where he was arrested. I won’t be surprised if he launches his ‘prison memoirs’. His crude use of language will get worse and his vitriolic attacks on other tribes will be notched up a bit.

Kanu and his supporters anchor their arguments and justifications for separation from Nigeria on the ‘marginalization’ of the Igbos and the ‘refusal’ of the other tribes to accord the Igbos the freedom to live and prosper in all parts of Nigeria. I have read commentaries about Igbo superiority, Northern parasitism and Yoruba cowardice and all do is to ignore the raving ranting and foaming in the mouth by these semi-literate commentators as noisemaking and attempts to gain cheap popularity.

The Igbos are not marginalized except in the imagination of those peddling the fiction of marginalization. The northerners are not parasites by any measure or standard. Go to any local market near you and check the vegetables, cereals and livestock on sale and identify those that did not come from the north. The cattle, sheep and goats being slaughtered in Umuahia, Onitsha, Owerri, Abeokuta, Akure and Ilesha are all from the northern part of Nigeria. Yorubas are not cowards and the fact that they have never found it necessary to attack people for any reason including flagrant provocations does not make them cowards. Only cowards go around attacking innocent people when they could sit and dialogue.

My analysis of the situation is that the Igbo youths are tired of the antics of their leaders and are clamouring for a generational shift since the Igbo elders have failed them woefully. The Igbos in positions of leadership have been and still remain monumental failures as their being in power has not translated into any development for the South-East. What did Pius Anyim did for the Igbos while in Power? What about Okonjo-Iweala? Diezani Alieson-Madueke who is Igbo by marriage? What about Stella Oduah and a horde of other Igbos? What positive impact did their appointments at Federal level brought to the Igbos?

The young Igbos travel around Nigeria and see what is happening and return home to compare the level of infrastructure they see elsewhere to what obtains in Igbo land where scarred and eroded landscapes, terrible roads and unacceptable levels of crime, criminality and general lawlessness are the order of the day. What baffles me is the reason why the Igbo youths should leave the leaders they elected and who have disappointed them so far alone and blaming others tribes and groups for the erosion in Igboland, the stench of garbage in Aba and the kidnappers that dot the landscape and makes coming home for any Igbo person more hazardous than a trip to Sambisa Forest and Igboland a no-go area for genuine investors.

The federal allocations given to the South-Eastern states were and still being managed by Igbo governors and not persons from other parts of Nigeria. The Igbo lawmakers are seating in the national assembly doing nothing except to raise their hands to ‘concur’ while other people are working very hard for their regions. The Igbo youths should therefore blame their governors, Senators, Ministers and members of House of Representatives for stunting development in the South-East. Their efforts should be geared towards moving the South-East forward by eliminating all forms of criminality and improving their environment instead of focusing on making enemies with other groups.

Read also: A Third Party Memo to President Buhari

I long expected a sort of ‘revolution’ against the established order in Igbo land spearheaded by the youths to dislodge the vampires and the parasitic Igbo leadership to towards steering the South-East on the true path of development and attitudinal change. Unfortunately, the expected rebellion against the ‘dealers’ parading as ‘Leaders’ in the South-East has now been hijacked by charlatans who lack the capacity to see the bigger picture, worsening the relationship between the ethnic groups and advocating for secession. The assumed ‘supremacy’ of the Igbos is hinged on their enterprising and entrepreneurship capacities. However, Kanu and his co-travellers are failing to recognize the fact that the prosperity of Igbo traders in other parts of Nigeria is hinged on maintenance of cordial relationships that makes the various businesses engaged in by the Igbo traders thrive. The Igbo trader in Kano, Ilesha, Ibadan and Makurdi depends on the patronage of the locals in these areas and not only on the Igbo living there. We should not delude ourselves that other sources will not be available to obtain the goods and services being provided by the Igbo in say Kano, Maiduguri, Abeokuta, Lagos or Akure if the Igbos choose Biafra and move back to the South-East. The tension being generated by Nnamdi Kanu and his supporters is an ill-wind that blows no good for anyone.

To douse the tension being generated by the current agitation for Biafra, the government should release Nnamdi Kanu immediately without creating the circus of a trial that will give him and his supporters the opportunity to substantiate the fallacy of marginalization and victimization. Just let the guy go home and return to his Radio Biafra to spew more hatred. Most sensible Nigerians including Igbos are not taking notice of him and he is better off making a fool of himself than being in detention where he will become a hero to his supporters. We cannot give him the opportunity to pretend to be a ‘Mandela’.

The government should not allow the police to hinder the pro-Biafra protests. It is their fundamental human right and should be respected. If they want Biafra, they should be free to clamour for it. If they are obstructing businesses in the South-East, it is the duty of those whose economic activities they are obstructing to call them to order or request the government to call them to order and not the government wielding the big stick.

The government should not legitimize these protests through dialogue as this will mean that the Biafran agitators have legal standing to dismember the country. However, a referendum should be conducted to determine if the ordinary Igbo person wants to remain in Nigeria or have a new country called Biafra. If majority of Igbos vote to have Biafra, the government should respect the outcome and a plan of disengagement without bloodshed should be put in place to allow the Igbo leave Nigeria. Achieving Biafra will change so many dynamics for the people of the South-East as many of the things they take for granted will become real issues once they cease to be Nigerians. For example, the Igbo traders will become foreigners in Nigeria and will be subjected to limitations in the retail trade.

My stand on the issue is that we are all better off in a united Nigeria to fight the ills plaguing us. Dividing this country is not going to be in the interest of all concerned.

I intend to look at the political, social, economic and sociological ramifications of a possible secession of the South-East to Nigeria in my next article.

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