The Truth Our Leaders Dodge: Igbo threats, Arewa Youths quit notice and others

But the truth is, the Igbo youths and some Niger Delta ex-militants, who are agitating today and some of whom had agitated by blowing off our oil and gas pipelines and installations leading to recession and darkness until recently, said from the word go, moment Buhari won election, that they would make governance difficult for him.  They carried around the belief that Buhari was sponsor of Boko Haram to make governance impossible for Jonathan, mischievously losing out the fact that Buhari himself was victim of Boko Haram bombing, which Jonathan government was even accused of masterminding.  That attack on Buhari at Kawo, Kaduna led to over 47 lives lost. They vowed to revenge on behalf of Jonathan, whose six years as President could only be blamed for what they talk about as infrastructural deficit in their region of South East and South South.

The hate speeches in sections of the country and inflammatory preaches in places of worship across Nigeria reached their peak recently when the Arewa Youths coalition groups rose to the challenge telling the Igbo living in the North that enough is enough.  They said for there to be peace in Nigeria, the Igbo should leave.  They believe that the Igbo cannot continue to live and make their wealth in other people’s land that the Nigerian Nation they call “a Zoo” is and yet be spreading their hate speeches and threats in the name of agitations for Biafra. The Arewa Youths therefore gave them an ultimatum to quit the Northern region and relocate to their own region, South East, to enable them  make a more effective plans for their ambitioned Biafra.

In swift reactions, the North from their government, political, traditional to religious leaders, condemned the quit notice ultimatum by the Arewa Youths describing it as not representing the North.  The Emir of Katsina, Alhaji Abdulmumini Kabir, noticeably condemned the Arewa Youths ultimatum vowing that he would protect the Igbo living in Katsina even with the last drop of his blood.  Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, vowed to arrest the quit notice issuers and has remained on that, while the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, it was gathered, told a story of how Kwankwaso town in Kano State was established by an Igbo man, in his effort to tell Igbo living in Kano to be at rest that nothing untoward would afflict them as a result of the quit notice.

Just as the leaders of the North were united against the supposedly heavy statement handed down by their youths, the Federal Government was also not giving anything to chances as it placed the security agencies on red alert to forestall any trouble in the North following the ultimatum.  Acting President Yemi Osinbajo had since then been up and doing working tirelessly with Northern traditional rulers and governors in ensuring that no breakdown of law and order would occur from the ultimatum by the Arewa Youths.  He also held series of meetings with Igbo leaders from their government to traditional leaders pointing out to them that the ethnic angers in parts of the country were caused by the hate speeches of their youths, the IPOB and MASSOB and urged them to caution them.  Governor of Kaduna State, El-Rufai, also as at Tuesday in Kaduna, while receiving Igbo leaders from 19 states of the North, also reiterated his commitment to protecting the Igbo and ensuring that the Arewa Youths responsible for the quit notice were arrested and prosecuted. He however told the Igbo leaders to warn their youths to stop their provocative statements all over the country.

What is unfortunate, according to our findings, is that, the excesses of the Igbo youths under the aegis of the IPOB and MASSOB have the full backing of the entire Igbo leaders cross sectors.  That was seen in the huge threats to national security issued by combination of Igbo beneficiaries of Nigerian State including the sitting Deputy Senate President of Nigeria’s National Assembly, Mr. Ike Ekweremadu, whose only comment during the recent sit-at-home order by IPOB and MASSOB was to say to the enraged youths not to “be provoked to take to arms up arms” expressing publicly that it was the rights of the Igbo to so agitate even when it constituted a threat to national security.

Ekweremadu is current occupier of the Nigeria’s vantage position as high as of the Deputy Senate President.  He had for several times in recent times been allowed the rights of presiding by Senate President Bukola Saraki during which he did no more or less than causing confusion in the governing system in a way that set back the wheels of governance in the country.  Recall the efforts to force President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the man generally believed to have helped exposed and dealt looters of their commonwealth, Ibrahim Magu.  Recall the efforts to force the Customs’ Comptroller General, Col. Hameed Ali into either committing constitutional blunder of wearing uniform as a non-career customs officer so that they could use that to cause the country a committed public servant whose purpose in Customs is to clean one of Nigeria’s major income earning agency, whereas, his new policy stopping importation of cars by land border to check corruption and smuggling they needed him to explain to Nigeria never happened till present due to confusion caused by Ekweremadu as acting Senate President at those carefully chosen times, known more to Saraki and the other Senators of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the Senate and who are mainly from the South East and South South.  Those were some of the opportunities that Nigeria had again given to them but which they also proved Nigeria wrong that they would ever remained untrustworthy over.

Of important note was the same Ekweremadu’s comment during the Igbo sit-at-home order that, “The rights of Ndigbo to peaceful and democratic engagements must be respected,” adding by threatening that, “Those who try to muffle and subdue democratic engagements by (those Igbo) citizens are only playing into the hands of anarchists.”  By his position as Deputy Senate President, Ekweremadu was not only expected to tell Nigerians and the world why the rights of Igbo youths to violently agitate must be respected but, as a lawyer-turned lawmaker, he is more elastically required to tell why his role in the matter is to fuel the agitation by issuing a threat that any attempt to stop the agitators would be met with anarchy.  This is important because the foremost agency of government empowered by the Constitution to handle such threat to national security was the Nigeria police and it was the police that read riot acts to the trouble makers who gave order of sit-at-home.  Instead for important Igbo leaders like Deputy Senate President to cooperate with the police to keep the peace of the land intact, all that he could do has been very clear. If then those that should support security and government to secure the nation are themselves working against the security and government, how secure then can such individuals claim they work to make the country be?

