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Nnamdi Kanu and the Biafran zoo
~TheGuardian Nigeria. Wednesday, January 17, 2018.
Politics in Nigeria is largely transactional. Nigerians who want to hold political positions look for and invest millions of naira in purchasing the endorsements of godfathers and distributing rice, bread, and cash to fellow citizens to vote for them.
The process is extremely expensive and attracts mostly those who see politics as a very good way of dramatically multiplying investments, much like drug smuggling.
Nigerian politics rarely attracts people who have the intention to use political control of state institutions to transform the lives of fellow citizens. Building a base of political power in Nigeria is similar to establishing 100 per cent ownership of a bank.
You acquire control of a political office and convert all levels and institution of government that fall under the control of this office into something like bank branches.
You select all the "managers" of the institutions and agencies - local governments, tax authorities, ministries, broadcasting services, state-owned enterprises, land management bureaux etc. - who deliver a chunk of their budgets to you in addition to using their resources and responsibilities to generate funds and opportunities for you.
The objective of generating funds for the political machinery of the "political lord" becomes the significant if not primary aim and consistently erodes their statutory roles (delivering quality education or healthcare services or durable roads).
First, this intensely anti-democratic process concentrates power permanently in the hands of a very few people. Anyone seeking to enter Nigerian politics must be ready to divert public resources to these political godfathers.
It also weakens the ability of state institutions to deliver services that are essential to fostering investment, creating wealth and lifting people out of poverty - durable infrastructure, high quality public school and health system, etc.
The process locks out Nigerian youths and professionals from politics. In the first 20 years of independence, people between 28 and 40 years of age were governors, federal legislators and ministers, and even President. Now, a 50 year old is considered a very young person in Nigerian politics.
The few "young" important players in politics today owe the positions to older godfathers rather than their achievements or the number of voters or party members attracted to their economic ideas or their personalities. They are also committed to the methods of the godfathers i.e. converting the resources and functions of state institutions to their personal and political uses.
Kanu, leader of the Independent Peoples of Biafra ("IPOB") has in the last five years disrupted the method of constructing political leadership in Nigeria. Kanu has managed to fire up and win the support of millions of people in South East Nigeria across socio-economic classes.
This support also extends outside Nigeria. In major western countries, Nigerians hold rallies to passionately champion the ideas of the young man they see as a political leader. He has not purchased their allegiance; rather Kanu's supporters have invested money in promoting his cause and ideas. Many have even risked their long-term economic well-being.
Very importantly, Kanu has garnered a large following through the strength and appeal of his ideas and personality. Rather than riding to fame on the "structure" of a political godfather, his rise threatened the hold of godfathers on regional and national politics.
Of course, Kanu has built a political following on an illogical and dangerous idea - the notion that the solution to Nigeria's political, social and economic dysfunction is to break up Nigeria.
The only thing this would achieve is to create a lot of mini "zoos", each with much diminished economic potential. There is little to prove that Igbo or Tiv politicians are more ethical than Yoruba and Ijaw ones and would hence transform their smaller "zoo" into Switzerland once they break away from Nigeria.
Hence, Kanu chose an old and wrong idea, "ethnic grievance" rather than "institutional performance," to mobilise citizens. Ethnic grievance is built on the emotional but mostly erroneous claim "they are cheating us" whilst institutional performance messages emphasise the delivery of economic goods (quality education and healthcare, good roads, efficient policing etc.).
Traditional politicians use ethnic grievance to deflect attention from their monopolisation of resources in their regions, state and constituency while Nnamdi Kanu has used it in a radical way to build a following that could be employed to get personal access to monopolised resources.
Just like the politicians, Kanu had no plan to deliver economic goods to the people. IPOB would have triggered a revolution in Nigerian politics if it had mobilised citizens to demand action on institutional weaknesses to delivering economic goods to Nigerians in the South East - the poor state of infrastructure, the tendency to build statues rather than roads, the lack of support for the region's abundant talents in technology and entrepreneurship etc.
Nigerian politicians have a pact never to seriously campaign or challenge each other on the basis of institutional performance; rather they use the strategy of "ethnic grievance" which is a cover for their common inadequacy.
Yet, the achievement of Kanu demonstrates that it is possible for young Nigerians to mobilize citizens on the basis of ideas and build independent political following that could break the monopolistic hold of godfathers on politics and government.
Nigerian voters respond to "ethnic grievance" mobilisation because it has been the only way traditional politicians have wooed voters. It is apparent even to, or perhaps especially to the poorest voter that this mode of political mobilisation has only impoverished Nigerians.
They must have noticed how politicians who tell them that the Ijaw, Fulani, or Idoma are their problems have kept growing rich. Aspiring politicians and new political parties and movements should develop capacities to craft messages based on institutional performance and the delivery of economic goods to the masses.
Restructuring the Nigerian Federation will create incentives for performance messages and also make them more effective because ethnic grievance messages will become less effective as the resources and policy responsibilities for development is transferred from Abuja to lower units of government.
When teaching hospitals lack diagnostic equipment and regional roads are dilapidated, it becomes very difficult to blame wicked politicians who don't like your region or ethnic group because the funds and responsibilities for building and maintaining them have been taken away from Abuja. Everyone will have an incentive to develop their zoos.
Chukwudi, a lawyer, wrote from the Peter Bauer Foundation.
We have fought each other since 1950 to date, we did not even all agree on independence, and since that happened, we have been at each other's throats. We ended up fighting a civil war, and from all indications we are at this moment, seemingly preparing for another one. The laziest excuse is that the British caused all our problems, but more than 50 years after independence it should be clear enough that we are the source of our collective agony.
Other countries that were at the same level with us in 1960 have since moved on and developed into better nations despite their own internal contradictions. Nigerian leaders have perpetually lived in denial. Every step forward has resulted in our country taking two steps backwards. A combination of the big-man-syndrome, the too-know syndrome, the us-before-others-mentality, ethnic politics, sectarian politics, greed, cronyism and a terrible leadership recruitment process has turned our process of nationhood into an unending struggle. Today, fewer Nigerians believe in the idea of Nigeria.
In 1977/78, the Constituent Assembly whose deliberations resulted in the 1979 Constitution almost ended with fisticuffs. The 2005 National Political Reforms Conference did not fare better either, as the Niger Delta conferees staged a walk-out and the politics of Third Term or no Third Term sabotaged the entire process. In 2014, the outcomes of yet another National Conference could not be followed through because a succeeding administration declared it would not even look at the report. At every stage when it looks as if this country is faced with an opportunity to address the national question, certain interest groups erect the roadblocks of denial and wishful thinking. No country can live perpetually in denial. This is the message of former Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union and their disintegration. As for the military, they merely worsened Nigerian politics.
Fifty years after the outbreak of the civil war, we now have a man called Nnamdi Kanu. He may well end up as Nigeria's nemesis. He is the most frightening product of our many years and acts of denial and he may well throw the country into a nightmare worse than Boko Haram, if care is not taken. He started out as the leader of a group called the Indigenous People of Biafra and as director of Radio Biafra. He and those who bought into his rhetoric of secession and the renewal of the Biafra dream organized protests across the world, and they looked, from afar, like a group of disgruntled Nigerians in diaspora. In the foreign lands where most of the members lived, they looked like persons over-enjoying the freedom of speech from a safe distance. They didn't appear to have the force of MASSOB, which is locally based and seemingly more malleable. The renewed struggle for Biafra that Kanu and his crowd talked about could have been nothing more than an internet and television revolution. But everything went wrong the moment Nnamdi Kanu chose to visit home and he was arrested, detained and taken through a court trial.
Whoever ordered Nnamdi Kanu's arrest and prosecution did this country a bad turn. Kanu is a character that could have been better ignored. His trial and travails have turned him into a hero and a living martyr among Igbos. And the young man so far, understands the game. Since he was released on bail, he has been taunting the Nigerian state and government. Daily, he dares those who granted him bail and he laughs at the conditions they gave him. He associates with more than 10 persons. He moves about Igboland freely, like a spirit. He addresses rallies and grants interviews. He has been busy issuing statements. On May 30, he ordered a shut-down of the entire South Eastern region and that order was obeyed not only in the South East but also in parts of the South-South, and Abuja.
Nnamdi Kanu is certainly capable of doing more damage to the system than the MASSOB, OPC, and such other groups, and should he push things further, he could ignite a crisis worse than Boko Haram. My gut feeling is that some people in certain places are beginning to realize this and that is why Nnamdi Kanu out of detention appears untouchable; it is the reason he is able to dare the state, and ridicule his bail conditions
Nnamdi Kanu who probably barely struggled to survive as a black man in Europe, has been turned by the Nigerian Government into a credible apostle of a resurgent Biafran revolution. The other day when he held a meeting in Umuahia, over 5,000 persons trooped to his compound. Kanu is a master of symbolism. He is exploiting the Jewish symbol: to signal to the world that Igbos are being persecuted. He visits symbolic sites of the civil war to prick the injured part of the Igbo consciousness and mobilise the people. His pre-eminence is a comment on the quality of the state and its strategic intelligence system. If he succeeds with his threats, we should know those to blame. A few days ago, someone on social media further compared him to Jesus Christ and described him as the true saviour. Every revolutionary in history graduates from ordinariness to being messianic, propelled by opiumized endorsement.
Nnamdi Kanu is certainly capable of doing more damage to the system than the MASSOB, OPC, and such other groups, and should he push things further, he could ignite a crisis worse than Boko Haram. My gut feeling is that some people in certain places are beginning to realize this and that is why Nnamdi Kanu out of detention appears untouchable; it is the reason he is able to dare the state, and ridicule his bail conditions. The lesson here is obvious enough: the brazen use of force and intimidation to deal with certain situations could create really bad unintended consequences.
The Federal Government under Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has been holding meetings with key stakeholders within the Federation. The consultations are in order, but the Acting President is yet to talk to the right people. He is talking to people who carry their international passports in their pockets because they don't know what tomorrow promises in Nigeria. He is consulting persons whose family members are mostly one-leg-in-one-leg-out Nigerians; many of them in fact have dual nationality. Nigeria is their trading post, the place where they make the money they and their children spend in Dubai, UK and wherever.
The people the Federal Government should be talking to are the angry Igbo youths who now kneel down to greet Nnamdi Kanu and call him their god, the Arewa youths who have told the Igbos to get out of Nigeria and get away, and who have called the Yoruba names while further insisting that they are not afraid of the Nigerian government arresting them. The people to talk to are the leaders of the various other groups who are taking sides. Leaders of the Middle Belt and the South South are holding talks; some Yorubas are planning to hold theirs this week in Ibadan. Draw the map of the emerging rhetoric in Nigeria today; what you have is a divided country. The scenario is so painfully reminiscent of the early 60s. Every Nigerian leader since the civil war has boasted that he would not preside over the dismemberment of Nigeria. Some of those leaders have suddenly started saying restructuring is the answer, how nice!- the same restructuring they never wanted and that they didn't want as at 2015.
