POLITICAL PRISONERS AND THE CALL FOR
BIAFRA
I am not a Biafran and neither am I igbo. I do
however believe that it is the inalienable right of
any human being or ethnic nationality to aspire
to be free and to be able to determine their own
destiny.
The right of self-determination is enshrined in
international law and it is guaranteed by every
moral stricture known to man. It is a right that
has been exercised successfully over and over
again in world history and it has led to the
creation of new nations which were carved out
of older ones.
The denial of that right and the suppression and
persecution of those who attempt to exercise it
leads to nothing but defiance, dissent and
resistance and, if not properly managed, it
eventually spills over into war and carnage.
This has been the primary cause of most of
history's most brutal civil wars, including the
American, Russian, French, English, Indian, Sri
Lankan, Sudanese, Nigerian, Angolan, Congolese,
Zimbabwean, Yugoslavian, Ukrainian, Nicaraguan,
Cuban, Irish, Syrian, Libyan, Indonesian, Korean,
Vietnamese, Spanish, Iraqi, Italian ones and
countless others.
I do not believe in violent change and neither do
I believe in war, revolution, terror or the use of
arms in the pursuance of even the most noble
causes.
I do however believe in the power of ideas and
the right of any man, woman or people to yearn
to be free from bondage and to peacefully and
freely express that yearning.
It is in this context that I situate my belief in
and support for those that view the Nigerian
Federation as an oppressive entity which has
effectively enslaved its people in an attempt to
create what is essentially an artificial and
unworkable state.
Those that believe in Nigeria have every right to
continue to do so and to voice their resolve to
keep Nigeria one. What they do not have the
right to do is to refuse to offer the same degree
of freedom of expression to those that do not
believe in a united Nigeria and who instead
believe in the peaceful dissolution of our nation
to speak their minds and voice their views.
What is good for the goose is surely good for
the gander. You cannot grant one side of the
divide freedom of expression whilst you deny it
to the other.
This is all the more so because freedom of
expression is the lifeblood of any democracy. It
must be accorded in equal measure to those
that believe in Nigeria and to those that do not.
It is in this light that we must consider the
plight of Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, the director of Radio
Biafra and the man that has been described by
the Igbo World Assembly as ''Buhari's first
political prisoner''.
We may not like his style, we may not like his
radio station, we may not share his views or
approve of his methods but one thing that we
cannot take from Mr. Kanu is his right to hold
such views and to express them in a peaceful
and lawful manner no matter how distasteful
those views may be to some.
To deny him this most basic human right is not
only an act of intellectual terrorism but it is also
the most grave and barbaric manifestation of
what is essentially an evolving police state
where different or contrary views cannot be
accommodated by those in power.
When Mr. Alex Salmon and his Scottish
Nationalist Party began the agitation for the
dissolution of the United Kingdom and for the
establishment of Scottish independence many
years ago they were not charged to court,
locked up indefinitely or murdered by the British
authorities but instead they were eventually
given the opportunity to participate in a
referendum and test their ideas.
The same thing happened in the Catalan region
of Spain where the agitation for the
establishment of a new nation is compelling and
very popular. Sadly President Buhari who, like
most in his generation, are still stuck in the
mindset of a civil war general, has refused to
learn from this.
The biggest mistake and miscalculation of his
administration so far is not the ruthless
implementation of its patently and monstrously
unapologetic northern agenda but rather its
absurd resolve to lock up Mr. Kanu indefinitely
and to effectively throw the key away simply
because he dared to call for the establishment
of Biafra.
As far as I am aware Mr. Kanu has not used or
advocated the use of violence whilst expressing
himself and neither have any of his supporters.
One therefore wonders what has panicked the
Federal Government to such a point that they
not only have to lock him up but that they also
have to violate the law of the land by not
allowing him to see his lawyer and by not
presenting him before a court of law and
charging him within the constitutionally-
prescribed three days.
State-sponsored violence and intimidation, the
violation of human rights, illegal incarceration,
the murder of innocents and the vicious
suppression of legitimate ideas leads to nothing
but hardened hearts, greater defiance and the
spread of anger and dissent.
The principle is simple and clear: the more you
fan the flame of tyranny and repression the
more the passion and fire for liberty spreads.
It follows that the biggest favor that President
Buhari's security agencies could have done for
the Biafran cause was to lock up Mr. Kanu and
thereby transform him from being a little-known
secessionist into the living symbol of the Biafran
struggle, a respected freedom fighter, a
champion of the Igbo people and an
internationally-acclaimed political prisoner.
It is no wonder that leading politicians from all
over the world, including the former Home
Secretary and former Leader of the Labor Party
in the United Kingdom, Mrs. Harriet Harman,
have called for his release. President Putin of
Russia and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
of Israel have done the same.
Their call was the right and proper thing to do
and I add my voice to that call. I have never met
or spoken to Mr. Kanu but I am moved by his
passion and courage.
I am also persuaded by the logic and force of
his public assertions. He has made a compelling
case for the establishment of Biafra and millions
of young Igbos from all over the world have
bought into it.
It is left for those that do not agree with him to
make a better case and to stem the Biafran
tide. That is the monumental challenge that
those that do not agree with Mr. Kanu's views or
his methods have.
I have not always been on the same page with
our Igbo brothers yet despite that one thing is
clear: only the callous would deny the fact that
they have suffered immeasurably in the Nigerian
Federation over the last 50 years.
Only the uninformed would deny the fact that
they have been butchered, murdered,
persecuted, broken, humiliated, insulted, cheated
and treated with contempt and disdain more
than any other ethnic group in the country since
July 1966.
What the Nigerian state is confronted with in the
new generation of igbos who refuse to be cowed
is a time-bomb. Unlike their fathers they cannot
be appeased or intimidated.
They are not fearful of the prospect of a second
civil war. They are not prepared to settle for
crumbs and neither do they fear death, conflict,
defeat, incarceration, butchery or persecution.
They are imbued with a spirit that cannot be
suppressed and the more they cry ''Biafra'' the
more the spirits of the millions that were
slaughtered on the Biafran side during the civil
war are invoked.
The more they cry ''Biafra'' the more the souls
of the hundreds of thousands of their people
that were butchered during the barbaric pogroms
in the north in the mid-60's are remembered.
The worst thing that the Nigerian authorities can
do is to treat them with levity or contempt.
They are angry, they are fed up, they refuse to
be enslaved, they want a brighter future and
they have come to realise that they have
nothing to lose.
The most inappropriate thing that President
Buhari can do is to continue to underestimate
the power of their resolve or the clarity of their
intent. The worst thing that they can do is to
begin to jail them, to shed their blood and to
take their lives.
The more you lock up the Biafrans, the more
they will rise up. The more you mock them, the
more they will shout. The more you kill them,
the more their anger will be kindled.
The more you deny them, the more they will wax
stronger. The more you treat them with disdain,
the more they will defy you. You cannot resist
an idea whose time has come.
This is a fact that we must all accept and it is
with this in mind that I urge President Buhari
and the Federal Government to not only release
Mr. Nnamdi Kanu but also to tread with the
utmost restraint and caution when dealing with
those that are agitating for Biafra.
No comments:
Post a Comment