Opinion
OPINION: Nnamdi Kanu’s Hate Speeches And The Unspoken Realities Of Nigeria’s First Coup
By Albert Afeso Akanbi
“Our minds have been poisoned and our accepted beliefs are unnatural and artificial” – Bryant McGill
I am not one of those who believes balkanization would ultimately transform the governments of the nations that would emerge into several magic wands that would solve all the problems facing the people that inhabit the geographical space we today call Nigeria.
This sits among the reasons why I have never given a moment’s pause to the Nnamdi Kanu question. In fact, when he was arrested in 2015, I was in faraway India attending a writer’s residency, and readily dismissed the social media buzz then as another of our many Nigerian Noise Making sessions.
An Igbo friend sent me a video recently, and in that video, Kanu came across as insulting, arrogant, filled with hate and somewhat dishonest about most of the history of the same country whose passport I am sure both he, members of his family and countless followers carry.
Nnamdi Kanu is not the first activist that we have seen. We have seen the likes of Gani, Soyinka and even the executed Sarowiwa, whose people of Ogoni have more right to agitation than any section of this country make their point but Kanu is the first to be so insulting and filled with hate for a country that countless of his brothers earn a living from. In fact, at the height of his peaceful resistance to British domination, Ghandi did not because Winston Churchill often dismissed him as ‘a half-naked seditious fakir’ among other insults, for once resort to the use of invectives to pass his message. Even though I am not trying to insult the greatness of these men by putting Nnamdi Kanu on the same pedestal as them, my point is that he should take a clue from them and make his point with decorum.
The said video brought up a few questions in my mind: is it that Kanu is incapable of interpreting history, is he just being mischievous or willfully distorting what else we know? Even if there is something urgent about his message, should he not be building bridges rather than burning them through his insolence?
Let us take the issue of the first ever Nigerian coup for example.
A lot of people have faulted the amalgamation of 1914 but that is another matter. Many more have blamed what they call the ‘Born to Rule attitude’ of some Hausa/Fulanis on the British, which too is another matter.
Granted that the British tactics of divide and rule and the Hausa/Fulani domination created some resentment in the south in those days, but did the national challenges of the time warrant military coup? Even if their action was ideologically motivated as Ademoyega argued in his book, should they have prosecuted it in a way that appeared like a coup with a sectional goal?
In August 1957 the Western and Eastern regions of Nigeria became self-governing, and they were later joined by northern region in 1959. On October 1, 1960, Nigeria became independent with three self–governing regions that saw the nation starting out as a true federation.
Granted that the new country had her own challenges and her new government at the time was not perfect, historians are unanimous in agreeing that some successes were made in the First Republic. For starters, the regions were truly independent, there was healthy rivalry among them, schools were built in Lagos, Ife, Nsukka and Zaria, colleges were established to train teachers and in fact, the Western Region introduced free education in 1955. Still, the military struck and the first government ended. How would Nigeria have been had those mostly Igbo officers not struck when they did, how would Nigeria have been if there was no civil war and all the countless coup and coup d’état that followed after the war?
Prior to the 1966 coup, the president of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Senate President Nwafor Orizu, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jaja Nwachukwu and the GOC of the armed forces JTU Ironsi were all Igbo men in an Igbo government and the army was said to be 65% Igbo, yet, Igbo officers staged a coup that wiped out the entire leadership of non-Igbo officers.
In Lagos, Kaduna and Ibadan, top government officials of non-Igbo extraction and the entire Northern leadership were wiped out. Apart from the majority of the coup plotters being Igbo, no single Igbo officer was killed in that coup. In fact, Major General David Ejoor (rtd) who was the Brigade Commander in Enugu then, in his book asserted that when soldiers were killing northern leadership, some were deployed to guard the home of Igbo officers to prevent them from being killed. He also claimed that a platoon was deployed to guard the home of the Premier of the Eastern Region Dr Michael Okpara. It was even alleged that one of the coup plotters, Ifeajuna held discussions with some eastern leaders which led to a mass exodus of Igbo leaders from Enugu before the coup.
After the coup, in very controversial circumstances, JTU Ironsi took power. Despite advice, he refused to try the coup plotters. As if to buttress this point, one of the plotters Mr Ben Gbule would later lament ‘if we were shot, perhaps there would have been no civil war’.