Crisis management is an important part of nation-building. We have failed to manage most of the crises that have befallen our nation, on a sustainable basis, and that is why every proverbial snake that is killed suddenly resurrects. It is the reason we have produced a country where the population of the aggrieved appears to be growing daily. It is the reason Nnamdi Kanu and his followers have become the fish-bone in the throat of government. As things stand, there is no stronger voice in Igboland today than that of Nnamdi Kanu. The Igbo elites and the self-styled political leaders of the East know that Kanu is more influential than all of them put together. How many among them can command a willing crowd of 5, 000 to their doorsteps? The politicians hire crowds, but the crowds go to Kanu and obey him.
With the kind of influence he wields, Kanu is in a position to dictate the political future of the South East. The same political leaders who posed for photographs at the Aso Villa will go to him at night and beg him to support their candidates if future elections hold in that region. They will condemn Kanu during the day, but lick his boots at night.
The ancillary challenge however is the worsening trend of ethnic polarization with regards to the control of power at the centre. I describe this as the conflict between the na-my-brother-dey-there syndrome and the no-be-my-brother reactive tendency. It used to be the case in this country up till the time President Olusegun Obasanjo left in 2007, that whoever held power in Abuja was openly and strongly supported by other Nigerians, regardless of ethnicity or religion. Obasanjo got more support from outside Yorubaland, and probably felt more reassured by persons from outside his own ethnic group and religion.
With the death of President Yar'Adua in office, ethnicity, a long-standing threat to Nigerian unity became more potent. The Boko Haram, with its base in the Northern part of the country gave the succeeding Jonathan administration hell. With the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, the same Boko Haram suddenly became tame. Curiously, the militants of the South East and the South South, who had been significantly quiet during the Jonathan years, also became more vocal and calls for secession became more strident the moment their kinsman and in-law left office. By the same token, the conflict between pastoralists and farmers, an old problem, became worse, with the former asserting themselves more arrogantly for no reason other than that they are sure of better protection under a central government controlled by the North. Our point: Nigeria's stability should not be so dependent on the whims and caprices of ethnic gladiators. No Nigerian President should be at the mercy of ethnic or religious politics, now or in the future.
Kanu also promise never to let Biafra down, even upon the pain of death, since they have never let him down by their compliance, and therefore, will reciprocate their gesture by staking his life to the struggle,urging all Biafrans to join hands together with all genuine and sincere individuals and groups, to restore Biafra with truth and honesty.
Similarly the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB yesterday said that the total compliance to the Sit-at-home directive it gave in conjunction with IPOB is an evidence that their referendum will be 100% success.
Kanu in a statement by IPOB Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, Kanu thanked members of IPOB) worldwide and prayed that the Almighty God should preserve all Biafrans, friends of Biafra and lovers of freedom all over the world, for their tenacious efforts that made the Heroes Day Sit-at-home Order a resounding success.
"Following the total compliance with this Sit-at-home order I issued when I was still in Kuje Prison Abuja, it has proven to me, IPOB members and other Biafra agitators, and lovers of Biafrans and freedom beyond every conceivable doubt that Biafra restoration is a priority to all and sundry.
"Since you have not let me down with your compliance, I promise never to let Biafra down even upon the pain of death because you never let me down. We must join hands together, with all genuine and sincere individuals and groups, to restore Biafra with truth and honesty."
He thanked all the road transporters workers, teachers, civil servants, market leaders, artisans, clergymen, businessmen, traders, tricycle operators, motorcyclists, drivers, school children, parents and all the Biafraland, transport owners, women organizations, community leaders, youths leaders in every community, Wheel barrow/truck pushers for their support.
"We also thank politicians who defied all odd and pressure from Aso Rock to make our sit-at-home order a memorable and resounding historical event. I will not hesitate to congratulate the people of Abia, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo and Rivers States including the good people of Igbanke in Edo State, Igala clan in Kogi State and Idoma/Igede/Agatu in Benue State for sending a clear and unmistakable message to the whole world that this Biafra self determination effort driven by IPOB and other agitators is uncompromising".
"The fact that our people obeyed the order to sit-at-home is a confirmation that IPOB which I lead has the mandate of all Biafrans to spearhead the ongoing Biafra restoration effort."
According to Mazi Kanu "I also wish to thank my deputy, Mazi Uche Mefor, the Directorate of State, led by Mazi Chika Edoziem and the indescribably incredible IPOB family at home and in the Diaspora who poured themselves into the streets in distant and foreign lands in more than 98 countries of the world to honour and remember our fallen heroes and heroines who paid the ultimate price during the genocidal war against our people in 1967 and 1970."
"I appreciate your enormous work because IPOB has made it possible in less than four years for every President and Head of State around the world to know about Biafra.
"I also wish to acknowledge and appreciate the presence of international observers and foreign journalists who were on ground to monitor this epic historical event. It demonstrates that the unique formula adopted by IPOB to restore Biafra is working. By the grace of Chukwu Okike Abiama, IPOB under our divine leadership will restore Biafra in no distant future.".
However MASSOB, thanked all Biafrans and supporters of Biafra restoration who complied with the Sit-at -home order of 30th May 2017 saying that it was a success beyond its imagination, even though it knew that Biafrans will comply.
In a statement by its Director of Information, Comrade Edeson Samuel MASSOB said that "the support of Biafrans has proven to Nigeria and the world that your desire for Biafra remains unshakeable no matter the threat from Nigeria security agents."
"This is also an evidence that our referendum will be 100% success and the beginning of what is about to happen in no distant time about restoration of Biafra, this is equally a lesson to the South East Governors and some few politicians who think that they are in charge, it is now clear to them that they are not, rather, the masses are in charge and they have spoken in an unmistakable terms.
"MASSOB says thank you all Ndi Biafra and we will not fail to appreciate the transport companies like G.U.O Group, The Young Shall Grow, Ekeson Group, Uchenna Motors Limited, Ifesinachi Transport Limited and many other who complied with the directive.
"We also thank the Keke drivers, bus drivers, Okada riders, the banking industries, the markets like Ogbete Main Market Enugu, Onitsha Main Market, Nkwo Nnewi Market, and all the markets at Aba, Owerri, Asaba, Port Harcourt, Nsukka, Awka and other parts of Biafra land that complied with the directive.
"We appreciate the presence of the foreign journalists who monitored the event; we will not fail to commend all the school authorities who obeyed this order and every individual who participated in one way or the other.
The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has struck out the allegation of the management of an unlawful society and five other charges brought against the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu and three others, by the Federal Government.
He urged the government to obey the ruling in good fate, stressing that the development would open a window for more negotiations.
The leader of the Biafra Independent Movement and founder of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, has dismissed, as idiotic, the allegation by members of the Indigenous People of Biafra that he is one of the masked persons who had agreed to testify in the ongoing treason case against the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
Uwazuruike described Kanu and his IPOB as fraudsters who were out to deceive gullible people.
He said if he wished to give evidence against the Director of Radio Biafra, he would have done so in the open court, rather than request to be masked.
He said he was the one who established Radio Biafra, discovered Kanu in London and appointed him as the director of the radio station, in spite of warnings by other members of MASSOB in London that Kanu was a fraudster.
"The insinuation by IPOB is not only idiotic, stupid but laughable because I am still the leader of the Biafra struggle."
"When I started MASSOB in 1999, nobody gave me the chance to succeed because after the Civil War in 1970, nobody was courageous enough to speak of Biafra; the Federal Government then had made an offer of an oil block to me so as not to resuscitate the ghost of Biafra but I had rejected the offer. I was jailed and when my mother died I was released from jail and given 90 days for the burial but I used only 70 days for the burial after which I returned to jail but the government asked me to go."
Saying that real freedom fighters were not afraid of going to jail for the cause they believed in, Uwazuruike wondered why the IPOB leader was afraid of going to jail.
"I have faced treason charges before the same Justice Binta Nyako and no true freedom fighter is afraid to go to jail for the cause they believe in; and so, why is Nnamdi afraid to face trial?
Kanu: IPOB members protest in Japan, Cote d'Ivoire
According to the secessionist movement, the sit-at-home protest was initiated to "further compound Nigeria's economic misery".
In some parts of Anambra State especially Onitsha on Friday for example, commercial activities were completely paralysed as markets, banks and schools were shut while vehicular movement reduced drastically.
In the Awka and Nnewi parts of the state, however, there was partial compliance to the order.
In neighbouring Enugu State, many traders and shop owners opened for business even though later than usual, to attend to customers.
The slow start to activities for the day was initially as a result of apprehension on the minds of many people. But soon after residents realised there was no restriction in movement, they started pouring out on to the streets. Heavily-armed policemen and other law enforcement agents could be seen patrolling major parts of the city.
In Abia, the directive was also greeted with low compliance as people went about their normal daily activities without hitch.
Checks by Saturday PUNCH revealed that schools, banks, hospitals, markets as well as motor parks opened for business without any interference from members of IPOB.
A handful of private schools however closed down for the fear of the unknown, while some business owners refused to open their shops, fearing there could be trouble.
He added that no directive was given to the market authorities to close down the market for any protest.
It was the same situation in Asaba, the Delta State capital, as many residents also went about their normal activities.
In most parts of the city visited by one of our correspondents on Friday, it was observed that business activities went on seamlessly while vehicular movements was as normal as it used to be on any day. Only few shops located within the vicinity where the group had commenced their protest in the past were shut owing to fears by its owners.
At the ever-busy popular Ogbogonogo Market along the Nnebisi Road in Asaba, many shop owners shunned the order as they shaded their goods with customers patronising them.
There was however partial compliance in Okwe, Osadennis Way and Cable Point while residents and business owners at Nnebisi, West-End, Summit, Anwai and Okpanam Roads totally defied the order. There was heavy presence of anti-riot policemen and other security agents at major strategic point across most parts of the state particularly the capital.
In Japan, some members of the movement poured out on the streets of the capital, Tokyo, in solidarity with the call.
Chanting songs of solidarity, the protesters displayed the Biafran flag, banners and other insignia synonymous with the agitation to secede from Nigeria, as they marched from end to end.
Meanwhile IPOB in a statement, congratulated the people of Biafra around the world for their supports towards the successful sit-at-home order and demand for the release Kanu.
The statement signed by the Media and Publicity Secretary of IPOB, Mr. Emma Powerful, said, "Protests took place in all the continents of the world, countries in Europe ,America, South America, Australia, some Asian and other African countries."
Spokespersons for the police in Anambra, Enugu, Abia and Delta in separate statements warned that anyone caught causing trouble or taking laws into their hands would be severely punished.
Written by Femi Fani Kayode
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- I'm waiting for Ralph Uwazuruike to disguise himself with mask to testify against me in court today, Nnamdi Kanu Thundered. MUST WATCH
- Kanu: IPOB members protest in Japan, Cote d'Ivoire
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_____________________________________
~TheGuardian Nigeria. Wednesday, January 17, 2018.
