By Olusegun Olanrewaju
I will be back soon in the land of Biafra, and I will bring hell with me,” Nnamdi Kanu, leader of Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), dared the authorities in 2015.
Kanu’s prediction has now come true. He is back in Nigeria, but not in the way he wanted.
The Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) leader was arrested by Nigerian intelligence officers in Kenya on Sunday, June 27, 2021 and brought ‘heartbroken’ to Abuja for detention and trial. Kanu has confirmed that he was indeed arrested in Kenya on June 18.
He said he experienced eight days of torture in the hands of Kenyan security men before being handed over to Nigerian security agents. He broke his silence through his lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, who he met at the Abuja headquarters of the Department of State Services (DSS).
Kanu’s story has defaced the denials by Kenyan High Commissioner in Nigeria and the country’s interior ministry that their country had no role in his abduction and interception.
Now that he is in Nigeria, Kanu, the
Federal Government says, will be answering charges bordering on treasonable felony, terrorism and illegal possession of arms. The events that have peaked with his present arrest and trial have been long drawn, but it largely rests on alleged jumping of bail during trial which began in 2015.
IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu accuses Nigerian Army of secretly killing Igbos
He has been calling for concerted action based on civil disobedience, quasi-military campaigns and political actions like boycotting of polls by his people in the South-East, until the dream of actualising Biafra was achieved. Kanu has been having a run against the wind since he established IPOB in 2009.
Before then, he was a little known figure, but his popularity soared after the establishment of Radio Biafra, which was broadcasting anti-state programmes from London where he had settled after leaving Nigeria. A scion of a traditional ruler in Abia State, the IPOB leader really tried to ‘bring hell’ with him, but the currents may have now proven too much for his ship.
His sit-at homes, keep-off-the-street campaigns, which were sometimes largely obeyed by the masses, have often created a semblance of parallel government in the South-East.
The stake is getting higher because of a constellation of issues serenading his arrest. For instance, he is alleged to have ‘orchestrated’ the death of some 60 persons in the last four months.
A tough-talking Federal Government says it is arraigning the IPOB leader and his group, which has been branded a terrorist organisation, on 11-count charge of treasonable felony, terrorism and illegal possession of arms.
The government also promised not to spare the sponsors of Kanu, IPOB and their ‘collaborators’ but promised a fair trial. Meanwhile, lawyers and civil rights groups had earlier called on the Federal Government to give the IPOB leader a fair trial.
However, speaking on a BBC Pidgin news programme, Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, described Kanu’s ordeal as a lesson for other ethnic irredentists in the country.
The UN has said it was seeking clarification on the legality of Kanu’s arrest from the Federal Government.
Speeches
Kanu delivers powerful verbal releases which critics often berate as ‘hate speeches’. In September 2019, at the European Union Parliament, he said, “Nigeria has always been a fiction. The state we now know as Nigeria was created for British administrative and colonial convenience in 1914.
“Nigeria’s epidemic of violence flowing from the North is well documented. In 2014, the Global Terrorism Index judged Fulani militants to be the fourth most deadly terror group in the world, behind Boko Haram, ISIS, and the Taliban.
“Lawlessness is always one step ahead of the government. In response, the government, when it is convenient for it to do so, attempts to give a veneer of legality to the lawlessness.
“Recent proposed land reforms across Nigeria do just that.
The Fulani herders from the North are increasingly encroaching on the settled farmers of the South/South-East. This includes Biafra.
“As Amnesty International has reported, there were more than 2,000 deaths in 2018 linked to this land crisis. Instead of seeking to address the violence, the government has sought to condone it and legitimise the land grab.
“The Zoo called Nigeria cannot jail me. I will fight till the last day. Binta Nyanko court failed to ask @HQNigerianArmy why they invaded my home. Nigerian court is a Kangaroo court. I did not jump bail, I left because the court failed to protect me.
“I am not a Nigerian. I already renounced Nigeria in 2015. I am a Biafran with British Nationality. I cannot be tried by a court I do not recognise. I do not recognise Nigeria.
“I can only come to the court with UN supervision”, he said in Israel where he had fled to after the alleged bail jump in 2018.
At a global Biafran Remembrance Day organised by the World Igbo Council (WIC) on May 31, 2021, Kanu had said, “People who are alien to our culture are invading our land.
“It doesn’t matter what it costs. No soul can say Biafra cannot be realised. They are coming to kill but our leaders are colluding with them. There is no significant presence in our land. We are not going to apologise”.
Meanwhile, Kanu’s supporters say he is “pursuing a heavenly-ordained project”. Like one posted on the social media, “You (Kanu) will see and enjoy Biafra.’’
One Mary Offiong posted, “Nnamdi Kanu, you are a great leader. The Bible says Right from the days of John the Baptist, the kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent take it by force”.
