The Serio-comedy that is neo-Biafranism – By Tochukwu Ezukanma

Posted by admin Articles, Biafra, Columnists, NNP Columnists, Tochukwu Ezukanma Sunday, August 13th, 2017

By Tochukwu Ezukanma | Lagos, Nigeria | August 13, 2017 – A lady from Akwa Ibom derisively talked about the map depicting the frontiers of Indigenous People of Biafra’s (IPOB) Biafra. The map placed her state within the boundaries of Biafra. The lady thought it was comical, and facetiously, she added, “If I am now asked my country, I will say Biafra.” Yes, neo-Biafranism is comical because it is the antics of nincompoops: misinformed, ill-baked, back-alley pseudo-revolutionaries. But then, it is also serious because these nincompoops, in their studied ignorance and willful obscurantism, are trifling with an issue with potentially momentous consequences for the Igbo and entire Nigeria.

Ralph Uwazurike, the father of neo-Biafranism is a rough-hewed bumpkin. He lacks finesse and civility; his style and parlance are completely devoid of courtesy or politeness. He is an ignoramus that can barely manage a conversation in English. He is a failed lawyer that had nothing else to do with himself. By his own admission, he started talking about Biafra because he had nothing better to do with himself. According to him, “When I started talking about Biafra, I did not know what I was doing. But, as democracy allowed me the right to express myself, I started talking about it, and as, people started listening, I continued”.

Nnamdi Kanu was an assistant, to Uwazurike, that later turned against his master. While his former master, Uwazurike, is arrogant, Kanu is megalomaniac and delusional. He is a silly fool shamelessly aping Ojukwu. He wants us to believe that he is the Chukwuemeka Ojukwu of the time. Megalomaniac and delusional, and wreathed in the glamour of mass adoration, he believes that Providence has thrust him to speak for, and lead, all the Igbo and the other peoples of the old Eastern Region and the none-Igbo of Delta state and the peoples of Benue State. As such, the map of his Biafra is defiant and irrational. In its defiance of ethnic fault lines and sentiments, it encompasses mainland Igbo land, the lands of the other peoples of old Eastern Region and present day Delta State. And in its irrational ambitiousness, it even strayed into northern Nigeria, incorporating the lands of the Idoma and their neighbors in Benue State. What a daydream, of a deluded usurper?

It is bad enough that Kanu, in his delusion, thinks that he is the new king of the Igbo, their long awaited liberator, their Moses destined to wrest them out of the clutches of modern day Pharaohs that rule Nigeria. And his supporters – the dregs of Igbo land – that throng around him worship him as their new king and savior. But then, he is an Igbo, and a young ambitious and imaginative man can aspire to whatever he wants amongst his people, even, if he is fatuous and his approach warped. But what in the world could have befuddled him to the point of believing that he is also the “leader” and “messiah” of the other peoples of Nigeria, like the Ijaws, Efik, Urohobo, Idoma, etc?

Kanu is insisting that the Nigerian government hold a referendum to determine if the Igbo want to remain in Nigeria or seceded from Nigeria. Oh wow! He cuts the image of an avowed democrat, a referendum buff that believes in the inviolability of the will of the people. But, why has he not held his own referendums? He needs a series of them to establish that: the Igbo want him to be their leader and spokesman; they are in agreement with his call for their boycott of subsequent elections in the South East; the Ijaws, Idomas, Ibibio/Efik, Urobobo and the other peoples he included in his map of Biafra want to secede from Nigeria, and also, want to be part of his Biafra. Kanu is a fraud, charlatan and hypocrite. I have an advice for him: practice what you preach.

The founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, King Abdul Aziz bin Saud, once remarked that, “In other to be a leader of men, a man has to receive an education (of) his own people, among his own people, and grow up steeped in the traditions and psychology of his people”. Kanu’s faux-pas and peccadilloes dramatize his disrespect for the traditions and psychology of the Igbo. Igbo traditional philosophy does not believe in absolutes, “ife kwulu, ife a kwu de be ya”. But he talked with the absolutism of a demigod. He pontificates more than the pontiff; he sounds infallible and indispensible. The Igbo revere the elderly. But in his repeated outbursts on his radio programs, Kanu berated and disparaged elderly Igbo leaders that disagreed with his methods. In those flare-ups and tirades, he exhibited the intolerance of a bigot and the vehemence and vulgarity of a motor park thug.

Lately, he is taking verbal swipes at Igbo leaders and kings that are not in agreement with his call for the boycott of the Anambara gubernatorial elections. He insulted the Obi of Onitsha, the Eze Nri and other Igbo kings. He demanded that they support his call for the boycott of the Anambara election or shut up. The Igbo are proud and independent-minded people, and are therefore averse to being lorded over by anyone. It is deeply worrisome that Kanu, thinks that he has a monopoly on knowledge and wisdom, and therefore, can lord himself over the Igbo. And that anyone, even kings and elected leaders of Igbo land, that expresses an opinion at variance with his should be punished. Kanu speeches reflect his dictatorial tendencies and perverse disdain for consensus. Their authoritarian and egocentric rings evoke memories of dictators that led their peoples down the path of ruin.

Nnamdi Kanu is a clownish big-headed fool and his neo-Biafranism is laughably out of sync with the time and the Nigerian reality. Igbo kings and elected leaders should totally repudiate him for he is treading a path laden with potential dangers for the Igbo.

Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria

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