Politics in Nigeria is largely transactional. Nigerians who want to hold political positions look for and invest millions of naira in purchasing the endorsements of godfathers and distributing rice, bread, and cash to fellow citizens to vote for them.
 |
| Nnamdi Kanu |
Nigerian politics rarely attracts people who have the intention to use political control of state institutions to transform the lives of fellow citizens. Building a base of political power in Nigeria is similar to establishing 100 per cent ownership of a bank.
You acquire control of a political office and convert all levels and institution of government that fall under the control of this office into something like bank branches.
You select all the "managers" of the institutions and agencies - local governments, tax authorities, ministries, broadcasting services, state-owned enterprises, land management bureaux etc. - who deliver a chunk of their budgets to you in addition to using their resources and responsibilities to generate funds and opportunities for you.
The objective of generating funds for the political machinery of the "political lord" becomes the significant if not primary aim and consistently erodes their statutory roles (delivering quality education or healthcare services or durable roads).
First, this intensely anti-democratic process concentrates power permanently in the hands of a very few people. Anyone seeking to enter Nigerian politics must be ready to divert public resources to these political godfathers.
It also weakens the ability of state institutions to deliver services that are essential to fostering investment, creating wealth and lifting people out of poverty - durable infrastructure, high quality public school and health system, etc.
The process locks out Nigerian youths and professionals from politics. In the first 20 years of independence, people between 28 and 40 years of age were governors, federal legislators and ministers, and even President. Now, a 50 year old is considered a very young person in Nigerian politics.
The few "young" important players in politics today owe the positions to older godfathers rather than their achievements or the number of voters or party members attracted to their economic ideas or their personalities. They are also committed to the methods of the godfathers i.e. converting the resources and functions of state institutions to their personal and political uses.
Kanu, leader of the Independent Peoples of Biafra ("IPOB") has in the last five years disrupted the method of constructing political leadership in Nigeria. Kanu has managed to fire up and win the support of millions of people in South East Nigeria across socio-economic classes.
This support also extends outside Nigeria. In major western countries, Nigerians hold rallies to passionately champion the ideas of the young man they see as a political leader. He has not purchased their allegiance; rather Kanu's supporters have invested money in promoting his cause and ideas. Many have even risked their long-term economic well-being.
Very importantly, Kanu has garnered a large following through the strength and appeal of his ideas and personality. Rather than riding to fame on the "structure" of a political godfather, his rise threatened the hold of godfathers on regional and national politics.
Of course, Kanu has built a political following on an illogical and dangerous idea - the notion that the solution to Nigeria's political, social and economic dysfunction is to break up Nigeria.
The only thing this would achieve is to create a lot of mini "zoos", each with much diminished economic potential. There is little to prove that Igbo or Tiv politicians are more ethical than Yoruba and Ijaw ones and would hence transform their smaller "zoo" into Switzerland once they break away from Nigeria.
Hence, Kanu chose an old and wrong idea, "ethnic grievance" rather than "institutional performance," to mobilise citizens. Ethnic grievance is built on the emotional but mostly erroneous claim "they are cheating us" whilst institutional performance messages emphasise the delivery of economic goods (quality education and healthcare, good roads, efficient policing etc.).
Traditional politicians use ethnic grievance to deflect attention from their monopolisation of resources in their regions, state and constituency while Nnamdi Kanu has used it in a radical way to build a following that could be employed to get personal access to monopolised resources.
Just like the politicians, Kanu had no plan to deliver economic goods to the people. IPOB would have triggered a revolution in Nigerian politics if it had mobilised citizens to demand action on institutional weaknesses to delivering economic goods to Nigerians in the South East - the poor state of infrastructure, the tendency to build statues rather than roads, the lack of support for the region's abundant talents in technology and entrepreneurship etc.
Nigerian politicians have a pact never to seriously campaign or challenge each other on the basis of institutional performance; rather they use the strategy of "ethnic grievance" which is a cover for their common inadequacy.
Yet, the achievement of Kanu demonstrates that it is possible for young Nigerians to mobilize citizens on the basis of ideas and build independent political following that could break the monopolistic hold of godfathers on politics and government.
Nigerian voters respond to "ethnic grievance" mobilisation because it has been the only way traditional politicians have wooed voters. It is apparent even to, or perhaps especially to the poorest voter that this mode of political mobilisation has only impoverished Nigerians.
They must have noticed how politicians who tell them that the Ijaw, Fulani, or Idoma are their problems have kept growing rich. Aspiring politicians and new political parties and movements should develop capacities to craft messages based on institutional performance and the delivery of economic goods to the masses.
Restructuring the Nigerian Federation will create incentives for performance messages and also make them more effective because ethnic grievance messages will become less effective as the resources and policy responsibilities for development is transferred from Abuja to lower units of government.
When teaching hospitals lack diagnostic equipment and regional roads are dilapidated, it becomes very difficult to blame wicked politicians who don't like your region or ethnic group because the funds and responsibilities for building and maintaining them have been taken away from Abuja. Everyone will have an incentive to develop their zoos.
Chukwudi, a lawyer, wrote from the Peter Bauer Foundation.
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‘Nnamdi Kanu most frightening product of our…’
By Ruben Abati
~Vanguard Nigeria. Tuesday, July 4, 2017.
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| Nnamdi Kanu |
The most discussed subject in Nigeria today is what is called "restructuring" and indeed so popular is this subject that it has attracted the attention of roadside commentators, the bright, the not-so-bright, the mischievous and the outrightly unintelligent all united by the singular claim that Nigeria belongs to all of us and we all have a right to determine its future. The last person who brought up this subject with me is a mechanic in Abeokuta! He had heard about Biafra, the Arewa youths, the President's absence, Professor Osinbajo, Nnamdi Kanu, what Igbo leaders, Northern leaders and Yoruba leaders have said about restructuring and he wanted a conversation. That's how democracy works, not so? The inclusiveness is actually very good for us...
But the point I have always made stands proven: that Nigeria remains an unanswered question, more than a century after the amalgamation of 1914. Before and after independence, virtually every government has had to deal with this same question, viz, the national question. Brought together in an unwieldy, unequal and uneven union by the British, Nigeria's about 400 ethnic nationalities have been unable to transform into one nation, one union, a community of people and communities driven by a common purpose - to create a united, progressive nation, under the umbrella of patriotism and the common good.
We have fought each other since 1950 to date, we did not even all agree on independence, and since that happened, we have been at each other's throats. We ended up fighting a civil war, and from all indications we are at this moment, seemingly preparing for another one. The laziest excuse is that the British caused all our problems, but more than 50 years after independence it should be clear enough that we are the source of our collective agony.
Other countries that were at the same level with us in 1960 have since moved on and developed into better nations despite their own internal contradictions. Nigerian leaders have perpetually lived in denial. Every step forward has resulted in our country taking two steps backwards. A combination of the big-man-syndrome, the too-know syndrome, the us-before-others-mentality, ethnic politics, sectarian politics, greed, cronyism and a terrible leadership recruitment process has turned our process of nationhood into an unending struggle. Today, fewer Nigerians believe in the idea of Nigeria.
In 1977/78, the Constituent Assembly whose deliberations resulted in the 1979 Constitution almost ended with fisticuffs. The 2005 National Political Reforms Conference did not fare better either, as the Niger Delta conferees staged a walk-out and the politics of Third Term or no Third Term sabotaged the entire process. In 2014, the outcomes of yet another National Conference could not be followed through because a succeeding administration declared it would not even look at the report. At every stage when it looks as if this country is faced with an opportunity to address the national question, certain interest groups erect the roadblocks of denial and wishful thinking. No country can live perpetually in denial. This is the message of former Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union and their disintegration. As for the military, they merely worsened Nigerian politics.
Fifty years after the outbreak of the civil war, we now have a man called Nnamdi Kanu. He may well end up as Nigeria's nemesis. He is the most frightening product of our many years and acts of denial and he may well throw the country into a nightmare worse than Boko Haram, if care is not taken. He started out as the leader of a group called the Indigenous People of Biafra and as director of Radio Biafra. He and those who bought into his rhetoric of secession and the renewal of the Biafra dream organized protests across the world, and they looked, from afar, like a group of disgruntled Nigerians in diaspora. In the foreign lands where most of the members lived, they looked like persons over-enjoying the freedom of speech from a safe distance. They didn't appear to have the force of MASSOB, which is locally based and seemingly more malleable. The renewed struggle for Biafra that Kanu and his crowd talked about could have been nothing more than an internet and television revolution. But everything went wrong the moment Nnamdi Kanu chose to visit home and he was arrested, detained and taken through a court trial.
Whoever ordered Nnamdi Kanu's arrest and prosecution did this country a bad turn. Kanu is a character that could have been better ignored. His trial and travails have turned him into a hero and a living martyr among Igbos. And the young man so far, understands the game. Since he was released on bail, he has been taunting the Nigerian state and government. Daily, he dares those who granted him bail and he laughs at the conditions they gave him. He associates with more than 10 persons. He moves about Igboland freely, like a spirit. He addresses rallies and grants interviews. He has been busy issuing statements. On May 30, he ordered a shut-down of the entire South Eastern region and that order was obeyed not only in the South East but also in parts of the South-South, and Abuja.
Nnamdi Kanu is certainly capable of doing more damage to the system than the MASSOB, OPC, and such other groups, and should he push things further, he could ignite a crisis worse than Boko Haram. My gut feeling is that some people in certain places are beginning to realize this and that is why Nnamdi Kanu out of detention appears untouchable; it is the reason he is able to dare the state, and ridicule his bail conditions
Nnamdi Kanu who probably barely struggled to survive as a black man in Europe, has been turned by the Nigerian Government into a credible apostle of a resurgent Biafran revolution. The other day when he held a meeting in Umuahia, over 5,000 persons trooped to his compound. Kanu is a master of symbolism. He is exploiting the Jewish symbol: to signal to the world that Igbos are being persecuted. He visits symbolic sites of the civil war to prick the injured part of the Igbo consciousness and mobilise the people. His pre-eminence is a comment on the quality of the state and its strategic intelligence system. If he succeeds with his threats, we should know those to blame. A few days ago, someone on social media further compared him to Jesus Christ and described him as the true saviour. Every revolutionary in history graduates from ordinariness to being messianic, propelled by opiumized endorsement.
Nnamdi Kanu is certainly capable of doing more damage to the system than the MASSOB, OPC, and such other groups, and should he push things further, he could ignite a crisis worse than Boko Haram. My gut feeling is that some people in certain places are beginning to realize this and that is why Nnamdi Kanu out of detention appears untouchable; it is the reason he is able to dare the state, and ridicule his bail conditions. The lesson here is obvious enough: the brazen use of force and intimidation to deal with certain situations could create really bad unintended consequences.
The Federal Government under Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has been holding meetings with key stakeholders within the Federation. The consultations are in order, but the Acting President is yet to talk to the right people. He is talking to people who carry their international passports in their pockets because they don't know what tomorrow promises in Nigeria. He is consulting persons whose family members are mostly one-leg-in-one-leg-out Nigerians; many of them in fact have dual nationality. Nigeria is their trading post, the place where they make the money they and their children spend in Dubai, UK and wherever.
