The Thing Around The Head And Neck Of Northern Youths By Kelechi Abonuyo

Biafra would be the 16^th member country of ECOWAS by October 01, 2017 should disgruntled northern youths make real their threat on national unity. Biafrans, which are mainly Igbos, would then have the rights to free movement, retention of acquired property and lawful acquisition of more property within all member states, including what would be left of Nigeria.

If indeed you have not heard about NNAMDI KANU by now, then you must be living in ‘‘Oblivium’’, near planet Mars, or just somewhere beyond the clouds, where no one can reach.

Nnamdi Kanu was the self-styled director of Radio Biafra, which was been promoted by Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB. He rose from obscurity to hero when President Mohammadu Buhari took his bait, hook, line, sinker and ‘‘arm’’. ‘‘I never heard of him before this time, to be quite honest; never heard of him. I didn’t even know about IPOB or whatever thing er….er, until…………’’ was how former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Professor Charles Soludo, said it about him in a book review late last year, in Abuja.

While Nnamdi Kanu was in charge of the radio, his tongue was laced with revile. His words were so ‘‘unromantic’’ that President Buhari’s left ear got infected. Since the days of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, no one has ever stirred the Biafran narrative as well as Nnamdi, not even the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB.

Nnamdi is never the leader of Ndi-Igbo nor Biafra, which is a larger course than Igbo, but of IPOB. The pro-Biafra succeeded in effectively placing the Biafra debate on a national and international table, with emphasis. Once Nnamdi found himself in his radio studio, and he put on his ear gadgets, his mouth wagged, unless the state of Biafra was granted. As a student of contemporary history, he is aware he was heading to violent course. He claimed to have made himself an offering to Biafrans, which include members of the old Eastern State. They also include those peoples within ear shot of certain nautical miles, standing on Biafran territorial border; namely, the people of Ika, Urhobo, Isoko, Ijaw, Itsekiri, Efik, Ibibio, Ndokwa and some parts of Bini.

Nnamdi Kanu believes in violence only as a second option. When he was responding to Sahara Reporters’ Rudolf Okonkwo, he promised ‘‘if they do not give us Biafra, Somalia will look like a paradise compared to what will happen in that zoo’’ in the context of violence.

The actualisation of the sovereign state of Biafra is now a global movement, thanks to Buhari’s mismanagement of it. Nnamdi Kanu, who recently met his stringent bail conditions, was arrested and incarcerated in 2015. He was being tried under a kangaroo court, tele-guided by the presidency. As if that wasn’t enough, many members of IPOB were killed by the security operatives, without provocation, under Buhari’s. They were oppressed citizens, who engaged in self-determination in a structurally defective and unbalance country. Like every movement, the blood of the felled members became the seed for the propagation of their ideology, until it became a global business.

The 50^th anniversary of the Biafran war was the final test run for Nnamdi Kanu’s authority, outreach and followership. He appealed to his followers for a ‘‘sit-at-home’’ to peacefully observe 30^th May, 2017, in honour of their Biafran war heroes.

Throughout the five states of south-east of Nigeria, not a single business was done, not even ‘‘a binge’’. Businesses were paralysed. Nnamdi never minced words one bit, even though he didn’t speak with the same ferocity as the beard Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.

Nnamdi talked softly, behind his spectacle. He was sure, unwavering and definite. He boasted of his studentship in contemporary history. He boasted of Biafran scientists and the improvements on warheads of yesteryears. Those of us who abhor violence couldn’t kowtow to him. In a way, it could be said that President Buhari kowtowed when he took Nnamdi’s bait. Mr. Buhari also kowtowed when he could not provide leadership to the many agitations. Today it is to Nnamdi’s greatest advantage. He has now progressed from a dissident status to a hero status.

Throughout Nnamdi’s vile language, zoo-Nigeria apart, there was no time he categorically threatened the Nigerian state with violence. He never excised any section of the country nor tried to initiate pogrom, Rwanda style. Nnamdi’s course was full of ‘‘if” statements. ‘‘We will use force if…………’’ Nigeria is now on the brink as predicted by western bookers.

There must be this affinity between Northerners and kowtowing. President Buhari is a northerner.

A fortnight ago, a coalition of northern youths ‘‘committed suicide’’ on Nnamdi’s long rope. The ‘‘Northern youths’’, all above 40years, issued a communique at the end of their marathon meeting at Arewa House in Kaduna State. It was there that they perfected plans to orchestrate the pogrom of mainly Igbo southerners. For that well written communique delivered in a stridulated voice, I congratulate them.

Theydetailed how they would implement their evil, after the expiration of the 3-months ultimatum. They didn’t not hide their inclination and desire to maim and kill Igbos, 1966 style, in order to possess their multi-billion dollar estates scattered throughout the north. After doing their maths, the youths were unable to be exact with figures on Igbo investments. You can’t really trust Hausa/Fulani man with such arithmetic.

