BY ONWUASOANYA FCC JONES
The leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide under His Excellency Ambassador Professor George Obiozor was almost close to securing a negotiated release and amnesty for Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, following high-level interventions and engagements initiated by the vastly experienced and connected President-General. He, together with governors of the Southeast and other major stakeholders had almost convinced the Federal Government to allow the Afara-Ukwu born Prince to walk free, and from the President’s body language, everything was looking favourable to a negotiated reprieve for the young man.
But it is obvious that there are people whose political and financial lifeline depend on Nnamdi Kanu remaining or even dying in prison. And these individuals have done and continue to do everything to sabotage any effort at peaceful and and out of court settlement in the Nnamdi Kanu case. They know that the day Nnamdi Kanu walks free from detention, their businesses and relevance will collapse like a pack of cards.
Nnamdi Kanu has become a huge factor today in the Southeast of Nigeria because of his undeniable grip on majority of the youths, common people and even among the intellectuals. Everyone who is genuinely dissatisfied with how Nigeria is run, especially, the treatment of Ndigbo in the Nigerian union tend to see Nnamdi Kanu as a kind of Saviour. Those who are less extremist see him as the only voice speaking out against these injustices and seemingly discomforting the government at the center and politicians generally. Nnamdi Kanu is therefore very popular among the Igbos.
To exploit this situation, most politicians now try to show either direct or tacit support to Nnamdi Kanu, not necessarily because they like the IPOB leader or even have the slightest sympathy for the way he has gone about his activities, but because they see that as a strategy to curry the support of Nnamdi Kanu’s numerous sympathizers and supporters and position themselves to win election in the next election cycle.
The other set of politicians exploiting Nnamdi Kanu’s plight to advance their own political projects are leaders of opposition. Some of them have gone as far as declaring open sympathy for the IPOB and ESN, while others have made their support tacit in favour of the group and even the criminal gangs that have hijacked the IPOB agitation to bring havoc upon the Southeast. These opposition politicians believe that the violent criminal activities of those posturing as fighting for the release of Nnamdi Kanu and the freedom of Biafra have gone a long way to discredit the ruling Party, hence, they have continued to show open and tacit sympathy for these criminal groups.
Also, some activists and media influencers have also been exploiting Nnamdi Kanu’s incarceration for their financial, social and political benefits. These individuals, some of whom are lawyers have rather than take adequate judicial or political steps to release Nnamdi Kanu from prison, chose to grandstand and embark on unnecessary media razzmatazz. Millions of Dollars are said to have been contributed by those genuinely sympathetic to Nnamdi Kanu through or to this set of individuals.
Emma Powerful, the Spokesman of the Indigenous People of Biafra seem to have had these people in mind when he issued a release few days to the Anambra governorship election warning that some individuals have been going around collecting money from politicians, with the promise of bringing the same money to him or to the IPOB High Command in order to influence the outcome of the election. The truth is that there are many of such criminals and impostors on the loose, defrauding desperate politicians and genuinely passionate Igbo patriots with false or true claims of having access to the leaders of IPOB.
Some of them also claim to be acting as mediators for Nnamdi Kanu himself. They tell you that Nnamdi Kanu said that or didn’t say this, all in a bid to extort money from unsuspecting individuals and situate themselves well within political circles. These individuals understand very well that the day Nnamdi Kanu leaves the prison is the same day their shops will close, as they will exposed for the fraud they are.
While the original IPOB currently spearheaded by Chika Edozien and Emma Powerful might not be in support of the violent and extortionate turn of the struggle in recent times, the reality is that they have lost control of the IPOB structure and are now more or less toothless bulldogs issuing orders and giving directives from their hideouts abroad or elsewhere, but the real orders that are abided by are those issued by Simon Ekpa, the rogue Finnish, directing the spilling of the blood of innocent Igbos from his comfortable hideout in Europe. It is mostly due to the activities of this impostor that other impostors and crisis merchants are thriving in their trade.
To save itself and enhance the potentials for Nnamdi Kanu’s freedom in the nearest future, the true leaders of IPOB and those who genuinely believe in advancing the interest of the Igbo nation must do the following;
- Cooperate with the Ohanaeze leadership to facilitate an out of court settlement on the case of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
- Disband the Eastern Security Network and disown anyone or group of people parading as a member of ESN.
- Align with Southeast governors to see to it that most or all the members of ESN who are ready are assimilated in the Ebubeagu Security Outfit or any other State Government funded vigilante group.
- Bar politicians and other relevance seekers from visiting Nnamdi Kanu in detention, except those who will agree not to make a media show out of such visits. They should also make it obvious, not just by mere words but through their actions and operations that they are not aligned to any politician.
- Issue a disclaimer against anyone or group parading as middlemen to Nnamdi Kanu or the IPOB and reemphasize that anyone who wishes to make any financial donation to the IPOB should do it through designated accounts.