The people the Federal Government should be talking to are the angry Igbo youths who now kneel down to greet Nnamdi Kanu and call him their god, the Arewa youths who have told the Igbos to get out of Nigeria and get away, and who have called the Yoruba names while further insisting that they are not afraid of the Nigerian government arresting them. The people to talk to are the leaders of the various other groups who are taking sides. Leaders of the Middle Belt and the South South are holding talks; some Yorubas are planning to hold theirs this week in Ibadan. Draw the map of the emerging rhetoric in Nigeria today; what you have is a divided country. The scenario is so painfully reminiscent of the early 60s. Every Nigerian leader since the civil war has boasted that he would not preside over the dismemberment of Nigeria. Some of those leaders have suddenly started saying restructuring is the answer, how nice!- the same restructuring they never wanted and that they didn't want as at 2015.
Crisis management is an important part of nation-building. We have failed to manage most of the crises that have befallen our nation, on a sustainable basis, and that is why every proverbial snake that is killed suddenly resurrects. It is the reason we have produced a country where the population of the aggrieved appears to be growing daily. It is the reason Nnamdi Kanu and his followers have become the fish-bone in the throat of government. As things stand, there is no stronger voice in Igboland today than that of Nnamdi Kanu. The Igbo elites and the self-styled political leaders of the East know that Kanu is more influential than all of them put together. How many among them can command a willing crowd of 5, 000 to their doorsteps? The politicians hire crowds, but the crowds go to Kanu and obey him.
With the kind of influence he wields, Kanu is in a position to dictate the political future of the South East. The same political leaders who posed for photographs at the Aso Villa will go to him at night and beg him to support their candidates if future elections hold in that region. They will condemn Kanu during the day, but lick his boots at night.
The ancillary challenge however is the worsening trend of ethnic polarization with regards to the control of power at the centre. I describe this as the conflict between the na-my-brother-dey-there syndrome and the no-be-my-brother reactive tendency. It used to be the case in this country up till the time President Olusegun Obasanjo left in 2007, that whoever held power in Abuja was openly and strongly supported by other Nigerians, regardless of ethnicity or religion. Obasanjo got more support from outside Yorubaland, and probably felt more reassured by persons from outside his own ethnic group and religion.
With the death of President Yar'Adua in office, ethnicity, a long-standing threat to Nigerian unity became more potent. The Boko Haram, with its base in the Northern part of the country gave the succeeding Jonathan administration hell. With the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, the same Boko Haram suddenly became tame. Curiously, the militants of the South East and the South South, who had been significantly quiet during the Jonathan years, also became more vocal and calls for secession became more strident the moment their kinsman and in-law left office. By the same token, the conflict between pastoralists and farmers, an old problem, became worse, with the former asserting themselves more arrogantly for no reason other than that they are sure of better protection under a central government controlled by the North. Our point: Nigeria's stability should not be so dependent on the whims and caprices of ethnic gladiators. No Nigerian President should be at the mercy of ethnic or religious politics, now or in the future.
The debate about restructuring and renegotiations is therefore useful and most relevant. It is indeed urgent if we must take the wind out of the sail of the secessionists and nihilists. Those who have always blocked or hijacked the people's conference must by now realize that we are close to "the point of no return" on a review and rephrasing of the Nigerian question, in order to make every Nigerian feel a part of the Nigerian project. The alternative in all possible shapes appears ominous.
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Biafra restoration priority to all and sundry – Nnamdi Kanu
Written by Chimaobi Nwaiwu
~Vanguard Nigeria. Wednesday, May 31, 2017.
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| Former Vice President Alex Ekwueme and Independent People of Biafra's leader, Nnamdi Kanu during Kanu's visit to the former Vice President, in Enugu on Wednesday |
Nnewi – The Leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB and Director of Radio Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Wednesday said that the total compliance with this Sit-at-home directive he issued while still in Kuje Prison Abuja, has proven to him and Biafra agitators beyond every conceivable doubt that Biafra restoration is a priority to all and sundry.
Kanu also promise never to let Biafra down, even upon the pain of death, since they have never let him down by their compliance, and therefore, will reciprocate their gesture by staking his life to the struggle,urging all Biafrans to join hands together with all genuine and sincere individuals and groups, to restore Biafra with truth and honesty.
Similarly the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB yesterday said that the total compliance to the Sit-at-home directive it gave in conjunction with IPOB is an evidence that their referendum will be 100% success.
It added that “it is the beginning of what is about to happen in no distant time about restoration of Biafra, and equally a lesson to the South East Governors and some few politicians who think that they are in charge,but it is now clear to them that they are not, rather, the masses are in charge and they have spoken in an unmistakable terms.”
Kanu in a statement by IPOB Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, Kanu thanked members of IPOB) worldwide and prayed that the Almighty God should preserve all Biafrans, friends of Biafra and lovers of freedom all over the world, for their tenacious efforts that made the Heroes Day Sit-at-home Order a resounding success.
"Following the total compliance with this Sit-at-home order I issued when I was still in Kuje Prison Abuja, it has proven to me, IPOB members and other Biafra agitators, and lovers of Biafrans and freedom beyond every conceivable doubt that Biafra restoration is a priority to all and sundry.
"Since you have not let me down with your compliance, I promise never to let Biafra down even upon the pain of death because you never let me down. We must join hands together, with all genuine and sincere individuals and groups, to restore Biafra with truth and honesty."
He thanked all the road transporters workers, teachers, civil servants, market leaders, artisans, clergymen, businessmen, traders, tricycle operators, motorcyclists, drivers, school children, parents and all the Biafraland, transport owners, women organizations, community leaders, youths leaders in every community, Wheel barrow/truck pushers for their support.
"We also thank politicians who defied all odd and pressure from Aso Rock to make our sit-at-home order a memorable and resounding historical event. I will not hesitate to congratulate the people of Abia, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo and Rivers States including the good people of Igbanke in Edo State, Igala clan in Kogi State and Idoma/Igede/Agatu in Benue State for sending a clear and unmistakable message to the whole world that this Biafra self determination effort driven by IPOB and other agitators is uncompromising".
"The fact that our people obeyed the order to sit-at-home is a confirmation that IPOB which I lead has the mandate of all Biafrans to spearhead the ongoing Biafra restoration effort."
According to Mazi Kanu "I also wish to thank my deputy, Mazi Uche Mefor, the Directorate of State, led by Mazi Chika Edoziem and the indescribably incredible IPOB family at home and in the Diaspora who poured themselves into the streets in distant and foreign lands in more than 98 countries of the world to honour and remember our fallen heroes and heroines who paid the ultimate price during the genocidal war against our people in 1967 and 1970."
"I appreciate your enormous work because IPOB has made it possible in less than four years for every President and Head of State around the world to know about Biafra.
"I also wish to acknowledge and appreciate the presence of international observers and foreign journalists who were on ground to monitor this epic historical event. It demonstrates that the unique formula adopted by IPOB to restore Biafra is working. By the grace of Chukwu Okike Abiama, IPOB under our divine leadership will restore Biafra in no distant future.".
However MASSOB, thanked all Biafrans and supporters of Biafra restoration who complied with the Sit-at -home order of 30th May 2017 saying that it was a success beyond its imagination, even though it knew that Biafrans will comply.
In a statement by its Director of Information, Comrade Edeson Samuel MASSOB said that "the support of Biafrans has proven to Nigeria and the world that your desire for Biafra remains unshakeable no matter the threat from Nigeria security agents."
"This is also an evidence that our referendum will be 100% success and the beginning of what is about to happen in no distant time about restoration of Biafra, this is equally a lesson to the South East Governors and some few politicians who think that they are in charge, it is now clear to them that they are not, rather, the masses are in charge and they have spoken in an unmistakable terms.
"MASSOB says thank you all Ndi Biafra and we will not fail to appreciate the transport companies like G.U.O Group, The Young Shall Grow, Ekeson Group, Uchenna Motors Limited, Ifesinachi Transport Limited and many other who complied with the directive.
"We also thank the Keke drivers, bus drivers, Okada riders, the banking industries, the markets like Ogbete Main Market Enugu, Onitsha Main Market, Nkwo Nnewi Market, and all the markets at Aba, Owerri, Asaba, Port Harcourt, Nsukka, Awka and other parts of Biafra land that complied with the directive.
"We appreciate the presence of the foreign journalists who monitored the event; we will not fail to commend all the school authorities who obeyed this order and every individual who participated in one way or the other.
"We assure you that this sacrifice you made will never be in vain, people all over the world have seen that nobody, not even the saboteurs who were disassociating themselves from the Sit-at-home will stop MASSOB and IPOB because Biafra is greater than any individual or group."
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Court strikes out six charges against IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu
~TheGuardian Nigeria. Thursday, March 2, 2017>
The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has struck out the allegation of the management of an unlawful society and five other charges brought against the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu and three others, by the Federal Government.
According to the offence, which was number three in the 11-count charge, Kanu managed an unlawful society alongside his co-defendants in 2012, in London, South East and South-South Nigeria, pursuant to his secessionist agenda, with intent to bringing into being, a Republic of Biafra out of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The development raises the hope of Kanu being freed from detention at the end of his trial .
The charges were struck out yesterday following a preliminary objection filed by Kanu and two others challenging the charges slammed against them.
The Federal Government had filed an 11-count charge bordering on terrorism, treasonable felony, managing an unlawful society, publication of defamatory matter, illegal possession of firearms and improper importation of goods, against the defendants.
Justice Binta Nyako at the resumed sitting yesterday ruled that the prosecution had failed to show proof that IPOB was either unlawful, unregistered or had been proscribed.
The judge also struck out counts six, seven, nine, 10 and 11 while sustaining counts one, two, four, five and eight of the charges, which the prosecution had placed before the court.
Count six had alleged that one Benjamin Madubugwu – third defendant, accepted and kept a container housing a radio transmitter known as TRAM 50L, with the knowledge that the said radio transmitter was to be used for radio broadcasts and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 63 of the Criminal Code Act, Cap C38, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
Count seven bordered on illegal possession of firearms, contrary to Section 27 (b) (i) of the fire Arms Act.
Count Nine alleged that Onwudiwe Chidiebere – the second defendant and the National Coordinator of IPOB, in June 2015 at Enugu, knowingly committed an act preparatory to an act of terrorism by carrying out research for the purpose of identifying and gathering of improvised explosives device (IED) making materials to be used against the Nigerian security operatives carrying out their lawful duties.
Justice Nyako ruled that some of the charges against the defendants that bordered on intentions to commit crimes would be better handled at the magistrate's court and not at the Federal High court level.
The court added that the total of six counts, which were struck out did not call for trial due to lack of evidence in the proof of evidence filed by the prosecution.
It also held that six of the 11 charges disclosed no prima facie case and the elements of offences against the defendants.
"Therefore, those charges cannot stand and are consequently struck out", the judge ruled.
