THE arrest of Nnamdi Kanu is somewhat of an achievement for the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari. The drooling Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and the gloating Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN) have given enough poster to this all important achievement of the Nigerian government. Alhaji Lai described the mode of Kanu’s arrest as “one of the most classic operations of its type in the world.” Now, all our pains are gone, Nigeria’s problems have vanished.
The federal government had invested so much into making Kanu a hero, and it is true that the government has invested likewise to make him a villain. Now, they want us to think, feel and react like those watching a movie: The villain has approached the climax of his devilry, just about to pull the trigger or press a button… Then the hero appears through some improbable means and boom! nabs the evil man, saves the situation, and saves the day. My grandmother would mock me those days when I played pranks she had long seen through and would say “you make your music and you’re still the only one dancing to it all by yourself.”
The sense of accomplishment with which Attorney-General Malami (SAN) addressed the press, in two languages, on the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu was a frenzied watch. It was an event that readily pointed to where the seriousness of the Federal Government of Nigeria was in full display. Then soon after, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, like a labouring hired farmer, weeded the dirty, overgrown farm; mass soil at the base of the liberated crops and tended straying tendrils of the wayward creepers. Minister Lai could, in another language (to take a leaf from Minister Malami who had to address us in Hausa Language) be said to be the one doing the dirty job of cleaning the undeserving mess. For a government that has attained this height in achievement, Nigerians thought Alhaji Lai would have used the opportunity of his emphasis to also explain what is being done to rescue the Islamic School children of Niger State and the general insecurity in the North West of the country.
The Internet is one endless trove of information. It is also an immense repertoire of humour and humorous content. The graceless suspension of Twitter in Nigeria by the government has removed one of the sources of ‘stress relief’ for some of us. However, some of the jokes that are found in the internet still filter to other yet-to-be-suspended platforms and they are simply wacky. They give a direction to the thinking of many Nigerians of the government’s Kanu eureka! The jokes show that feeling of déjà vu among Nigerians… ‘They should not attempt to rechristen the dog as monkey’. Here’s one example: “So, now that Nnamdi Kanu has been arrested, he should be deradicalized, rehabilitated and reintegrated into the society like some of his ‘counterparts’ in the Northeast.” Another banter that has also gained ascendancy in the cyberspace gave a suggestion that “Nnamdi Kanu should just join the APC.” These jokes have their roots in our attitude to life: we are not new to the circus show.
Do we sometimes take time to wonder what has led to the increase in separatist agitations among the components of Nigeria? How much of these ‘we want our own country’ campaigns did we have in the recent past? Why have we suddenly become so bitterly divided compatriots, who would rather not want to have anything to do with certain tribes and ethnicities? One word answer I have is: INJUSTICE! The commonest cry in the country is inequality, and like the 16th Century Scottish economist and moral philosopher, Adam Smith noted, “no society can be surely flourishing and happy of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.” Where there is injustice, there cannot be peace, there will always be agitation. Why are we so obstinate? “The world will not live in harmony so long as two-thirds of its inhabitants find it difficult in living at all”, a philosopher warned.
The reason Nnamdi Kanu started is the same reason propelling Sunday Igboho and the growing agitation for Oduduwa nation. The Buhari government through its glaring inadvertence in handling numerous issues, particularly security and violent attacks by herdsmen, has created more enemies for itself. The questionable attack of the home of Igboho has added to the issues of equity on the table. Why has the government not taken the same steps it is taking against agitators to arrest bandits, kidnappers and insurgents? Who are those Sheikh Gumi is negotiating with? The man America came to know as Red Cloud, an Oglala Sioux Indian Chief and warrior of the 17th Century America was quoted as saying: “We were told that they (American troops) wished merely to pass through our country – to seek hold in the far west – yet before the ashes of the council fire are cold, the Great Father is building his forts among us. You have heard the sound of the white soldier’s axe upon the Little Piney. His presence here is an insult to the spirit of our ancestors. Are we then to give up our sacred graves to be ploughed for corn? Dakota, I am for war.” This is not a war cry, we cannot afford another war, but can we please work towards a better, equitable Nigeria?
Biafra may have come and gone for the old. They fought the war. Biafra has come again for the young. It is either symbolic or tangible. Something is fuelling the agitation. Someone and something have combined to provide the fertile soil nurturing the growth of this demand. Biafra, whether attainable or not, is in the heart of millions of people as both a dream and as an ideology. If there’s any move by our political leadership to erase the thoughts of Biafra or quell the agitation for it, it should be by ensuring a just and egalitarian Nigeria.
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