By: Femi Fani-Kayode<\/p>\n
Permit me to begin this weeks contribution with a brief aside. My dear
\nfriend Major Hamza Al Mustapha was reported to have said the following a
\nfew days ago:<\/p>\n
\u201cThose who strive to keep Nigeria one find themselves as enemies of a
\ncertain category of Nigerians. I don\u2019t see those who hate to see Nigeria
\nas one as a group but a clique that exploits the country, a clique that
\nmismanages the future, a clique that invests in disintegration, a clique
\nthat invests in misinformation and creating division among Nigerians, a
\nclique that promotes hatred, a clique that distorts our history, so that
\nwhen Nigerians are divided and can no longer think together, they can make
\ngains and continue to steal from Nigeria\u2019s commonwealth. But the moment
\nyou realize what they are doing and resolve to fight them, they will stop
\nat nothing to destroy you. Any call to divide Nigeria is unacceptable”.<\/p>\n
One wonders whether these were the thoughts of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha
\nwhen he was the Chief Security Officer to General Sani Abacha and when
\nMrs. Kudirat Abiola, the courageous and outsoken wife of Chief MKO Abiola
\nthe winner of the June 12th 1993 presidential election, was brutally
\nmurdered in cold blood by agents of the governmrnt that he served so
\ndiligently and with such ruthless precision.<\/p>\n
One wonders whether she was murdered alongside many other gallant sons and
\ndaughters of the south west by the Abacha regime in the name of
\nmaintaining the national cohesion and unity that he claims to love so
\nmuch. I will grant my brother Hamza the opportunity to answer this
\nquestion before going any further but for now I will just say the
\nfollowing.<\/p>\n
I rather think that it is the clique of those that kill with impunity,
\nthat supress dissent, that demonise their peresceived enemies, that
\nbelieve that the rest of us are slaves and that believe that they were
\nborn to rule that present the greatest threat to peace and national unity
\nin this country.<\/p>\n
If they want peace and unity they must humble themselves and beg God and
\nthe Nigerian people for forgiveness for 103 years of cruelty, ruthless
\ndomination, arrogance, genocide and impunity.<\/p>\n
They must get off their high horse, purge themselves of their notorious
\ninsolence and insufferable contempt and they must stop the historical
\ndistortions, the insults, the killings and the threats.<\/p>\n
Whether Mustapha likes it or not the days when anyone will invoke the
\nspirit of national unity and one NIgeria just to perpetuate injustice,
\nbondage, slavery, subjugation, mass muder, genocide, ethnic and religious
\ncleansing and core northern domination are long over.<\/p>\n
All the insults and threats in the world cannot change that. I await his
\nresponse.<\/p>\n
Permit me to continue this contribution by stating loudly and clearly that
\nthose that have told Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB to steer clear of Lagos and
\nYorubaland and that have said that he must not go there for any rallies
\nare talking bunkum.<\/p>\n
Apart from the fact that milions of Igbos that reside in Lagos and many
\nother parts of the south-west would welcome him with open arms and
\nthunderous jubilation, millions of Yoruba youth would also rejoice at his
\ncoming simply because they have been inspired and stirred by his sheer
\ncourage and dedication.<\/p>\n
To the Yoruba nationalists and believers in the right of
\nself-determination Kanu is a hero and they not only admire him but they
\nalso revere him.<\/p>\n
This is especially so given the fact that he has long since withdrawn and
\nrenounced many of the misconceptions and views that he once espoused and
\nexpressed about the Yoruba and their leaders before his incarceration.<\/p>\n
Had this not been the case this writer would not and could not possibly
\nhave had as much respect and affection for him as I do.<\/p>\n
As a matter of fact since his release he has not only stood by the Yoruba
\nnation publicly but has also spoken up for a number of Yoruba leaders who
\nare suffering persecution from the Federal\u00a0 Government and who have been
\nissued with life-threatening and physical threats from the Arewa Youth.<\/p>\n
Yours truly is one of those that both IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu has stood by
\nand spoken up for consistently and I consider it to not only be an honor
\nbut also a gesture that I shall never forget and that I shall always
