Before Nigeria and Britain murder Nnamdi Kanu

Information going viral on the social media at the moment is that the Nigerian state, in  consort with it British counterpart have concluded a water-tight plan on how to eliminate Nnamdi Kanu, topmost leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Kanu is also the Director of Radio Biafra based in London, United Kingdom.

The Biafran leader is currently in detention in Nigeria by the State Security Services (SSS) for offences not clear to the world. More than twice courts in Nigeria have released him unconditionally, but the government of Muhammadu Buhari, the treasonable felon that overthrew a democratically elected government in 1983, has refused to release him.

Long before now, the leadership of IPOB had been somewhat confused, wondering why Kanu, a citizen of Britain, was not being given any of the benefits due to him as British citizen in Nigeria. But now it is making sense to them as they learnt that the British government, and its queen, favored Kanu being murdered in detention.

But what is Kanu’s offence? He is seeking the independence of his people and his birthplace, Biafra. In the process of his agitation, he has hit out at individuals and countries responsible for the subjugation, humiliation and exploitation of Biafraland. He has also in the process fingered and criticized some British officials – past and present – who were deemed culpable in the matter. It is obvious that the likes of the Queen of England, David Cameron, and Tony Blair did not like it.

But the fact the face remains that Nigeria has actually expired as a country since 2014, and should let go of every of its constituent parts that wants to go its way. It is already hundred years since the British forcefully and violently amalgamated the disparate peoples living in the area it branded Nigga-Area. Biafrans have never seen themselves as one with other peoples inhabiting the contraption – either in culture, in language, religion, or even in their history and system of governance. As a matter of fact, Biafra was unlike all the other peoples.

The place called Biafra today was a confederation of communities, tribes and tongues; peoples who cherish freedom and independence, hard-work, peace and learning. In their thousands of years of existence, none of the peoples had conquered or enslaved others to form an empire. They had lived side by side in mutual respect of each other notwithstanding size, strength, or wealth.

That was not the case in the North. The Northerners were, and still are Muslims who lived in a feudal setting, which Britain came used indirect rule to administer. The North had always been an empire, first ruled by the Hausas, and later the Fulani people, who delighted in enslaving neighboring tribes and communities. Now, in the South-west, inhabited by Yoruba people, monarchical system existed in most parts. Like the North, but unlike Biafra, it also had an empire.

As a result of these, and added to the fact that the other peoples of Nigeria hated, despised and disrespected the Biafrans, they (Biafrans) have always wanted to be on their own and to paddle their own boats in their own little ways. It was this agitation, being spear-headed by Kanu all over the world that the British government did not like, and as such has given out its own citizen to be murdered by Buhari in Nigeria.

But this Kanu that they wanted dead has done nothing wrong. Instead, he has conducted himself peacefully within the law. He only warned that if Nigeria fails to grant Biafra independent that the fallout would leave Nigeria worse than Somalia. But what he has said is not fallacy. It is a fact in history that whenever peaceful agitations were denied for a long time, it eventually turns violent, and with the anger and resolve of Biafran youths, it would be extremely dangerous to deny them that right.

What Kanu was doing with his radio was to highlight issues surrounding Biafra and its people, and explaining the implications to his people. But because Nigeria and Britain do not want these issues known, that is why they are seeking to take him out of the way, even when he has not committed any offence.

Well, Biafrans are aware that the murders of potential African leaders, who stand in the way of Western imperialists’ neo-colonial exploitation of Africa, have been the forte of many western European countries especially Britain. Informed Africans are equally aware that they have often done these in collaboration with foolish Africans who play the house-slaves against their own people. In the case of Nigeria, the Fulani people who took their root from the Feuta Djallon mountain of Senegal, are the ones that have played the role of house-slaves. They have been used in Nigeria to kill and exploit other peoples, especially Biafrans.

Biafrans fighting for the independent of their country are not unaware of the dangers. They are aware that it was the British government that snuffed life out of Walter Rodney who wrote the intellectual masterpiece: “How the West under-developed Africa”. Biafrans know how the United States of America (USA) government murdered Patrice Lumumba of Congo. They know how the British government, in partnership with USA killed MKO Abiola. They know the sad fate that befell Malcom X and Martin Luther King Junior was the handwork of western European countries and America.

Biafrans know the dangers, but they are not going to stop. They know that they could be killed. Nnamdi Kanu knew it long before he started his agitation. But Biafrans are saying that killing will not solve the problem that they would continue to do what they were doing, because it is their right to do so. Biafrans are saying that if they did not stop after more than four million of them were killed in the 1967 – 1970 Biafra/Nigeria war that they would not ever stop.

Well, before they murder Kanu, Britain and Nigeria, and indeed the whole world should pause to ponder, at least they might understand

That Kanu was not asking to dispossess other peoples what belonged to them or steal their resources. He is asking that his people be left alone in peace – not murdered because they were a well-endowed people by God. He is asking that his people be treated fairly as establishment by international laws and convention. For instance, Nnamdi Kanu has, in several of his programmes, promised Nigerians that the crude oil in Biafraland, for which they have maimed and killed for, would be made available to them under internationally supervised agreements. He said what was important was for agreement to be reached, through UN supervision, on how much of the oil other Nigerians would need and how it would be made available to them.

Should that not be enough for Nigeria and Britain?

Even now, IPOB still stands on that as they warn against the decision to kill Kanu. They warn that IPOB has been very peaceful so far and that it should not be mistaken for cowardice. They believe that it would not be to the benefit of any of the parties concerned if Kanu is killed. They see it as a match-strike that could ignite a conflagration in Nigeria and beyond that would not be easy to extinguish. The world should act now to release this prisoner of conscience, Nnamdi Kanu, before it is too late.

ByTim Tochukwu