Who Is Nnamdi Kanu?

HARRY AGINA

The question—Who is Nnamdi Kanu?—is inevitable in the current agitation for the Sovereign State of Biafra by groups within the Igbo race in Nigeria. 

This question comes in various forms and slants, depending on who is asking; some positively slanted, and others

negatively slanted. My own slant is objectively and mildly negative, I must declare. Who is Nnamdi Kanu to impose his war-mongering will on me? A butterfly that thinks he is a bird?

An Igbo proverb says that a child who has not seen a real fight may say that he wants to wake up to a fight every day; or something close.

Nnamdi Kanu is spoiling for war because he has not been in one! People, I experienced the Nigeria Civil War (aka Biafra War) as a small boy, and I have to tell you that I didn’t like it; not one bit!!! I was only about twelve years of age when Biafra

war ended on January 12, 1970. And, if the war had lasted just one more month beyond that day, i  would have been conscripted as a child soldier and sent to the battle fronts to perish like many before me. Indeed, some boys under the age of ten had already been conscripted in my town; I was just lucky so far. There were simply no more men to fight the war! So, you see why I truly can’t accept it when a young man who did not live through that horror, goes out there and brings another war for me to go through, without seeking my opinion. One war is more than enough for one lifetime!!!

So, I repeat; who is Nnamdi Kanu??? What pedigree does he have to be this audacious to plunge all Igbos into another war with his quest for a Sovereign State of Biafra? And, he has the audacity to include non-Igbo territories in his concocted map of Biafra without seeking their opinions or will!!! Let’s face it; Kanu has already created a pre-war kind of atmosphere hanging over Igbo people all over Nigeria now, with the attendant hostility from other ethnic groups, albeit it mild in some cases. Not long after a northern region’s youths organization issued a notice to the Igbos in the north to leave their land within three months, a Yoruba group issued a milder warning to Igbos in the southwest, too; all because of one self-appointed Igbo Messiah with a wrong attitude and wrong approach to the demand for equity for the Igbo race in Nigeria!

Many wars have happened, and many are presently happening all over the world, consuming millions of innocent people, simply because self-serving privileged individuals woke up one day and decided to impose their individual wills on multitudes of people. Some of those war-mongering privileged individuals in leadership positions are/were actually certifiably clinically insane. What makes this so unacceptable is that the power-drunk, ego-tripping, self-serving individuals who foment the trouble are often sitting pretty in the safety of their fortified homes as they urge or force the “common” people to go out and die to uphold their will.

If Nnamdi Kanu wants to be another Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu with the agenda to “save” the Igbo race, then he needs to ask how Ojukwu approached it, which made him widely accepted as the leader of Biafra in 1967. For instance, somebody needs to inform Kanu that Ojukwu led yhe Biafra war almost reluctantly, with caution, and not as a war monger. Indeed, a version of the story has it that “The Eastern Region Consultative Assembly” at some point became impatient with Ojukwu for being too cautious and not declaring the war soon enough, in the face of the war moves already being made by the Nigerian military. Yet, he was, and is still being blamed by some people for prosecuting the war. The argument on whether the persons that blame Ojukwu are right or wrong is a story for another day. The point at hand is that Ojukwu was wise and cautious; with administrative, military, and leadership pedigree.

First, Ojukwu followed a long line of negotiations at the center, which eventually culminated in the famed “Aburi Accord.” Then, he went into wide consultation with the leaders of the entire link geographical space that was to be named Biafra.

This earned him the wide acceptance by all; and, his inclusiveness was the reason that an Efik man was his second-in-command. Mind you, Biafra war was fought when Nigeria was under military rule, and Ojukwu was a military man—but he consulted for consensus. Kanu is a civilian with

no pedigree, in a democracy, and he wants to force a war upon a people!!! He has the audacity to order the Igbo people to boycott elections in Nigeria, starting with the upcoming Anambra governorship election of November 2017. There is

a great need for Igbos to resoundingly speak up against his excesses.

If the truth be told, the Igbo people did not ask for the Biafra war, either. We did not mandate Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and his cohorts to prosecute the first military coup d’état of Nigeria in 1966; no sir! In fact, it was not even an all-Igbo coup; there were officers of otherethnic origins in it. Igbos did not conspire as a race in the killing of the Northern officers and civilian leaders, which enraged the north, and led

to the 1967 massacre and the war that followed. The Igbo involvement was few Igbo army officers, but the entire Igbo race suffered severely for it.

That was a military era, and those of us who were civilians could not do anything about the situation. This time, however, we can stop Nnamdi Kanu from plunging us into another war. The Holy Bible says that evil triumphs when good men remain

silent. I want to believe that there is something similar to this maxim in the Holy Qur’an, too; no wonder, I am writing this to contribute in my own little way. I pray that, with resounding

renouncement of Kanu by Igbos, the northern youths may realize that he is not speaking for the Igbos that peacefully reside in their midst in the northern region, and rescind their threat to sack or hurt them.