Thereafter, the four defendants pleaded not guilty to the remaining charges, one of which read in part: "That you Nnamdi Kanu ,'M', Onwudiwe Chidiebere 'M', Banjamin Madubugwu, 'M', David Nwawuisi ,'M' and others now at large on diverse dates in 2014 and 2015 in Nigeria and London ,United Kingdom, did conspire amongst yourselves to broadcast on Radio Biafra monitored in Enugu and other areas within the jurisdiction of this court preparations being made by you and others at large, for states in the South-East and South-South zones and other communities in Kogi and Benue states to secede from the Federal Republic of Nigeria with a view to constituting same into a Republic of Biafra and you thereby committed an offence punishable under section 516 of the Criminal Code Act CAP .C38 laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2000."
Justice Nyako later adjourned trial till March 20 and 21 following a request by the prosecution counsel, Shuabu Labaran, for time to enable him to call witnesses.
While the judge promised to entertain defendants' fresh applications for bail, she, however, noted that such would not stop the trial from proceeding. The judge also upheld the earlier order which allows at least four members of the defendants' families to witness the trial.
Efforts to get the reaction of the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo to the development in court failed as the President General, Chief Nnia Nwodo, neither answered calls to his mobile line nor responded to a text message.
But the immediate past secretary general of the group, Dr. Joe Nworgu, told The Guardian that the Ohanaeze Ndigbo had always insisted that Kanu should be released unconditionally.
He urged the government to obey the ruling in good fate, stressing that the development would open a window for more negotiations.
Also, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), which welcomed the development, urged the judge to strike out the remaining charges, insisting that Kanu did not commit any of the offences brought against him.
Leader of MASSOB, Uchenna Madu said in a short statement that the group would always press for the release of Kanu and other agitators being held in various prisons across the country.
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Kanu, IPOB supporters are fraudsters, says Ralph Uwazuruike, leader and founder of MASSOB
Written by Gibson Achonu, Owerri
~Punch Nigeria. Wednesday, January 11, 2017.
The leader of the Biafra Independent Movement and founder of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, has dismissed, as idiotic, the allegation by members of the Indigenous People of Biafra that he is one of the masked persons who had agreed to testify in the ongoing treason case against the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
Uwazuruike described Kanu and his IPOB as fraudsters who were out to deceive gullible people.
He said if he wished to give evidence against the Director of Radio Biafra, he would have done so in the open court, rather than request to be masked.
The Director of Media, IPOB, Emma Powerful, had in a recent statement issued in Owerri, alleged that the MASSOB/BIM leader, Uwazuruike, and one Mr. Chijioke Mbaneri, from Enugu State and some others had agreed with the DSS to hide under a screen to give evidence during the ongoing treason trial of Kanu before Justice Binta Nyako in Abuja.
Uwazuruike, who addressed newsmen in Owerri on Tuesday, however, dismissed the claim by IPOB, describing it as not only idiotic, stupid but also laughable.
He said he was the one who established Radio Biafra, discovered Kanu in London and appointed him as the director of the radio station, in spite of warnings by other members of MASSOB in London that Kanu was a fraudster.
Uwazuruike said, "I was the one who discovered Nnamdi Kanu in 2009, 10 years after I had started MASSOB when I travelled to London. I gave the money to establish Radio Biafra, rented a house for him and bought him a car because he was jobless and into Yahoo-Yahoo. He was not in school and had no degree.
"When I appointed him as the Director of Radio Biafra, Benjamin and others refused to work under him because they said he was a fraudster. So, he is nobody and I can't travel to Abuja to give evidence against him and worst of all to wear a mask to do that.
"The insinuation by IPOB is not only idiotic, stupid but laughable because I am still the leader of the Biafra struggle."
The MASSOB leader said at the end of the Civil War in 1970, there was no Igbo man that was courageous enough to talk of Biafra until he started the movement in 1999.
"When I started MASSOB in 1999, nobody gave me the chance to succeed because after the Civil War in 1970, nobody was courageous enough to speak of Biafra; the Federal Government then had made an offer of an oil block to me so as not to resuscitate the ghost of Biafra but I had rejected the offer. I was jailed and when my mother died I was released from jail and given 90 days for the burial but I used only 70 days for the burial after which I returned to jail but the government asked me to go."
Saying that real freedom fighters were not afraid of going to jail for the cause they believed in, Uwazuruike wondered why the IPOB leader was afraid of going to jail.
"I have faced treason charges before the same Justice Binta Nyako and no true freedom fighter is afraid to go to jail for the cause they believe in; and so, why is Nnamdi afraid to face trial?
"I sacked him because he wanted MASSOB to employ violence; today where is Onwuka who wanted to use violence?," he said.
Uwazuruike said MASSOB did not need violence to achieve the independent Biafra state as was being canvassed by the detained Director of Radio Biafra.
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I'm waiting for Ralph Uwazuruike to disguise himself with mask to testify against me in court today, Nnamdi Kanu Thundered. MUST WATCH
By Cynthia Anyikwa on facebook
I'm waiting for Ralph Uwazuruike to disguise himself with mask to testify against me in court today, Nnamdi Kanu Thundered. MUST WATCH...
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Kanu: IPOB members protest in Japan, Cote d'Ivoire
Written by Eric Dumo, Tony Okafor, Ihuoma Chiedozie, Ogbonnaya Ikokwu and Ovie Okpare
~Punch Nigeria. Sunday, September 25, 2016.
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| IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu |
Mixed reactions on Friday greeted a directive by the Indigenous People of Biafra for sons and daughters of Igbo origin around the world to sit at home in protest of the continued detention of the leader of the movement, Nnamdi Kanu, and other pro-Biafra agitators.
According to the secessionist movement, the sit-at-home protest was initiated to "further compound Nigeria's economic misery".
In some parts of Anambra State especially Onitsha on Friday for example, commercial activities were completely paralysed as markets, banks and schools were shut while vehicular movement reduced drastically.
In the Awka and Nnewi parts of the state, however, there was partial compliance to the order.
In neighbouring Enugu State, many traders and shop owners opened for business even though later than usual, to attend to customers.
The slow start to activities for the day was initially as a result of apprehension on the minds of many people. But soon after residents realised there was no restriction in movement, they started pouring out on to the streets. Heavily-armed policemen and other law enforcement agents could be seen patrolling major parts of the city.
In Abia, the directive was also greeted with low compliance as people went about their normal daily activities without hitch.
Checks by Saturday PUNCH revealed that schools, banks, hospitals, markets as well as motor parks opened for business without any interference from members of IPOB.
A handful of private schools however closed down for the fear of the unknown, while some business owners refused to open their shops, fearing there could be trouble.
At Ohia auto spare parts market along Enugu Port-Harcourt Expressway, a market leader, Victor Elewor, said the area comprises people with diverse views about the Biafra agitation, and as a result nobody could force anyone to obey the sit-at-home order by IPOB.
He added that no directive was given to the market authorities to close down the market for any protest.
It was the same situation in Asaba, the Delta State capital, as many residents also went about their normal activities.
In most parts of the city visited by one of our correspondents on Friday, it was observed that business activities went on seamlessly while vehicular movements was as normal as it used to be on any day. Only few shops located within the vicinity where the group had commenced their protest in the past were shut owing to fears by its owners.
At the ever-busy popular Ogbogonogo Market along the Nnebisi Road in Asaba, many shop owners shunned the order as they shaded their goods with customers patronising them.
There was however partial compliance in Okwe, Osadennis Way and Cable Point while residents and business owners at Nnebisi, West-End, Summit, Anwai and Okpanam Roads totally defied the order. There was heavy presence of anti-riot policemen and other security agents at major strategic point across most parts of the state particularly the capital.
In Japan, some members of the movement poured out on the streets of the capital, Tokyo, in solidarity with the call.
Chanting songs of solidarity, the protesters displayed the Biafran flag, banners and other insignia synonymous with the agitation to secede from Nigeria, as they marched from end to end.
Meanwhile IPOB in a statement, congratulated the people of Biafra around the world for their supports towards the successful sit-at-home order and demand for the release Kanu.
The statement signed by the Media and Publicity Secretary of IPOB, Mr. Emma Powerful, said, "Protests took place in all the continents of the world, countries in Europe ,America, South America, Australia, some Asian and other African countries."
Spokespersons for the police in Anambra, Enugu, Abia and Delta in separate statements warned that anyone caught causing trouble or taking laws into their hands would be severely punished.
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Nnamdi Kanu and The Cry For Biafra
Fani-Kayode was Minister of Aviation in the Obasanjo administration
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| The Indigenous People of Biafra on a Peaceful Protest ... |
Iam not a Biafran andneither am I Igbo. I do however believe that it is the inalienable right of any human being or ethnic nationality to aspire to be free and to be able to determine its own destiny. The right to self-determination is enshrined in international law and it is guaranteed by every moral stricture known to man.
It is a right that has been exercised successfully over and over again in world history and it has led to the creation of new nations which were carved out of older ones. The denial of that right and the suppression and persecution of those who attempt to exercise it leads to nothing but defiance, dissent and resistance and, if not properly managed, it eventually spills over into war and carnage.
This has been the primary cause of most of history's most brutal civil wars, including the American, Russian, French, English, Indian, Sri Lankan, Sudanese, Nigerian, Angolan, Congolese, Zimbabwean, Yugoslavian, Ukrainian, Nicaraguan, Cuban, Irish, Syrian, Libyan, Indonesian, Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish, Iraqi, Italian, Lebanese ones and countless others. I do not believe in violent change and neither do I believe in war, revolution, terror or the use of arms in the pursuance of even the most noble causes.
I do however believe in the power of ideas and the right of any man, woman or people to yearn to be free from bondage and to peacefully and freely express that yearning. It is in this context that I situate my belief in and support for those that view the Nigerian federation as an oppressive entity which has effectively enslaved its people in an attempt to create what is essentially an artificial and unworkable state.
Those that believe in Nigeria have every right to continue to do so and to voice their resolve to keep Nigeria one. What they do not have the right to do is to refuse to offer the same degree of freedom of expression to those that do not believe in a united Nigeria and who instead believe in the peaceful dissolution of our nation to speak their minds and voice their views. What is good for the goose is surely good for the gander. You cannot grant one side of the divide freedom of expression whilst you deny it to the other.
This is all the more so because freedom of expression is the lifeblood of any democracy. It must be accorded in equal measure to those that believe in Nigeria and to those that do not. It is in this light that we must consider the plight of Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, the Director of Radio Biafra and the man that has been described by the Igbo World Assembly as ''Buhari's first political prisoner''.
We may not like his style, we may not like his radio station, we may not share his views or approve of his methods but one thing that we cannot take from Mr. Kanu is his right to hold such views and to express them in a peaceful and lawful manner no matter how distasteful those views may be to some. To deny him this most basic human right is not only an act of intellectual terrorism but it is also the most grave and barbaric manifestation of what is essentially an evolving police state where different or contrary views cannot be accommodated by those in power.
