Nnamdi Kanu, the cry for freedom
I am not a Biafran and neither am I Igbo. I do
however believe that it is the inalienable right of any human.....
being or
ethnic nationality to aspire to be free and to be able to determine
their own destiny. The right of self-determination is enshrined in
international law and it is guaranteed by every moral stricture known to
man.
It is a right that has been exercised successfully over and
over again in world history and it has led to the creation of new
nations which were carved out of older ones. The denial of that right
and the suppression and persecution of those who attempt to exercise it
leads to nothing but defiance, dissent and resistance and, if not
properly managed, it eventually spills over into war and carnage.
This has been the primary cause of most of history’s most
brutal civil wars, including the American, Russian, French, English,
Indian, Sri Lankan, Sudanese, Nigerian, Angolan, Congolese, Zimbabwean,
Yugoslavian, Ukrainian, Nicaraguan, Cuban, Irish, Syrian, Libyan,
Indonesian, Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish, Iraqi, Italian, Lebanese ones
and countless others. I do not believe in violent change and neither do I
believe in war, revolution, terror or the use of arms in the pursuance
of even the most noble causes.
I do however believe in the power of ideas and the right of
any man, woman or people to yearn to be free from bondage and to
peacefully and freely express that yearning. It is in this context that I
situate my belief in and support for those that view the Nigerian
Federation as an oppressive entity which has effectively enslaved its
people in an attempt to create what is essentially an artificial and
unworkable state.
Those that believe in Nigeria have every right to continue
to do so and to voice their resolve to keep Nigeria one. What they do
not have the right to do is to refuse to offer the same degree of
freedom of expression to those that do not believe in a united Nigeria
and who instead believe in the peaceful dissolution of our nation to
speak their minds and voice their views. What is good for the goose is
surely good for the gander. You cannot grant one side of the divide
freedom of expression whilst you deny it to the other.
This is all the more so because freedom of expression is
the lifeblood of any democracy. It must be accorded in equal measure to
those that believe in Nigeria and to those that do not. It is in this
light that we must consider the plight of Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, the director
of Radio Biafra and the man that has been described by the Igbo World
Assembly as “Buhari’s first political prisoner”.
We may not like his style, we may not like his radio
station, we may not share his views or approve of his methods but one
thing that we cannot take from Mr. Kanu is his right to hold such views
and to express them in a peaceful and lawful manner no matter how
distasteful those views may be to some. To deny him this most basic
human right is not only an act of intellectual terrorism but it is also
the most grave and barbaric manifestation of what is essentially an
evolving police state where different or contrary views cannot be
accommodated by those in power.
When Mr. Alex Salmon and his Scottish Nationalist Party
began the agitation for the dissolution of the United Kingdom and for
the establishment of Scottish independence many years ago they were not
charged to court, locked up indefinitely or murdered by the British
authorities but instead they were eventually given the opportunity to
participate in a referendum and test their ideas. The same thing
happened in the Catalan region of Spain where the agitation for the
establishment of a new nation is compelling and very popular.
The same thing happened a number of years ago in the Quebec
region of Canada. It also happened in a region called East Timor which
opted to leave Indonesia, and in Singapore which opted to leave
Malaysia. The same process was adopted when Georgia, Ukraine and all the
other former Soviet states opted to leave Russia, and when the Czech
Republic opted to break off from Slovakia. The utility and importance of
conducting a referendum on such matters in order to determine the true
will of the people and to honor the findings of that referendum cannot
be underestimated and it remains the only path for peace.
Sadly President Buhari who, like most in his generation, is
still stuck in the mindset of a civil war general, has refused to learn
from this. The biggest mistake and miscalculation of his administration
so far is not the ruthless implementation of its patently and
monstrously unapologetic northern and Islamic agenda but rather its
absurd resolve to lock up Mr. Kanu indefinitely and to effectively throw
the key away simply because he dared to call for the establishment of
Biafra.