JTU Ironsi even appointed an entirely Igbo advisory cabinet and then against better advice again, appointed Francis Nwokedi, an Igbo man, as sole administrator ‘to inquire into the unification of the regional public services’. Mr Nwokedi was reported to be very dictatorial and arrogant in carrying out his duties, yet the leader carried on as if all was well.
If as many enlightened people have argued, ‘the worse democratic rule is better than the best military rule’, was the first coup justified whatever the reasons of the plotters? Did Nzeogwu and his men give a moment pause to what would be the back clash of their actions? As informed Nigerians today know, that first coup was the immediate cause of the war and most of Nigeria’s problems that followed till this day. Yet, the Nnamdi Kanus of this world would have us believe otherwise. They would have us believe that the Igbo sat still and war was brought on them.
In as much as I regret the war and pray nothing of such happens again in this country, I have always maintained that, the blame and atrocities of that war can be placed squarely at the feet of both side, it is only a matter of degree and interpretation.
Today, Nigerians including Kanu are one in condemning excessive power at the centre. It can even be argued that this sits at the core of the agitation for true federalism. But as far back as 1947, our founding fathers, Azikiwe and Awolowo saw the dangers and warned against a unitary form of government. Yet it was Ironsi, Nnamdi Kanu’s tribesman, against the advice of the four military governors of the time that established a unitary government in this country. As if that was not enough, the promotions in the army that followed favoured Igbo officers. This is not taking into consideration the highly provocative attitude of the Igbos to their host in the highly illiterate northern Nigeria in those days.
How can anybody, Nnamdi Kanu or not, reasonable deny the fact that the first coup was an Igbo coup? I believe any story that does not reflect this fact is biased. Objectivity means following the evidence, no matter how uncomfortable for us where it leads. Yet, I have not seen any traces of it in Kanu as regards the issue of the Nigerian Civil War.
There are many law abiding Igbos living and working within and outside Igbo land to whom the word secession is alien. Yet every day Kanu taunts them about living in a zoo and that theirs is the worst country in the world. Does he speak for the Igbo? Was he elected as such?
He speaks of self-determination, are Igbos under the colonial era still? In an independent country where citizens can freely live in any region they so choose, should he not be asking for the right to development instead? Around 2012, this same Kanu agitated for restructuring, what has changed since then that prompted his call for the dissolution of Nigeria today?
The large crowd of youths we see following him around in the East today, in my mind, only buttresses two simple truths: Nigerian youths especially those of Igbo extraction living in the East are fed up with their leaders and the country is long overdue for restructuring. If anything, this Kanu uprising should show every right thinking Nigerian that the time for selfish and dangerous politics is over, and Nigeria is long overdue for a patriotic, sincere and focused government. If this had been the case, I doubt if anyone would have paid any attention to one million Kanus.
Many have argued that the real issue here is marginalisation even though it is the entire country that is being marginalised by the rich cartel. Even though I agree with this line of thinking and see the Nigerian situation as a battle between the rich alliance and the poor masses, I believe the government should see this tension as such and therefore do all within its power to redress it.
Truth be told, all the major government institutions in this country are located in northern and western Nigeria. This is also the case with the appointments in President Buhari’s government. According to the writer Chigachi Eke, ‘if the excessive weight of the overfed north does not kill Nigeria, then ultimately the chronic anaemia of the malnourished east will’.
This is what we are seeing with the large crowd of dissatisfied Igbo youths following Kanu all around. Is dissatisfaction with the system not a very good breeding ground for fertile minds that can be fed with so much hate? Who knows what a ready crowd of youth whose minds have been poisoned and manipulated with rhetoric against their own country are capable of doing? Who knows where all these agitations for a referendum and calls for election boycott will lead in the nearest future if the government does not act fast by showing it is willing to end the political marginalisation of the Igbo and as a matter of fact every other section in this country?
The battle line is now drawn. The countdown in the battle for the minds of Nigerians in general and the average Igbo living in the south-east has begun. Nnamdi Kanu continues to tour the region spreading his hate speeches against Nigeria, it is up to the government to match him by doing what is patriotic, needful and long overdue, which is to start the process of restructuring this great country.
