Kanu: The method in the madness

Those who think Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, is

crazy and delusional, must pause a little for further reflection. If they do, perhaps they would discover that there is some method in his madness. The only evidence I have for this assertion comes from the thoughts of a select few among the Igbo leaders and intelligentsia.

It comes from the commonsensical stand of respected personalities like Joe Igbokwe, the publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Lagos State, the erudite intervention of Emma Agwu, a respected journalist of the Igbo extraction and Comfort Obi, a worthy daughter of the East, publisher and member of the Police Service Commission who, along with other prominent Igbo leaders, worked tirelessly behind the scenes to get Kanu out of prison on bail. This pack will not be complete without mentioning the contributions – erudite, cerebral and legal – of Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu. Of course, I am aware of other distinguished voices of sanity from the East who would have liked to see a more decent and civilised approach to the whole Biafran agitation but who would like to remain anonymous.

When it mattered most, some of these people stood up to be counted on the side of sweet reasonableness but Kanu had gone too far in his misadventure that all that was left to be done is damage control.

Kanu, you will recall, had metamorphosed from a pro-Nigeria activist during the Goodluck Jonathan administration, leading a protest march in London against Boko Haram to an operator of Radio Biafra, graduating, ultimately, into the leadership position of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.

It all sounded well until 2015 when Jonathan lost the presidential election to APC candidate, Muhammadu Buhari. With Jonathan out of power, the Igbo, for all practical purposes, appeared like the tribe that has lost its head. That was the right moment for Kanu to seize the initiative. Like the Moses of the Israelites, he assumed the divine responsibility of leading his Igbo people to the Promised Land – the Biafran Eldorado.

He did not opt for the mild mannered style of Moses, embracing the meekness of the lamb. He is not the one to turn the other cheek. Instead, he preferred to hit his perceived enemies on the two cheeks at same time. He fell, head over heels, in love for the rhetoric that was full of bile and venom, employing the crude techniques of persuasion; egregious propaganda, bare-faced lies, hate speeches and brainwashing.

For his efforts, he was arrested on October 14, 2015 but he was given bail only last April after the intervention of well-meaning leaders from the South East. No sooner was he out of detention than he decided to break every one of the bail conditions. He displayed his hold on the people by locking down the entire region for a whole day. He even vowed that the Anambra State election would not hold next month.

Most of the things he said were unprintable but it is sufficient enough for us to know that we all live in a vast zoo. When other Nigerians who felt aggrieved with the structure of the country were calling for restructuring, Kanu went on record as saying that even if an Igbo man became president, he would not stop agitating for Biafra. In other words, it is Biafra or nothing.

As he was busy spewing out these words of hate, the elders of the community turned an unhearing ear. Surprisingly, people who were usually given to loquaciousness suddenly turned taciturn. Those of them who volunteered a few words, spoke in parables but only in defence of human rights, rights of abuse and the right to pour venom on those in authority. Until the Arewa Youth Group, in reaction and in absolute exasperation, took the law into their own hands and gave those warming up to secede from Nigeria a quit notice from the North with effect from October 1. Bedlam then broke out and the taciturn suddenly became vocal. They now said those who gave quit notice were treasonable felons that deserved to be locked up.

Igbokwe’s admonition fell on deaf ears. He had sought to remind his kinsmen all over the country and in the Diaspora that Kanu was winning millions of enemies for the Igbo with his incendiary hate speeches but he was laughed out of court. He was called a traitor and a turncoat. But he kept asking the following question: “Why did our leaders keep quiet in the face of these provocative statements and abuse. Why did they not care about others in Nigeria?”