The Beginning of the end of Nnamdi Kanu …How his loyalists made U-turn
One man that is currently biting his fingers and regretting his obnoxious actions is Nnamdi Kanu, the embattled and fleeing leader of the Independence People of Biafra (IPOB).
Some months ago, the controversial Biafra leader lived a lifestyle of affluence, threatening the peace of Nigeria while his loyalist adored him as a ‘messiah.’ Some of them would even go as far as kissing his feet in expression of their loyalty and belief in him as a small god.
While Kanu was basking in the euphoria of his affluence, he called Nigeria a ‘zoo’ and many unprintable names. This and many others obviously incurred the wrath of the Presidency, who spitted its venom by ordering soldiers to embark on python dance in areas of the East where Kanu hitherto reigned supreme.
Since the python dance hunt was unleashed, Kanu in what his supporters describe as an act of cowardice has gone into self inflicted exile. This obviously prompted many Igbo leaders switch allegiance to the Federal Government. After all, the man (Kanu) they thought would take them to the ‘promised land’ is a mere coward, who only fight wars on social media.
Also, threats from youthful loyalists of Kanu that President Buhari would be maimed if he comes to the east have also proved to be mere words of the tongue. Mr President was in Enugu on Tuesday, 14 November, but rather than being maimed, he was peacefully celebrated and honoured with a chieftaincy title among others.
On the other hand, the woes of Kanu continued with his sack as the director of Radio Biafra. The radio station, whose programmes had been suspended, commenced broadcast a few days ago with a lady announcer who gave her name as Ifeoma Okorafor, stating that the radio was back on air and IPOB was restructuring.
She then announced that “Mazi Nnamdi Nwanekaenyi Kanu, the former Director of Radio Biafra is hereby dismissed and removed as Director of Radio Biafra following extensive and intensive consultations”. She named “Mazi Ezenwachukwu Sampson Okwudili as Kanu’s replacement.”
Kanu has not been seen publicly since he fled Abia State after the military raided his family compound some months back.
The reasons the Radio Biafra announcer gave for Kanu’s removal included:
(A) Personalization of the Biafran struggle and derailing from the core objectives of IPOB as a grassroots movement.
(B) Kanu’s actions and his decisions to incite members of IPOB towards violence leading to the death of many innocent young people in Onitsha, Aba and Umuahia is totally unacceptable and grossly irresponsible.
(C) Kanu privately collected £14m and another $22m to purchase landed properties abroad in his name and that of his father Igwe Israel Kanu in a clear case of monkey dey work baboon dey chop.
(D) Kanu turned our collective struggle into a money-making enterprise for himself and his father. Thus the monies contributed by enterprising and hard-working Igbo youths across the world are being collected and converted by one man and his father while pretending to be sacrificing for the cause.
(E) Upon his release from detention in April 2017, one expected Kanu to drum up support for the release of his colleagues and co-detainees such as Chidiebere Onwudiwe, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi. These are our brothers who were arrested at the same time with him and they should not be forgotten. We hereby demand their release. Kanu, since his release, has never spoken about them or appealed for the release of these our freedom fighters. Instead, he has been going about collecting chieftaincy titles and having a messianic swagger that even allowed full-blooded Igbomen to kneel down and kiss his feet.
(F) Kanu threw away the original meaning of our collective struggle for personal gain and vain glorification. IPOB believes in democracy as a solid base of any modern state, the rule of law, and will always reject violence in all its ramifications.