Nnamdi Kanu and the parable of a sinking ship

By Bashir Adefaka

“Nnamdi Kanu should be seen as having committed fresh crimes among which is the fact that he challenged the Constitution of a sovereign state like Nigeria by declaring that governorship election should not hold in Anambra State.  This alone is enough for him to be arrested.  There is also report of an army that he builds and that he has deployed some of his soldiers to strategic areas across the South East; to do what? These are all the areas that the Nigerian security should work on and while working on them, they should ensure that Kanu is already in the net.”

Nnamdi Kanu, a prince of an Igbo community in Abia State, started to be in the public notice by hate speeches that he was good and known to do well by Radio Biafra of which he is director.  He nearly set Nigerians against themselves when he said in a video that, up till now, remains in many household shelves that a Hausa man should be killed in Onitsha market so that one Igbo man would be killed in Maiduguri and then the entire country would submerge into confusion.  He said more.

The belief of Nnamdi Kanu right from the onset, according to what some of his believers carried around at the start of Buhari Change Regime, was that General Muhammadu Buhari made governance impossible for Goodluck Jonathan and that he would make governance impossible for President Muhammadu Buhari.  He however did not provide his vulnerable followers and believers who never probed the position of their ethnicism apostle to be convinced on how a retired General, who had distanced himself from centre of power and was never known to be part of any cabal since he was released from Ibrahim Babangida’s prison following his overthrow from power in 1985, could have been responsible for why Jonathan failed to perform.

At this time when even Nnamdi Kanu himself has seen vividly why and how Jonathan did not perform, which was as a result of the impunity and wicked corruption that his government allowed in a way that made insecurity flourish in the land and in the end plunged Nigeria into economy woes that nearly collapsed the country, commonsense demands that he should stop his agitations which serve no good purpose but selfish interest of him and his sponsors.  But no, he would not stop.

For any keen observer of events since Kanu started his agitations for Biafra, it is clear that there is nothing on his mind which signifies that he is agitating for Igbo people but to disturb the government of President Muhammadu Buhari based on what is now unfolding as acting the scrip of his financiers, who provide the kind of money from which he has been able to build a “Biafra Army” and is paying his “soldiers” between N10,000 and N30,000 (Nigerian currency and not Biafran currency) depending on their ranks, according to a recent media report.

To cut the story short, Kanu hate-spoke himself into the hands of the detectives of Nigeria’s Federal Republic, taken to court and was jailed immediately after Buhari settled down to find out that what the Igbo prince was doing served the interest of not even Igbo talk less of benefiting any human soul.

Unfortunately, Amnesty International (AI), a hitherto reputed international non-governmental rights organization, joined by other home based civil societies chose not to see the evils in what Nnamdi Kanu and his followers were doing and rose in their support at a time they nearly turned the Nigerian Army to be seen by Nigerians as enemy of the people.  But the versatility and resoluteness of the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government and the Tukur Buratai’s leadership of the Nigerian Army, those civil societies would have succeeded in turning Nigerians against the nation’s government and its armed forces.

It did not stop at that.  Notable lawyers and media organizations particularly their columnists in the country were loudly heard and seen to be on the side of Nnamdi Kanu, vehemently claiming that he has the right to secede or agitate for secession “from” what they called “a failed marriage” like of Nigeria.

There were however also some other groups and individuals in the country who cautioned those civil societies, lawyers and media against taking side with Nnamdi Kanu to the detriment of the government and the nation.

Worst still, even personalities of Igbo extractions, who are big time beneficiaries of Nigerian State, were seen publicly making inciting statements against the Buhari government as they frequently visited the then detained Kanu in his Kuje prison home.  These included the former Governor of Central Bank (CBN), Prof. Charles Soludo, who specifically was boldly headlined in the press to have said “Nigeria was drifting into a failed state” with the way Buhari continued to keep Nnamdi Kanu in prison.  Others included Prof. Pat Utomi, one time presidential aspirant seeking to be President of Nigeria that he now turned around not to believe in.

The judiciary was doing well with its resolve to continue to ignore the many incitements coming from those groups and individuals until it released the IPOB leader early this year on health grounds but with some bail conditions among which he must not be found to be granting press interview and standing in a gathering of more than 10 people.

Not only has Kanu successfully and persistently broken those bail conditions but also he continues to glorify himself as a warlord uncheckable.  He now moves from state to state to the extent that he recently planned to take his Biafra rally to Lagos until some voices rose against it.  That however did not mean that Kanu was not sneaking into Lagos as (though unconfirmed) information had it that he was holding meeting in Lagos but in the midnight with some people including police and military guards yet to be fully uncovered.

To crown up the excesses of Nnamdi Kanu, he now continues to boast that he cannot be arrested, to the extent that he gave a sit-at-home order, which was fully complied with in a region governed by governors and administered by institutions financed with the wealth of Nigeria.  So much that he gave an order of boycott against Anambra governorship and has lately said, “Anyone who tried to arrest me will die.”

What is more worrisome is that Kanu is said to be guarded by police and military men.  Nigerian government has not commented on this but information from the security shows that efforts being made on security matters cannot be discussed in the open and assures that the government of Nigeria is on top of the matter.

However, popular voices have now called on the Nigerian security agencies to put their acts together and make sure, as a matter of urgency, to smoke Nnamdi Kanu along possibly his accomplices out of wherever he is now and put him back to his prison home, failing which, they say, can only make the government of Nigeria look unserious.

What they, according to a respondent, are saying is that, “Yes, Kanu is under bail but he has broken the conditions which guaranteed him that bail and so he is no more fit to enjoy the bail any longer.”

He continued, “However, Nnamdi Kanu should be seen as having committed fresh crimes among which is the fact that he challenged the Constitution of a sovereign state like Nigeria by declaring that governorship election should not hold in Anambra State.  This alone is enough for him to be arrested.  There is also report of an army that he builds and that he has deployed some of his soldiers to strategic areas across the South East; to do what? These are all the areas that the Nigerian security should work on and while working on them, they should ensure that Kanu is already in the net.”

Added to these voices was of a member of the Arewa consultative Forum (ACF), Senator Joseph Kennedy Waku, who called for the immediate detention of the leader of the indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, for violating his bail conditions.  Senator Waku in an interview said nobody was above the law and that Kanu should not be an exception.

Waku said this is the only way the Federal Government can prove that it is serious.  “Did he not violate his bail conditions? He should have his bail revoked and put back to jail. Nobody is above the law. The government should demonstrate that it is serious” he said.

A particular respondent said, “Nnamdi Kanu’s case is just like the case of a sinking ship.  If the passengers and the sailor do not act fast, they may drown with it.  So, Nigerian security particularly the Depart of State Service (DSS) should move in, backed up with troops and the police and arrest this guy and finally put a stop to hate and ethnic and by extension religious hooliganism in Nigeria so that we can move on with life to desired united, peaceful and secured Nigerian society where development and progress reign.  There is no need for political consideration.  What was the percentage of votes that installed this government which came from the region which harbours this treasonable act of Kanu? If they revolt or plan electoral revolt, of what use?” He asked.