The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPoB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has been conferred with Honorary Citizenship of the State of Georgia in the United States and designated an Outstanding Citizen to be accorded the status of a Goodwill Ambassador.
The recognition was contained in a proclamation issued by Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, on behalf of the Republican-controlled U.S. state.
According to the proclamation, dated January 16, 2026, Kanu is to be recognised as an Honorary Georgia Citizen and accorded “every courtesy as a Goodwill Ambassador from Georgia” wherever he may travel or reside.
The proclamation was formally presented on Friday, January 23, 2026, in Milledgeville, one of Georgia’s capital cities, by State Representative Gab Okoye.
Former Nigerian Consul General to South Africa, Ambassador Uche Ajulu-Okeke, received the certificate on behalf of the detained IPoB leader.
Speaking at the event, Ajulu-Okeke described Kanu as “Africa’s most famous political prisoner and a global prisoner of conscience.”
The proclamation reads in part:
“I, Brad Raffensperger, Secretary of State of the State of Georgia, do hereby proclaim Nnamdi Okwu Kanu as an Honorary Georgia Citizen.
“May this Outstanding Citizen be accorded every courtesy as a Goodwill Ambassador from Georgia in his travels to other states, to nations beyond the borders of the United States of America, or wherever he may hereafter travel or reside.”
Kanu is currently serving a life sentence at the Sokoto Correctional Centre following his conviction by Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
He was tried and convicted on charges related to treasonable offences, which he has consistently denied.
His legal team and the leadership of IPoB have maintained that the charges were brought under laws they argue are non-existent, and have vowed to challenge the judgment at the Court of Appeal.
Kanu was arrested in Kenya in 2021 and subsequently extradited to Nigeria in what his supporters have described as an extraordinary rendition during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The latest recognition from the State of Georgia comes amid renewed calls by IPoB and its supporters for his release, both within Nigeria and in the international community.