As far as I am aware, Mr. Kanu has not used or advocated
the use of violence whilst expressing himself and neither have any of
his supporters. One therefore wonders what has panicked the Federal
Government to such a point that they not only have to lock him up but
that they also have to violate the law of the land by not allowing him
to see his lawyer and by not presenting him before a court of law and
charging him within the constitutionally-prescribed three days.
State-sponsored violence and intimidation, the violation of
human rights, illegal incarceration, the murder of innocents and the
vicious suppression of legitimate ideas leads to nothing but hardened
hearts, greater defiance and the spread of anger and dissent. The
principle is simple and clear: the more you fan the flame of tyranny and
repression the more the passion and fire of liberty spreads.
It follows that the biggest favor that President Buhari’s
security agencies could have done for the Biafran cause was to lock up
Mr. Kanu and thereby transform him from being a little-known
secessionist into the living symbol of the Biafran struggle, a respected
freedom fighter, a champion of the Igbo people and an
internationally-acclaimed political prisoner.
It is no wonder that leading politicians from all over the
world, including the former Home Secretary and former leader of the
Labor Party in the United Kingdom, Mrs. Harriet Harman QC, have called
for his release. The Russian and Israeli governments have also expressed
concern and done the same.
Their call was the right and proper thing to do and I add
my voice to that call. I have never met or spoken to Mr. Kanu but I am
moved by his passion and courage. I am also persuaded by the logic and
force of his public assertions. He has made a compelling case for the
establishment of Biafra and millions of young Igbos from all over the
world have bought into it.
It is left for those that do not agree with him to make a
better case and to stem the Biafran tide. That is the monumental
challenge that those that do not agree with Mr. Kanu’s views or his
methods have. I have not always been on the same page with our Igbo
brothers yet despite that one thing is clear: only the callous would
deny the fact that they have suffered immeasurably in the Nigerian
Federation over the last 50 years.
Only the uninformed would deny the fact that they have been
butchered, murdered, persecuted, broken, humiliated, insulted, cheated
and treated with contempt and disdain more than any other ethnic group
in the country since July 1966.
What the Nigerian state is confronted with in the new
generation of Igbos who refuse to be cowed is a time-bomb. Unlike their
fathers they cannot be appeased or intimidated. They are not fearful of
the prospect of a second civil war. They are not prepared to settle for
crumbs and neither do they fear death, conflict, defeat, incarceration,
butchery or persecution.
They are imbued with a spirit that cannot be suppressed,
and the more they cry “Biafra,” the more the spirits of the millions
that were slaughtered on the Biafran side during the civil war are
invoked. The more they cry “Biafra,” the more the souls of the hundreds
of thousands of their people that were butchered during the barbaric
pogroms in the north in the mid-60’s and thereafter are remembered.
The more they cry “Biafra,” the more they remember how
their fathers were stripped of everything after the civil war and how
they have been denied the opportunity to rise to the highest office in
the land. The more they cry “Biafra,” the more they acknowledge and
recognise the bitter fact that the Buhari administration regard their
kith and kin as nothing more than third class citizens and pitiable
prisoners of war. The worst thing that the Nigerian authorities can do
is to treat them with levity or contempt.
They are angry, they are fed up, they refuse to be
enslaved, they want a brighter future and they have come to realise that
they have nothing to lose. The most inappropriate thing that President
Buhari can do is to continue to underestimate the power of their resolve
or the clarity of their intent. The worst thing that they can do is to
begin to jail them, to shed their blood and to take their lives.
The more you lock up the Biafrans, the more they will rise
up. The more you mock them, the more they will shout. The more you kill
them, the more their anger will be kindled. The more you deny them, the
more they will wax stronger. The more you treat them with disdain, the
more they will defy you. The more you treat them like slaves, the more
they will aspire to break off and take their destiny into their own
hands. You cannot resist an idea whose time has come.
This is a fact that we must all accept, and it is with this
in mind that I urge President Buhari and the federal government to not
only release Mr. Nnamdi Kanu but also to tread with the utmost restraint
and caution when dealing with those that are agitating for Biafra.
Authored FEMI FANI KAYODE
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of
the original author. These views and opinions do not necessarily
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