The Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) is not exactly a pressure group. It is more like a self-determination group. But worse still, it is a group dedicatedly focused on how to break out of the Nigerian federation. Thus, it can rightly be described as a separatist group. It is based exclusively in the South eastern states of Nigeria. It is now being led by a certain 54-year old Nnamdi Kanu, from Abia State.
In the Beginning…
Before him was Ralph Uwazurike and his MASSOB (Movement of the Realisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra) noisome pestilence, also with the poise to break away the Igbos from the Nigerian federation.
Uwazurike who had gone in and out of prison detention a couple of times on account of the unwholesome agitation is now in the cooler. Like a relay race, the younger Nnamdi Kanu has taken over from where Uwazurike stopped with greater fire, fevour, fury and folly.
Kanu himself had had a leadership battle with Uwazurike whom he accused of enriching himself wholly from the financial support in the pursuit of the dreamy Biafran project.
Since he took over the agitation, neither the East nor the Nigerian federation has known peace in its real sense. He had formed a vanguard of Boys, mostly idle but energetic boys, who it seems, have sworn to preach or perish with the Biafran idea.
Few years ago (in November 2015), the Nnamdi Kanu was arrested and clamped into detention. He was charged with crimes of insurrection, treasonable felony and belonging to an outlawed group. He was bailed by his senator, Eyinnaya Abaribe. Bail was granted on health grounds. Not quite long after Kanu was released, he broke all the bail conditions he was given. Security operatives thus swooped on him. And he fled. That was how he turned a Nigerian fugitive, and inadvertently put Abaribe in trouble as he (Kanu) had obviously jumped bail. I don’t know Abaribe wriggled out of that legal noose, as he could never find Kanu to appear in court.
From wherever he is (some say Israel, others say Malaysia and yet others say London), Kanu has literally been waging war against Nigeria, saying and sending many unprintable verbiages and missiles on the Nigerian state and its leaders. He was the author of the Buhari-Jubril-of-Sudan story, claiming that the “real Buhari” had died in London hospital and that the one posing as Buhari is indeed one Alhaji Jubril from Sudan. Time and space have long proven the wildness and folly of such a story. Buhari has remained alive ever since then.
The Uzodinma Factor
Some analysts however say that the activities of IPOB was reactivated after the curious emergence of Hope Uzodinma as the governor of Imo State. They, along with others, have wondered about the weird Supreme Court logic of catapulting a man who came fourth in an election to the number one position, as the overall winner. Those who so believe aver that the height of unrest in Imo State is not unrelated to the “manipulated victory” of Senator Uzodinma, whom they perceive as the representative of the “oppressive order”. The latter has also mishandled many of his opportunities to build bridges, rather he had tried to show prowess in unleashing the instruments of government terror on the people. That explains why he has been a serial victim of the attacks by the IPOB and ESN (Easter Security network) operatives. His country home was attacked, a section of it, plus a Rolls Royce car (insignia of a Bourgeois) were burnt. Earlier this week, reports said his convoy ran into the ESN operatives and a gun duel ensued, with him narrowly escaping death. The fire of violence is surely blazing high in Owerri.
The October #EndSARS protest of last year, which swept across the country, was to further raise the notch of violence in the South east region beyond a comfortable bar.
In recent months however, the scale of attacks on government facilities and infrastructure have further heightened tension in the region. The degree of disquiet and raw violence being visited on federal institutions and organisations, including human beings, have clearly declared that it is an uprising against the Nigerian state.
The prime target seems to have been Police Stations and their formations. In almost all the states especially Imo, Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu, Anambra and now Delta, the spate of attacks on police stations and policemen has been very worrisome.
Next to Police stations is the attack on INEC offices in the entire region. Hardly is there any state in the South east where INEC offices and materials have not been burnt down. According to INEC, a total of 21 INEC offices have been burnt down across the country in the last two years. Again, that indicates that the attackers or their sponsors have an angst against INEC, another agency of the federal government.
In Owerri, the attackers had also hit the Owerri Correctional Centre , burnt it down, and set over a thousand inmates free. To say the damage on government has been huge would be an understatement. Not only are the facilities being razed down, suspects and convicts in the various facilities and police cells have been set free, thus worsening the criminal content of the society. Everybody is on edge. Tension is pervasive. And this arrests development and commerce.
So, what does IPOB Really Want?
Driven by factors that are far from real, all that would assuage the quest of the IPOB brigade is the realization of a Biafran State. The IPOB is galloned full with utopian ideals, a fairy-tale ululation that with the Republic of Biafra, all of the problems of the Igbo man would have been technically solved. Such a great illusion! Sadly, the sweet but deceptive talks about the possibilities of a Biafran State, has continued to serve as ethnic tonic for the mass of idle but brawny youths who see Biafra as their ultimate breakthrough in life. So, the followers of Nnamdi Kanu are quite fanatical about their beliefs, ethos and modus vivendi. The brainwash they get is evidently photographic. It sticks indelibly.
