On Tuesday, June 29, 2021, news broke that the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, had been arrested and extradited back to Nigeria following a sting operation conducted by Nigerian security and intelligence agencies, with the help of The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL).
Kanu, who has led the charge for the materialisation of the Republic of Biafra became increasingly popular after the Federal Government preferred charges against him that would most likely have resulted in the death penalty or life imprisonment. However, this would not be the case as Mr. Kanu flouted the conditions of his bail and fled the country in 2017.
Having been granted asylum by the British government, Nnamdi Kanu, living in exile, continued to gain popularity and support as the agitation for Biafra gained momentum amongst a wide spectrum of Southeasterners who had become fed up with the daylight marginalisation of the Igbos as well as the stark inability or perhaps unwillingness of the Nigerian government to deliver the dividends of democracy to the Nigerian populace.
It is a valid truth that Nnamdi Kanu’s arrest resonates different tunes for different Nigerians, depending on what team you’re on. However, beyond the optics surrounding the Biafra leader’s arrest lies a distasteful truth about the trajectory of this government’s commitment towards the process of governance.
Towards the twilight days of Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s administration, there was a popular opinion which held that the former president had bagged the award of being the “most insulted” president in Nigeria’s history. Fast-forward six years, the vitriols that has trailed the Muhammadu Buhari ‘regime’ has made those insults sound like a love poem; vitriols which has stemmed from the unprecedented levels of hardship Nigerians have faced ever since this government assumed power.
It is no secret that over the past six years Nigerians have endured an almost palpable level of insecurity, coupled with a dwindling economy which has experienced two recessions within four years.
While such indices as mass unemployment, abject poverty, corruption in high places, ethnic uprisings became popular themes to underscore bad governance in Nigeria, a host of Nigerians had simply come to the conclusion that its government was clueless and utterly out of ideas with regard to addressing the country’s monumental challenges, but how wrong were they?
They could not have been more wrong, this government is far from clueless. This government is so laser “clue-ful” it could track a snowflake in a blizzard during a full-blown eclipse if it wanted to. It is simply down to a question of priority, a fact that has been substantiated by Nnamdi Kanu’s arrest.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is facing many security issues, among them kidnapping, militancy in the oil-rich Niger Delta and the threat of Islamist groups in the Northeast, banditry in the Northwest, and of course, the phenomenon of the “Unknown Gunmen.”
Nevertheless, the government has focused military and monetary resources on combating the I.P.O.B., and President Buhari has been outspoken on the issue, so outspoken that he even threatened genocide against a whole region, duly reminding the younger generation who are too young to remember of the carnage and destruction witnessed during the Nigerian Civil War.
If Nnamdi’s Kanu’s arrest isn’t testament enough to prove that this government is not as clueless as everyone pegged them to be, it will perhaps be useful to recall the swift action taken after micro-blogging platform, Twitter, removed President Buhari’s tweet from its platform. The federal government’s reply was so swift that Nigerians couldn’t help but be thrilled that this government could actually respond to a problem with the swiftness and uncompromising ruthlessness that it deserves.
Unsurprisingly, this Presidency, whose Spokespersons have indeed earned their wages has had the Minister of Information, as its quarter-back. The “Honourable” Minister has been very quick to cite the “threat to Nigeria’s corporate existence” as the ostensible reason behind banning Twitter, the same reason could possibly be credited for Kanu’s arrest.
However, what our “Honourable” Minister of Information has failed to come to grips with is that nothing has ever threatened Nigeria’s corporate existence as much as the chronic level of bad governance that has been a running theme since this administration took over the reins of authority. What no one has also failed to whisper to our Information Minister is that nothing could threaten Nigeria’s corporate existence more than its President threatening genocide against an entire region on Live Television and re-enforcing that same message on his social media pages to clear any lingering doubts.
Indeed, one can aver, without mincing words, that this government’s only priority is to exact revenge against its political traducers, while it remains unapologetically indifferent to the suffering and plight of Nigerians. If one had any shred of doubt against this assertion, then let us once again recall the instance when over 200 students were kidnapped from an Islamiyya school located at Tegina in the Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State. As usual, it was the same sloppy, lethargic response from a government that took an oath to secure Nigerian lives and properties.
Only a few days later, popular social media platform, Twitter deleted President Buhari’s insensitive tweet. This time, the response was swift, terse and altogether laconic. The Presidency’s number one defender, the Minister of Information called a press conference with immediate effect. How dare twitter delete Baba’s tweet? dozens of parents were having sleepless nights, unable to process or contemplate the horrible ordeal their children were being subjected to by dangerous criminals, our “Honourable” Minister did not call a press conference to calm frayed nerves in the wake of this incident, but the moment Twitter coughed, Honourable swung his big stick without forgiveness nor compunction. A whole nation was punished because its president is offended.
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According to the minister, Twitter had lent itself as a platform of choice for those who want to bring down the country. Furthermore, Twitter had made millions from Nigeria without duly domiciling its operations and remitting tax to the Nigerian Government. Hasn’t Google been operating in Nigeria long before Twitter? Has Google not made far more money from Nigeria than the micro-blogging platform? Perhaps Nigerians will one day wake up and not have access to the largest online hub in the world because the government of the day woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Just perhaps.
Regardless of the half-baked narratives it continues to peddle for its atrociously vindictive form of governance, there is no doubt that the nucleus of this government revolves firmly around exacting vendetta against its political enemies. No swift action is ever taken to address the plight of the citizenry, but when the Government feels slighted in any manner, the enemy must, by all means, be treated “in the language they understand.”
Nigeria is fast headed towards a tipping point, whether that tipping point is 2023 or before that highly anticipated polling season, only a collective resolve from the masses will ensure that this breed of politicians are COMPLETELY ousted from the corridors of power.
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