What Is This Celebration Of Nnamdi Kanu’s Arrest By A Section Of The North All About?

 I am among those who still believe that we should give Nigeria a chance to redeem herself and not be allowed to go the way of Yugoslavia or the former Soviet Union, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). I also believe that the path followed by the late Mahatma Gandhi of India is the best strategy for all those seeking self-determination and not the path of verbal abuse of opponents or violence no matter how the government pushes the agitators to abandon the Gandhi way through the deployment of soldiers and other security agents to provoke them to take arms.

However, the level of celebration by a section of the North over the arrest of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu shocked me. You could be pardoned if you think that they won a world cup.

This is a section of the country that was in mournful silence when they heard about the killing of Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, which has set the development of Northern Nigeria back 50 years or more. They suddenly found their voice in the arrest of Kanu.

And I began to ask myself; Is Nnamdi Kanu the leader of Boko Haram that has killed tens of thousands of people in Nigeria and in 2014 alone killed 6,600 people; and has killed over 30,000 people since 2009 according to the Washington Post; and created 2.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 250,000 refugees in Cameroun, Niger and Chad?

Is Nnamdi Kanu the leader of the Boko Haram that rode on tens of motorbikes in December 2020, and stormed the village of Koshobe in Borno State killing at least 110 people in one of the region’s deadliest attacks in years and severing their heads and put it on their backs in the rice farm?

Is Nnamdi Kanu the leader of the Boko Haram that killed 22 farmers working on irrigation fields in two separate attacks in October 2020 in Borno and the June attack near the village of Gubio that left 81 people dead in the same state?

Is Nnamdi Kanu the leader of the bandits that on June 12, 2021, raided the villages of Kadawa, Kwata, Maduba, Ganda Samu, Saulawa and Askawa in the Zurmi district, and killed 53 people in Zamfara state, according to police and local residents?

Is it Nnamdi Kanu that created nearly 700,000 internally displaced persons in northwest and north central Nigeria in February, including more than 124,000 in Zamfara alone, according to the UN’s migration agency, IOM?

Is Nnamdi Kanu the leader of the bandits who on June 3, 2021 attacked seven villages and killed at least 88 people in Kebbi State?

Is Nnamdi Kanu the leader of the bandits that on May 25, 2021 killed over 100 in in Katsina-Ala local government of Benue State, according to the local government chairman?

Is Nnamdi Kanu the leader of the gang of killers who in 3 months killed 323 in Kaduna State as confirmed by the Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Mr. Samuel Aruwan?

Is Nnamdi Kanu the leader of the gang of killers that killed more than 1,100 villagers in rural areas across several states of northern Nigeria in 2020 according to Amnesty International report?

Is Nnamdi Kanu the leader of the bandits that have killed 380, abducted 71, and received N79million ransom in seven years of banditry in Niger State according to the Vanguard Newspaper investigative report?

Is Nnamdi Kanu the leader of the bandits who in 2020 killed over 270 persons in 20 deadly attacks according to the Daily Trust Newspaper?

Is Nnamdi Kanu the leader of the bandits that in one day in May 2021 killed 107 in Benue and Plateau attacks according the Blueprint newspaper?

Is Nnamdi Kanu the leader of the bandits that killed Zamfara lawmaker on Tuesday and shot and wounded some security details of the governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje yesterday? Or is it that this section of the North is celebrating because Nnamdi Kanu is the leader of a group campaigning for self-determination for eastern Nigeria and they don’t want Nigeria to be divided? But the quest for self-determination is not a crime, it is a fundamental human right covered by the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and by the United Nations Charter on Human Rights which has been domesticated in Nigeria and is thus part of Nigeria’s law. That is why the government cannot arrest the leader of the Oduduwa Republic separatist movement, Sunday Igboho for seeking self-determination for his people.

The North should reserve its energy to celebrate the day that Boko Haram, bandits, herdsmen, religious and ethnic bigots in the region stop killings, raping, maiming, kidnapping, forceful conversion of people of other faiths, sacking of villages and renaming them and accept that all men are created equal by God and no religion is superior to the other in the region!