By John Otu
The interview published in the Sunday Sun newspapers of
December 13, 2015, of Dr. Junaid Mohammed, convener of the Coalition of
Northern Politicians, Academics, Professionals and Businessmen, rankled in its
sweeping generalization about the current agitations by members of the
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and segments of the Movement for the
Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). As I write, before me is
Alvan Ewuzie’s mature rejoinder in Daily Sun of Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015
to Junaid’s tirade. Ewuzie’s thoughtful response to Junaid would have sufficed,
as it addressed the highlights of Dr. Junaid’s irreverent remarks but a few
more issues arising from the notorious interview need to be elaborated upon.
*Junaid Mohammed
From his hasty conclusions and uncouth language, Junaid betrays
his ignorance of Ndigbo and Nigeria
Our self-appointed convener is not done. He passes a peremptory
judgment on the Igbo, threatening to report them to President Buhari to
withdraw whatever miserable attention he has paid to them, “So if they continue to be unreasonable in this case insisting on
getting some key positions or telling Buhari how to run the government, then he
needs to take the right step by confronting them…”
*President Buhari and Bishop Kukah
Hear him, “But even before
Boko Haram, the miscreants in the South-South had done so too, though they have
not quite succeeded but at least they were able to extract through blackmail
and through violence certain political concessions from the Jonathan
administration. The Jonathan presidency was simply concession to blackmail.”
Who will tell our self-appointed Northern leader that the amnesty granted the
Niger-Delta militants was not done during President Jonathan’s tenure but
President Yar’Adua’s, and was sustained by Jonathan?
In taking that measure, Yar’Adua displayed to the admiration of
all that he was a wise, broad-minded leader who was not limited by artificial
cleavages in dispensing the so-called ‘dividends of democracy’ to every nook
and cranny of the country.
Perhaps that was the same path the Jonathan Presidency wanted to
toe when it wooed the leadership of Boko Haram to the negotiation table, all to
no avail because it was a faceless group of ruthless marauders. Interestingly,
Buhari had ascended the throne, as it were, brandishing the olive branch to the
same group in the hope that it would be won over by the inelastic language of
peace and reason. And now that conciliatory move has failed, the government of
the day has resorted to the stringent arm-twisting tactics in unleashing full
fire-power on the Boko Haram apostles.
How Junaid and his co-travellers cannot differentiate between
agitators for Biafra and the Boko Haram ‘killers’ defies under- standing, and
one is thus at pains to dismiss them as opportunists who for selfish interests
want to take Nigeria back to the years of perfidy. Nnamdi Kanu of the Radio
Biafra fame and others pressing for more recognition for Ndigbo not only in the present Buhari administration but also in
the national political configuration are Civil/Human Rights activists whose
activities are allowed by the constitution of the land.
*Nnamdi Kanu
These ones are not faceless and they do not epitomize the Igbo in
general, as Ndigbo have their
political leaders and representatives occupying various political offices.
However, like every citizen they enjoy the inalienable right/freedom to be
listened to or heard as long as they are not harbingers of or accessories to
violence and treasonable acts. In the case of these pockets of Igbo
organizations, their actions never precipitated violence or destruction, as
later was seen in some cities in the south-east, until Kanu was arrested and
detained even against the bail granted him by a court of competent
jurisdiction.
Unlike Boko-Haram, these are activists who have in no way
undermined the integrity of our fatherland but are passionately craving a
fair-hearing from the government, not confrontation. Yet the Junaids of the
world, in a bitter, belligerent tone are threatening to invoke President
Buhari’s ire on the entire Igbo race. Treachery, to paraphrase Shakespeare, thy
enterprise would come to naught!
Nigeria, at this sensitive period in its history does not need the
gratuitous service of pseudo and sectional leaders like Junaid who instead of
playing roles of statesmen are content to play to the gallery as champions of
ethnic biases and agenda. A time like this demands genuine intellectuals and
patriots like Prof. Wole Soyinka and Bishop Matthew Kukah who speak truth to
power in spite of whose ox is gored. Kukah had advised Buhari to ‘do business’
with the Biafran activists rather than succumb to the paltry blackmail of
demonizing them. In this regard, Kukah is telling Buhari to convert the
multiple talents and enterprise of Ndigbo
to the greater political and economic advantage of the nation.
Soyinka, on the other hand by advising the president to engage the
Biafran pundits in a dialogue deserves to be listened to having been a major
factor in the past Nigerian/ Biafran war of 1967-1970.
There are many other reasonable voices, including the Northern
group led by Alhaji Maitama Sule across the nation pleading calm and
reasonableness on both sides to resolve the imbroglio. The president should
heed this wise counsel, and backtrack on any hasty decision that might deepen
the crisis. Thankfully, as I write this piece, the media is awash with the news
of Kanu’s unconditional release from detention, an action which spontaneously
threw the Igbo into jubilation.
•Dr. John Otu Writes From Abakaliki, Ebonyi State
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