The security problems in the Southeast have largely continued unabated because Southeast leaders have, instead of providing leadership, chosen to play the ostrich, and when leaders choose the easy path of massaging problems instead of providing solutions, those problems are bound to continue.
Southeast leaders, from Ohanaeze, which I belong to, to the political leaders, to activists, journalists and religious leaders have all succumbed to lies and emotions instead of sitting down among themselves and taking steps to bring lasting solutions to the unabating and unusual bloodletting that has come to define our territory in the last two years and more.
People who have been placed in positions of leadership in Igbo land, have at this critical point in our history chosen the path of cowardice and treachery instead of patriotism and courage. In the peak of my involvement in Ohanaeze Ndigbo leadership, I remember I made many suggestions on how to end the impasse in Igbo land, one of which was to request the IPOB to disband the illegal ESN. When the sit-at-home order was freshly declared, I made several interventions calling on the IPOB to nullify that order, because among other things, it wasn’t sustainable and that it would be hijacked by criminal elements. I risked been lynched in some meetings of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Wing where I vehemently refused to accede to requests from my colleagues to support the sit-at-home order and show solidarity to IPOB. I was at a time convinced that political solution to the Nnamdi Kanu debacle was the only way out and I wrote letters to the Attorney-General, the CJN and other relevant stakeholders appealing for Nnamdi Kanu’s release. For that move, I was set up by the police and had criminal allegations put on me. I survived that only by God’s grace. While these things were going on, many Ohanaeze leaders were busy going from one politician’s office to the other and sleeping from one hotel to the other negotiating and begging for money to betray the Igbo interest. Do I have any regrets for the sacrifices I put in? Never. I will do that over and over again for the sake of Ndigbo and Nigeria.
I remember that I was labelled an Igbo saboteur at the Ohanaeze Ndigbo congress where the election of the Youth Wing held. I would have been lynched as a certain young man brought up the things I had written about the dangers posed by the IPOB and labelled them as anti-Igbo. The first ever disclaimer anyone or organisation had ever written on me was when Rochas Okorocha was seeking the face of the Igbo nation and had to instruct his Media Adviser to disclaim me for the opinions I expressed against IPOB activities and the politicians who support them for their political gains rather than for their belief in its usefulness to the Igbo interest. I had some near brushes with death and had to hurriedly evacuate my family from Owerri when the threats became unbearable.
Because it was politically incorrect to express any opinion deemed or actually unsupportive of IPOB activities, many Igbo leaders either kept quiet or made excuses for the hoodlums terrorising Ala Igbo. From Obiano to Ikpeazu to Ugwuanyi, there was a loud silence and lack of diligence in nipping the activities of these terrorists in the bud. Politicians who wanted to win the support of their people, openly sided with these hoodlums and their activities and I remember a particular politician telling me that if the Northerners could support Boko Haram, then, it would be irrational for any Igbo man to criticize IPOB, ESN or the Unknown Gunmen.
I remember doing a statement as Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Wing Acting Leader in which I raised concerns that these criminals in the Southeast might have been infiltrated by external elements including ISIS. I still hold that opinion today.
Few months ago, it was politically correct and safe to make excuses for the hoodlums terrorising our people and destroying Igbo land under the guise that they were protesting against the Nigerian system for marginalizing Ala Igbo, and almost every Southeast politician jumped into that bandwagon, today, it is deemed as the most correct thing to advocate for Nnamdi Kanu’s release as a precondition for peace to return to the Southeast, and everyone is singing that cranky tune, not because they have carried out any meaningful research on the issue or done any credible analysis on it, but because it is populist. Ask me the most irresponsible leader, and I will show you the populist leader.
The truth is that anyone advocating for Nnamdi Kanu’s release must base that advocacy on the court judgements ordering that, and not as a precondition for peace to return to Ala Igbo. Even if MNK is released and made the Vice-president of Nigeria, he won’t be able to stop the madness going on in the Southeast. In fact, he risks being killed by those criminals. These criminals are merely hiding under Nnamdi Kanu’s incarceration to perpetrate these criminal activities and criminals don’t easily quit crime. Nnamdi Kanu’s release will threaten their criminal venture and they wouldn’t mind killing him and blaming it on the Nigerian secret service so that they can have good reasons to continue in their terrorist activities .
The Federal Government should obey court orders and free Nnamdi Kanu. Governors and political leaders in the Southeast should muster the political will to wipe these terrorists away from the Southeast. Waiting for Nnamdi Kanu to do what they were elected to do is a height of irresponsibility. Nnamdi Kanu made many reckless statements and gave some irrational orders, but the truth of the matter is that many of the real people who were motivated by his speeches to think that they are fighting for the freedom of Ala Igbo are not among these criminals destroying Ala Igbo and few of those whom he motivated into crime, unknowingly, have either been apprehended or repented. The current gang carrying out these criminal activities in the Southeast are beyond his control and the control of both the so-called IPOB Directorate of State or Auto-Pilot.