God bless Nigeria.
Albert Afeso Akanbi is a Novelist, Researcher, Humanitarian and a father. He writes from Abuja, FCT, Nigeria and tweets @afeso82.
Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Oriental Times
Robin China
July 13, 2017 at 2:40 pm
Jabir Abdallah don’t wait till Oct 1st. Kwura.
Augurwell Onyemachi
July 13, 2017 at 10:21 am
Hate speech? Any ways, the nature of niGeRia
Mathias Abraham
July 13, 2017 at 9:01 am
And what about the hate speeches Arewa youth forum were they made by Nnamdi KANU. Please give us referendum, that’s all he’s saying, and that’s what we are saying too. Is that hate speeches?
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July 13, 2017 at 8:16 am
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Ifeanyi Ochonogor
July 13, 2017 at 4:26 am
BIAFRA FREEDOM IS FROM GOD.
Igwe Echiodo
July 12, 2017 at 9:35 pm
The only comment worthy of making is that this writer is a hugely dishonest, disoriented & mentally biased idiot son of a bitch.
James Akwari
July 12, 2017 at 8:11 pm
This is one among the instruments of propaganda from the South West as usual against the Igbos.
Dennis K. Ezeh
July 12, 2017 at 5:54 pm
Some Yoruba’s re very biased & antagonistic of our struggle for freedom. We re not deterred until the zoo is dismembered. All hail Biafra!
Uzoewulu Okey
July 12, 2017 at 5:17 pm
Uncircumsized ape!
Uzoewulu Okey
July 12, 2017 at 5:16 pm
you are entitiled to your idiotic and most fallacious opinion;the end is here wake up!end of “Zoo”
Charles Nwodo
July 12, 2017 at 4:51 pm
,
Joshua Nworie
July 12, 2017 at 1:57 pm
Go & sit down joo
Christopher Ochini
July 12, 2017 at 1:18 pm
Correct
Tochukwu Emeka
July 12, 2017 at 12:19 pm
Nonsense post
Eleazar Ugochukwu
July 12, 2017 at 10:54 am
First and formost you are mis-informed,brain washed and doted with fake history
Citylife Light
July 12, 2017 at 10:23 am
Please people be careful of fake News.
Jerom Chisom Paul
July 12, 2017 at 10:04 am
Condemning injustice is not a hate speech.
Okafor Kingsley
July 12, 2017 at 9:49 am
One Nigeria is a crime against humanity. We are proud of our Identity which is Biafra. Unity is not by force, Oduduwa and Arewa should be proud of theirs too.
Johnne Gabriel M
July 12, 2017 at 9:40 am
Dear Jabir Abdallar, we ar waiting for u uncircumcised bastards n idiots. We ar really waiting for u guys to start d ball rolling. Then we will all bury Nigeria togeda.
Nonsense”!!! Who is scared of ur threats or warmongering. U fools will be pleasantly surprised.
Keep playing into our hands”!!
Kayode Niyi
July 12, 2017 at 12:11 pm
You are waiting in lagos for somebody is lagos state biafra ?
Felix Okechukwu
July 12, 2017 at 11:43 pm
@kayode in this developing circumstance everywhere is a battle front unlike the past
Johnne Gabriel M
July 13, 2017 at 6:47 am
Leave him, I hav no answer for d politically correct Southern slave of d HAUSA n Fulani. They think they hav arrived wit all d seaports n companies they located in lagos and are deliberately killing d Eastern seaports n economy.
We know. Don’t worry, Kayode, enjoy it while it lasts
The end is not too far away.
Abdulaziz Mohammed
July 12, 2017 at 9:38 am
zoo man leaving in zoogeria country
Frank Ahiakwo
July 12, 2017 at 9:38 am
Jabir Abdallah dear aboki touch any Igbo person an see.
Jabir Abdallah
July 12, 2017 at 8:53 am
Dear igbos 1st Oct is d deadline. Take note
Nwabueze Biafra
July 12, 2017 at 9:39 am
Jabir, i love the quit notice, Arewa Youth well done. Any Igbo man that still staying in the north is a useless person.
