There is an ancient adage adopted by many African tribes, including the Yoruba of Nigeria. It says: “What an elder sees sitting down, a child cannot see even if he climbs a tree.” It explains the inexorable efficacy of the wisdom of an elder on any issue.By my paternal roots as a south easterner, and like many other Nigerians, I doubted when President Muhammadu Buhari frowned at the intentions of the assemblage of these miscreants in the Southeast under the auspices of Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, led by the delinquent, Nnamdi Kanu, purporting to be spearheading secession agitations.
Blindly, I initially thought IPOB was decently fronting for a progressive Igbo affair. So, I passionately hated President Buhari and covertly threw my support to IPOB in every possible way, including monetary donations. But sadly, I got it all wrong. I am now convinced, I was nicely duped by IPOB’s camouflage garbs.
And like most kinsmen who toed my line of thought, now, tongues are wagging over the physical attack on former deputy Senate president, Senator Ike Ekweremadu by Nuremberg’s branch of IPOB, in Germany. Ekweremadu was in Germany to attend the Ndi’gbo Germany Community organized second Annual Igbo Cultural Festival as a Speaker and Special Guest of Honour. Apart from the international disrepute the action has foisted on the entire Igbo nation; who else is thinking of other consequences like me. If truely, we want a Biafran republic, is it sensible to attempt to kill or humiliate leaders who can speak for our collective cause as done by IPOB in Nurumberg?
This is highly condemnable and setting the stage for the eruption of a big problem in the nearest future. But there is no remorse from IPOB’s so- called leader, Kanu. He has rather bolstered his sect members with insane statements. Many more are perturbed by Kanu’s fresh and renewed threats to attack Southeast leaders, including State Governors and other prominent Nigerians anywhere they are spotted in Europe, America, Asia and the likes. Kanu has even pledged N1 million reward to anybody who would reveal details of the itinerary and exact location of any Southeast Governor abroad.
However, it is glaring to me now that time has vindicated President Buhari. It started with the less riotous or non-violent campaigns by IPOB. We embraced it. But sooner, IPOB armed criminals gradually morphed into armed and violent criminality in the region. They up-scaled kidnappings, armed robberies and held the entire Southeast region to ransom.
The aberrational IPOB sect embarked on frequent molestation, intimidation and harassment of innocent citizens in the Southeast. That was when it dawned on me that I backed a wrong group. IPOB’s dubiousness and criminal conduct accentuated when they constituted an illegal government within the sovereign state of Nigeria.
Emboldened by this impunity, Kanu and his gang intermittently declared and coercively imposed public holidays on the Southeast region. They would forcefully shut down commercial activities and visit violators with physical violence and brutality. It was the most uncivilized manner of handling targets of a cause. IPOB armed gangs intensified criminal raids of communities; looting and vandalization of properties of their kinsmen, extra-judicial killings and extortions among others.
I was completely disarmed by this naked manifestation of cruelty. Additionally, IPOB gangsters on the directive of Kanu massively arrested those averse to their ideology, tortured them to pulp and thereafter, either executed them or cast them into the river after chaining their hands and feet. Nnamdi Kanu was arrested by security agents and charged to court for treasonable charges. But some Ndi’gbo leaders rose in stout opposition, after accusing Buhari of attempts to undermine the struggle for a Biafran state. They refused pleas to take a critical insight into the operations of IPOB. The embittered leaders rallied round Kanu and secured his bail. In less than two weeks, the IPOB leader violated almost all the bail conditions stipulated by the courts. Kanu thereafter, plotted the declaration of a “Biafran republic,” prompting the FGN to unleash on the Southeast, Operation Python Dance III by the Military to forestall any uncontrollable breakdown of law and order.
Still actively backed by Igbo leaders, the IPOB leader disappeared to an unknown destination, after weaving several falsified tales against solders and the FGN. Kanu heightened tension in the Southeast by secretly sneaking out of Nigeria to the warm comfort of his wife and children domiciled in the United Kingdom. That was what I later discovered and he abandoned those arrested to their fate. The aftermath of that unpleasant and unsuccessful outing by IPOB established their indubitable credentials as an evil sect groomed to stain the reputation of Ndi’gbo and destroy Nigeria.
The strings of events led to the proscription and eventual declaration of IPOB as a terrorists sect. It was a belated realisation; but the decision germane. And on the adjourned date of hearing of Kanu’s treason trial, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe could not produce Kanu in court. Since then, Kanu has avoided Nigeria. A leader does not fight a cause for his people in this style.
And enraged President Buhari was extremely patient with IPOB, but the sect failed to understand with him. Having been gagged in Nigeria, IPOB sect terrorists have relocated to foreign countries where they are breeding large apostates. Kanu has boasted about their large numbers in foreign countries. And to reveal IPOB’s unrepentant mindset, Kanu stated in a tweet after the attack on Senator Ekweremadu boastfully that; “The courageous act by IPOB at Nürnberg Germany is a polite warning to those engaged in selling our collective interest to Fulani caliphate. Nwodo, Igbo governors are warned.”
It’s now obvious to me that the IPOB leader is on an ego trip to Golgotha. The demons in his brain are finally on rampage. By this declaration which he has repeated in other media interviews, Kanu has boldly come out to tell the world that he is neither a Nigerian and also not a British citizen because both countries abhor and have outlawed terrorism or allied acts which he symbolises now. Kanu’s latest public statement to attack Nigerian officials that visit Europe and other parts of the world has unmistakably confirmed him again as a terrorist.
Only people with terror inclinations make such a bold and audacious statements to criminally assault others. Citizens of other countries who publicly attack their leaders as cited Kanu in interviews do not brag about.
The extreme reaction comes spontaneously. And that Kanu brags about it tells me he is arming his sect members for the job. This is a terrorist disposition. Obviously, it is unambiguous now that sadistic Nnamdi Kanu’s second identity is terrorism and he is fast grooming terrorists around the world under the canopy of IPOB.
In Nigeria, Kanu is known for terrorism and foreign countries where he hibernates with members of his sect are forewarned to be vigilant before IPOB members start detonating bombs in public places like ISIS.
Time has come for Ndi’gbo to seek justice for their slain kith and kin or those coldly murdered by Kanu and his IPOB sect. His criminal acts should be thoroughly investigated and chronicled for onward transmission to the ICC for criminal prosecution since Kanu has evaded trials in Nigeria, his home country.
Our people say, the leopard does not change it’s spots. The criminal ego which sent Kanu running away from Nigeria after a “Python Dance” in the south east has caught up with him in the western world because old habits die hard. I doubt if any reasonable leader who is concerned with terrorism whether in the United Kingdom, America, Germany or any other place in the world would continue to consent to the domiciliary of Mr. Kanu and his incensed armed criminals to torment the peace of others?
I leave the judgment and decision to initiate appropriate actions to the countries which are accommodating and tolerating Kanu under any law to decide.
If they prefer to allow Kanu and his IPOB sect the leverage to be resident and torment the peace of their country with terrorism, fine! But what happened in Nuremberg was the secondary stage IPOB in Nigeria and it went berserk within a short time.
- Ebuka E. Ebuka is a forensic psychologist at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka..