When Mr. Alex Salmon and his Scottish Nationalist Party began the agitation for the dissolution of the United Kingdom and for the establishment of Scottish independence many years ago, they were not charged to court, locked up indefinitely or murdered by the British authorities but instead they were eventually given the opportunity to participate in a referendum and test their ideas. The same thing happened in the Catalan region of Spain where the agitation for the establishment of a new nation is compelling and very popular.
The same thing happened a number of years ago in the Quebec region of Canada. It also happened in a region called East Timor which opted to leave Indonesia and in Singapore which opted to leave Malaysia. The same process was adopted when Georgia, the Ukraine and all the other former Soviet states opted to leave Russia and when the Czech Republic opted to break off from Slovakia. The utility and importance of conducting a referendum on such matters in order to determine the true will of the people and to honor the findings of that referendum cannot be underestimated and it remains the only path for peace.
Sadly, President Buhari who, like most in his generation, are still stuck in the mindset of a civil war general, has refused to learn from this. It is rather absurd to lock up Mr. Kanu indefinitely and to effectively throw the key away simply because he dared to call for the establishment of Biafra.
As far as I am aware Mr. Kanu has not used or advocated the use of violence whilst expressing himself and neither have any his supporters. One therefore wonders what has panicked the Federal Government to such a point that they not only have to lock him up but that they also have to violate the law of the land by not allowing him to see his lawyer and by not presenting him before a court of law and charging him within the constitutionally-prescribed three days.
State-sponsored violence and intimidation, the violation of human rights, illegal incarceration, the murder of innocents and the vicious suppression of legitimate ideas leads to nothing but hardened hearts, greater defiance and the spread of anger and dissent. The principle is simple and clear: the more you fan the flame of tyranny and repression the more the passion and fire of liberty spreads.
It follows that the biggest favor that President Buhari's security agencies could have done for the Biafran cause was to lock up Mr. Kanu and thereby transform him from being a little-known secessionist into the living symbol of the Biafran struggle, a respected freedom fighter, a champion of the Igbo people and an internationally-acclaimed political prisoner.
It is no wonder that leading politicians from all over the world, including the former Home Secretary and former Leader of the Labor Party in the United Kingdom, Mrs. Harriet Harman QC, have called for his release. The Russian and Israeli governments have also expressed concern and done the same.
Their call was the right and proper thing to do and I add my voice to that call. I have never met or spoken to Mr. Kanu but I am moved by his passion and courage. I am also persuaded by the logic and force of his public assertions.
It is left for those that do not agree with him to make a better case and to stem the Biafran tide. That is the monumental challenge that those that do not agree with Mr. Kanu's views or his methods have. I have not always been on the same page with our Igbo brothers, yet one thing is clear: only the callous would deny the fact that they have suffered immeasurably in the Nigerian federation over the last 50 years.
Only the uninformed would deny the fact that they have been butchered, murdered, persecuted, broken, humiliated, insulted, cheated and treated with contempt and disdain more than any other ethnic group in the country since July 1966.
What the Nigerian state is confronted with in the new generation of Igbo who refuse to be cowed is a time-bomb. Unlike their fathers they cannot be appeased or intimidated. They are not prepared to settle for crumbs and neither do they fear death, conflict, defeat, incarceration, butchery or persecution.
They are imbued with a spirit that cannot be suppressed and the more they cry ''Biafra'', the more the spirits of the millions that were slaughtered on the Biafran side during the civil war are invoked. The more they cry ''Biafra'', the more the souls of the hundreds of thousands of their people that were butchered during the pogroms in the North in the mid-60s and thereafter are remembered. The more they cry ''Biafra'', the more they remember how their fathers were stripped of everything after the civil war and how they have been denied the opportunity to rise to the highest office in the land. The more they cry ''Biafra'', the more they acknowledge and recognise the bitter fact that the Buhari administration regard their kith and kin as nothing more than third class citizens and pitiable prisoners of war. The worst thing that the Nigerian authorities can do is to treat them with levity or contempt.
They are angry, they are fed up, they refuse to be enslaved, they want a brighter future and they have come to realise that they have nothing to lose. The most inappropriate thing that President Buhari can do is to continue to underestimate the power of their resolve or the clarity of their intent. The worst thing that they can do is to begin to jail them, to shed their blood and to take their lives.
The more you lock up the Biafrans, the more they will rise up. The more you mock them, the more they will shout. The more you treat them like slaves, the more they will aspire to break off and take their destiny into their own hands.
This is a fact that we must all accept and it is with this in mind that I urge President Buhari and the Federal Government to not only release Mr. Nnamdi Kanu but also to tread with the utmost restraint and caution when dealing with those that are agitating for Biafra.
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THE ARREST AND DETENTION OF NNAMDI KANU
nstead of tackling the myriad problems besetting Nigeria, President Buhari goes about looking for whom to arrest and detain. Buhari has not jettisoned his dictatorial tendencies, as he wants to gag the press and abolish freedom of speech and association. He still thinks that he's a military ruler. The arrest of Nnamdi Kalu for operating Radio Biafra was a catastrophic blunder by this administration, as Buhari has given the young man a celebrity status unwittingly. Nnamdi Kanu, the Director of Biafra Television and the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), was apprehended by the Department of State Services (DSS), after he had flown from the UK, where he lives, to Lagos. He was detained at the Tullip Hotel of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Hotel, Lagos, on Wednesday, 13th October, 2015, and was later flown to Abuja. We learnt that he's being held in an underground cell, and, in the midst of other hardened criminals, and, that he's not eating the food they are offering to him, fearing that he might be poisoned. It's remarkable how Nnamdi Kanu has been making Buhari tremulous all along! According to Vanguard, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is a separatist movement that call for the independence of Nigeria's former Eastern Region - proclaimed the Republic of Biafra in 1967 and re-annexed to Nigeria three years later, following a civil war that claimed between one and three million lives.
President Buhari, as the fugleman or leader, should beware of his actions and utterances. Nothing lasts forever. President Buhari might heed the warning of Proverbs 16:18: "Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall"(New Living Translation), and, George Ayittey (1945) wrote that "Dictators cause the world's worst problems: all the collapsed states, and all the devastated economies……leaving in their wake trails of wanton destruction, horrendous carnage and human debris". The President should know that all those people protesting in the former Eastern Region today are not only doing that because of Nnamdi Kanu, but, are also using the opportunity to vent out their disappointment, frustration, anger and hatred for the ruling class for the hardship they're going through in the midst of plenty. Those spontaneous demonstrations can bring the real change (not the APC change), assuming that the downtrodden of Nigeria are not viewing everything affecting the people on the other side through a tribalistic prism.
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THE ARREST AND DETENTION OF NNAMDI KANU
Written by Temple Chima Ubochi - Bonn Germany
Email: ubochit@hotmail.de
If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all (Noam Chomsky)Laws to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all legal professions of history have based their job security (Frank Herbert)
It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve (Henry George)
nstead of tackling the myriad problems besetting Nigeria, President Buhari goes about looking for whom to arrest and detain. Buhari has not jettisoned his dictatorial tendencies, as he wants to gag the press and abolish freedom of speech and association. He still thinks that he's a military ruler. The arrest of Nnamdi Kalu for operating Radio Biafra was a catastrophic blunder by this administration, as Buhari has given the young man a celebrity status unwittingly. Nnamdi Kanu, the Director of Biafra Television and the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), was apprehended by the Department of State Services (DSS), after he had flown from the UK, where he lives, to Lagos. He was detained at the Tullip Hotel of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Hotel, Lagos, on Wednesday, 13th October, 2015, and was later flown to Abuja. We learnt that he's being held in an underground cell, and, in the midst of other hardened criminals, and, that he's not eating the food they are offering to him, fearing that he might be poisoned. It's remarkable how Nnamdi Kanu has been making Buhari tremulous all along! According to Vanguard, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is a separatist movement that call for the independence of Nigeria's former Eastern Region - proclaimed the Republic of Biafra in 1967 and re-annexed to Nigeria three years later, following a civil war that claimed between one and three million lives.
Mr. Kanu has been granted bail, but, hasn't been released, as he's yet to meet the bail conditions, and, he has been denied access to a lawyer. His arrest has led to pro-Biafra rallies and demonstrations in Port Harcourt, Asaba, Onitsha, Enugu, Aba, Owerri, Umuahia and all over Igbo land. Unfortunately, those rallies and demonstrations have led to the killing and maiming of some of the pro-Biafra demonstrators, as I learnt that the federal government that Buhari is leading has ordered police to shoot unarmed people protesting for the release of the Director of Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
The Nigeria Police goes on shooting unarmed pro-Biafra activists and demonstrators, but, when it comes to facing Boko Haram, the police personnel will run away from duty or give bribe for re-deployment. Buhari went to the United Nations some weeks ago to preach for freedom for the Palestine people, and their right to have their own nation, while here in Nigeria, he's doing something else, and he ordered the arrested of a young man who is only using his Radio Station to bring hope, enlightenment and knowledge to his people. How can Buhari make a speech at the United Nations supporting freedom, and self determination for other peoples, but, in his own country, peaceful demonstrators against the unlawful detention of Nnamdi Kanu, who is asking for the freedom and the self determination of his people, are being shot, maimed or arrested? The whole thing smacks of self deception at its best.
Buhari has turned Nnamdi Kanu into an instant hero; even the Member of the British Parliament representing Nnamdi Kanu's constituency has joined the fray among other world leaders. We just read where the Member of Parliament representing Camberbell and Peckham in the British House of Commons, Ms. Harriet Harman, has petitioned the House of Common for the illegal detention her constituent member is exposed to in Nigeria. The British MP had in her petition requested that the Nigerian government immediately release Nnamdi Kanu or charge him to court for offences committed.
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| Click on image to view in full http://www.elombah.com/index.php/gallery/ 1862-buhari-shocked-as-british-mp-demands- nnamdi-kanu-s-unconditional-release |
For those who were fooled initially by the messiah-like portrayal of Buhari, and who now remain concerned over the direction of Nigeria under a President, whose leadership resembles that of an imperialistic president, what more could be expected from one elected to Aso Rock, whose perceived self image is paramount, and who had never before even managed anything well? One thing is that history tells us that narcissistic pride (love) of self and false aura of superiority, such as surrounds and abides in President Buhari, is bound to be pierced in time. In the midst of turmoil and unrest Buhari is creating, the people of Biafra haven't given up hope, as some believe that the "bone shall rise again". Only time will tell!
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Pro-Biafra agitators are miscreants – Obasanjo
Written by Segun Olugbile and Tunde Odesola
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| Former President Olusegun Obasanjo |
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has described pro-Biafra agitators as miscreants who should be ignored.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with our correspondents at his Hilltop residence in Abeokuta, on Wednesday, Obasanjo described the agitations by the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra and other self-determination groups as misplaced.
According to Obasanjo, equating the agitations by pro-Biafra groups with the agitations that led to the Civil War amounted to making a mountain out of a molehill.
He said, “This is a fake agitation. You people make a mountain out of a molehill. These are boys who want to take people unaware and get money out of them in the name of Biafra. These are the people you should ignore, I don’t talk about Biafra. (Philip) Effiong came and said Biafra ceased to exist and since that day, Biafra has ceased to exist.”
