By Mudiaga Affe, Kassim Omomia, David Lawani and Cajetan Mmuta
Nigerians have urged the authorities to be cautious in the matter concerning the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, and his secessionist colleague from the South-West, Sunday Adeyemo, alias Sunday Igboho.

Their issue, they said, posed some form of threat to the nation’s existence.

Kanu, who jumped bail three years ago and fled the country, was re-arrested in a concerted operation by security operatives, comprising the International Police (INTERPOL). He was whisked to Abuja last week.

His secessionist counterpart, Igboho, who has been declared wanted by the Department of State Service, fled his Soka, Ibadan residence in Oyo State when security operatives raided his home last Thursday.

But speaking on their clampdown, many Nigerians warned that their matter could provoke greater tension in the polity if not handled carefully.

For instance, Human Rights lawyer, Gloria Ballason, while calling on the federal government to be cautious in their cases, said the country does not deserve any further threat.

According to her, with the unending Boko Haram insurgency and other pockets of insecurity issues resulting in killings of people, the authorities should not attract further crisis with the handling of Kanu and Igboho’s matter.

The lawyer, who also challenged the federal government to endeavour to be just, noted that it was not handling the several security breaches in the north as it is doing in the south.

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She said, “Nobody is negotiating with Sunday Igboho, Nnamdi Kanu, yet Federal Government is criminalizing them and treating those bringing the country down with kid gloves’’.

“This is not the way to go about solving the current situation in the country because the approach by the Federal Government has the propensity to further escalate insecurity in the land”.

She argued that it will be difficult for the country to face Boko Haram and at the same time contain the current agitation because like Boko Haram, Kanu got recognition and currency because the more he was being hunted, the more he got sympathizers.

Contributing, a rights activist, Marxist Kola, said the right to self-determination and justice was at the core of the challenges in the county.

He said, “The right to self-determination is guaranteed by international law. To achieve economic cum political emancipation, it has to be done diplomatically, if we must disintegrate, it has to be done in peace, not in pieces.

“The gospel of freedom propounded by Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra and Sunday Igboho is not too palatable as the nation has yet to be healed from the wounds of the Nigerian civil war.

“And so, the Nigerian government should put modalities in place for the implementation of true federalism and let the various regions control their natural resources and do the needful to the Central Government. This will go a long way to reduce the ongoing agitation in the country drastically.

“For donkey’s years, the Eastern region has been marginalized, so no Igbo has ruled the country after the end of the civil war in 1970. There is, therefore, a need to balance the equation politically as this will also reduce the secession agitation.

“The ongoing clampdown on Kanu and Igboho will not forcefully bring a lasting panacea to the challenges. We should rather be careful not to exacerbate the already situation and so allow bandits, killer-herdsmen, and Boko Haram members to have a field day on the streets”.

But the National President of Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) and former Attorney-General of Edo State, Osagie Obayuwana, said with the trial of the leader of IPOB, all eyes would be on the Nigerian government to see how the case would go.

Obayuwana said,“We have had many cases of historical trials not only in Nigeria but across the world. Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro were tried. So, there are plenty of examples for historical trials. Even in this country, Obafemi Awolowo was tried. Anthony Enahoro was also tried.

“So, I think it is a matter that needs to be separated from sentiments. Specific offences have been alleged, the stage should be prepared with credible evidence to prove those allegations”.

Similarly, a former Secretary of the Nigeria Bar Association, Lagos branch, Stephen Obajaja, said it was unfortunate that Nigeria has again found itself in dire straits.

“There is insecurity everywhere you turn and anywhere”, he noted.

Cautioning against the backdrop of the threat posed by their clampdown, Obajaja appealed to the government to be creative in handling their cases.

He said, “The government must be more creative in solving the seemingly intractable security challenges facing the nation.

“We used to face challenges from Boko Haram in the North East, bandits in the North West, and IPOB in the East. Now the relative security in the South West is fast deteriorating with the commercialization of kidnapping and the opening of a new theatre of unrest that the Sunday Igboho saga has become.

“The government must do better in addressing the issues that lead to insecurity and not merely fixated with arresting (as we have done in the Nnamdi Kanu case) or violently invading the homes of agitators (as we have done in the Sunday Igboho case) who many times have legitimate grievances and a lot of local support even if we question the methods by which they are ventilating their grievances.

“Government must engage more; address youth unemployment and other related social problems that cause unrest. The justice sector must be revamped and access to justice by all guaranteed as some of the agitations arose out of the inability of citizens to get justice in our courts.

“On a national context, a nation that seeks peace but will not do justice among its diverse nationalities is merely chasing an illusion. If Nigeria will know peace again, it must make justice for all its citizens a national creed”, he said.

Also, an expert on conflict resolution, Dr. Nosa Omorodion, said the existential threat occasioned by secession agitations in the country was obvious but complicated.

Omorodion said, “It is apparent in the sense that we have to address the issues of socio-economic injustice and inequity raised. There is an urgent need to restructure Nigeria along the lines of popular yearnings and aspirations. At the root of this is the call for true federalism.

“True federalism will douse tension as the fight to take power at the federal level to promote ethnic or other mundane agenda will be minimized.

“There is this desperation to maintain the status quo whereby the progressive parts of the country are brought under perpetual subjugation to the less progressive parts in terms of the quest for knowledge, rejection of primitive religious shackles, and aspiration to modernity and the good life.”

On his part, Austine Osaghae, a mechanical engineer and human rights activist said, “We have heard a lot about existential threats lately. So, we might want to think about what this threat is all about. But on the whole, the solution lies with the federal government.”
According to him, the president needs to bring everybody to the table so that peace can reign in the country.