• Home • About Us • Biafra • Igbo Alphabet • Igbo Books • Igbo Cartoons • Contact Us • Igbo Names • Aburi Accord • Birds’ Names in Igbo Language • Drinks’ Names in Igbo Language • Everyday Igbo Words • Fruits’ Names in Igbo Language • Animals’ Names in Igbo Language • Human Parts in Igbo Language • Igbo Christian Music • Igbo Foods • Igbo Greetings • Igbo Language • Igbo Letter Writing

• Igbo Market Days • Igbo Modern Music • Igbo Music • Igbo Numbers • Igbo Photos • Igbo Traditional Music • Igbo Videos • Insects’ Names in Igbo Language • News • Newspapers • Nigeria Biafra War • Plants & Trees’ Names in Igbo Language • Reptiles’ Names in Igbo Language • Support Igbo Focus • The Obi Family • The Use of Kedu in Igbo Language • The Use of Na in Igbo Language • The Use of Wete in Igbo Language • The Use of Ya in Igbo Language • Vehicles’ Names in Igbo Language Copyright © Igbo Focus. All Rights Reserved.

Written by Aloy Ejimakor 28th March 2025 This essay is propelled by the baffling aggression the Federal Government of Nigeria has levied against MAZI NNAMDI KANU since 2015 when the current criminal proceedings was brought against him. By initially charging Mazi Kanu for treason and later - for incitement of terrorism just because he rightfully agitated for Biafra, the Nigerian government leaves the impression that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu (plus IPOB) is the sole reason or culprit (and thus must pay the price) for why Biafra resurged after experiencing a lull during the Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan years. Whereas, it is true that Mazi Kanu’s charismatic leadership of the agitation did so much to advance it, the alternative fact remains that Nigeria (as presently constituted and governed) also did so much to justify the agitation. In other words, Nigeria, not Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is the real reason why the specter of Biafra resurged and persists to this day. Nigeria was expected to become better after its tragic, genocidal Civil War came to a dramatic close in 1970. It was called a civil war just because it was fought amongst compatriots. Yet, in concept, execution and dimension, there was nothing civil about it. It was vicious, attritional and bereft of any compatriot spirit that seems to have been resurrected in the present era. There was no guarantee that Igbos or Biafrans would survive that war or its aftermaths. Yet, in the end, and counting to today, the very instinct for self- preservation and an unparalleled spirit of private enterprise plus their innate street wisdoms ensured that the people not only survived, they reconciled to the injustices of One Nigeria and moved on, hanging their hopes on a better Nigeria. But today, and with the travails of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and the thousands of young Igbos who are being persecuted for daring to dissent, Nigeria is pedaling back to the same evils that brought that war of 1967. Those that feel that they have politically conquered the federation and its vast opportunities have no qualms and are thus incapable appreciating the permanent damage they are doing to the diminishing prospects for One Nigeria. With the way post-war Nigeria was unilaterally structured to the disadvantage of one part and the ebullience with which such disadvantage is now being exploited, it will be naive and duplicitous to think that there will be absence of dissent. Like nature itself, dissent does not arise in a vacuum. It erupts as a natural reaction to the injustices of a State against its citizen. In such instance, it is the State (not the citizen-dissenter) that is stoking the fire of dissent and of separatism. This is the scenario that directly led to the emergence of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in 2015. So, in a sense it is Nigeria, not Mazi Nnamdi Kanu should be on trial for the Biafran agitation, the Nigerian State has now designated as an act of terrorism. A nation enjoys healthy and unifying democracy only if its leaders are willing to go beyond the narrow interests of their ethnic stock and direct their vision to the common good. This is the main reason self-determination passions waned throughout the Obasanjo, Yar'Adua and Jonathan eras but soared exponentially in the Buhari era. The first salvo was fired by former President Buhari himself when he uttered that infamous 97versus5 percent, a treasonous declaration that quickly gained traction and merciless implementation throughout his administration. To cap it all, Buhari derided the Igbos as a dot in Nigeria, a dangerous insult the present administration appears to condone, going by the utterances of some of its henchmen men like Bayo Adenuga. And the selective trial of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu appears to have sealed the fate of Ndigbo as a people that should have no strong voice (or dissent) in the national affairs of Nigeria. To be sure, when tribalism is the most powerful drive in a diverse society, democracy and national unity suffer or merely exist as shadows of themselves, or worse - by fiat and the threat of State violence. Good leaders must have the big heart to accommodate all. Leaders have to be able to walk away from their little tribal enclaves to embrace all hues. They have to find compromises and common grounds that can build a system that accommodates all. And you cannot do all these by continuing to detain and dehumanize a man who did nothing more than demanding basic political justice for his people. It is worse (and even dangerous to boot) when such a man has millions of followers and commands the respect and loyalty of his people. Unfortunately, however, Nigeria has been thrust into a crucial moment where how you voted in the 2023 presidential elections (plus the tribe you belong to) are the most important considerations for enjoying the basic rights of citizenship, including that of holding the political opinion of self determination. Even murderous terrorists, some of whom are foreigners, are treated better. In such a scenario, there is going to be a backlash, a popular resistance, best exemplified by an Nnamdi Kanu who is not too cowed to tell you it cannot be that way. It is sad that the vision of the moment seems to be of a Nigeria that is driven by tribal overlordship, with a fraudulent version of federalism and an ethnic patriarchy aimed at enforcing a silence in the face of tyranny. This sad reality is the greater danger to the oneness of Nigeria than Nnamdi Kanu and the devoted tens of millions that follow him. To be sure, Kanu was, in all ramifications, a committed Nigerian patriot until his hands, like that of Ojukwu, were forced by Nigeria and the deck it stacked against the Igbo. We saw this same wave in 1967 and it got nobody nowhere. Not the assumed losers, not the so-called winners. As it now seems, everybody - losers or winners - have all become losers because the same 1967 mentality of we-versus- them was suddenly exhumed and recast in a new wave of extremism driven by the Nigerian State itself. And to make it worse, when you dissent - even without arms - you die. If you’re lucky, you get maimed for life or end up being renditioned and detained indefinitely.

Nigeria, not Mazi Nnamdi Kanu should be on trial - By Aloy Ejimakor