It will be recalled that the Biafra leader as of the time the war ended, Philip Effiong, surrendered to Obasanjo by calling off the war.
Obasanjo said that in the spirit of “No victor, no vanquished,” the Nigerian nation absorbed Igbo people into the civil service and the military after the war, adding that there were no promises made to the then secessionists that the Nigerian state had not fulfilled.
He said, “We absorbed those we should absorb both into the civil service and into the military. Even those we didn’t absorb, who we initially regarded as being retired without benefits, later on we even gave them their benefits. Abandoned houses were returned. Within 10 years of the end of our Civil War, an Igbo man became the vice-president of our country.
“It took the Americans 100 years before they got to that point. So, what are you talking about? They have held all the ministerial positions existing in this country. We have Igbo as the Governor of Central Bank, Igbo has headed many parastatals in this country.
“That’s why these miscreants should be ignored. They want to get money and they go round and say, ‘We are still being victimised. We are still being treated badly in Nigeria,’ so that they can take money from people.”
Absolving Igbo leaders of complicity in the agitation, Obasanjo said they (Igbo leaders) were not in support of the agitation.
“I won’t blame the Igbo leaders. I will ignore them (the agitators). Igbo leaders that I’ve talked about, I mean the ones I’ve mentioned; Joe Irukwu won’t go out and do that type of thing, and many of them. The people who are doing this are the same people you will find in 419 business, they are the same people you will find in drugs all over the world. To them, this is another source of money for them as far as they are concerned,” Obasanjo said.
When asked his comment about a new book, InterInterventions, by Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, in which the laureate called him a child of circumstance, Obasanjo said, “Did he? I’ve not heard anything like that,” with a wave of hand.
Although he said an end would not be put to Boko Haram by the military, Obasanjo said it was necessary that President Muhammadu Buhari gave the military a target.
He said, “You have to have an objective, otherwise, if you say go and don’t have an objective, that’s not good enough for a leader but an objective is not cast in concrete. Look, I want you to finish a job in two days, though you know it could take probably four or five days, but you must give an objective.
“I believe that what President Muhammadu Buhari will get, and which he knows he can get, is that he can get the upper hand; the military will get the upper hand over Boko Haram and of course, I think we are working towards that. But we will not get the end of Boko Haram in three months or in six months.
“And even when you get the upper hand militarily, you have to do what you have to do – the socio-economic aspect.”
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Obasanjo, ‘kettle calling pot black’, says Achuzia
Written by Emma Amaize - Vanguard, Nigeria.
Nnamdi Kanu, the Biafra course and Vision 2023!
Written by Ogundana Rotimi
Tweeter: @MickeySunny.
Ogundana Michael Rotimi is a Nigerian Biochemist, Socio-economic & Political Commentator, and Public Speaker.
Nnamdi Kanu has no criminal charge hanging on his neck – lawyer
~Vanguard, Nigeria.
As the Federal Government onWednesday struck out the case against a pro-Biafra activist after the prosecutors withdrew criminal charges against him.His lawyer, Vincent Egechukwu has said that the implication of the ruling showed that Nnamdi Kanu has no criminal charge hanging on his neck.
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Obasanjo, ‘kettle calling pot black’, says Achuzia
Written by Emma Amaize - Vanguard, Nigeria.
ASABA- FORMER Biafra leader and Ikemba of Asaba, Delta State, Chief Joseph Achuzia, has berated former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, for describing pro-Biafra agitators as miscreants, saying he is a kettle calling the pot black.
Speaking to Vanguard in an interview in Asaba, Achuzia said, "This is a question of the kettle calling pot black. The ex- President, Olusegun Obasanjo, is a friend, I have the greatest respect for him, but unfortunately, half or most of the times, he, out of arrogance becomes careless in the words he uses."
"They say that those living in glass houses should not throw stone, by virtue of his being a former President, the presidential aura should always remain with him. Consequently, we try to shy away from comments that will affect him, but when he descends outside that cocoon of presidential aura, then we use the law of level playing ground in addressing the issue.
"So, I will crave his indulgence to allow me to address that issue. Obasanjo is not in a position to call people still talking about Biafra miscreants. Miscreants being that we were parading the road, barricading Government Houses, destroying property and other places, is that the reportage from the toxic media, if that is the reportage, it means that the media has misrepresented what they saw or what they heard," he said
His words, "For Obasanjo to call my people miscreants, I will say that he should look homewards, hence I say it is an issue of calling the kettle black.
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Written by Ogundana Rotimi
Tweeter: @MickeySunny.
Ogundana Michael Rotimi is a Nigerian Biochemist, Socio-economic & Political Commentator, and Public Speaker.
I do not share in Nnamdi Kanu`s ideology, I am not a supporter of Biafra, I never for once bought into Col. Ojukwu`s idea and I will never buy into the idea of Nnamdi Kanu. I am just an Igbo apologist that believes the Igbo community deserves a fair chance in 2023.
Secession is not the way forward for the south east. Secession is a watershed event not only for the new state that is created and the old state that is dissolved, but also for neighboring states, proximate ethno-political groups and major powers. Preaching violence and hate all in the name to discredit Nigeria and justify the need for the creation of Biafra is not the way to go. It will only end up fueling one purpose, just one purpose- war.
If for any reason Biafra must come alive, majority of the people in the south east will decide that with a referendum. In that case, those involved and all from the south east would have had their say as to what becomes their destiny. It will not be achieved by one man inciting violence with the intention to justify secession.
Absolutely, It is a noble idea and usually effective to ignore detestable attention seekers. However, once they show signs of lunacy, it becomes paramount to give them attention so as to keep the society safe and peaceful because when speech becomes filled with hate and incitement to violence by shameful attention seekers, turning deaf ears to it and keeping mute about it becomes careless and dangerous.
What those that are currently championing the Biafra course are selling to the people in the south east is not freedom. It is violence, war and destruction! These men capitalize on the perceived neglect some people from the region feel and use that to call for the Biafran State. We must not allow them to take advantage of this perception to incite violence in our society.
Any civil war again in the country will take us decades backwards and will destabilize the country. When the time has fully come for Biafra to come alive, it will neither be through hate filled speech nor through incitements to violence. It will come peacefully.
With an Igbo President in 2023, the perception would have been nullified. In that case the Biafra dream becomes a forgotten issue.
The south east has voted for others, they deserve to be voted for. 45 years after the end of the civil war led by C. Odumegwu Ojukwu, the south east has not grabbed the highest position of the land. You do not want them to discuss secession, you must want them for leadership after 45 of avoidance. It is either we give them a fair chance come 2023 or we let them go in peace.
In the spirit of federal character, the Igbos deserve the next presidency. It's being 45 years since the civil war was over, they have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall they resort to entreaty and humble supplication?
They have petitioned; they have remonstrated; they have supplicated; and they have prostrated themselves before the throne. But their petitions have been slighted; their remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; their supplications have been disregarded; and their prostrations have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne. All has been in vain!
We cannot continue to make them indulge in the fond of hope with no assurance. If we wish to make them stay, if we mean to preserve the country as one and not basely abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, then the Igbos deserve the presidency in 2023!
Before we criticize the idea of the Igbo presidency we must realize that every region deserves a fair chance in the highest position in our country at one time or the other. So calling out for an Igbo president after 45 years since the war was over isn't out of point and shouldn't be overlooked. The major political parties in the country can assist in making this happen when they feature presidential candidates from the south east come 2023.
It isn't a hard call. It is part of integration and the love for a part of us.
Let`s give them a chance too!!!
God Bless Nigeria.
--------------------------------------------------------------------Nnamdi Kanu has no criminal charge hanging on his neck – lawyer
~Vanguard, Nigeria.
As the Federal Government onWednesday struck out the case against a pro-Biafra activist after the prosecutors withdrew criminal charges against him.His lawyer, Vincent Egechukwu has said that the implication of the ruling showed that Nnamdi Kanu has no criminal charge hanging on his neck.
Vincent Egechukwu speaking said that“the implication of the ruling today is that Nnamdi Kanu has no criminal charge hanging on his neck as we talk today.”
“The only thing we need to do is to take the legal process to get him out of wherever they have detained him. I am grateful because we are getting close and close to the goal post,” he said.
Egechukwu said the DSS had secured a secret order from an Abuja high court to detain Kanu for 90 days pending his investigation for terrorism and terrorism financing charges.
No fresh charges have been filed, he said.
He said his client had challenged the detention order before the high court where a ruling was expected on Thursday.
Nnamdi Kanu, whose arrest in October has sparked a wave of protests across the southeast, is however still held by the Department of State Services (DSS).
“The accused person is hereby discharged and the case is struck out,” Chief Magistrate Shuaibu Usman said.
Kanu, who is campaigning for a separate state of Biafra, was not in court for the ruling.
Kanu is the director of Radio Biafra, which the government has accused of being “seditious” and of broadcasting “hate speech”, and a founder of the banned Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) group.
Biafran protesters have renewed agitation for a separate state for the Igbo people of southeast which fought a brutal civil war with Nigerian federal forces from 1967 to 1970.
The conflict which left some one million dead mainly from starvation and disease, was sparked when Biafran leaders unilaterally declared independence from Nigeria.
Nigerian prosecutors had on October 19 charged Kanu with criminal conspiracy and intimidation, as well as membership of an illegal organisation, in the magistrate court in Abuja.
But the prosecution applied to discontinue the trial on these charges while indicating he remained under investigation on other allegations.
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Obasanjo warns Nigerians of second Biafra war
(Source: NAIJ)
Following speculation of a second Biafra war, ex-Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, has asked Nigerians to understand the need to embrace peace and dialogue instead of beating drums of war.
In a recent dialogue with pressmen, the former general stressed that there is a need for better communication, other than gunning for another round of civil war.
Reacting to the spate of protests and demonstrations by pro-Biafra agitators in some parts of the southeast and Lagos recently, he said: "Our differences could only be addressed when issues are discussed instead of going to war".
"We do not need another civil war. We had fought one before. I was part of it.
"I saw with my eyes. I heard with my ears. I smelled with my nose. What we need is better communication. And I am here to communicate with you," Obasanjo informed.
He further noted that: "What I enjoy most is the cultural diversity. Earlier in the week, I was in Benue State and I enjoyed the cultural dance. Since I arrived here yesterday I have enjoyed the cultural dances. What we need to address is how to reduce unemployment, how to reduce poverty, and how to hold our leaders accountable to their promises."
In the same vein, the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) has urged the federal government to dialogue with members of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
The OPC strongly opined that it is only through dialogue that pro-Biafra agitators can be made to drop the Biafra agitation and ultimately the idea of a Biafra state.
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Biafra: FG charges Kanu, 2 others with treasonable felony
From Chidi Nnadi, Enugu and Okey Sampson, Aba - The SUN.
Brother raises alarm over safety of Radio Biafra founder
AS members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) jubilated last week over the news of the release of their leader, Mr Nnamdi Kanu, by the Federal High Court in Abuja, the Federal Government has slammed a fresh charge of treasonable felony on the Radio Biafra Founder, who had been detained since three months ago.
