Beyond the Euphoria of Nnamdi Kanu’s Arrest

POLSCOPE By Eddy Odivwri

Not a few were shockingly impressed with the sudden news of the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu, the self-acclaimed leader of the controversial Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a separatists group. The happiness of most people derive from the suspicion that the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu will mean the end of all the security issues troubling the South Eastern part of the country.

The suspicion, if not belief, is that Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB, plus Eastern Security Network (ESN), are the brains behind the violent and frequent attacks at government /public facilities in the south east, including correctional centres and several police stations. The attacks, have claimed several lives of policemen and even innocent civilians. Nobody can be happy with such mindless and needless killings.

Apart from the people who have been foolishly killed at their duty posts, many IPOB members have also died in the foolish agitation and quest for an independent nation.

It is surprising that even from far away London, (some say Malaysia, others say Israel), Nnamdi Kanu is able to deeply brainwash his followers to the point that they willfully lay down their lives for the course of a fruitless Biafra Republic. The IPOB members speak with so much fanaticism and assurance that their dream Biafra Republic is just a breath away. In their opinion, anyone who does not share their vision and belief in the Biafran course is not only abnormal, but also unfit to live.

It is amazing that a struggle which could not see the light of the day, 54 years ago, even with more sophisticated and organized arsenal and personnel, is being marketed at a time that all the odds are against such a divisive project. Indeed, how many Igbo men are truly determined to have a separate nation? Are we not better and stronger together?

His arrest, last Sunday, outside the country (location not quite certain, although sources have said Kenya or Ethiopia), was a security scoop, so to say. There was no hint whatsoever that the federal government was moving against him. The re-arrest has shown that the government (security agencies) can work if it/they want to.

The collaboration with Interpol made all the difference.

In a way, it offers a flashback to the Umaru Dikko abduction attempt in July 1984, by the same administration of (then Gen) Muhammadu Buhari, as a military Head of State, from the United Kingdom. That attempt failed. This one succeeded.

Although the scenarios are quite different, many have challenged the government to apply similar efficiency and devotion to crushing the

brains behind both the banditry and terrorism menace ravaging the country.

Conscious of the international attention the treatment of the Kanu case will attract, the Department of State Services (DSS) last Tuesday promptly re-arraigned Kanu on the 11-count charge which he was facing before he was granted bail in 2017. In March 2019, the bail was revoked following the failure of Nnamdi Kanu to appear in court. He had long fled the country to foreign lands from where he sustained the incitement of his followers, using the social media platform, against the Nigerian state.

His Radio Biafra, which was founded in 2009, had also been a channel he used in brainwashing his followers with huge propaganda.

He denigrated the country and its leaders calling them despicable names.

Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe and two others who had stood surety for his bail in 2017, are said to have now lost their N3 million bail bond.

In a few weeks from now, Nnamdi Kanu will face his trial proper. I am sure he never envisaged he’d yet have his day in the Nigerian court again. That he’s been vehemently against the Nigerian state and determined to undo it is beyond question. He spoke like a burnished warlord, but he got picked like a sleeping snail.

Without any fuss, he found himself in Nigeria bound in handcuffs and blindfolded too. He looked like a weather-beaten chicken: humbled and speechless. His day has surely come, when he’d have to answer to all he had said and done against his fatherland.

He has explained that he fled the country to avoid being killed by the Nigerian military, when the latter raided his father’s house in an Abia community.

But beyond the ululation of his arrest, rests the prisms on which the Biafran agitation is predicated. Essentially, the quest for a break up is because of the feeling of the Igbos not being fairly and equitably treated in the larger Nigerian federation. While this may be true, breaking up the country cannot be the solution to this feeling.

I have continued to cite the instance of why only the South-east geo-political zone has five states while all others have six states, with the North west even having seven. Or how do we explain, for instance, that the old Kano State split into two—Kano and Jigawa, now account for 82 Local Government Areas, whereas the entire Southern states have a total of 95 LGAs. The clamour for restructuring is to address such imbalances.

Yes, not through agitation for a breakup. Not much can be achieved through violence. Stakeholders can always sit down at round tables and discuss and sort these issues out, hoping it will all be governed by sincere desire for peace and justice. Nnamdi Kanu and his ilks must be reminded that their offence is not so much about what (is) said but how (it is) said.

There a few things here and there that seem to under rate the Igbo nation, as if they are second class citizens, or even less. The things and feelings that led late Chukwuemeka Ojukwu into the Nigerian civil war are still around. They cannot be swept under the carpet. They have to be addressed. Justice and equity are pre-requisites for peaceful and harmonious co-existence. Nigeria belongs to all. And equally too. No section of the country is more Nigerian than the other.

