We have every need to rethink Nnamdi Kanu’s detention and the future of the Igbo at a time as this.
Kanu has been in detention in the custody of the DSS since July 2021 when he was abducted and unlawfully renditioned to Nigeria in an act that signposts Kenya as a lawless country that has no regards for human rights and rules of international law.
The offence against Kanu is not extraditable in international law. The actors knew they can never win in any court over an application for the extradition of a political fugitive. Such is never allowed in law. That’s why Kenya played its lawless role.
Our courts have agreed up to the Supreme Court that his abduction was against the law. But he remains in detention as the apex court in December 2023 overruled the Court of Appeal decision for his release. Kanu is to face a full trial as the court ordered.
But let’s look at history and ask ourselves what Igbo land, especially Kanu’s followers should do about him.
His release is solely dependent on political decision and intervention and nobody knows when that will be.
Looking back, we recall that after Biafra failed in January 1970, Ojukwu, the leader of the project fled into exile for 12 years until June 1982 when he returned.
The photo attached below and taken from the online archives showed him beaming with smiles on the day he arrived the former Biafra enclave.
He was proud to return to a place that had rebuilt the ruins of the war he was part of.
In those 12 years, the Igbo and the entire former Biafra didn’t lock itself inside to wait until Ojukwu gets pardon before they come back to life.
The followers of Kanu today should draw an example from that. While you fight for Kanu’s release which I think should be done through a political approach, and justified, Igbo land should not be shutdown. Igbo land should not go into extinction.
In the past three years this approach has been on, we need to evaluate it and assess the efficacy in actualizing Kanu’s release. None of us, including those pushing this agenda can show any positive sign from their stance in actualizing ttheir objective.
The approach of shutting down and packing up to wait or press for Kanu’s release is counterproductive. It’s totally against the spirit and interest of any society to do that.
Every freedom fighter pursues the cause of making the future of a people such fights for better.
This insular approach is a travesty. It runs against progress and we should think through. I don’t also think Kanu would support that Igbo land be shut down until he is released. He once last year voiced his anger over that in one of the days he was in court and also issued a handwritten statement asking a certain Simon Ekpa to stop his cowardly acts from Finland where he stays safe and free and incites the destruction of Igbo land.
Moreover, the government of Nigeria and those holding Kanu in detention are not affected by the shutdown of Igbo land. I would rather bet that someone like Buhari wanted that to last forever, given his known and confirmed negative stance against the Igbo since the Biafra war. He never pretended about it even when he was in power for 8 years.
The approach has been on since 2021, and pursuers of this cause need to educate us on how it has positively helped their case or done any damage to the government in Abuja.
So, why do we arm an enemy to exterminate an entire Igbo nation?
Photo credit: Google Image
