By Clifford Iroanya July 25, 2016
When the dust settles over the numerous calls
for separation and restructuring in Nigeria, the world will know that it
all started with the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu. Fortuitously,
Retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s public approval rating was 80%
in October 2015, the same month he illegally kidnapped Nnamdi Kanu. Ever
since, Buhari’s personal political standing as well as Nigeria’s
economic well-being has nose-dived to 30% approval rating as at July
2016. As Prophet Nwoko had predicted, “Heaven will strike if Nnamdi Kanu
is not released.”
We recall that on the 14th of October 2016, agents of Buhari
known as the Department of State Services (DSS) trailed Nnamdi Kanu to
his hotel in Lagos as he was on transit to Biafraland and arrested him.
After several physical abuse and torture, he was flown to Abuja for
further torture and physical abuse. Desperate to jail Nnamdi Kanu, the
DSS raised several trumped-up charges which were summarily dismissed by
the courts. Both Magistrate and High courts issued orders for the
unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu but Buhari’s DSS refused to obey
the court orders.
On the 30th
of December 2015, Buhari boasted to the global viewing audience that
Nnamdi Kanu will never be released. In the meantime, as Biafrans in
Biafraland gathered to pray for the success of their leader, Nnamdi
Kanu, in the legal battle against the DSS, Buhari ordered his military
and other security agencies to open fire at them, which resulted in the
death of scores of Biafrans. Recently, on the 30th of May
2016, Buhari in conjunction with the governor of Anambra state—Willie
Obiano, deployed the Nigerian Army from Onitsha military barracks who
shot and killed over 200 unarmed peaceful Biafrans that gathered to
commemorate the day Biafra was formally declared (49 years ago) as well
as remember the fallen heroes of the war of genocide levied on Biafra by
Nigeria and Britain.
Between the illegal detention of Nnamdi Kanu and the massacre of Biafrans on the 30th
of May 2016, Buhari has steadily and continually engaged in ethnic
cleansing of the Biafran people. His killing spree on Biafrans and the
despoliation of the Biafran environment plus the refusal to obey court
orders on the release of Nnamdi Kanu were harbingers to the emergence of
diverse freedom-fighting groups which Buhari and his acolytes nicknamed
militants. One of these freedom-fighting groups is the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA). The NDA has dealt a devastating blow in the oil and gas industry and for which hydrocarbon production has plummeted.
The
political environment in Nigeria has remained unstable. Nigeria has
developed irreparable fault lines engendered by Buhari’s inept partisan
governance style and his non-observance of the ethos of democracy and
the rule of law. Both Executive and Legislative arms of government are
confused, unproductive, and antithetical to democratic objectives.
Instead of Buhari to carry out reflexive praxis on the many issues
bedeviling the country he claims to be the president of, he is busy
beating war drums and enjoying his pastime which is the slaughter of
innocent Biafrans. Unknown to Buhari, the root cause of the
aforementioned political woes facing his country is the illegal
incarceration of Nnamdi Kanu and the flagrant disobedience of court
orders related to the unconditional release of Mr. Kanu. As a matter of
fact, the call for restructuring wouldn’t have happened if not for
Nnamdi Kanu’s well-articulated and relentless pursuit of Biafra and
Buhari’s dictatorial nature of interfering with the judiciary.
Meanwhile,
the social spectrum is also badly hit by Buhari’s lack of basic
understanding of how democracy works and the need to subject himself to
the law of the land which he swore to uphold and obey under Schedule-7
of Nigeria’s Constitution. Several thousands of lives have been
avoidable lost to terrorist attacks coming from Islamic fundamentalists
of Northern extraction under the protection of Buhari. From Borno to
Benue and from Potiskum to Port-Harcourt, several lives have been cut
short courtesy of a dysfunctional security and law enforcement system.
People are now walking and looking over their shoulders and around them
while thanking their creator for sparing every minute of their lives.
This was not the situation prior to the illegal incarceration of Nnamdi
Kanu.
