“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor. It must be demanded by the oppressed.” Martin Luther King Jr.
NB: This is a follow-up to our last article on this same subject. Namely, “The Release of Nnamdi Kanu is the Greatest Challenge Facing Ndigbo Today” in the entity called Nigeria.
As the saying goes, “Your freedom is in your hands. You hold the key to your freedom and the freedom of your people. Don’t betray it.”
In the first place, It is not the Court of the same Nigerian Government that went to a foreign country, Kenya and abducted Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, extraordinary renditioned him, forcefully brought him back to Nigeria, and has since June 2021 kept him in the torture cell of Nigeria’s secret police, DSS in Abuja, in solitary confinement, incommunicado, that is going to free him! Rather, Nnamdi Kanu is going to be freed, just as Biafra he is fighting for its self-determination and independence, is going to be a free sovereign and independent nation state on its own rights, only through the determined collective and conceited, concrete efforts of the Biafran people themselves, Nnamdi Kanu’s kinsmen and women. Ndigbo in particular, to be precise. That is, as a Nation on its own right, standing solidly, firmly, and determined, as a people behind Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his struggle. And behind whoever has genuinely taken it upon himself to stand on the gap for him, especially, now that the IPOB leader is in the dungeon of the enemy!
Make no mistake about it. The struggle that Nnamdi Kanu has taken upon himself, is not just for his Igbo or Biafran people alone. No! Rather, it is a struggle that has a wider implications for the imminent liberation of the entire, different and diverse, component, indigenous ethnic nationalities and peoples, that the British forcefully merged together under a colonial fiat in 1914, and named Nigeria! This would also imply that what Nnamdi Kanu is fighting for, is for the second independence of the different indigenous African peoples, aggrieved ethnic nationalities, from the neo-colonial yoke and from the domineering ethnic nationalities and modern day African political puppets that have been holding everyone in bondage and servitude in the country! This is why every hand must be on deck for the immediate and unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Love or hate him, the solution to the perennial political imbroglio besetting Nigeria since 1914, and especially, since the country’s flag independence in 1960, lies in this struggle, Nnamdi Kanu’s travail is challenging us all with!
Today, many people are beginning to realize, especially, after the last shambolic and fraudulent 2023 elections (just like the previous so-called elections before it), that the problem with Nigeria is never going to be resolved through the every four years of elections that produces nothing but anguish and more suffering for the masses. And that has always succeeded in recycling the same corrupt, self-serving and bloodsucking politicians that are responsible for our woes in the country all these years! Nigeria’s problem will never be solved through this every four years of shambolic political elections, or change of personnel of the same ‘criminal politicians’, through those fraudulent and shambolic, bloodbaths, violence-ridden elections in Nigeria!
If truth be told, the solution to the problem with Nigeria lies in what Nnamdi Kanu is struggling for. That is, on this very thing he is calling on the gatekeepers of the Nigerian state to do. Namely, to conduct a referendum for self-determination for those ethnic nationalities or major geopolitical regions in the country that want to separate, to form their own independent sovereign states. In this way, we all will begin to relate well as neighbours, neighbouring nation states in West African sub-region, under ECOWAS. And that will help to put an end, in fact, a stop to all these shenanigans of bloodbaths and violence we call elections in Nigeria. It will also help to put a stop, or at least, minimize the current Islamic insurgency in Northern Nigeria and in the neighbouring Sahel region countries of West Africa!
Referendum for self-determination that Nnamdi Kanu is advocating for is the most viable solution to the problem we have at hands, both in Nigeria and throughout the ECOWAS’ nation states. This is the reason why we all must listen to the IPOB leader and get him released unconditionally and immediately from the dungeon of the Nigerian government! Nnamdi Kanu’s struggle for self-determination is the key to the problem with Nigeria and West African nation states, on these perennial issues of political instability and insecurity in the region and in our communities in Nigeria!
The Challenge before Nnamdi Kanu’s Igbo, Biafran people
The land or society of any serious minded or determined people and nation, will never know peace or rest, as long as the warrior of that land or society is still languishing in the dungeon of their enemy. Not until Nnamdi Kanu is set free, the entire Igboland and by extension, the entire Biafra (defunct Eastern region), as well as Nigeria in general, will continue to be in turmoil as is presently the case in the country and region! By the way, no serious people or society will go to rest or sleep while their warrior, leader of their freedom fighters’ movement is incarcerated in the dungeon of their enemy! No serious people or nation will ever go to rest, until that their incarcerated warrior and leader of their struggle for freedom is released. Because, the freedom of such a people or nation, depends to a great extent, and on the final analysis, on the freedom of that their incarcerated warrior and leader! This is what Nnamdi Kanu is representing for Ndigbo today and for the people of the former Eastern region, Biafra!
Freedom, justice, peace, and tranquility in Igboland and the entire Old Eastern region, and indeed, Nigeria, as it is now, is pending, and will never come about until Nnamdi Kanu is released and set free! Again, the key to peace and security in Nigeria in general, and in Biafra, in particular, is the freedom of Nnamdi Kanu! The more the Nigerian authorities continue to keep Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in their dungeon, the more the problem of that country is going to multiply and the suffering in the land and lamentations will continue unabated!
This is to say, that the freedom of MNK, just as the freedom of Ndigbo, and Biafra, will depend, on final analysis, on how prepared and determined the people he, Nnamdi Kanu is fighting for their freedom and self-determination, Ndigbo and the entire Biafrans people, are prepared for that freedom and self-determination as a people. That is, how prepared they are as a people, to fight and demand, till the end, for their freedom as a people, as well as for the freedom of that their illegally and unjustly, incarcerated son and warrior, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
But if Ndigbo as a people and other Biafrans, are not ready yet, or prepared to demand and reclaim their freedom and attain self-rule and independence, as a people, that is where the problem lies. If only what they feel they want and need today as a people is for their political class and rulers to continue to agitate for political positions of ‘presidency, vice-presidency, president of senate, or speaker of House of Representatives, governor of states, ministers, and what have you, in Nigeria, just as the present crop of Igbo politicians are shameless doing, then forget it. Ndigbo will continue to suffer as slaves, and lament of marginalisation and maltreatment in Nigeria until thy kingdom come!
This is the naked truth, which many are afraid to tell themselves. Thus, they have continued to deceive themselves and the gullible public into believing that there will ever come such a time, an Igbo will be allowed to be president of Nigeria, or be elected or appointed into any sensitive political office in this British colonial created contraption, called Nigeria! As if an Igbo becoming the president of Nigeria will even change anything to the present plight of Ndigbo and other oppressed ethnic groups and peoples in the British contraption, called Nigeria!
Francis Anekwe Oborji is a Roman Catholic Priest, is Professor Ordinarius of contextual theology at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, Rome. He can be reached via email HERE.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
