When Nnamdi Kanu, the junior co-founder of IPOB – of which he now claims to be the sole and supreme leader – began to inundate the public space with his incendiary broadcasts (through Radio Biafra), he probably assumed that he was doing that for fun and the soft cash that was streaming in as donations from tgr devoted few.
Yet, according to credible accounts, it was Ralph Uwazurike, the pioneer of the post-War Biafran movement that founded Radio Biafra in London but not for the infamous purpose that Kanu later converted it to. This led to a falling out between the two, and Kanu capitalized on that to break away and even directed some of his hate broadcasts against Uwazurike, unwisely painting Uwazurike as a sell-out. It’s sad that some uninformed followers of Kanu seem to believe that, all to the discredit of the genuine Igbo struggle Uwazurike was leading with Ojukwu’s blessings.
In the course of time, Kanu would’ve just remained largely unknown but for the ill-advised move by the Nigerian government to arrest and detain him for an inordinate amount of time. It did not help that many Igbos were at the same time feeling maltreated by the APC-led federal government.
Then, when Kanu’s ‘sit at home order’ garnered some momentum within Southeast, he began to feel emboldened to push his luck further – to the point that he now claims to be an Igbo leader and is thereby unwittingly pushing his innocent supporters to the brink of an armed conflict that may as yet engulf the whole Igbo land as another theater of war. A war that most Igbos, in their innermost hearts, will rather not have.
In June this year, Kanu ‘ordered’ (as he put it) Anambra voters to boycott the oncoming November 2017 gubernatorial election. This so-called order comes without Kanu pointing to any alternative path to Anambra having a transition government at the expiration of Obiano’s tenure; which leads to the only conclusion that what Nnamdi Kanu truly desires, come November, is either violence or anarchy. Sad for Ndi-Anambra and Ndigbo.
However, but perhaps a bit late in the day, disparate Igbo leadership is now rising to the occasion and pushing back at Kanu’s extremisms. The first was Ralph Uwazurike, who tried to use his influence across the Nigerian divide to douse the the flame of the Northern youths quit notice which came in the wake of what was perceived in the North, thanks to Kanu’s bigotry, as an agitation directed particularly against Northern Nigeria, instead of Nigeria.
Following on Uwazurike’s initiative, the highest Igbo socio-cultural body, Ohanaeze, has now moved against IPOB and Kanu, warning them to refrain from taking further steps aimed at pushing Igbos to the brink of another violence and isolation. Ohanaeze was particularly reacting to Kanu’s forays into dangerous politics, exemplified by his repeated calls for boycott of the Anambra guber election.
“We don’t need this heat up. Leaders of these movements must not arrogate to themselves the supreme leadership of Igboland. Statements of the kind credited to Kanu are provocative, misleading and unproductive. Why should Anambra people be denied the opportunity to choose their own leader? Why should any of us who are not from Anambra, no matter how highly placed, descend to the arena and dictate for Anambra people when to vote, whether to vote or who to vote for?” asked the President General of Ohanaeze, Chief John Nnia Nwodo.
In the same vein, prominent statesman, Chief Ralph Obioha, weigh-in and warned strongly that Kanu should re-think his reckless remarks. “This young man with split personality – Nnamdi Kanu who claims to be a Jew, even when the Jews have not said they are Igbo or the Igbo are Jews – has emerged to drag the Igbo man into another round of mess,” Obioha said in an interview with Daily Trust last Saturday. Obioha then went further to regret that credible and senior Igbo leaders like former VP Alex Ekwueme, instead of cautioning Kanu “who abuses everybody in Igbo land and Nigeria, are patting him on the back.”
He said further: “Look at the title Nnamdi Kanu has given himself now…His Excellency, The Supreme Leader of IPOB and Biafra. He enjoys such amusing titles. Doesn’t that tell you something about the mentality of the young man? I only pity the gullible Igbo youths who follow such people sheepishly because the word Biafra is now their opium.”
In another but related development, Kanu appears to have been disclaimed by the senior co-founder of IPOB and a former President General of Ohanaeze – Dr Dozie Ikedife – who himself fought in the Nigeria-Biafra civil war, and therefore should be taken more seriously. Ikedife now says that: “I am not in support of any other brand of Biafra agitation that would involve physical engagements, assault or insults and preaching ethnic hatred. The Biafra agitation I support is a peaceful one. A Biafra founded through a referendum or legislative process backed by law and not violence”.
Since then, more Igbo leaders have found their voice and thus spoken up against Kanu. A strongly-worded communiqué issued by an amalgam of Southeast governors, Ohanaeze, and other leaders in Enugu just last month (July) starkly dimmed any hopes Kanu had for garnering the endorsement of Igbo leadership for the reckless style he has adopted on the Biafran question.
Ebonyi State governor and chairman of the Southeast Governors Forum, Dave Umahi, had said pointedly that: “Ndigbo are in support of a united Nigeria where peace, love, fairness, justice, equity and equality of opportunity are paramount regardless of creed, ethnicity, gender or political affiliation.”
And just few days ago, it was widely reported that Eze-Nri had refused to give audience to Kanu because of what was perceived as Kanu’s arrogance and disrespect to the highly revered Eze-Nri traditional stool.
To be sure, what all these recent incidents indicate is that – finally – Nnamdi Kanu is fast revealing himself as a man that is not only fighting Nigeria but is also already fighting with the Biafra that has not even materialized.
Odumegwu writes from sodumegwu@gmail.com
Twitter: @sodumegwu