Tochi Vinco
July 12, 2017 at 9:42 am
Ewu Hausa (goat) any where an Igbo man live we no dey intimidate anyhow we re not afraid of u infidels , even if we re in Saudi we must defend our salves so have it in that ur empty skull
Nathaniel O Nwite
July 12, 2017 at 10:27 am
Jabir abdalah, you’re a fool do you think alakuba you people use to shout and slaughter human being can solve this one, now is 1967-1970, we will wipe all entire foolish in the zoo idiot.
Mmaduabia Chime
July 12, 2017 at 10:47 am
If u think u have power try torch any Igbo man or woman.
Donald Donadon
July 12, 2017 at 11:41 am
Northern cows
Kayode Niyi
July 12, 2017 at 12:16 pm
80% of all these biafra can’t stay biafra for a month except in lagos or north and they are here making empty noise since 1970
Nwabueze Biafra
July 12, 2017 at 8:50 am
What kind of hate speech? When the young man said the truth evil men will called it Hatespeech! But Useless PMB open his mouth and said people that gave him 5% vote should not expect anything from his government and evil men clapped hands for him. But when Nnamdi Kanu said the truth the same evil men will tag it Hate speech. USELESS NIGERIA.
Kayode Niyi
July 12, 2017 at 12:18 pm
Yes you can’t eat your cake and have it so says the adage !
Nwabueze Biafra
July 12, 2017 at 1:33 pm
Niyi Thats the reason we want Biafra. So that there will be no more adage. USELESS NIGERIA DE ZOO.
John Nwaeze
July 12, 2017 at 8:44 am
Tunder fire your mouth.
Isa Imodagbe
July 12, 2017 at 8:43 am
Any weapon fashioned against ONE NIGERIA will not prosper! Kanu’s version of Biafra is a cult group where he and his wife perform rituals. They are into spiritism and voodooism. God will surely scatter their evil plan!
Wisdom Solomon
July 12, 2017 at 8:55 am
mr man evil will follow ur generation
Isa Imodagbe
July 12, 2017 at 8:59 am
wisdom less Solomon, you’re a bastard from the pit of hell. your evil generation is already doomed and wasted!
Nwabueze Biafra
July 12, 2017 at 9:03 am
@ Isa Tunder fire ur generation. Use One Nigeria, UNITY IS IT BY FORCE. May God Punish ur entire generation for open ur smelling mouth to insult our LEADER. Your Useless nigeria that doesn’t have president.
Isa Imodagbe
July 12, 2017 at 9:19 am
Nnamdi has conquered our youth so much that the only language they know is how to abuse elders and their fathers. What a wasted generation!
J Boy Montino Obi
July 12, 2017 at 9:27 am
Isa Imodagbe ur such a stupid and a useless elder, elder my foot useless and senseless human being unity beggars,we are not staying in that ur useless Nigeria with you fool,is ur useless generation that is wasted fool
Nwabueze Biafra
July 12, 2017 at 9:30 am
@ Isa is ur generation that is wasted. Bcos of little job they pay u #65. 000 that is why u think all is well 4 u. May u continue to live in slavery till end of ur life. TOGETHERNESS IS NOT BY FORCE.
Amaechi Nwekeze
July 12, 2017 at 9:37 am
@isa. You are already in trouble, idiot. You claim one nigerias but you forget that your father is in the village naked ad nigerias pple are calling him mad man
Mhiz Chizzy
July 12, 2017 at 9:41 am
may thunder way still de sleep wake up by force and scatter all ur body even ur children
Isa Imodagbe
July 12, 2017 at 9:44 am
Where did we go wrong? who brought this demonic evil spirits upon our youth that has completely derailed and deranged them? As an elder, I forgive their iniquities. May Allah restore their sanity and forgive them, as they are completely lost! and doomed!
Cee Cee Ibezym
July 12, 2017 at 9:44 am
ISA , you an old fool.as old as you are, you still talk like a moron
Okafor Kingsley
July 12, 2017 at 9:49 am
One Nigeria is a crime against humanity. We are proud of our Identity which is Biafra. Unity is not by force, Oduduwa and Arewa should be proud of theirs too.