The Federal Govern- ment had gone to a Federal High Court in Abuja last Friday to prefer six charges against Kanu, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi.
In the charge-sheet signed by the Director, Public Prosecution (DPP), Mohammed Saidu Diri, for the Attorney-General of the Federation and exclusively obtained by Daily Sun, Kanu and the two others were charged with treasonable felony which is punishable under Section 41(C) of the Criminal Code Act, CAP C38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.
Giving details, the charge-sheet read in part: "That you, Nnamdi Kanu and other unknown per- sons, now at large, at Lon- don, United Kingdom, between 2014 and September, 2015 with intention to levy war against Nigeria in order to force the President to change his measures of being the President of the Federation, Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federation as defined in Section 3 of the Consti- tution of the Federal Re- public of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) by doing an act to wit: Broadcast on Radio Biafra your preparations for the states in the South- East geo-political zone, South-South geo-political zone, the Igala Community of Kogi State and the Idoma/Igede Community of Benue State to secede from the Federal Republic of Nigeria and form them- selves into a Republic of Biafra, and thereby committed an offence punish- able under Section 41(C) of the Criminal Code Act, CAP C38 Laws of the Fed- eration of Nigeria 2004."
On count two of the charges, the federal authorities also accused the trio of managing an unlawful society.
Giving the particulars of the offence, the Attorney- General said: "That you, Nnamdi Kanu and others, now at large, between 2012 and September, 2015 at South-East geo-political zone and the South-South geo-political zone of Nigeria within the jurisdiction of this honourable court manage an unlawful society with more than 10 members to wit: unregistered with the Corporate Affairs Commission or any other registration au- thority to wit. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) thereby committed an offence which is punishable under Section 63 of the Criminal Code Act, CAP C38, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004."
Kanu and the two others were also accused of concealing goods in a container that was holding goods of different descriptions, punishable under Section 47 (2)(a) of the Customs and Excise Management Act, CAP 45 Laws of the Federation.
The particulars read: "That you, Nnamdi Kanu between the months of March and April, 2015 imported into Nigeria and kept in Ubulusiuzor town in Ihiala local Government Area of Anambra State within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, a radio transmitter known as TRAM 5OL concealed in a container which you described as containing household items, which you so declared and that, you thereby committed an offence punishable under section 47(2) (a) of the Customs and Excise Management Act."
They were also accused on counts four and five of assisting in the management of unlawful society and unlawful possession of firearms respectively. Madubugwu was also charged with assisting in the management of unlawful society: "That you Benjamin Madubugwu in the month of April, 2015 at Ubulusiuzor town, Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State of Nigeria within the juris- diction of this honourable court assisted in the man- agement of an unlawful society known as the In- digenous People of Biafra (IPOB) by doing an act to wit, accepted and kept in your residence a container housing a radio transmit- ter known as TRAM 50L, with knowledge that the said transmitter belongs to an unlawful society (known as IPOB) and that you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 63 of the Criminal Code Act, CAP C38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004."
Earlier, while raising the alarm, Kanu's younger brother, Prince Emmanuel Kanu, told Daily Sun on phone that after the court released his elder brother unconditionally, IPOB members went to the DSS office to complete papers for his release, but that unfortunately, the DSS brought a document for Nnamdi Kanu to sign to the effect he would denounce the agitation for Biafra.
Prince Emmanuel dis- closed that based on the fact that the Abuja High Court granted his brother unconditional release, Nnamdi Kanu rdid not sign the document and the DSS refused to release him on the pretext they were coming up with a treason charge against the IPOB leader.
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Biafra Agitation Is Dead, Hopeless, Says Obasanjo
FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo has described the Biafra agitation as 'dead' and 'hopeless.'
Obasanjo warns Nigerians of second Biafra war
(Source: NAIJ)
Following speculation of a second Biafra war, ex-Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, has asked Nigerians to understand the need to embrace peace and dialogue instead of beating drums of war.
In a recent dialogue with pressmen, the former general stressed that there is a need for better communication, other than gunning for another round of civil war.
Reacting to the spate of protests and demonstrations by pro-Biafra agitators in some parts of the southeast and Lagos recently, he said: "Our differences could only be addressed when issues are discussed instead of going to war".
"We do not need another civil war. We had fought one before. I was part of it.
"I saw with my eyes. I heard with my ears. I smelled with my nose. What we need is better communication. And I am here to communicate with you," Obasanjo informed.
He further noted that: "What I enjoy most is the cultural diversity. Earlier in the week, I was in Benue State and I enjoyed the cultural dance. Since I arrived here yesterday I have enjoyed the cultural dances. What we need to address is how to reduce unemployment, how to reduce poverty, and how to hold our leaders accountable to their promises."
In the same vein, the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) has urged the federal government to dialogue with members of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
The OPC strongly opined that it is only through dialogue that pro-Biafra agitators can be made to drop the Biafra agitation and ultimately the idea of a Biafra state.
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Biafra: FG charges Kanu, 2 others with treasonable felony
From Chidi Nnadi, Enugu and Okey Sampson, Aba - The SUN.
Brother raises alarm over safety of Radio Biafra founder
AS members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) jubilated last week over the news of the release of their leader, Mr Nnamdi Kanu, by the Federal High Court in Abuja, the Federal Government has slammed a fresh charge of treasonable felony on the Radio Biafra Founder, who had been detained since three months ago.The Federal Govern- ment had gone to a Federal High Court in Abuja last Friday to prefer six charges against Kanu, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi.
In the charge-sheet signed by the Director, Public Prosecution (DPP), Mohammed Saidu Diri, for the Attorney-General of the Federation and exclusively obtained by Daily Sun, Kanu and the two others were charged with treasonable felony which is punishable under Section 41(C) of the Criminal Code Act, CAP C38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.
Giving details, the charge-sheet read in part: "That you, Nnamdi Kanu and other unknown per- sons, now at large, at Lon- don, United Kingdom, between 2014 and September, 2015 with intention to levy war against Nigeria in order to force the President to change his measures of being the President of the Federation, Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federation as defined in Section 3 of the Consti- tution of the Federal Re- public of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) by doing an act to wit: Broadcast on Radio Biafra your preparations for the states in the South- East geo-political zone, South-South geo-political zone, the Igala Community of Kogi State and the Idoma/Igede Community of Benue State to secede from the Federal Republic of Nigeria and form them- selves into a Republic of Biafra, and thereby committed an offence punish- able under Section 41(C) of the Criminal Code Act, CAP C38 Laws of the Fed- eration of Nigeria 2004."
On count two of the charges, the federal authorities also accused the trio of managing an unlawful society.
Giving the particulars of the offence, the Attorney- General said: "That you, Nnamdi Kanu and others, now at large, between 2012 and September, 2015 at South-East geo-political zone and the South-South geo-political zone of Nigeria within the jurisdiction of this honourable court manage an unlawful society with more than 10 members to wit: unregistered with the Corporate Affairs Commission or any other registration au- thority to wit. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) thereby committed an offence which is punishable under Section 63 of the Criminal Code Act, CAP C38, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004."
Kanu and the two others were also accused of concealing goods in a container that was holding goods of different descriptions, punishable under Section 47 (2)(a) of the Customs and Excise Management Act, CAP 45 Laws of the Federation.
The particulars read: "That you, Nnamdi Kanu between the months of March and April, 2015 imported into Nigeria and kept in Ubulusiuzor town in Ihiala local Government Area of Anambra State within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, a radio transmitter known as TRAM 5OL concealed in a container which you described as containing household items, which you so declared and that, you thereby committed an offence punishable under section 47(2) (a) of the Customs and Excise Management Act."
They were also accused on counts four and five of assisting in the management of unlawful society and unlawful possession of firearms respectively. Madubugwu was also charged with assisting in the management of unlawful society: "That you Benjamin Madubugwu in the month of April, 2015 at Ubulusiuzor town, Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State of Nigeria within the juris- diction of this honourable court assisted in the man- agement of an unlawful society known as the In- digenous People of Biafra (IPOB) by doing an act to wit, accepted and kept in your residence a container housing a radio transmit- ter known as TRAM 50L, with knowledge that the said transmitter belongs to an unlawful society (known as IPOB) and that you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 63 of the Criminal Code Act, CAP C38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004."
Earlier, while raising the alarm, Kanu's younger brother, Prince Emmanuel Kanu, told Daily Sun on phone that after the court released his elder brother unconditionally, IPOB members went to the DSS office to complete papers for his release, but that unfortunately, the DSS brought a document for Nnamdi Kanu to sign to the effect he would denounce the agitation for Biafra.
Prince Emmanuel dis- closed that based on the fact that the Abuja High Court granted his brother unconditional release, Nnamdi Kanu rdid not sign the document and the DSS refused to release him on the pretext they were coming up with a treason charge against the IPOB leader.
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Biafra Agitation Is Dead, Hopeless, Says Obasanjo
MASSOB Embarks On "Mother Of All Protests"
FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo has described the Biafra agitation as 'dead' and 'hopeless.'
Obasanjo further said the movement had been commercialised and had become a platform rather than a cause, adding that the agitators also suffer from the error of misreading the history of Nigeria or not reading it at all.
The former president made the comments while delivering his keynote address at a public discussion on Biafra organised by Nextier Advisory in Abuja, yesterday.
Meanwhile, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has declared that it would embark on what it tagged "mother of all protests and demonstrations" from Monday next week to press for the release of Director of Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
According to the group, the protest would involve civil disobedience to be carried out in all parts of Nigeria and beyond.
Obasanjo said: "Biafra as a secession issue is dead, and nobody should follow that way. I see it as a platform rather than a cause.
"The agitation was born in error and ignorance. There is the commercialisation of the Biafran agitation, which is criminal, for example, the issuance of so-called Biafran passport, which takes one nowhere and for which unwary people are being charged exorbitant prices.
"Biafra agitation is as an industry; a means of making money. Biafra agitation is a hopeless and futile exercise of which nobody should embark on," he said.
According to him, the solution is for leaders and elders in the South-East to caution realism and sanity among the youth and for the President to prove that Nigeria is his constituency.
He said the President should act like God who gives rain to the good and bad, the just and the unjust, in the world equally, as the world belongs to God in totality.
"We must neither allow evil to find work for our youth nor to fill their unoccupied minds with satanic ideas, thoughts, decisions and actions. The way to achieve this is to encourage entrepreneurship and job creation.
"At the community, state and national levels, conducive environment and conditions must be created for promotion of private sector entrepreneurs and investors, both local and foreign, to make our different areas as irresistible for investment, job creation and wealth generation destinations as possible."
Obasanjo added that the welfare and well being of the citizenry with equity, justice and fairness must be the main pre-occupation of government at all levels.
In a statement released by MASSOB after its meeting at Okwe, Okigwe, Imo State signed bySamuel Edeson and Ibem Ugwuoke Ibem, National Director of Information and National Secretary, respectively, the group said the protest would continue until government releases Kanu.
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