The jet speed with which the
economy of Nigeria descended into the abyss since the illegal
incarceration of Nnamdi Kanu has been unprecedented. Readers should take
time to review the economy of Nigeria before and after the illegal
arrest of Nnamdi Kanu. Today, the only income-generating resource (Crude
oil) for Nigeria is at all-time low. Even the Managers of Nigeria’s
finances have openly confessed that Nigeria will not be able to execute
50% of planned projects because of the activities of militants who are
all in unison in their demand for the unconditional release of Nnamdi
Kanu. As a matter of fact, the investors in oil and gas in Nigeria
should blame Buhari for the activities of NDA and other militants
because if Buhari had released Nnamdi Kanu there would not have been the
destruction of oil and gas pipeline and facilities nor would there be
any momentum or impetus for other separatist groups to emerge.
If the
present trend continues Nnamdi Kanu would have succeed in destroying
Nigerian economy as militants will not stop blowing up pipelines until
one of their key demands are met which is his release. In particular,
the militants’ demand for the unconditional release Nnamdi Kanu is 7th
item on their list of demands and the question bothering everybody’s
mind is why Buhari and his government have chosen to downplay demand #7
when that is the only opening available to them to make meaningful human
contact with the militants.
Religious
bigotry has reached a crescendo in Nigeria under the presidency of
Buhari especially since the illegal incarceration of Nnamdi Kanu. There
have been beheadings of Christians by Islamic fundamentalists, lynching
of non-Muslims by Boko Haram members, and outright mass-murder of Shiite
Muslims by Sunni-practicing members of Buhari’s armed forces. Buhari
deployed Boko Haram members to Biafraland to rampage and massacre
Christians especially members of Indigenous People of Biafra under the
leadership of Nnamdi Kanu. Buhari did this with the sole aim of stifling
the quest for the restoration of the nation of Biafra.
The
Judiciary has been completely compromised and put under the direct
dictation of Buhari from the time Nnamdi Kanu was illegally arrested.
Most Judges now pander to the whims and caprices of Buhari for fear of
being dismissed from service or killed in a mysterious manner. The
shenanigans going on in the court room of Justice John Tsoho speak for
itself. The independence of the Judiciary is now an unknown phenomenon
in Buhari’s Nigeria.
Nigeria is truly in a very
big mess from the time the DSS illegally arrested and unconstitutionally
detained Nnamdi Kanu. The reputation of Nigeria and that of Nigeria’s
assumed president (Buhari) is in tatters and got worse from the time
Buhari illegally arrested and detained Nnamdi Kanu. There is a bleak
future for Nigeria as long as Buhari continues to keep Nnamdi Kanu in
captivity.
Nigeria is already on a
cliff-hanger and just a tiny strand is what remained for it to descend
into irredeemable catastrophe. Like Somalia under Siad Barre, Nigeria
under Buhari is sliding into the abyss because of the stubbornness or
some would say suicidal tendencies of one man. As Somalia collapsed into
a failed state and terrorist heaven today, so will Nigeria follow suit
because of the antics of Buhari. Nnamdi Kanu’s illegal detention and
Buhari’s disobedience of court orders have negative implications for the
stability of West African region as well as crude oil price stability
globally. It has been confirmed form reliable sources in Nigeria’s
Presidential Villa that 60 percent of calls to Aso Rock from overseas is
about Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB, Niger Delta Avengers, and the collapsing
economy.
The European Union, the
United Kingdom, and the United States of America must take notice that
there will surely be another war in Nigeria with far more deadly
consequences worse than that of Somalia and Sudan combined. The only way
this prediction can be avoided is to ensure that Buhari obeys court
orders by releasing Nnamdi Kanu unconditionally. Anything short of
unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu in accordance with the court orders
will make Nigeria current political instability snowball into anarchy
and at the very end, Nigeria as we know it now will never be the same
again. The ball is in the court of the international community to make
the right decision of requesting Buhari to release Nnamdi Kanu
unconditionally and the time to make that decision is now.
By Dr. Clifford Iroanya
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