Johnne Gabriel M
July 12, 2017 at 9:49 am
Isa Imodagbe, from ur names, u ar an EDO indigene. Shame unto u. One Nigeria my foot! One islamic Nigeria where the people of the south are viewed as slaves in a conquered territory?
Come, bia, let me ask u, is unity of a country a do or die affair? Don’t indigenous people still hav d right to decide where to belong to?
Go n read n learn from history. How did d ppl of southern Cameroon leave Nigeria to become part of Cameron today? Was it not referendum? Was there any war? Any bloodshed?
U talk like a kid. Don’t d HAUSA n Fulani hav mineral resources in their region n lands? What stops them frm exploiting those resources n developing their region?
A country of two ideologies and two different set of laws, mixing religion wit politics n you say ONE NIGERIA?
may d souls of those killed innocently all over d North since 1943, 1935 n 1966 haunt u forever in ur dreams
Tochi Vinco
July 12, 2017 at 9:49 am
Criminals and looters in the zoo re crying bcos they will not have chance to their criminal act , u re one of them , zoo must vanish in no distance time
Nwabueze Biafra
July 12, 2017 at 9:57 am
@ Isa Is ur generation that is Demonic. Tunder fire u Wherever u are. May the spirit of innocent Biafrans that was killed in coold Blood continue to hunt,torment you and your generation. Useless man.
Isa Imodagbe
July 12, 2017 at 10:11 am
@Nwabueze. I took time to read your profile because of the hate in your heart and I discovered to my chagrin that you currently work for St Jide Catholic Church! it’s such a pity as you have already sold your soul to the devil by joining nnamdi ‘s movement!
Mmaduabia Chime
July 12, 2017 at 10:40 am
Isa ur very big zombie
Isa Imodagbe
July 12, 2017 at 11:08 am
Insulting elders is their nature, arrogance is their pathways. You are doomed unless you retrace your steps.Whether you like it or not nobody is going anywhere! we must salvage this great West coast of Africa called NIGERIA TOGETHER!
Eze-ugo Iroegbu
July 12, 2017 at 11:22 am
Were yu there?
Donald Donadon
July 12, 2017 at 11:40 am
Aboki Biafra is here…go n hang ur self.
Biafra must go
Isa Imodagbe
July 12, 2017 at 11:44 am
Can you get what you are looking for by force?
Kayode Niyi
July 12, 2017 at 12:22 pm
Igbo and thunder and we hav never seen anybody fired by thunder maybe in biafra we never new
Wisdom Blinks Ihezie
July 12, 2017 at 12:30 pm
Wetin concern you. You even say ‘our youths’? Are u an igbo, nonsense unity begger. Continue with ur one nigeria becoz we are biafrans.
Joe Ohams
July 12, 2017 at 6:18 pm
You can never repent in your life. Hell fire is where you came from and there your most return. Holly gost fire will continue to burn you from now and forever in Jesus name Amen.
Isa Imodagbe
July 12, 2017 at 6:22 pm
@joe Ohams. Anuofia, you and your generation are already in hell!
Wisdom Nwachineke King's
July 13, 2017 at 6:16 am
Which Nigeria re talking about d dead one already or d next one to come, a Nigeria that nothing is working, a country without president, have coordinator but not working, a Nigeria that full of looters and criminal leaders, a Niger area dat hate her citizens but love animal, a country dia president went to London and tame them criminals, a country dia president called dogs and baboon and his wife discribed their citizens as hyenas and jarkas and the weakers while her husband is the king of animals, a country that was created by halot and her boyfriend. The all country that is described by Google as European company.
Isa Imodagbe
July 13, 2017 at 7:11 am
This is the first intelligence response to my post. As your name indicate, you wrote with wisdom. There was no curses or insults in your entire write up, your point were well worded. May God increase you in wisdom.
Augurwell Onyemachi
July 13, 2017 at 10:17 am
Ue comment no go well oo…Nobody gree dash u even one ‘Like’.
Isa Imodagbe
July 13, 2017 at 12:06 pm
Na u sabi Augur well. I am against any form of separation!
Amaka Anyiam Felix
July 12, 2017 at 8:41 am
fake news nnamdi kanu never speak Hate Speeches that i know