Speaking with an Igbo soldier serving in the North. He narrated how they went from blaming the North for destroying Nigeria with Boko Haram to the North laughing at them that our own Boko Haram is even more vicious.
I opposed his choice of words, but he reminded me that the North says that the same thing Boko Haram does in the North is what our own Boko Haram does in the Southeast. Kidnap, kill, intimidate, and spread fear to exert control.
The founder of Boko Haram had a mission; he started peacefully before the group spiraled out of control and became an internationally recognized terrorist organization.
The mission of Boko Haram was and remains to gain an Islamic state or independence. They go about this project with guns and bombs. They are camped in forests and intimidated everyone in the North. They attack civilians who don’t support them.
The leaders of Boko Haram didn’t know what they had founded until the group began to bomb everywhere and gun down anyone that opposed it. Even at times, they massacre their people to pass a message to the government or blackmail the government.
The leader of IPOB founded his organization in 2012 and outlined his mission—to restore the short-lived sovereign state of Biafra.
Kanu peacefully established IPOB due to the segregation of Ndigbo. After the war, the Nigerian government continued to treat Igbo people like prisoners of war, and the intimidation is too much. If you juxtapose everything, Nnamdi Kanu is right about his agitation.
Unlike Boko Haram, Nnamdi Kanu’s IPOB is not looking for a religious state but trying to address institutional marginalization of Ndigbo by means of self-determination, and the agitation to restore Biafra is justified by the negative treatment of Ndigbo.
Our own Boko Haram and their Boko Haram want the same thing—independence.
The IPOB that began peacefully, like Boko Haram, spiraled out of control, like Boko Haram. Immediately Nnamdi Kanu armed his ESN; he signed off on what became the beast threatening all of us today.
Boko Haram sometimes invades army barracks, but our own prefer to kill civilians and, according to them, saboteurs and enemies of the struggle. Our own is on self-destructive mode.
The factions are desperately going about their plans. DOS hunts Autopilot, and Autopilot hunts DOS. Their various men on the ground also hunt each other. DOS men on the ground massacre Igbo people to blackmail Autopilot, and vice versa.
We all played a role in one way or another towards the establishment of IPOB. There is nothing wrong with that, but where something is wrong is if you fail to speak up now. It has dawned on us we are facing a much bigger problem.
When I heard about IPOB in 2015, there was a future and possibility of righting the wrongs against Ndigbo with it. I don’t regret the support I gave Kanu then, even though his agitation deteriorated to this point, where we are now threatened with death.
In 2015, I supported a man whom I was well pleased with after listening to his various broadcasts, like many others.
Immediately after he was arrested, I did my best with internationally and nationally adopted petitions over his arrest. BBC International granted me an interview where I spoke extensively about the justification of what Nnamdi Kanu was doing.
By 2016, I was already with an international delegate from the Commonwealth and the British Envoy in the person of Indraw Flaming. We discussed extensively, and on behalf of IPOB, I agreed to a round table discussion on the condition that Nnamdi Kanu should be released.
The envoy and Commonwealth representative, Thomas Clare, assured me that since IPOB had agreed to sit down and talk, Nnamdi Kanu would be released. He was subsequently released.
After Nnamdi Kanu was released and I assessed his decisions, actions, and reactions, it was clear to me that we had left for the home of doom with everything going on.
I was one of the first persons to question Nnamdi Kanu because I saw he was going in the wrong direction. It was clear to me then that Biafra can’t be realized by protest, civil disobedience, instigations, and rants.
Rationally, I said if you can’t execute Biafra through coordinated armed struggle because you shunned politics, then it was better to announce to the people the failure staring at Ndigbo. I didn’t want to paint words, because it was either Ndigbo moving with a result-oriented pace or stopping the struggle with result-oriented substitutes.
I outlined the two ways to achieve Biafra.
One: Political engagement.
Two: Armed struggle.
I also clearly told Nnamdi Kanu that armed struggle is sensitive, and there is no room for error. It needs a fine line of execution. It must be precise and concise. It’s not a thing that has to take many months; the longest it should take is three months.
After assessing the cons and pros. I met Nnamdi Kanu and told him he can’t execute armed struggle. If it’s a political means of restoring Biafra, he is the most suitable for it.
I subsequently became Nnamdi Kanu’s major public critic after he declined my assessment result. He told his people that I was bought over by saboteurs.
I was not a member of IPOB. I didn’t take an oath as a member. I was only a journalist who supported what I thought was right for Ndigbo; you didn’t buy me, so how could saboteurs buy me?
To prove me wrong, Nnamdi Kanu established the Eastern Security Network and armed them. They were tasked with protecting Ala-Igbo, chasing Fulani away, and attacking murderous soldiers and other Nigerian forces.
Today, what began as a security has metamorphosed into a daredevil group threatening our very existence. Factions are competing for supremacy, and Igbo sons and daughters are paying with their lives.
Last week, I couldn’t sleep after I saw the footage of the massacre carried out by IPOB ‘Men On Ground’ in Okigwe. They justified the massacre by declaring they fight those against Biafra and Nnamdi Kanu.
I opposed Nnamdi Kanu after I realized he was pointlessly taking us to our graves. You that stood by and were silent should be guilty of that massacre and present deadly state of Igboland.
Today, bloodshed has been normalized in Ala-Igbo, and the irony is the people dying are Igbo.
Nobody can speak up today, and neither can anyone challenge the perpetrators. There is internecine war, and killing is now our identity.
I nearly lost my life because I opposed what begot today. If it has not reached you, don’t worry, it will. We are in a classical problem, and I must confess that I am confused. Where are we going from here?.