By Charles Ogbu
Those who think Simon Ekpa is working to get Nnamdi Kanu released are deliberately being naive at best and moronic at worst.The reason you have his supporters believing that destroying the Southeast and killing and maiming Easterners will force the FG to release a man they are holding in far away Abuja is the same reason we had adults believing that Ralph Uwazurike using his armed hoodlums in MASSOB to stop Igbos from participating in the 2006 census would give us Biafra. It was also the same reason seemingly educated adults believed that Kanu getting Ndigbo to boycott the 2019 general elections would give us Biafra.
Biafra has become our mumu button. Upon the mention of which, seemingly reasonable Igbos lose their sense of reasoning. A movement full of EMOTION yet devoid of REASON. But I digress!Ekpa is actually working to make Kanu irrelevant before the mob. To make this clearer, he has gone beyond giving Kanu’s release as a condition for ending sit-at-home to adding that a referendum date must be given to him (something he knows is unrealistic) Truth is, Ekpa no longer regard Kanu as his leader. He sees him as a man whose time has passed. To him, the “Biafra agitation” is a Turn-By-Turn business. An avenue to enjoy the limelight and make serious money through fundraising like the one advertised in the flier below. And he firmly believes this is his turn. I mean, are we not referring to the same guy who already declared himself the Biafran Prime Minister?
Nnamdi Kanu will eventually be released. If not by the apex court, it will be done by Tinubu as part of a strategic political chess with the Southeast, facilitated of course by Igbo leaders like Abaribe, the governors, Ohaneze etc (and Ekpa will try to claim the credit for its propaganda value). But Kanu’s release will not, on its own, put Ekpa in check because the latter will neither recognize nor yield to him as the leader. And should Kanu dare say anything contrary to the established pattern of puerile propaganda, empty verbosity, and incitement of violence the “agitation” is premised on, Ekpa will say he has taken bribe from the govt to destroy their “agitation.” Or that the Kanu that was released is a clone from Sudan or Isreal.And sadly, a large percentage of the mob who had already been indoctrinated into seeing betrayals and enemies everywhere and who erroneously but vehemently believe a geographical Biafra can be achieved by destroying their region, and people will believe him.
Kanu used this same format to displace his former boss, Chief Ralph Uwazurike of MASSOB). What Kanu’s release will do is to SIGNIFICANTLY galvanize the generality of Ndigbo to resist Ekpa and his armed hoodlums. But make no mistake, that may not guarantee lasting peace in the southeast. Not as long as Ndigbo continue to make Biafra their mumu button, which any charlatan can press at any time and get otherwise reasonable people to start behaving like some mentally truncated almajiris.