\nendeavour to reciprocate.<\/p>\n
Without any fear of contradiction, I can boldly say that this courageous
\nyoung man has nothing but respect and affection for the Yoruba nation
\ntoday.<\/p>\n
He has renounced all his past comments about our people both privately and
\npublicly and he will do so again in a big way when he comes to Lagos.<\/p>\n
We spent a lot of time together in Kuje prison and we learnt a lot from
\neach other whilst there. We are fighting the same cause against the same
\nenemy.<\/p>\n
Those that believe that he and IPOB have no friends amongst the Yoruba are
\nmisguided and misinformed. They have lost touch with reality and they are
\nliving in the past.<\/p>\n
The truth is that IPOB has friends amongst both the elders and the youths
\nin the south-west and, most importantly, millions of Yoruba sons and
\ndaughters share their vision of and belief in the right to exercise their
\nGod-given right of self-determination.<\/p>\n
They crave for and believe in the establishment of Oduduwa Republic in
\nmuch the same way and for the same reasons that Nnamdi and members of his
\nIPOB crave for and believe in Biafra.<\/p>\n
The bridge of commonality of purpose between the south west and the south
\neast has been rebuilt and re-established and none shall ever break or burn
\nit again. Whether anyone likes it or not, in this struggle, we are one.<\/p>\n
I would also add this. Those in igboland and indeed throughout the south
\nthat have openly opposed, insulted and sought to chastise those gallant
\nmen and women that support the idea of restructuring our country or that
\nconsistently resist and denigrate the concept of establishing the
\nsovereign state of Biafra are mischevous and disingenious.<\/p>\n
They are nothing but gutless traitors, blacklegs and turncoats that have
\nno sense or knowledge of history and that have been contracted by the
\npowers that be to shatter the dreams and aspirations of millions of young
\nIgbos from within.<\/p>\n
Worst still they are simply voicing the views and sentiments of the
\ninternal colonialists and our collective slavemasters.<\/p>\n
These turncoats and traitors have fed fat on Nigeria and have consistently
\ncornered the market of all that is due to the Igbo from the Federal
\nGovernment for themselves over the last thirty years.<\/p>\n
Such beneficiaries of a skewered, inequitable and unwholesome system who
\nhave no empathy for the suffering and humiliation of their own people and
\nwho cannot feel their pain forget that, with God, all things are possible.<\/p>\n
If one million Igbo youths were slaughtered in the north or in the streets
\nof the east by northern mobs or our security forces respectively these
\npeople would not voice a single word of protest but would instead try to
\ndefend and rationalise it.<\/p>\n
This brings me to the meat of this essay. The Arewa Youths that demanded
\nthat the Igbo must leave the north by October 1st and that have now given
\nthe Federal Government an ultimatum to arrest Nnamdi Kanu in the next 10
\ndays are stoking a fire that may end up consumming Nigeria.<\/p>\n
They must be gagged, put in chains and spanked hard!<\/p>\n
Nnamdi Kanu is a hero and his call for independence for the Igbo is
\nlegitimate and lawful. Any attempt to arrest him will have consequences.<\/p>\n
For those that still do not believe that the Biafra phenomenon and message
\nis here to stay and that are still guided by the erroneous notion that
\n“all is well” in Nigeria I share the following.<\/p>\n
Dr. John Dan Fulani, a cerebal and well-respected activist, human rights
\ncrusader, intellectual and academic from Southern Kaduna with a large
\nfollowing, has said that if Biafra is established the people of Southern
\nKaduna will leave Nigeria and go with them.<\/p>\n
This unprecedented assertion and declaration has caused panic,
\nconsternation and alarm in many core northern conservative circles.<\/p>\n
Again Professor Jerry Gana, a respected former Minister from Niger state
\nand a reasonable, well-known and well-liked leader that has been deeply
\ninvolved in politics and entrenched in the corridors of power for the last
\n32 years has said that if Nigeria were ever to break up the people of the
\nMiddle Belt would leave the north and go with the people of the south.<\/p>\n
Again the Solomon Asemota SAN and T.Y. Danjuma-led Christian Elders Forum
\nhas warned the Federal Government and the Nigerian people about what they
\nhave described as a subtle and dangerous application of “stealth jihad” by
