[dropcap]E[/dropcap]ven without meaning to, by words, actions and inactions, President Muhammadu Buhari has greatly aided the cause of Biafra much more than a thousand Nnamdi Kanu could ever have done within such a very short space of time.
What is happening with regards to Buhari and the Biafran issue vis-a-vis the arrest and detention of the IPOB leader as well as the continued killing of IPOB activists across the country is beginning to seem as though some unseen hand is using the poorly lettered highly vindictive Daura-born quota system ex-soldier called Muhammadu Buhari to speed up the Biafran agitation even without the knowledge of Buhari himself.
So far, if anything has proven that this government is bankrupt
in a way that defies reason, it is the way it has handled the Biafran issue. After years of running his Radio Biafra from abroad and exposing the many grave injustices of the Nigerian state, the Abia state born Prince Kanu publicly announced he was coming to Nigeria and even gave date of his arrival. If this govt and her not-so-intelligent Intelligence Outfit, the DSS weren’t holidaying in Mars the day this thing called ‘common sense’ was created, they would have known that Mazi Kanu actually wanted them to arrest him in order to help bring international recognition to his struggle. But like I implied, common-sense is the rarest commodity when it comes to this Shiites and IPOB-killing govt.
The DSS didn’t just arrest Kanu, they behaved like the quota system security agency that they are by keeping Kanu with them for so long without taking him to court. When they finally took him to a magistrate court, they charged him with belonging to a secret and illegal organisation even when IPOB was duly registered with the CAC. When the Magistrate court granted bail to Kanu, instead of allowing him enjoy his bail, the DSS defied the court ruling and took Kanu before another Magistrate court where they charged him with sponsoring terrorism even when they ought to have known that the magistrate court had no jurisdiction to entertain such a matter. When the magistrate court expectedly threw out the case for lack of jurisdiction, the same DSS while still in violation of the first judgment of the magistrate court to release Kanu on bail, still took the IPOB leader to ABUJA high court presided over by Justice Adeniyi Ademola. On December 17, 2015, Justice Ademola ordered the DSS to release Nnamdi Kanu “unconditionally” since he had previously been granted bail by another court. Again, this court order was defied by the Lawal Daura headed DSS. To further prove that this country is a jungle, not a zoo, President Buhari came on national Television to swear that he would never release Kanu.
It is settled in law that even if a judge delivers a ruling while visibly high on alcohol or drug, that ruling must either be obeyed or appealed at a higher court. Sadly, this simple legal fact was lost on the DSS. Nnamdi Kanu called Nigeria a zoo. He later came to the same Nigeria and defeated her government right there in her own court and even forced the president to treat the judgment of his own court with disdain. Now, do pray tell, between President Buhari and Nnamdi Kanu, who actually proved that Nigeria is far worse than a zoo?
Quite frankly, if I was a man of means, I’d sue anyone who dares to insult the beautiful animal place called zoo by mentioning it in the same sentence as Nigeria with a view to comparing the two. This country is not even a jungle because in a jungle, the head of the jungle does not use the instrumentalities of the jungle to aide one specie of animal in killing off species as Buhari is doing with the murderous Fulani monsters.
Kanu’s arrest gifted the Biafran agitation with global attention. The continued breaking of Nigerian law and flouting of court judgments by the Buhari government in a desperate bid to keep the IPOB leader in detention has only won more sympathizers to the cause of Biafra. Whether we believe it or not, Nnamdi Kanu is now the most influential Igbo Biafran man alive! The IPOB leader is more like a god among millions of Igbo Biafran youth today. For him, millions of people staged protest in different countries calling for his release.
For Nnamdi Kanu, thousands of Igbo Biafra youths marched on the streets of Nigeria demanding his release. Even when the uninformed thugs masquerading as the Nigerian army used live bullets on the Youths and killed many of them, they still continued their protest. Even when a joint team of the police and army massacred hundreds of them while praying inside Ngwa high school, Aba on February 9, they yet continued.
No Igbo man nor any other Nigerian alive today can draw up to a thousand youths to the street without paying them! But Kanu did this and much more. Today, Nnamdi Kanu is a hero and Biafra is now on the lips of millions of people both here in Nigeria and beyond. Even some foreign media houses that never talked about Biafra are now discussing Biafra. All thanks to Buhari and his criminally inept DSS. Now, the court has finally cancelled secret trial for the IPOB leader.
I don’t need to look into my crystal ball to know that however this Kanu’s court case ends, it is a win-win for him and the Biafra struggle. If the government keep holding him, the Biafra agitation will keep rising like the wild fire. If the government releases him, he will walk triumphantly to a thunderous and an earthquake welcome from his followers who are swelling in their numbers and continue his agitation with more ‘street credibility’.
Even in the unlikely event that he is killed in detention, it will still gift the Biafra struggle with more sympathizers and paint the Buhari government as more devilish than the devil and even give his followers the moral right to resort to violence which it would seem is the only language Nigeria understands. And most importantly, this govt has already created a million and one Nnamdi Kanus out there.
Indeed, it is such a crying shame that president Buhari allowed his quest for vendetta against a people who have done him no wrong to cloud his sense of judgment. Even Jack my two-day old puppy knows that it is foolish to try to use force to silence a people who only ask to be treated like every other people or be allowed to go.
Biafra is an ideology. And this ideology is getting its nutrients from the injustices of the Nigerian state. If you want Biafra to die a natural death, don’t bother fighting Nnamdi Kanu. Fight those devilish policies of the Nigerian state, stop the clandestine war which Nigeria is still carrying out against the Igbo Biafrans, give justice to millions of Igbo Biafran children and civilians starved to death by the Nigerian state during the Biafran war. Targeting civilians during conflict and starving them of food and medicine as Nigeria did to Biafra, then, is nothing short of war crime. We remember! This government has boxed itself into a corner.
Whatever happens, it is a win-win for Nnamdi Kanu and Biafra!
Charles Ogbu is a social media activist. Connect with him on Facebook.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
