Before Nnamdi Kanu’s Resumed Trial

By SOC Okenwa…

October is a special month in the life of our nation. On the first day of the month fifty-seven years ago, Nigeria obtained her independence from the British colonial masters. So October 1st is our national day celebrated with pride and pomp every other year. Now we are well into the middle of the month of October and the 17th is yet another day, one made ‘special’ by the Biafran blues! The fugitive Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu’s trial ought to resume formally in a Federal High Court in Abuja on that fateful day. So few days from now Kanu is expected to stand in the dock so that justice could be administered to whatever ‘crime’ he was said to have committed. But there is a lingering problem which would be made official as Justice Nyako sits in her court come Tuesday: Kanu is at large!

Some months ago (after suffering detention for more than a year) Justice Binta Nyako, despite the apparent executive overbearing influence, had granted Mazi Kanu bail on a very stringent conditions. By ordering Kanu not to grant any interview to any media outfit, not to be seen in a crowd exceeding ten people, not to hold any rally or travel abroad (with his British and Nigerian passports confiscated) as part of the bail package Nnamdi simply retreated to his hometown and broke virtually all the bail conditions attached to his temporary freedom.

Now, weeks before his October 17 resumed trial the federal government launched Operation Python Dance 2 in the South-East geo-political zone. The security forces overreached themselves by invading the Umuahia country home of the Kanus and consequently clashing with his mobilized supporters. Reports had it that some innocent people were killed and others wounded in the ensuing mayhem. In the midst of the confusion Nnamdi went ‘missing’ in action! No one had ever seen him nor heard from him ever since as speculations became rife over his possible ‘escape’ or capture by the invading force. His lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, has been claiming that his client had been “kidnapped” by the python dancers and ‘detained’ somewhere or even “eliminated”.

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According to the ‘theory’ of Malaysia and London controversially propounded by the Publisher of the Lagos-based ‘The-Sun’ newspaper Kanu fled Nigeria through Cameroun and first landed in Malaysia and now safely in London. And now we are hearing he has left London for America? Orji Uzor Kalu, former Governor of Abia State (where Mazi Kanu hails from), had penultimate week declared that he was told authoritatively that the embattled Kanu had left Nigeria for London. But soon after making the wild claim criticisms followed. While some Nigerians on the social media hailed Kalu for resolving the riddle surrounding Kanu’s disappearance others, including the IPOB lawyer, had lambasted Kalu for making such a statement they deemed misleading and patently false.

We believe that ‘Emperor’ Nnamdi Kanu is alive and well! He must have gone underground to save himself from the national embarrasment that could result in his arrest after boasting openly that no one could ever arrest him anywhere in ‘Biafraland’. He must have wisely chosen to live to fight another day by maintaining a low profile — a perfect strategy aimed at defeating legally October 17. Anyone claiming he is dead or detained secrectly somewhere is being economical with the truth. If the python dancers sent to the South-East to test his staying power had caught him they would have dutifully told the nation so.

But given the current mood of the nation Kanu remains one of the most wanted men in Nigeria — perhaps second only to the dreaded Boko Haram chief terrorist, Abubakar Shekau. They both share the same appellation of ‘terrorists’ but while everyone agreed with the government on the issue of Shekau being a dangerous armed terrorist commanding mad men and women as well as tanks and recognised internationally as such the same cannot be said of an unarmed Nnamdi and his millions of supporters. Kanu is good at propaganda; he used his sharp tongue to fight his pro-Biafra fight for freedom.

Some Nigerian friends here had told me that Kanu was a coward for abandoning his Biafran ‘troops’ at a slightest push by the opposing federal forces. But the ‘boy’ from Afaraukwu must have retreated, I argued, to be able to be alive to continue leading the quest for Biafran nationhood. But others, more uncharitable, had lambasted him for having “betrayed” the cause since a General does not abandon his troops in the middle of a battle. Whatever happened to the so-called Biafran Secret Service and the empty threats of Nigeria being set on fire if anyone ever laid a hand on him?

The federal military might in Nigeria is brutal, brutish, crude and rude. They destroyed Odi and Zaki-Biam with impunity during the Obasanjo ‘babacracy’. They can do anything ordered by Abuja as long as the preservation of the national stability is concerned. If Abuja could kill the popular Ogoni environmentalist/playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa for asking that the Ogoni Bill of Rights be signed into law; if they could ‘liquidate’ Bashorun MKO Abiola for winning the June 12 presidential election; if they could kill Shehu Yar’Adua in prison; if they could eliminate those campaigning against the Babangida and Abacha dictatorships then Nnamdi Kanu is at great risk if or when caught.

Against this backdrop, therefore, Kanu could just be seen as an irritating ‘rat’ worth teaching a hard lesson in patriotism and respect for constituted authority. When compared to the eminent Nigerians who had lost their lives untimely to the federal politics of blood and iron Nnamdi Kanu is a nonentity. Whereever he is right now (whether in Kualar Lumpur, London, New York, Douala or Umuahia) he must have known by now that the struggle has been subdued and the fire he was trying to light put out! The failure to achieve anything tangible is, however, something he could rebound from if he could ever organize any comeback.

Since the widely-deprecated military incursion into Umuahia two major things had happened that almost demysttified both Kanu and IPOB. First, the South-East Governors had, in a crucial stakeholders meeting in Enugu, proscribed IPOB activities in the region and following that radical decision the Defense Headquarters in Abuja had branded IPOB a terrorist organization. And as if to give some legal teeth to the onslaught a High Court had ruled that IPOB was indeed a terrorist organization thereby making its activities contrary to the laws

 

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