But why have they refused to learn from the failed bid of late Odumegwu Chukwuemeka Ojukwu who unsuccessfully waged a war against the Nigerian state in a bid to create the Biafran republic. May it be said that Biafra will not happen, at least not in the nearest future. Those who think otherwise may have to re-format their thinking template.
Perhaps sadder is the failure of the IPOB leader to apply common sense to the quest. He is surrounded by and goaded by the mileu of jobless youths, some of whom are without skills, whose main occupation is how to pull down the Nigerian state. They have become the ready and willing raw material required to execute the Biafran project. They operate like tractors without a brain box. They lack reason. They lack logic. They lack tact. They are bereft of critical thinking.
Yes, they may be receiving funding from some elite and wealthy businessmen, but how many sub-regional leaders in the region share the silly El-Dorado the IPOB leaders are painting? How can an enterprising Igbo man either in private or public sector truly support the Biafra agitation? How is it going to work?
Kanu himself has little or no stake in the Nigerian state. His immediate family is not in Nigeria. He gets grants and financial support from all kinds of organisations across the land. Yet, he has no investment, not even a six-inch block, anywhere in Nigeria. How does he expect the burgeoning entrepreneur of the Igbo extraction, to support the idea of a Biafran nation? Does Kano realise that his fellow Igbos are a very possessive set of dwellers? The Igbos land in a place and they literally take it over.
I just returned from Kaduna, where the Nigerian Guild of Editors held its Biennial conference. Driving round the Kano city, we could tell how entrepreneurally domineering the Igbos are. The whole of Sabon-Gari and many other parts of the state are visibly under the commercial control of the Igbos. Does Kanu want these ones to abandon their financial empire and head to Okigwe or Uturu or Awkunanam? In Lagos, the Igbos are literally the financial controllers of the Lagos economy, what with the ownership of all the leading markets in the state. It is about the same story everywhere in the country. If Nigeria fails, (God forbid), the likes of Kanu will simply dodge under the veil and move on. He has alternatives. How many people trooping after him, has an alternative locational plan?
What is even the guaranty that if there is a Republic of Biafra, there will no longer be problem among the Igbos? Have we not seen and witnessed the bitterness and desperation in their politics, so much that there are tales of killings and maiming? Who says having the illusionary Biafra would spell heaven-on-earth for the Igbos?
It is true that those fanning the embers of war do not understand the language of war. What they probably have heard is mere dialect of war. Even the Kanu who is 54 was yet a suckling when the Nigerian Civil war started in 1967. Many of the ESN/IPOB youths spoiling for war today, were neither born before the war, nor do they truly understand the colours of war. They should go and read Chimamanda Adichie’s, Half of a Yellow Sun….. It is an experience not worth having again.
What the Argument Should Be
I think rather than call and drive for a secession agenda, the agitation should be for a more equitable treatment of the Igbos in the larger Nigerian federation. The South East is surely one of the major tripods that make up the Nigerian state. It should be treated not only fairly but equally. I refuse to understand, for instance, why the South east is the only geo-political region with five states while all others have six, even as the North West geo-political zone has seven. Some think the larger Nigerian federation is yet fighting a proxy war with the East. Were it not so, there is no reason why an Igbo man, cannot be the Inspector General of the Nigeria Police. There appears to be some unwritten codes that bar the Igbo man or woman from certain offices and privileges. The Nigerian state should climb out of the trenches and make the country run truly on the prism of No Victor, No Vanquished!
I think, the IPOB and all such other groups in the region should put their hands together and crusade for a more equitable distribution of the privileges and appurtenances of the federation. There is no tribe or ethnic group that is more Nigerian than the other!
Going Forward…
We cannot continue the way we are going. Not only is the spate of unrest, destruction and killing quite unsettling, it portends grave danger for the continued unity of the country. The killing , for instance, of Ahmad Gulak, in Owerri, last week, by the notorious “Gunmen”, bodes a bad omen for the unity of the country. If it is not well managed, it could trigger ethno-tribal clashes that could throw the nation into a cesspool of crises.
To avoid a dire consequence, I believe all sides, especially the IPOB/ESN agitators should cease fire and end the hostilities. Government –at the national and subnational level, should also create an atmosphere that can gender free and unfettered dialogue. Tough talks on both sides should stop. That is why I also believe that the threat by President Mohammadu Buhari to literally teach the IPOB agitators a lesson, though provoked, was unnecessary.
IPOB and its leaders must stop not only the attacks and wanton destruction of lives and property, but also desist from the irreverent insult and abuses on the President , and other leaders who disagree with their approach. Two wrongs will never make a right. No dialogue or rapproachment can ever be meaningful in the atmosphere of abuses and insults.
What everyone should want ultimately is a united and prosperous country where though tribe and tongue may differ, we shall remain resolved to stand in unity.