I have discussed with several reasonable Igbo persons, within and outside Nigeria, and the consensus is that Nnamdi Kanu and his self- serving cohorts are sacrificing the lives and

wellbeing of the entire Igbo race that live in Nigeria for their own personal benefits. Many believe that Kanu’s so-called self-actualization for the Igbos, is actually his own personal self-actualization of popularity and wealth.

Initially, many Igbo observers, including me, believed that Kanu and his cohorts were in the gitation to negotiate for better conditions for the Igbo people in the Nigerian project. And, yes, indeed, the Igbo race has not had a fair deal in

the Nigerian project since Nigeria’s civil war ended in 1970. Yes, indeed, there is the need to treat the Igbo race better. All Igbos know this, and people of other ethnic extractions do admit it, too. Some outspoken prominent non-Igbos have actually voiced it, and spoke for equity on behalf of the Igbo race. But, unfortunately, Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB organization are going about it the wrong way. Their way leads to doom for the Igbos, and not betterment. If Kanu was interested in the Igbo betterment, then he would have known where to draw the line between peaceful agitation and war-mongering. He would have known when to start using the attention he has created for political negotiation. Instead, he

veered into the path of many radicals who have plunged millions of innocent people into unnecessary wars and destruction all over the world. Importantly, if indeed there should ever be a Sovereign State of Biafra, or any other secession in Nigeria for that matter, it should be through negotiation; and not through a war. I DON’T WANT TO SEE ANOTHER WAR!!!!!! TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

I want to ask Nnamdi Kanu how he plans to take responsibility for his utterances and actions when they begin to really take a toll on Igbos. For instance, how does he plan to feed and cater for all the Igbos that may be thrown back to the Igbo land from the North, if the Northern Youths carry out their threat? How does he plan to address the matter of all the people that may leave their entire livelihood and property in the north to flee to Igbo land? Did he read history before he went into this venture? Did he research the Biafra war effects? Did he see the pictures of kwashiorkor children all over the land; and young men and women who looked older than Methuselah? If the exodus should happen, Nnamdi Kanu should be economically prepared to support his victims; is he? I bet that he believes that it is okay to create such humongous problem and sit safely and comfortably in his home feeding fat, while the victims suffer and die! I do have relatives in the north, and if that exodus does happen (God forbid), I would advise them to go to Kanu’s residence and demand compulsory economic support from him. And, how about the fact that lives are bound to be lost if the northern youths carry out their threat? Has Kanu ever thought about that? Is he aware of the thousands of casualties that happened in 1967 during similar incident?

When Odumegwu Ojukwu led the Biafra war, he spent his father’s vast wealth; does Kanu have a dime to spend? Ojukwu was physically in the war ronts fighting the enemy, alongside his soldiers; would Nnamdi Kanu be that brave if he starts this war that he is presently spoiling for? If he says yes, I have an instant test for him—I would like to see him leave the safety of the Igbo land where he is presently, and move to the northern Nigeria ahead of the deadline given to Igbos to quit the region. I would like him to show us the armament that he has been boasting of when the angry northern youths swoop down on him. I demand him to be personally present in the north to defend the innocent Igbos that he has caused this humongous impending problem for. If he does not make this personal sacrifice and one Igbo lood is shed, Kanu should be held responsible!!!

I watched a video where he has the impunity to declare that “Sumalia would look like paradise compared to what will happen in the zoo.” Who and what is Kanu planning to use to pursue this threat; his person and his children? Does he have enough children of his own to fight a war? Or, as he foments his self-serving trouble, is he banking on me and the millions of other Igbo people whose opinion he has never sought, to go and die for him?

As an Igbo man, I take strong exception to Kanu’s pronouncements! He does not have my permission to make them on my behalf, and I know for sure that overwhelming majority of Igbos renounce him as I do. I was very elated to see/hear the June 29th renouncement of the widely recognized and accepted pan-Igbo socio-cultural organization named “Ohaneze Ndi-Igbo.” John Nwodo, the President General of the organization, warned that Kanu’s “IPOB organization must stop arrogating to itself the supreme leadership of Igbo land.” On the same day, the Urhobo race warned Kanu to desist from including their land in his concocted map of his Biafra. It is also good that some prominent Igbo politicians have condemned Kanu’s audacious excesses. Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State (an Igbo state) has long renounced Kanu.

WE NEED MORE CONDEMNATION FROM MORE PEOPLE OF IGBO EXTRACTION, AND WE NEED IT URGENTLY BEFORE THE QUIT NOTICE DEADLINE, WITH THE HOPE THAT THIS WILL QUELL THE FIRE IN THE NORTHERN YOUTHS AND MAKE THEM TO SHEATH THEIR SWORDS.

I must commend Nigeria’s Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, for his prompt and decisive response to the quit notice of the northern youths to Igbos in the north. There is no doubt that his actions and words are yielding tremendous positive effects, which include the equally commendable pledge by the Kano State governor to protect the Igbos in his state.

.Harry Agina: harryagina@yahoo.com