There were more Igbo leaders who publicly supported the IPOB and MASSOB.  Former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, Prof. Pat Utomi, who himself had once contested as presidential candidate in the nation of Nigeria and very many other Igbo elites had solidarised with Nnamdi Kanu threatening heavens and earth at a time his case was constitutionally right to be determined only constituted court of law.  It was therefore not clear what those threats by those Igbo notables in support of their own undergoing trials for criminal offence bothering on treason meant.  Only people who do not know the law can be excused for such ignorance.  So much that to the face of those Igbo leaders, who never for once found anything wrong in what Nnamdi Kanu had done against the peace of Nigeria and national security, the same Kanu has consistently breached all the conditions of his bail on health grounds by a competent Nigerian High Court.  Instead of checking him, they have held him shoulders high and have been celebrating him across their region.

Nnamdi Kanu is the director of the Radio Biafra that he minces no word saying was set up to misinform the listening public and with it has preached hates ceaselessly.  Not even with the stringent conditions upon which was able to gain freedom from prison yard on health grounds have made him drop the hate statements since he was released.  There is a video in circulation showing Nnamdi Kanu where he cursed Igbo Christians who attend Church presided over by Yoruba pastors.  He has lately also been reported to have said that “anybody who says Biafra will not be will die.”  That is Nnamdi Kanu, a prince of Igbo land, breaking the conditions of bail by court and yet being celebrated by leaders and youths of his clan, either the elites of the vulnerable.

All these cumulated into the frustrations of the Arewa Youths who said “enough is enough”.  To an average Nigerian, what the Arewa Youths had done is what other sincere Nigerians should have done but which they cheered away from doing.  They simply, by interpretation, are saying that the Igbo, if they must continue to live and be prosperous in parts of Nigeria that is their own (Northern) region and continue to call those people parasites and their country a zoo, then, that they must relocate back to their region for peaceful attainment of their Biafra nation.  It is as simple as that.

It is only a pity that this is happening even as not any of Nigerian sane person wants any of Nigeria to slip away.  President Muhammadu Buhari himself made himself crystal clear on the same commitment, after having taking back the 14 Local Governments where, under People’s Democratic Party (PDP)-led Federal Government, Boko had hoisted their flags, that there would be no part of Nigeria that he would allow to slip away from the entity that was handed over to him as elected President of Nigeria.

Our investigations revealed what Igbo leaders like Ekweremadu, Soludo and some of their other political and traditional leaders are dodging to talk about.  Under the government of Goodluck Jonathan, both the North and South West cried woes of marginalization unattended to.  The Yoruba Unity Forum (YUF) led converged by late Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade and late Mama HID Awolowo was formed at Awolowo house in 2013 because they wanted to be able to speak out over their continued marginalization whereas they said if Jonathan sacked a Yoruba man in government he replaced him with an Igbo or Niger Delta person.  Ekweremadu who now said the youths in his Igbo Land has the rights to agitate over “marginalization” that even the sitting government has continued to deny, was in government as Deputy Senate President in that Jonathan era.  He obviously would not hear the cries of the Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani of the North at that time.

But the truth is, the Igbo youths and some Niger Delta ex-militants, who are agitating today and some of whom had agitated by blowing off our oil and gas pipelines and installations leading to recession and darkness until recently, said from the word go, moment Buhari won election, that they would make governance difficult for him.  They carried around the belief that Buhari was sponsor of Boko Haram to make governance impossible for Jonathan, mischievously losing out the fact that Buhari himself was victim of Boko Haram bombing, which Jonathan government was even accused of masterminding.  That attack on Buhari at Kawo, Kaduna led to over 47 lives lost. They vowed to revenge on behalf of Jonathan, whose six years as President could only be blamed for what they talk about as infrastructural deficit in their region of South East and South South.

Finally, Igbo living in Northern Nigeria have replied to the Arewa Youths ultimatum that they have nowhere they are going as they say they have made tremendous contribution to the North.  If then the Igbo believe that they have no other place they can call their own except Nigeria, they should stop their conspiracy of silence over the excesses of their youths as demonstrated by IPOB and MASSOB and begin to do things, which will rebuild their confidence in Nigeria.  They should sing it clear to themselves that the North is not their problem like the North is not the problem of any part of Nigeria but that individual region is problem of itself even the North itself has its own challenges.  To stay in Kano, Sokoto, Lagos, Ondo and other parts of a country hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians died for to keep together as One Nation and continue to call it zoo and do things which, at all times, put the territorial integrity and national security of the country to jeopardy, it is what will never be acceptable any longer in Nigeria.  Igbo should blame themselves for hating President Buhari so much that they not only ensured that even votes of thousands of Hausa in the East were not reflected during the presidential elections of 2015 but also, it was gathered, that even one person that was found out to have cast his vote for Buhari was killed during the election.  How can a people be so hateful and threatening to a nation and still expect that nation to put its confidence in them?  This is a question that all Igbo of Nigeria, whether living in the North or South West, should begin from today to provide answers for.