The North is particularly eyeing Igbo investments. At the wake of Boko Haram alleged infiltration into eastern states, the governors of those states were smart enough to scrutinise whomever that sneaked into their domain. Soon the rumoured scandal of identity card for northerners residing in the east went viral. The north was quick to respond to the ‘‘scandal’’ by quoting, ‘‘for the listening pleasure of Ndi-Igbo’’, Igbo’s investments in Jos, Kaduna and Kano alone. The investments stood at 45trillion naira at that time.

They threatened that Igbos would lose them if the I.D card programme was pushed a little further. In short all ethnic groups are well aware of Igbo investments outside Igbo land. Every now and then, they threaten Igbos, practically holding them by the jugular. Apart from the death of National Youth Service Corps members, mostly of Igbo extraction, Igbo investments had once plunged by 410 billion naira in Jos post-election crisis, in 2011. General Muhammadu Buhari, then a presidential candidate, had released the theory of ‘‘the Baboon and the Monkey soaking in their blood’’, referring to the violence that would befall Nigerians if he lost election.

To be honest, it will take ‘‘Biafrans’’ about 50 years or more to repatriate their wealth to the ‘‘Republic of Biafra’’. But as a member state of ECOWAS, that’s needless. Assuming Nigeria disintegrates, God forbid, and Biafra’s neighbouring country or countries confiscate or re-enact the scandalous ‘‘abandoned property scheme’’, the entire world will be stressed up with horror. The children of Esau in the North and the children of Jacob in the South would forever lock horns in arms conflict, with Israel/Palestine template, over ‘‘a piece of land’’. United Nations and African Union will have more job at hand.

From Igboman’s perspective, the Kaduna Declaration is surely the voice of Jacob. There must be the hand of Esau somewhere. Prior to the infamous declaration, which imitates April 22, 1990, coup speech by Major Gideon Orka, many Hausa/Fulani fora had amplified the guts of their youths. Among the northern elders who stopped at nothing to ignite the raging fire is Professor Ango Abdullahi. Although he was doing his work of a local champion as the leader of regional Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), his utterances can’t be wished away as non-incentives.

He is a leader of thought and one time vice-chancellor of the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Inspite of what the south see as a parasitic north in Nigeria, the northern leaders have come to claim that the south was actually developed with the resources from the north; namely groundnut, sugar-cane, tomatoes, onions, zobo and cow. Except Alhaji Tanko Yakasia, who has been uncompromising and nice with words, Alhaji Maitama Sule has been vituperous. Northern elders support their youths.

The disgruntled elements of the north anchored their dubious Kaduna Declaration on the very successful sit-at-home order from IPOB. What the heck is that? Was the order not like a bank holiday? Is June 12 not a date with history, which the Yorubas observe? What’s damn wrong with a people, Precious Ones, hallowing a date which they had with history?

Despite prompt criticism from former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the arrest order (although a smokescreen) issued by the incumbent governor Alhaji Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai, members of the youth coalition have been walking the street, with added bounce in their leg. The Inspector General of police, Mr Ibrahim Idris, himself a northerner, has remained aloof. This is unlike his efficient arrest of some Yorubas, who clashed lately with some Hausa/Fulani in Osun State. No arrests yet in the North.

In comparing this note, the Afenifere group cried ‘‘haba IGP!’’ when they issued a statement calling on all Yorubas residing in the north to return home. Already the five Igbo governors issued a statement calling on Igbos to return, on top of their pledge of five hundred thousand naira per family and transport logistics to bring them back home. So the die is cast. Nnamdi Kanu’s script has been given flesh.

In the past weeks, and probably in the weeks to come, Nigerians have been firing vituperations in the social media. There have been aspersions cast, with Igbos and Huasa/Fulani in the direct line of sight of the crossfire. Some have stopped short to top up aspersions to continue their firing. Some ethnic groups, especially those who pretend to line up with the Igbos, have adjusted their girdles for the scramble for Igbo property across the country.

Quit notice and counter quit notice are flying up and down. Seventy-three per cent of Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria, is owned by Igbos. They have choice property in Lagos and elsewhere, everywhere. Non Igbos drum up and toil with the idea of abandon property in the case that Igbos go back to their East. But 1970 is quite different from 2017, according to Nnamdi Kanu.

In the whole, one thing is clear. Nigeria, as a state, was heading to Golgotha, until HRH Emir Lamido Sanusi, of Kano, made that intelligent speech at the launch of a book in Lagos recently. He blamed and shamed Nigeria’s elite club. The All Progressives Congress party, North Central caucus, has demanded apology for Nigerians from the disgruntled elements of far north. Otherwise, Nigeria would have either resurrected from ‘‘her Golgotha’’ as a restructured state or broken as a disintegrated state, Czechoslovakia or Sudan style. By the reaction of some constituent nationalities, like Ijaw and Oodua, it seems everyone is waiting for the trigger, which comes with the Kaduna Declaration.

A particular Igbo proverb says ‘‘a child whose head is used to break a coconut does not live to partake in the eating of the nut’’. The head and neck of the Hausa/Fulani, albeit their youth, has been used. Igbo, Ijaw, and Yoruba are watching.

So, will they ever excise a section of Nigeria and start the pogrom now? Or shame on them?

Contact Writer: kabonuyo@yahoo.com