Nnamdi Kanu’s Detention, & Conditional Freedom: Lessons And Challenges Ahead
It is no longer news that Citizen Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was unjustifiably detained for 18 months or since 14th October 2015 before being granted court bail with stringent conditions on 25th April 2017; with the said stiff pre-bail conditions fully met, leading to his release two days ago.
It is also no longer news that Int’l Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law [Intersociety], the first human rights organization in Nigeria to launch its advocacy with a strong worded and informative press statement dated 20th October 2015 and titled: Unanswered Questions Trailing Nnamdi Kanu’s Reported Bail And Continued Detention.
What is news is also not about noises being made by a battalion of celebrants of Citizen Nnamdi Kanu’s conditional freedom; who are dominated by aluta spectators among them are Judases, cowards and political opportunists.
On this same condemnable or damnable page is clear manifestation of ethnic bias, hatred and selective advocacy by Human Rights Watch (HRW), USA as it concerns the butchering or mass killing and maiming of hundreds of unarmed and defenseless Pro Biafra campaigners.
The HRW’s vicarious liability stems from the fact that its Nigerian research team is headed by a Nigerian of Southwest origin; forcing it to inexcusably opt out of its usual research based investigation and report on the issue till date.
The media hostility, particularly media blackout or distorted reporting of the mass killing and maiming of nonviolent Pro Biafra campaigners by most of the print and electronic media of Southwest origin is also worthy of outright condemnation.
While we have nothing to celebrate over Citizen Kanu’s conditional freedom because it is not yet uhuru; history will never be kind to us if we fail to mention and commend the immeasurable contributions of Citizen Kanu’s lawyers, online media particularly those of Southeast and South-south origins and the Amnesty International, UK.
The supreme sacrifices made by over 270 slain members, supporters and sympathizers of IPOB and other Pro Biafra campaign movements shall forever be remembered and engraved.
Those who narrowly escaped being shot dead, but got shot and battered with several of them crippled for life are also worthy to be mentioned and commended; likewise humanitarian roles of some privileged and conscientious Nigerians, on account of which several lives were saved.
LESSONS BEFORE BUHARI GOVERNMENT:
Different violent approaches adopted by the Buhari Administration so as to crush Igbo People or suppress them particularly as it concerns their nonviolent anti structural and physical violence campaigns are the worst governance policy and approaches any government can think of in this modern age.
The said failed violent and hostile attitudes of the Buhari Government are bitter lessons to be learnt by same. Violence has never solved any social or human problem. It has always aggravated same or yielded further violence and acrimony.
It is also an incontestable fact that the Buhari Administration is the most dreaded anti Igbo civilian government in Nigeria in recent times; both in terms of structural and physical violence indexes.
It is true that successive public office holders of northern origin in Nigeria have for several decades promoted and fueled several Igbo annihilative policies and violence using sponsored third party violent groups and individuals as well as lopsided government appointments and resource allocations.
But this is the first time in the history of democracy in Nigeria that Government has adopted Igbo annihilation through structural and physical cleansing as a State policy.
This is also the first time Government has directly launched and commissioned mass murder of innocent and defenseless Igbo population. Igbo Society had lost hundreds of thousands of innocent lives since 1945 to unprovoked ethno-religious belligerency and butchery.
The said massacres did not include the Biafra-Nigeria Civil War of 1967-70 in which over 2million mostly Igbo citizens and other citizens of the old Eastern Nigeria were either killed or starved to death. The anti-Igbo butcheries of 1945, 1953 and 1967 were chief reasons why the Biafra-Nigeria Civil War erupted in 1967.
Highlights of anti-Igbo pogroms or killings in Nigeria since 1945 include the Jos anti Igbo massacre of 1945; Kano anti Igbo pogrom of 1953; 29th May to 29th September 1966 anti-Igbo pogroms in various parts of the North; and the Asaba Igbo massacre of 1967; all resulting in the death of tens of thousands Igbo People.
Other anti-Igbo killings or pogroms that had taken place in Nigeria or any part thereof are as follows: Kano 1980, Maiduguri 1982, Jimeta 1984, Gombe 1985, Zaria 1987, Kaduna and Kafanchan 1991, Bauchi and Katsina 1991, Kano 1991, Zango-Kataf 1992, Funtua 1993, Kano 1994, Kaduna 2000, Kaduna 2001, Maiduguri 2001, Jos September 2001, Kaduna 2002, Kaduna’s Miss World Riot of November 2002 and Prophet Mohammed Cartoons Riot of February 2006 (Maiduguri), the Apo-Abuja Six killing by the Nigeria Police Force of (six young Igbo traders: Ekene Isaac Mgbe, Ifeanyi Ozor, Chinedu Meniru, Paulinus Ogbonna and Anthony and Augustina Arebu) of June 2005.
The rest are the November 2008 Jos LGA Poll Riot/killings, the Jos 2010 Christmas Eve bombings, the Madalla Igbo Catholic Church bombings of 2011, the 2011 post general elections’ riots/killings that led to killing of 10 Igbo NYSC members and several other Igbo People in the North, the Mubi Igbo killings of 2012 and Nyanya Bombing of April 2014 (where several Igbo citizens and others died).