By
‘Remi Oyeyemi
“All truth passes through three stages. First,
it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as
being self-evident.”
– Arthur Schopenhauer
“I’m for truth, mo matter who tells it. I’m for
justice, no matter who it’s for or against.”
– Malcom
X
With
trepidation, I have been watching the subtle descent into dictatorship by the
administration of Muhammadu Buhari. I have been watching with disgust President
Buhari’s war against freedom of speech. I am very concerned about desperate
attempts by President Buhari and his sentries to muzzle the voice of self
determination. I am very upset that a government of All Progressive Congress
that claimed to love freedom is engaged in deliberate subjugation of innocent
citizens who happens to have different views about the state of the polity.
*Nnamdi Kanu
I am very
concerned that an innocent man is being denied his freedom. I am scared that an
innocent man is being subjected to illegal detention. I am not comfortable that
an innocent man is being tried for desiring freedom for his people. I am very
disturbed that a non-violent man is being inflicted with unwarranted and
undeserved travails. I am worried that a lot of unwary observers who are not
properly schooled in the elementary tenets of democracy are vilifying an
innocent man.
Nnamdi Kanu
is an innocent man. He has not committed any crime to make him deserve the kind
of treatment being meted out to him. You do not have to like Nnamdi Kanu. You
do not have to agree with him or his desires for his people. But no one has the
right to deny him his fundamental human right to be free. No one has the right
to deny him the right to self-determine his destiny as he sees it or wants it.
No one has the right to shut him up because they do not like what he is saying
or because they feel threatened by what he is saying.
Mr. Kanu’s
exploits are known to all and sundry. His desire is to have a homeland
for his people. His desire is to free his people from the shackles of Nigeria Biafra .
His dream is to see his people in control of their own destiny. His desire is
to have a say in who governs him and his people. His desire is to ensure that
no oligarchy or neo-oligarchic interests within the Ndigbo homeland is able to
hold his people in bondage. His desire is to be able to water the tree of
liberty for his people. There is nothing criminal in or about all this.
In all
this, he has only employed semantics. He has only deployed sophistry. He had
only appropriated the airwaves to be able to reach his people. He has not
acquired arms. He has not killed anybody. He has not declared any armed war
against anyone or organization. The only war he has ever declared is against
the continued subjugation, enslavement and denigration of his Igbo people. It
is a war of idea. A war of and for the minds of his people to see what he is
seeing, to desire what he is desiring, to dream what he is dreaming. And he is
doing that peacefully. He has been able to make his case to the majority of
Ndigbo and the youths of that nation who are indeed the future of Biafra .
He is
mobilizing his people to engage in the struggle to be free from their
enslavement by the Nigerian
State
Nnamdi Kanu
has a dream: a dream of Biafra . He has a dream
of the land of the Rising Sun; where there is freedom and liberty; a dream of Biafra where the people are free to be in control of
their own destinies. He has a dream of Biafra where the sons and daughters of Biafra can reach for the sky and penetrate the heavens.
He has a dream of Biafra where there would not
be a despicable federal character that denies the talented and the gifted of
Ndigbo the opportunity to achieve their potential. He has a dream where Biafra would be able to take its rightful place in the
comity of nations. There is nothing criminal in or about any of this.
So far,
apart from those benefiting from the miseries of the Ndigbo nation; apart from
the sentries of the status quo; apart from the carpetbaggers and political
dealers of the Nigerian State; apart from the scallywags and scared agents of
the Nigerian State, Nnamdi Kanu is beloved by the majority of his Ndigbo people
and every lover of freedom across the world. If anyone is in doubt of this
claim, they should call for the referendum of the people of the Igbo Nation.
This would settle the case at least for a while.
Even, if
Nnamdi Kanu is a minority voice, he is still entitled to his freedom of speech,
freedom to desire, freedom of association, freedom to seek liberation for the
people who may or may not want it. The fact that not many people really cares
about “heaven” as the Christians call it, or “Aljana” as the Muslims call it
has not stopped the Pastors, Evangelists, Reverends and the Imams from
preaching their beliefs. Nnamdi Kanu should be allowed to preach his Biafran
Gospel. The Ndigbo have the right to believe him or ignore him. They have the
choice to follow him or reject him.
The
continued detention and trial of Mr. Kanu by this administration is illegal. It
is uncalled for in a free society. It is unwarranted in a democracy. It is
unfair to any man or woman. It is illegal. It is unacceptable. We do not have
to agree with Mr. Kanu before we all protect his rights. We do not all have to
believe in Biafra before we protect his
freedom. We do not have to be Igbo to protect his desire for self determination
for himself and his people. We all must champion his freedom from illegal
detention and trial.
From what
has transpired so far, it all looks like an oligarchic conspiracy. Everything
is pointing to signs of fear by the enslavers within the Nigerian State Nigerian State
are scared stiff of Biafra and other growing voices of freedom from the
subjugation of the Nigerian
State
*Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu Declared
the Republic of Biafra in 1967
They are
not only jittery, they are panicking. They are scared that the slaves are about
to break free. They are afraid that the slaves are about to do away with their
shackles and chains. They are nervous that the captives are about to break down
the walls of subjugation. The dilating dawn of freedom is drowning their
deceit and duplicity. They are brimming with tension. They are threatening
violence against non-violence agitation. They are murdering freedom fighters
and stigmatizing them as criminals. They are shooting and maiming freedom
fighters and stigmatizing them as troublemakers. They are resorting to
everything and anything to hold on to a modernized feudalism euphemized as
“democracy.”
Nnamdi Kanu
should not worry about his being detained if he is reading this. He
should not be concerned about his trial. This is a battle between body and
mind. It is a battle between injustice and justice. It is a battle between
matter and spirit. In all these battles, the mind would overcome the body,
justice will vanquish injustice and spirit will defeat matter. This is because
Nnamdi Kanu represents an idea. It is an idea whose time has come.
Though, the
Biafra idea might not be Kanu’s originally,
but he is, as at present, the physical representative of that idea. It is not
this idea that has created the present crisis. It is the crisis of the Nigerian State
They would
not be able to defeat the idea of Biafra . The
only people who would be able to defeat the Biafran idea are the Biafran people
if they choose to. Otherwise, any effort on the part of the decadent Nigerian State
For those
who believe in the truths of Biafra as a
Nation, they should remember the words of Elvis Presley, the American music
icon, “Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t
going away.” The land of the Rising Sun is not going away. Nnamdi Kanu is
not going away. The desire for self determination is not going away. The
determination to be free from the shackles of the Nigerian State Biafra is not going away.
You can
take Nnamdi Kanu’s body out of circulation. You can imprison him. You can try
him several times over. You can shoot, maim, kill and or murder his followers
and those who believe in him, but what he stands for, Biafra ,
is not going away. Biafra was conceived
as an idea. The obnoxious Nigerian
State
To someone
like me, who believes fervently in Oodua, who prays for and preaches for the
advent of an Oodua Nation, free from neo-colonialism, unbounded from the curse
and shackles of the Nigerian
State
The Nigerian State Biafra and
Oodua Nations have dates not just with their destinies, but also with History.
It is inevitable and it is unstoppable.
“In the
long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of
defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this
responsibility – I welcome it.”
– John F. Kennedy, in
his Inaugural Address January 20, 1961
Please follow me on Twitter @OyeyemiRemi
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