Yes, Nnamdi Kanu and his infantile IPOB movement may be quelled and crushed, perhaps deservedly, but the under pinning reason for the uprising should not be ignored. Anything that has stoke the fire of disquiet and restiveness in the country deserves to be reviewed. To browbeat them into acquiescence, using the instruments of state force is to postpone the evil day. After all, on this Biafran project, we have had Late Odumegwu Ojukwu,; we have had Ralph Uwazurike. Today, it is Nnamdi Kanu. Tomorrow it will be Mr X if the issues remain unaddressed.

Canticles….

What Does El Rufai Want to Achieve?

By Eddy Odivwri

With barely two years to go, I wonder why that micro governor want to inflict so much pain on his people.

Micro governor? Who is so called?

Need you ask? Who else is inflicting so much pain on his people like Governor Nasir el-Rufai?

Oh noooo, You misunderstand him. He means well. He is concerned about reforming the Kaduna state’s civil service in a way that it will be compact and efficient, instead of being bogus, wieldy and lousy.

You can use all the beautiful adjectives that you can find. What is crucial is that the people who voted for him are not happy with him. They are bitter as he has made life and living practically miserable to the people of the state.

Again, you got it wrong. He is not against the entire state. He believes the workforce in Kaduna is bloated and should be trimmed. He has argued that he cannot be using a larger chunk of the state’s resources to service the interest of less than 20 per cent of the people. He argues that it does not make sense or portray fairness for the huge resources of the state to be devoted expended on the narrow interest of just a few.

Look, you don’t understand. Kaduna State is essentially a civil servant state. By the time you decapitate the civil service workforce, you are practically crumbling the economy of the state. So, if the purchasing power of the people is taken away by unfriendly government policy, wont life become short, nasty and brutish?

The government is opening other windows of opportunities unto the people. The government is not foolish you know. Have you forgotten that the governor is a First Class graduate? He brims with intelligence.

What kind of intelligence is that? What intelligence inflicts pain on people? Does intelligence mean wickedness? Was this not what he also did as FCT Minister: pulling down people’s buildings? Is wickedness in his DNA?

How does the increment of school fees by 500%, from N24,000 to a minimum of N150,000 per student reflect intelligence? Does that geometric rise in fee structure show that the governor has a heart for the people? How are they going to pay? Is it not the same parents whom he is sacking from work that have to pay this huge fee? What kind of government is that? How will the sacked parents raise that kind of money? The ASUU of the Kaduna State University (KASU) has warned that 75 per cent of the students may drop out of school if the state government insists on the high fee. Yet the government is not bulging? Any one still wondering why the spate of kidnapping and banditry is high in Kaduna? Is that a kind government? A student was shot dead, among those protesting the fee hike, but El-Rufai seems to have been stuck in making them see “Hell Rufai”! What kind of democracy does not listen to the cry of the people, the same people from whom you derived your power?

Gov El-Rufai knows that the process of change is always painful and difficult. But he knows also that the little pain they bear today will produce great fruits tomorrow. So, he is determined to….

(raises the hand) Enough of those oppressive capitalist lingos! The future belongs to only those who are alive. Of what use is a reform that ends up killing all the beneficiaries before it takes off? Look, who will use those roads and bridges El-Rufai is building is the people die of hunger and hardship today?

Tell him to look inwards. He should not blindly drive a reform that will cause more harm than good.

Has he considered what Akwa-Ibom State is doing by setting up companies and several going concerns? Does he know that hard as things are, Akwa-Ibom State, instead of firing its work force, is hiring even more people to work in the various outfits it is setting up? And you say El Rufai has a First Class? Let this First Class product think outside the box of regimented template. Kaduna State, with its political and economic niche should not be suffering its people. I cannot forget that quaint scripture that says when the righteous are in power, the people, rejoice. But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

Are you implying that Gov Nasir El Rufai is a wicked governor?

You said so!

You are a very biased critic. Are you not aware that the Kaduna government has also offered bursaries and loans to deserving students of various categories so that their education can continue?

How else can a government be thoughtful? There is bursary. There is loan, all aimed at assisting indigent students.

Look, education is not free or cheap anywhere in the world. Kaduna State is not and cannot be different. Anything that is prized, must cost something substantial. It is a basic law of Economics!

Rubbish Loan! Go and look at the conditions for those loans. Everything smells of hardness and wickedness. What really is El-Rufai looking for? What does he want to achieve by all these hard stance? In May, the entire NLC gathered in his state to protest. It was the plane crash of the Nigerian Airforce that vacated that siege. Yet, he remains obstinate and cocky. Is it because he is serving out his second term in office and would not have to stand before the people again to renew his mandate? Does he not realise that someday, he will become like an ordinary citizen? For what shall he be remembered? Would he rather be remembered as that government who brought tears to the eyes of the people or that governor who made life easier and sweeter? History is always a fair judge!

I can assure you that history will be kind to him. A history governed by critical thinking and not be emotions, that is!