5 Reasons IPOB Leader, Nnamdi Kanu Couldn’t Get Igbo Elite’ Support

JAMES ANTHONY

In recent days, Nnamdi Kanu, the fugitive leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has been the staple on the social media. The issue has centered around the narrative whether he’s alive or not —that was before he eventually surfaced through a live chat on a social media platform few days ago.

While the rumour of Kanu’s death was still gaining momentum, a group, which identified itself as Igbos in Nigeria Movement (INM), without evidence of the IPOB leader’s demise, issued a statement, condoling the family and friends of Kanu. This led to a crossfire between IPOB supporters and some other Igbo elite who have come to see both IPOB and Kanu, its leader as nuisance dragging their proud race in the mud.

This exchange further provoked the old questions as to why this class of Igbos detests Kanu, who claim to be fighting their cause.

Our reporter arrived at some answers and here are five of those reasons:

1: SCAM- Not a few highly exposed Igbos see Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB as nothing but a scam. To these people, Kanu is just an hustler and they cannot rationalize why sophisticated Igbos could not expose the shenanigans of Kanu and his IPOB members. They wondered aloud how IPOB, through coercion, could be collecting ‘taxes’ openly from traders in the East and faces no challenge.

Aside that, some of these elite are worried about how IPOB has allegedly been deceiving some moneybags into parting with huge amounts of money to finance some illusory projects of the group, while there are reports alleging Kanu feasting on those monies to solve his personal issues. In fact, it has been said in a hushed tone that Kanu, in recent years, has allegedly acquired several properties in some South East cities with some of the proceeds.

These elite were peeved over Kanu’s claim that he wants an Utopian society but only doing the same things that others have done before him —no accountability. This action of his has been described as nothing but an elaborate scam.

2: VIOLENCE- There is no gainsaying that most members of IPOB are exuberant and violent. Their fuse is very short and are easily provocable —a little argument with a Kanu loyalist can lead to the victim being lynched. To some of these elite, the approach of some IPOB members has made it difficult for decent Igbos not wanting to be associated with them.

It is believed that Kanu himself has created an unsafe environment for Igbos in Nigeria and made it absolutely difficult for them to be taken seriously. Just as most Nigerians find it hard to differentiate between IPOB and the tribe Igbo.

3: BLACKMAIL- Recently, the Governor of Ebonyi State, Chief Dave Umahi accused Nnamdi Kanu of being a deceiver. According to the Governor, Kanu is using his Biafra cause to defraud gullible Igbo people. Umahi’s allegation corroborates that of former Governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha, who once described Kanu as a mad young man seeking relevance as a livelihood through a senseless agitation. 

Indeed, Kanu has been busted severally for using cheap lies and blackmails against Federal and some State governments on social media to gain the empathy from some Igbos.

A prominent Igbo elite based in London once narrated some activities of Kanu prior to his becoming the first Chairman of the United Kingdom Chapter of APGA. She said not a few Igbos in the United Kingdom will forget so soon how Kanu’s lifestyle dramatically changed immediately he got the mandate to head APGA in London.

She also made reference to how Kanu’s IPOB allegedly once blackmailed some Igbos who are based in America, threatening them that they would not be allowed to come to the East if they did not pay some monies to IPOB.

4: HATE MESSAGES– It has also been established that most Igbo elite see Kanu as a fantastically dangerous personality. They are not comfortable with his predilection for hate messages seen as a serious issue that is capable of splitting the country through avoidable conflagration or war.

There’s a general assumption of some Nigerians that Igbo leaders are tacitly endorsing the hate speech by the IPOB through their reticence and despite their knowledge of dire experiences of civil war.

But to some elite, that is a misconception induced by IPOB’s unfortunate messages laced with divisive and uncouth words.

5: HERD MENTALITY- The greatest anger of many decent Igbos against Nnamdi Kanu is the herd mentality tendency he has unknowingly wrought on his army of youthful followers. Each time he makes all those speeches, his followers are pitifully hoodwinked. In fact, there is a belief that most IPOB members have almost fatalistic attitude even towards their own health.

More so, the tell tale signs of the herd mentality are obvious: ask some IPOB members a question, instead of admitting they do not know they will attack the inquisitor. A victim of such hostility once recalled his encounter in Port Harcourt with a commercial driver, who is an IPOB member.

The driver had tuned to Biafra FM, however, the passenger —obviously not comfortable but took it in his stride to bear the crude message while on the journey. The passenger however, observed some inaccuracies in the message and unlucky to had made his observation known to the driver. Rather than explaining to the passenger, the driver went ballistic but he tacitly calmed the IPOB symphatiser down till he get out of his taxi.

To this gentleman —also an Igbo from Kanu’s Abia State— this trait of hostility at every slightest provocation must have been a product of their wrong indoctrination through some of Kanu’s speeches.

But it is soothing that while Kanu’s supporters are easily sold of an imaginary Utopian tale of uniting Igbos, most of the highly sophisticated elite of the South East are not fooled by the fugitive’s sophistry.

They can decipher what is realistic from false narrative, and they are afraid that per chance the IPOB’s Biafran dream materializes, Kanu will invariably run his Biafra like a Taliban state.

And they never wish that to happen!