The other side of the Orlu debacle

By Collins Opurozor

Before the dusk of Wednesday, the both sides – Nigerian forces and Nnamdi Kanu’s men – had agreed to a cessation of hostilities. If this is sustained, one can be sure that the Orlu situation has come under control. But the implications will be far-reaching.

First, Nigeria seems to have learnt nothing from her chequered history. The state’s response to every agitation by its ostensible citizens has never failed to reflect disproportionate bestiality, cruelty and belligerence. The mishandling of the Ogoni crisis has made the Niger Delta a sanctuary for militancy; the killing of Mohammed Yusuf has transformed the North East into a terrorism corridor; and the mindless killings of unarmed pro-Biafran agitators have in the end propelled them into armed struggle which is code named Eastern Security Network (ESN). Further, the undebatable inability of the state to stem the atrocities of the Fulani herdsmen has lent a rationalization to Kanu’s armed struggle, since self-defense, including even the use of deadly weapons, is a right recognized in multiple international protocols.

At the end of the Orlu confrontations, the men of the ESN were emboldened by their alleged successes. They were sighted in the bushes building buffers, and patently celebrating their vaunted invincibility. In hushed tones, Orlu residents praise their bravery and battlefield exploits, and mock the national security. This open withdrawal of allegiance from the state by its citizens speaks volumes about the future of the Biafran struggle, and unless Nigeria deemphasizes its militaristic approach to an irrepressibly fundamental debate like the neo-Biafran cause, “clubs may soon become trumps”, in the words of Thomas Hobbes.

The antinomy of the entire Nigeria-Biafra discourse is that those who feign to keep Nigeria united are the ones encouraging the secessionist agenda and making the message of Nnamdi Kanu gain appeal day after day. When some barely lettered horde of pastoralists named Miyetti Allah openly and unapologetically described all lands in Nigeria as theirs for the taking, what response were they expecting? When Igbo youths took up harmless flags and organized peaceful protests to register their marginalization in Nigeria, and they were brutally murdered in their hundreds, what response was Nigeria expecting? When an Igbo knows that his socio-political aspirations are inhibited in Nigeria simply because of his ethnic identity, what response does Nigeria expect? When a brilliant Igbo child with a high score fails to secure an admission into a university and watches a less qualified counterpart from Adamawa admitted, what idea about Nigeria does that child go home with?

The Orlu debacle should cause Nigeria and the Northern overlords to rethink their stale approach to issues of national cohesion. Avoiding a question through violence is an unsustainable, cowardly approach. Nigeria is not working, and the sense of alienation which the Igbo have is real. This cannot be resolved by rolling out military tanks. Every Nigerian, irrespective of tribe, deserves a country that works. The time to tinker with the structure of Nigeria is now!