Nnamdi Kanu was brought to court yesterday, Tuesday 29th June 2021. But his capture or arrest or rearrest, in, some say the UK, some say Ethiopia, and some say Brazil, was last week as he was brought into the country on Sunday. He was at least in federal hands for at least 72 hours before the public was informed by the attorney general.
Wherever he was arrested and how long he was in custody are not the point, or perhaps it is part of the point, but the main point is that it has opened our eyes to certain things, a lot of them but we would analyse just five of them.
1. Buhari can be efficient when he chooses
Since Buhari and his APC goons took power in 2015, it has been one inefficiency to the other. They couldn’t handle things as simple as having Olympic costumes arrive before the Olympic Games and they couldn’t do hard things like making the economy work or protecting lives.
In fact, in many cases, it seemed that they won’t even be bothered, nay, they don’t even care.
When Buhari gave the Arise TV interview early in the month, we found out that he is fully aware of everything happening in the country. The talk of dementia and a cabal seizing power from Buhari is nonsense. Buhari is in charge. The Fulani herdsmen killings, Boko Haram, and kidnappings and banditry in the north, all, he knows in clear details.
He just doesn’t feel the need to act. With IPOB, his focus is sharp and his response brutal, almost clinical. And now, with the capture of Nnamdi Kanu and all the maneuvering that comes with it, he has shown that he can be efficient when he chooses to be.
2. Nnamdi Kanu was never invisble
Nnamdi Kanu made himself appear bigger than life. He knows everything and he has the men and equipment to deal with the real and perceived enemies of Ndigbo. When he speaks, he speaks with the confidence of a field marshall. When he makes threats, he appears to be speaking while sitting on a desktop with nuclear codes.
He also gave his followers the same belief. It is not uncommon to see an IPOB member who would dare the Nigerian Airforce to do their worse. The Nigerian military is ill-equipped and under-motivated but that is not to say that a group of people in their thousands with dozens of AK47 can stand the fighter jets of Nigeria.
Everything you need to know about Nnamdi Kanu – tactics and the Biafran cause
No matter how unmotivated a chess grandmaster is, he doesn’t need the help of the gods to spank a beginner.
The reason why the Nigerian forces will never take the bait of IPOB and bomb the Southeast is because of the outrage it would cause locally and internationally. And the military no matter how foolish they can be are humans.
But Nnamdi Kanu has successfully pushed the agenda that they can stand the military toe-to-toe.
It is a lie as we have now seen with the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu like a common criminal.
3. Ndigbo’s leadership gap is terrifying
After Nnamdi Kanu was arrested, Ohaneze Ndigbo was said to have released a statement that said many things. One thing, however, stood out: They are happy that Nnamdi Kanu was arrested. They have come out to deny this statement but it is believable in that they have said worse in the past.
While many in Igboland are wary of Nnamdi Kanu’s tactics and blame him for the insecurity in the region, arresting Nnamdi Kanu may not be the answer to the question.
Nnamdi Kanu is a symptom, not the disease. The arrest of Nnamdi Kanu might demoralize his followers and leave them struggling for direction, but this may not be for long; and even if they remain leadership forever, this means they are rudderless and this is dangerous.
Now the question is this: Is an armed mob more dangerous when they have a leader or when they are without a leader? Are ESN and other armed people affiliated with IPOB more dangerous when they have a leader or when they don’t have a leader?
We are about to find out. I hate that Igboland is being used for such wicked experiments in conflict. I hate that the Ndigbo leaders cannot see this angle. Even if they are seeing this, the fact that they are not speaking out is cowardly.
Whatever his failings, Nnamdi Kanu is an Igbo man and he is not the most dangerous man in Nigeria. Terrorist-sympathizers are ministers, bandits are getting paid millions of naira, and IPOB is being treated in the language they understand.
Igbo leaders are not asking the right questions over the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu.
If the arrest of an IPOB leader is not important enough to make every Igbo man who is somebody go on record with a statement, then it is what it is, the silence of a defeated people. Sadly, the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu is a painful reminder of what we already know.
4. IPOB intelligence is grossly overrated
One aspect of the person of Nnamdi Kanu that is puzzling is how far removed from reality he could be, at times (most times actually), and how his supporters believed the words he said were divine. Nnamdi Kanu himself had said that Nigeria was created with propaganda and would be divided by propaganda. Yet, he was seen as the most truthful and all-knowing person on earth.
He claimed Buhari was dead, they believe. He said Abba Kyari was dead for more than two weeks before he was announced dead, they believe. He said a lot of things about Fulani herdsmen, the Nigerian military, and all, things that were ridiculous, and half-truth, they believe.
But feeding people propaganda and actually having information are not the same thing; they are not mutually exclusive just that one demands actual work and this is something we now know is beyond the capacity of Nnamdi Kanu.
Analysis of the types of unknown gunmen in the South East
Early last month, IPOB announced that they had formed Biafra Security Service, BSS, here’s the post with video. All these are shows not unimportant in boosting morale but there must be something deeper that they have, that they know.
Nnamdi Kanu was captured at the latest on Saturday. IPOB were not aware of it on Saturday; IPOB were not aware of this on Sunday; IPOB were not aware of this on Monday; IPOB were not aware of this on Tuesday. IPOB only became aware on Tuesday when Malami made the announcement.
This is incompetence in every angle you look at it. Incompetence. Is there no person(s) Nnamdi Kanu put in charge of checking on him? Someone he would tell, if If you don’t hear from me every six hours raise an alarm. So for more than 96 hours, you didn’t hear from your leader and you said nothing and did nothing?
If you are unaware of what happened to your head, how can you know what is happening elsewhere and prepare your defenses? In fact, why is IPOB not aware of the plot to capture Nnamdi Kanu? Why didn’t he know that going to Brazil/Ethiopia/etc was dangerous? And that the girl or the donation was a trap.
We are no longer talking high-tech intelligence; we are saying that common sense and elementary survival instincts were Nnamdi Kanu’s failures. IPOB’s intelligence is not just overrated, it is non-existent.
5. Biafran referendum and Nigerian restructuring is not happening
It is not happening any time soon. Or ever.
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