\nthe Federal Government in our country and what they see as an attempt to
\nislamise Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Again a well-organised and credible Yoruba group called the Yoruba
\nLiberation Command (YOLICOM) has said that it was “too late for
\nrestructuring” and that they want Oduduwa Republic to be established. They
\nalso threw their weight behind the establishment of Biafra.<\/p>\n
This is the sad and sorry impasse that the ailing President Muhammadu
\nBuhari and his cult of ecstatic cheerleaders and super worshippers have
\ntaken Nigeria in just two years.<\/p>\n
Whilst the dangerous ethnic, religious and regional divisions in our
\ncountry are getting wider by the day His Royal Highness is busy holding
\ncourt in London and desperately trying to prove to the world that he is
\nnot dead, that he is much better and that he can rule our nation from a
\ndistant foreign land indefinately. What a country! What a people!<\/p>\n
The truth is that the President and the Presidency is not meant to be a
\ntourist attraction, a museum of old fossils or a mausoleum of decaying
\nbodies to be viewed by curious dignitaries in a distant foreign land.<\/p>\n
Despite the pretty group pictures with a handful of selected governors I
\nbelieve that it is an act of cruelty to expect this poor and obviously
\nvery sick man to lead a nation of 180 million.<\/p>\n
In spite of my views about his glaring incompetence and his many
\natrocities, weaknesses, eccentricities and shortcomings I believe that
\neven he deserves far better than that.<\/p>\n
My counsel, which is borne out of compassion and nothing else, still
\nremains that he resigns and that he goes home and rests before he suffers
\nyet another replapse and returns to nether nether land!<\/p>\n
The truth is that the only thing that competes with our never-ending film
\nshow of “do you have a President or do you not have a President” in
\nNigeria today is the much-awaited and newly released ‘season 7’ of HBO’s
\n“Game of Thrones” which I watch religiously and which I enjoy enormously.<\/p>\n
That is what the serious business of governance has been reduced to in
\nNigeria. Is it any wonder that CNN’s Fareed Zakaria mocked us about our
\nabsentee President before hundreds of millions of viewers from all over
\nthe world just the other day?<\/p>\n
The truth is that we deserve even worse. May God judge those that have
\nbrought us this unquantifiable and unbearable calamity and national shame.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile I urge the wise and the discerning to pause and consider the
\nfollowing.<\/p>\n
Those that dismiss the widening divisions and agitations in our country
\nwith disdain and contempt and that underestimate the resolve of those that
\nare behind them are not only naive but they also do so at their own peril.<\/p>\n
It is only a matter of time before something gives. I say this because
\nnational cohesion and unity can only be established, entrenched and
\nsustained by the accomodation and toleration of dissenting views, the
\nconstant expression of love and the regular and consistent application of
\nleadership by consensus.<\/p>\n
It cannot be sustained by brutality, murder, injustice, lies, supression,
\npersecution, tyranny, manipulation, deceit, propaganda and coercion.<\/p>\n
You cannot hold a people down by the usage of threats, the shedding of
\nblood and the force of arms forever.<\/p>\n
Even slaves rise up in bloody rebellion and resist tyranny when the time
\nis right, when the wind of liberation blows and when the freedom bell
\ntolls.<\/p>\n
The south west, the south south and the south east yearn for that liberty
\nand freedom and the Middle Belt craves for it.<\/p>\n
The only thing that they are waiting for is the emergence of a set of
\nbold, clear-thinking, inspirational and focused leaders that have the
\ncourage, the tenacity of purpose, the unrelenting fortitude and the purity
\nof spirit to lead the struggle and to take them out of the bondage of
\nEgypt and into the Promise land.<\/p>\n
The bottom line is as follows: I would rather live and die as a free man
\nin an independent Oduduwa Republic than continue to live and die as a
\nslave in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Femi Fani-Kayode Permit me to begin this weeks contribution with a brief aside. My dear friend Major Hamza Al Mustapha was reported to have said the following a few…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions","category-columns","category-femi-fani-kayode"],"yoast_head":"\n