By Ikeazor Ajovi Akaraiwe, SAN
The high-handed call for a one-week sit-at-home in the South-East by the Simon Ekpa wing of Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) is being brutally implemented through this week of Monday, 3rd July 2023.
The sit-at-home order is purported to be in aid of the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB, who is in detention and undergoing charges for treasonable felony. Kanu, it will be recalled, was granted bail by the Federal High Court but jumped bail.
By the way, the mainstream IPOB, which comprises Kalunta, Nnamdi Kanu’s brother and Emma Powerful, the spokesperson, do not agree with the sit-at-home.
Whatever else, sit-at-home (hereinafter referred to as SAH) achieves, it destroys the Igbo economy, while doing no harm to the rest of Nigeria. And this is the reason it should be subjected to rigorous rethinking. Igbo chel’uche. (Igbo! Think!!)
SAH mandates all who live in the southeast geopolitical zone of Nigeria not to go to work on Mondays, and this week, Simon Ekpa who lives in Finland, and has Finnish citizenship decided that the entire South-East should be shut down for one week less one day.
SAH denies the Okpa and Akara ball seller and Keke rider their daily income with which to feed their family and pay school fees.
If Igbo land were the source of some mainstay of the Nigerian economy, like oil and gas, or the ports, a local strike, which really SAH is, would have had nationwide and global impact.
BUT SAH only peripherally and marginally affects those outside Igboland, perhaps, transporters only who must drive through the southeast while egressing and ingressing other geopolitical zones.
In view of what SAH does to the Igbo nation, Ohaneze and well-meaning Nigerians have put out calls to the Federal Government to release IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu from detention during trial.
The call does not take into cognisance the possibility that the destruction of the Igbo economy is probably the delight of those who dislike the Igbo, and enemies the Igbo have aplenty. So why expect them to take any steps to prevent the apparent self-immolation of the Igbo?
Permit me to observe that even if the Federal Government acceded to the request for Nnamdi Kanu’s release, it is extremely doubtful that the violence will stop. The guns will still be in private hands, or will they be taken away?
By the way, the IPOB faction led by Simon Ekpa, is also known as “auto pilot.” “Autopilot” is “a device that steers a ship, plane or spacecraft, without a person.” (Source: The Brittanica Dictionary).
The name ‘AutoPilot’ thus suggests, rather ominously that this wing of IPOB are under no one’s control, not even their leader, Simon Ekpa.
It does not seem to me from the way things are going, that anybody may be able to call them to order if they decide after Nnamdi Kanu is released, if the FG accedes to their requests and releases him, to make further demands and keep the South-East under logjam.
Criminality may yet escalate irrespective. These young men have arms. New political demands may be made as a condition for laying down arms, which government may not be able to grant.
Worse, IPOB may further splinter; each group, lord unto itself. The horse has bolted out of the stable, I am afraid, and although not immediately apparent, the South-East, if allowed to go down, may, because of the resilience, ebullience and ubiquity of her people drag the entire nation down with it.
The matter in the South-East, nay the entire nation needs great dexterity, nay, political brinkmanship, and statesmanship.
This brinkmanship requires the egalitarian restructure of Nigeria, following the principle by which the federating units of the First Republic operated.
Lest I be misunderstood, I am not calling for a return to four regions but a return to the principle of federalism around which those regions federated some 60 years ago.
Having said the above, I also join the call for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, in the forlorn hope that it will deescalate the violence. But if the government will not take that step, they better call out the police in droves to guard business districts, offices and schools in the affected region.
It is shocking that the police appear to be complying with the SAH issued by ‘Autopilot.’ Nobody sees the police on those days, but we do see some military presence at major junctions not far from military formations.
If the Federal Police is unable or unwilling to act, We The People hereby renew our demand for State Police.
By my hand this 6th Day of July 2023.
Ikeazor Ajovi Akaraiwe, SAN
