‘Biafra Cannot Come Through Insults, Assaults And Shenanigans’

By Dr Law Mefor

An Igbo adage states: why a deity starts giving much trouble, it will be shown the wood from which was carved. There are lines that are never crossed in culture and tradition, and in national life. Such red lines keep the society going and coherent. And the Igbo society is a highly organized one and imbued in deep and rich culture and tradition, of which most if not all IPOB members are part of, including their factional leader, Nnamdi Kanu. Igbo culture holds murder and its intents as the highest crime against the society and humanity.

The most recent attack is Kanu’s order to his supporters to stone Nnia Nwodo to death anywhere he is found anywhere in the world. His words: “Anywhere you see him outside, stone him to death.” Kanu further called on God to “destroy Ohanaeze”. Turning round to blame Nnia Nwodo for herdsmen atrocities in the South East or Operation Python Dance is just a case of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it and psychologically, a misplaced aggression and priority. .

Nnamdi Kanu has been attacking Ohanaeze Ndigbo for not accepting ‘Biafra now’ of the faction of IPOB which he leads. The generality of Ndigbo since resolved that it is in their best interest to push for a restructured Nigeria, since self-determination is possible within a fully restructured Nigeria as obtained in the country prior to 1966 and the civil war. The position of Ndigbo is contained in the Awka declaration of 2018.

When Nnamdi Kanu was released from Kuje prison through the intervention of some Igbo leaders he now insults and assaults (Senator Ike Ekweremadu who organized the men who stood sureties for Kanu’s bail was his first victim in Nuremberg Germany), efforts were made to reconcile him with many of them including Chief Nnia Nwodo, Ben Nwabueze, Eze Ozobu, Dozie Ikedife and many others (some original founders of IPOB), many of who he similarly pronounced death on their heads in Radio Biafra. He held meetings with many of them where fresh understanding was reached and a new leaf supposedly turned.

The second meeting between Nnamdi Kanu and Ohanaeze and its President General Nnia Nwodo was again agreed to and a date set for it. There was a disagreement over the venue. While Nnia Nwodo legitimately wanted the second meeting to be held in his house or at the Ohanaeze Secretariat, which Kanu acceded to initially, he (Kanu) later insisted that the meeting should be held anywhere but in Chief Nwodo’s house.

This was the same time his meeting with South East Governors took place. A second meeting was scheduled between him and the Governors but operation Python Dance II was preemptively launched by the Nigerian Army days before, which presumably drove Nnamdi Kanu underground and out of the country. He resurfaced in Jerusalem Israel one year after where he was seen praying by the Wailing Wall, the remnant of the Jewish Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE during the Siege of Jerusalem.

Since then, Kanu has held tenaciously to the position that Nnia Nwodo and the South East Governors invited Operation Python Dance II. He blamed everybody else but himself since he failed to see that apart from violating all his bail conditions, he rattled the nation’s security system, especially the military, by launching the so-called Biafra Security Service (BSS).

Hundreds of IPOB youths were seen in parades fully ornamented in black uniforms and red berets, proclaiming the birth of BSS and Nnamdi Kanu as the Commander in chief. This could be interpreted as a precursor to armed struggle, which Nnamdi Kanu assured Igbo leaders that IPOB will never engage in. Operation Python II came in the wake of the launching of Biafra Security Service, justified or nor, it was a military intervention to nip in the bud a paramilitary preponderance which Nnamdi Kanu himself brought about. In other words, Operation Python Dance was ostensibly invited by Kanu and IPOB paramilitary actions, which were suggesting they were ready for an armed struggle whereas they were not.

Turning round to blame Nnia Nwodo for Operation Python Dance is just a case of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it and psychologically, a misplaced aggression and priority. As a matter of fact, Ohanaeze actually condemned Operation Python Dance II and demanded that the military be withdrawn from Igbo land, which the media widely carried.

Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB may be saying the right thing but certainly the wrong way. Leaving him and IPOB to continue as loose cannons would mean acquiescing to their rants and narration as Igbo position. He and IPOB have misrepresented the Igbos grossly since he resurfaced in Israel.

Come to think of it, is Ohanaeze and its President General really in a position to stop the atrocities of the Fulani herdsmen in the East? Ohanaeze is not a security organization but a pan Igbo NGO saddled with advocacy for the betterment of the Igbo people in Nigeria. The most Ohanaeze can do is to push for better security in the South East and in Nigeria in general.

Advocacy is therefore the stock-in-trade of Ohanaeze and similar ethnic-based organisations and the Ohanaeze PG has done his best in the circumstance in which we live today. Those holding the constitutional powers and resources to do anything about the Fulani herdsmen atrocities in Igbo land are the governors who are the Chief Security Officers of their respective States. Yet, not a mention was made by Kanu about the governors’ inaction over insecurity in the zone but would pronounce a death sentence on the only voice left in the zone if we leave Enyinnaya Abaribe and one or two others out for a moment.

Nnia Nwodo cannot do more than advocate for Igbo cause and that he has done excellently well. He cannot arm Igbo youths to chase herdsmen out of Igbo land. Only Vigilante Operations authorised by governors can happen in Igbo land and Nnia Nwodo is pushing for that too, resulting in the Community Policing that would be under the South East governors and Local Government Chairmen.

So, the reason for Kanu’s constant attack on Nnia Nwodo is not checking the Fulani herdsmen atrocities or so much for insecurity in the South East but part of the IPOB broad plans to destroy Ohanaeze as the umbrella body for Ndigbo. That’s the role Nnamdi Kanu desires and covets for IPOB.

Question is: can what Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB are doing be really who the Igbos are, what they represent and what they want? Far from it! IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu are now more of the problem than the solution to the Igbo man’s problem in Nigeria and the world for derailing from their original cause, pitching Ndigbo against their neighbours – South South, Yorubas and the entire country. They are also attacking Christianity, the religion of over ninety percent Igbos, destroying everything Ndigbo hold dear and stand for.

Biafra cannot come through insults, assaults and shenanigans. Biafra and the rights of Ndigbo in Nigeria will come through strategic engagements with the rest of the country and world not by alienating them.