Ipob should Rethink, kalu is Right -Eberekpe Ogho

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AS much as I admire Kanu Nnamdi, if not for anything, at least reminding every one of us of the national truth we all have to deal with; the truth that is not only the yearning of Nigerians from the southeastern part of the country, but every member of this nationhood-if we can describe it as such, the truth about our general marginalisation, which is not the cry of the Igbos alone, I think IPOB got it all wrong in their attack on the former governor of Abia state.

I read the reaction of IPOB at the interview the businessman granted some journalists as regards the whereabouts of their leader, it was childish, irresponsible and to all extent, stupid. The headline was sensational and people ran away with and made a meal out of it without bothering to examine the body of the interview; of course, the bane of Nigerian thinking where substance is subjective. IPOB’s reaction is a classical display of the constitution of the organisation, and when you have that kind of thinking and thinkers and you expect a positive result from their hue and cry, then the body should see itself as a body of dreamers. In that interview, did Kalu say anything that Nigerians do not already know? That the reason behind all the agitations in the country is narrowed down to leadership failure, the ever widening and deepening gulf between the haves and the haves not, the mountain of corruption that has attained the height of religious worship, and many more? If there is anything Kalu has succeeded in doing over time having seen the fullness and roundness of life and knowing the path to navigate is to broker peace and to make sure justice is served. Kalu is still thinking as a Nigerian and not as a separatist, perhaps this is the reason why he is being hated and called names. The sensational headline said Kalu said Kanu is already in the UK, and the search for him should be regarded as needless. But the truth remains, if the content of the interview should be read and understood, he did not say but only reported what he was told by the family of Kanu. So why all the childishness of IPOB and all the illiterate and thoughtless thinking ever since?

Kanu knew he was going to fail in its pursuit to actualise a Biafra nation right from the word go, unless he is uneducated, uninformed and myopic not to realise that one does not embark on such journey when the elite and the intellectuals do not walk the work with you but only some weaklings and voiceless and hungry and somewhat the hopeless called the masses. And to think it was in the papers recently that IPOB is making arrangement to sue Kalu in the law court… For what? Was the question I asked myself. Are you going to sue a man who says there is nothing wrong with your agitations and the clamour for a separate state but there are better ways of doing it? Or you are going to sue because a man says the path of peace is much better and fulfilling than the act of violence? The same Kalu once granted an interview where he cautioned some group of Nigerians that they do not have any right whatsoever to question the right of others to live wherever they so desire in any part of the country as the country belongs to every Nigerian. IPOB got it wrong calling Kalu names and it should know by now that modern thinking frowns at propaganda to score cheap victory. If IPOB should be angry and decide to pick a stone, it should direct the anger and the hurl at whoever captioned that write-ups because it defined a poor taste of journalism and a section of Nigeria that feeds on such tales to give vent to their frustrations. Still on that interview, in a country that is politically sick where a leader has to emerge from a particular region to bring about progress and development to that region, where did Kalu go wrong? The whole of IPOB’s woes are pivoted on the hearts and minds of so-called leaders who have never been prepared for leadership to see Nigeria the way it ought.

IPOB think

The truth is, IPOB’s anger and frustration are misdirected and Kalu should not have a share in all this, instead, the group should be consoled in the fact that the former governor has their interest at heart. In that interview, both men, Kalu and Kanu agree on the same subjects which have crippled Nigeria even if they may disagree on methodology of approach that the country needs a much better structure than what is obtained presently, that the poverty line between the rich and the poor is too thick and more still the investment of so much power at the centre would not do the country any good in the long run. That the various institutions of the country have continuously insulted the intelligence of Nigerians long enough and some elders who parade themselves as leaders have always rubbed it in in our faces. And if all these and more are not addressed many more of Kanu would rise again. The anger and frustration of IPOB members for anybody, especially a bigwig such as Kalu to say that its leader is not in the country is understandable because nobody wants to be told that the person they so much believe in only went out through the other door a few minutes ago while they are still believing.

And that is where they got it wrong yet again, they failed to realise that Kanu was never perfect, he is human and he is bound to listen to two most important persons in his life after all advice and admonitions have failed from men and women who are wise in such matters, his parents. His parents would have advised and reminded him of his dual nationality as the heat was becoming unbearable. Those insulting Kalu and his position on IPOB should note that two things are involved; the knowledge of the past known to the ex-governor, that fifty years ago, a country went to war and a genocide was committed-though the country hates that word- millions of children were killed and amongst the dead were men and women, mothers and fathers and the old and the young; and all these persons were Igbos! And the way Kanu and his boys are going about it without the knowledge of history if there would be another killings and deaths and the truth is,

they will still be Igbos. And this would be needless. IPOB should not bury their heads in shame because its leader finally succumbed to wisdom, instead, should go about with pride because Kanu has proved himself a courageous fighter, a true Igbo man and the salt of the country with a dogged principle; a people who believe that erroneous diplomacy is rubbish while truth is eternal. And in all this, Dr. Uzor Orji Kalu is right while IPOB should reorganise and do a research on revolution, either to go the Christ’s way or the Barabbas’ or the Malcolm X’s or the Martin Luther King’s. Eberekpe Ogho writes from Lagos