30.12.2015
No! It is not President Muhammed Buhari; it is rather Nwannekaenyi Nnamdi Kenny Okwu Kanu, the Igbo-born Nigerian British, a worthy alumnus of the University of Nigeria Nsukka who holds the unity of Nigeria as we bid farewell to 2015. Through a calculation of a revolutionary, Kanu opened a hole in the reputation of President Buhari’s government, willingly submitted to seating behind bars while cult of public opinions hangs Buhari on unbridled disregard of court orders.
For an insecure person, everyone and everything, even the most harmless and powerless, can induce fears. Social critics and political activists share many things in common and it is not a mistake when the words are used interchangeably.
Not just every so often but always, cowards join the insecure to persuade or threaten activists to give up their activism because of the dangers they are courting. Cowards and sympathizers of status quo often claim the knowledge they do not have when they remind activists of dangers they are courting and threaten them for attacking the powerful. They just forget one important line: every socio-political activist, every social critic knows the consequence of activism.
Nnamdi Kanu, the Director of the London-based radio station, Radio Biafra and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is still fully armed with purpose and the ends of activism. Like every person who confronts the powerful he knows his possible end. Death. Incarceration. Intimidation. Brutality. Maltreatment. Kidnapping. Entrapment. Blackmail. Maiming. Denial. Mutilation. Silencing. Persecution. Demotion. Promotion. Is it not funny that people are sometimes promoted out of their offices because of the danger they pose to their detractors.
When an activist jump-passes those hurdles, their family and friends do fall prey to any or combination of those; and sometimes, both the activist alongside his family and friends is taken up together and singled out for maltreatment.
We must give to every critic, a compliment of foresightedness. They know that the powerful are terribly bad and do not leave anything to chance in getting rid of their detractors. An activist goes anticlockwise in a society in which people move clockwise. And when we bear in mind that clockwise is a sign of closure of whatever container that is screwed, we must give it to social critics, another compliment of being the conscience of the society, opening society to its maximum potentials.
Following the political turnaround in the last presidential elections, President Muhammed Buhari was dominating public discourse which would have ordinarily earned him the Nigeria man of the year 2015. He led his party to victory against an incumbent president with their ‘change’ mantra that got Nigerians intoxicated and made many people particularly those of the west and north spiteful of anything with allegiance to the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Again, Buhari had been a serial presidential election loser after his three previous and consecutive attempts to clinch the presidency were unsuccessful.
Notwithstanding, reputation is like a football, no matter how neat, once on the ground, anybody can kick at it. The activities of recent months have capacities to de-popularize the man. There have been complaints that the president has suddenly earned ‘Miss World’ title with his nomadic tour of nations including Banana Republics. Under his watch Nigeria has deteriorated and with north-sided appointments, he has proved to be a tribal jingoist.
If anyone has exposed Buhari’s military highhandedness, it is Nnamdi Kanu who came with a set up that caught Buhari Nigeria real bad and marred the president’s self acclaimed image as a champion of rule of law. Nnamdi calculatedly entered Nigeria to be arrested and from there achieved twin purposes. Firstly, he ignited a wildfire that engulfed the world as Biafra protesters broke world record of holding peaceful protests in more than 60 countries for the same purpose. Next, he exposed the incompetence in Nigeria state security services and the government of Buhari’s penchant for disregarding court orders.
Nnamdi Kanu foresaw his arrest as well as the torture that goes with it. He examined them before staging a return to Nigeria. But like Martin Luther King Jnr would say: “I would like to live long time. Longevity has its place, but I am not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will.”
The ridicule of Ndigbo in Nigeria has come a long way. How can one explain the ranting of the president during his media chat where he tried defending the indefensible? On agitation for Biafra over alleged marginalization he said: “we have Boko Haram and then Biafra. Help me define the extent of marginalization. Who is marginalizing them? Why? How? Do you know?… The constitution said there must be a minister from each state. Who is the Minister of Petroleum? Is he not Igbo? Who is the Governor of the Central Bank? Is he not Igbo? Who is the Minister of Labour? Who is the Minister of Science and Technology? Who is the junior minister of education?”
The president did not tell us the place of Ndigbo in more than 34 appointments he made before appointing ministers. He rather exposed his anti-democratic tendency where he would not obey court order that is not in his favour.
The good news is that Kanu sent his message before he was arrested and the world has been following the development thrilled with lies and impunity. First, the news of Kanu’s arrest by the DSS broke out on October 18, 2015. But Kanu’s lawyer said he was arrested on 14th October 2015 in his hotel room at Golden Tulip Essential Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos State and his whereabouts were unknown until 18th October when the news broke out. Secondly, following intense protests for his release in states of Anambra, Abia, Imo, Delta, Enugu, Cross Rivers, Rivers and Akwa Ibom, on October 19, the DSS lied to the world that he had been granted bail just to calm the angry people of Biafra.
Again, they went behind and made his bail condition stringent, requiring an affidavit of one with Certificate of Occupancy of a landed property within Abuja municipal, a level 16 officer in a ministry among others. And when all these were surprisingly met, court ordeal was still unsuccessful in executing the order.
Next, when the Magistrate Court 1 sitting in Abuja on November 18, 2015 ordered the DSS to produce Kanu at the court on November 23, 2015, the DSS ignored the court and obtained a secret court order to detain Kanu for the next three months to conclude what they said was an investigation of terrorism and terrorism financing. The Magistrate S. Usman had berated the DSS for not producing Kanu in court on two consecutive times. And when he was arraigned on November 23, 2015, in Abuja Magistrate court on charges of criminal conspiracy, intimidation and membership of illegal organisation, his counsel filed an application asking the federal authorities to transfer him from the custody of the DSS to prison so that his lawyer can have access to him, it was also ignored.
The Magistrate court ordered for Kanu’s unconditional release but the DSS was already in the Federal High Court, Abuja, on charges of terrorism. And surprisingly, the court ordered his unconditional release. Now, Kanu has been charged with treasonable felony at the same High Court whose order the DSS has more than twice disobeyed. No wonder, the trial judge declined handling the case since previous outcomes have not been obeyed.
Buhari’s media chat has clarified government’s attention. However, while the illegality plays out, Kanu has dominated public discourse in Nigeria and beyond, a development that is not healthy for Buhari government and what he would not have wished Ndigbo. In detention, British consular officials have paid him a visit following enquiry from Kanu’s constituency MP, Harriet Harman even as he was earlier visited by the members of the Foreign and Common Office.
Happily, Buhari’s disobedience is not without reward, it has popularized Nnamdi Kanu and all he stands for. Nnamdi Kanu by opting to remain in prison has become a popular prisoner of conscience. The ever unfolding developments in the case are stages of ‘kanunization’ of a man determined to free his people zoo kingdom.
