From Frying Pan to Fire – Igbos Creating a Monster in Kanu! By Ij Onuigbo
Before you call me names, read and understand what I have to say. Yesterday I listened to a recording of Nnamdi Kanu spitting out orders regarding the May 30, 2021, observation of Biafra Heroes lost in the various struggles with the Nigeria State. There was something very sinister, illegal, and wrong with Kanu ordering schools to be shut down, airports to be shut down, markets to close down, people to only go to church gatherings and march back to their homes or be killed if found otherwise on the streets. He said he would allow the Nigeria crude oil miners to fly back and forth because they are doing important work and I wonder why since he hates Nigeria so much! Is he getting paid by Nigeria from the oil money somehow especially since he is refusing to unite Igbo youths with the rest of the proBiafran groups knowing that unity will make Nigeria see that our people are serious and force Nigeria to listen to us? His words, anyways, sent chills over my skin and made me fear for my people in realization that they are unwittingly and ignorantly creating a monster that will oppress and enslave them in time to come. I know that the Nigeria State have been very wicked to you, my people; but please do not, because of your hate for Nigeria, allow something worse to come upon you.
Think about it, Nnamdi Kanu does not even have any political power and he is assuming to wield such over a people and a country, ordering that all airports, schools, markets be shut down and no movement of people on the streets at all. He said, “you will be a dead person if you are found on the street. You will be killed.” Why? Why would one person who is not even an elected official be allowed to put a people in such fear? So many people in Igbo land today are living in fear of Kanu and the indigenous people of Biafra (ipob) organization members. I am in the USA, but I am afraid for my people in Nigeria. In healthy countries like the USA and UK and even Germany who celebrate all sorts of remembrance for their fallen heroes, the citizens unquestionably go about their daily businesses as they please while civil servants and private organizations workers enjoy a day or two off from the daily grind. Nobody orders the masses to stay home or be killed if found on the street on public holidays. We are celebrating Memorial Day holiday now in the USA, and even I am going out to work on my side hustle which is Uber driving that I do on my spare time to help fund my humanitarian work; and nobody is threatening to kill me if I do not stay home.
This man Kanu has morphed into a terrorist and shedding the blood of the youths does not move him at all. Uncountable numbers of Igbo youths are getting killed and maimed daily as a result of this ego tussle between him and the governors and he does not even consider stopping the internal war to restrategize. Imagine what he will do with absolute power that you are giving him over our people. You are building an emperor that will take away your basic human rights and freedom. Just today in the international news, there is a report that North Korean orphans have been forced into hard labor of coal mining. Most of those orphans are lads under the age of 10 from what I could see. I saw a video this morning where a captured Eastern Security Network (ESN) operative under Kanu who was captured and asked what he had benefited from being ESN soldier under Kanu. The young man said he has benefitted NOTHING. Now tell me what is different from the orphans forced into hard labor of coal mining and the young soldier led into being a killing machine under Kanu and getting paid nothing? Do you think that such a thing will happen in a healthy and democratic society where the voice of majority is the power and law? No. Such a thing only happens in a sick society where one man is given or takes power all to himself and commands whatever he wants and the whole remaining population of that society becomes subservient or slave to that one man, i.e. North Korea, as well as the Biafra that ipob under Kanu is agitating for
Some of you might think that you will gladly give Nnamdi Kanu all the powers he wants if he would get Nigeria to let Biafra go. But, trust me, he cannot do that alone with this strategy he is using, and you will not like his use of that power even if he gets Biafra freedom by force. He will become a dictator just like Kim Jung Un of North Korea. If you doubt me, just listen to how he talks to you all now. When he rains curses and abuses on Nigerians, he does not separate Biafrans from it. He calls the whole Nigerians including Biafrans “the most stupid people on earth.” So do not think that he thinks any better of you. And to be fair and always honest, you are truly no better than everyone else in Nigeria. All Nigerians are highly culpable in the decadence of the country’s sociopolitical and economic condition, though there is a more productive way to address it than labeling everyone with insulting tags like Kanu does. Please note that I do not hate Kanu. I actually like Kanu better than the Igbos that are enabling him.
Further, if you still doubt me that you will not like how Kanu will handle you if given Biafra, just look back as an example when majority of the Nigerian people hated Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) for his ineptness and lack of leadership and were crying for him to resign or be voted out. Majority of Nigerians at the same time were clamoring for Buhari (BABA as you fondly called him then) to take over. Nigerians saw Buhari as the savior who would save them from the evil GEJ. But what do we have now? The same majority of Nigerians are crying for Buhari to resign and not even complete his term as they now see that Buhari is a mini dictator and cares nothing for the suffering of the masses.
Mind you, though, that the example of GEJ and Buhari will not be as serious as things will be with a publicly accepted dictator or emperor like Nnamdi Kanu. But you can imagine how things will be by the way that Kanu speaks to everyone now and denigrates everybody including his own ipob organization officers some of whom he had called “idiots, rats, thieves, stupid,” to name a few words; and these were the nicer words he used. Whether you agree with me or not, you know very well that Igbos could never survive as communist subjects, that can only move or stop when they are told to by a dictator. Nobody is ever happy living under a dictatorship. My people, be very careful what you are inviting for yourselves. If Kanu does not unite our people and get Biafra by force (if he could), things will turn out like the Sudan separatist case study in which case ndi Igbo will be on a long deadly journey of endless wars.
You might be thinking or wanting to ask me, if not Kanu, then who else will help us? So, that is the big problem right there. You think that it is one person who must rise to help you while you live in total abandon. The problem is that even Kanu and the governors he is battling with at the expense of innocent people getting killed are not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is you, ndi Igbo, on the smaller scale, just like the biggest problem of Nigeria is the Nigerians on a larger scale, not the politician. Ndi Igbo, you are the problem because you have failed in your social responsibilities to do your part of keeping your elected leaders accountable on the job and participating in your nation building. For generations, you have perpetuated an evil culture that keeps you focused on unrestrained consumerism; only caring for you and your children’s stomach and watching and enjoying other people’s problems from the corner. Nobody care about anything that does not have a direct effect on him or her. So now, you have narcissistic opportunists in the likes of the governors, local government officials and Nnamdi Kanu enriching themselves at your expense as they capitalize on your total lack of interest in God and Country, your laziness, and ineptness to do whatever they want with your assigned resources and monthly federal allocations. Have you seen how large and opulent the governors, the senators, the local government officials and Nnamdi Kanu live? Have you seen their mansions and how they spend money on the good life, all on your dime (money)? On another front, they make you think that oh they hate us too much and they are trying to kill us all; and they fill you up and get you drunk with hate and doom; while on your own, you sit and only think about your stomach, sex, marriage and parties. No body thinks about the country or the greater good. We must change our culture and heart conditioning first or this cycle of offense will not end.
The immediate solution right now is by unity, coalition, peaceful and consistent agitation though legal processes while being prepared to defend yourselves in the case of war; and the only group I see already working on that is the Lower Niger Congress (LNC). LNC is not perfect, but it is the only group with a close to clear legal pathway to achieving some sort of autonomy from Nigeria or a restructure of Nigeria’s rogue Constitution. Therefore, it is imperative that all other groups including and especially the ipob supporters align with LNC and see things through for the good of all. I urge you my people, stop stepping on your own feet, stop being too angry to see that you are hurting yourselves not the real enemy. Wake Up.
Ij Onuigbo is a U.S. Army Veteran, Human Rights Activist, and a Humanitarian.
You can follow her on Twitter: @ij_onuigbo
