By SKC Ogbonnia
\nSeptember 4, 2019<\/p>\n
The current Biafran struggle has meant different things to different
\npeople. For former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, it appears
\nmore of a specious opportunity to exploit the Biafran masses\u2014for
\nselfish interest, motivated by blind ambition for power and primitive
\naccumulation of wealth. The result has been blackmail, political
\npersecution, loss of many innocent lives and, by consequence, the
\nprotest in Nuremberg, Germany, where the senator was flogged naked. But
\nthese developments should not have come as a surprise, particularly to
\nthe principal actors, namely, Ekweremadu, Nnamdi Kanu, and Muhammadu
\nBuhari.<\/p>\n
In a 2015 piece, \u201cHow PDP And APC Created New Biafran Agitations\u201d, I
\nnarrated how the Peoples\u2019 Democratic Party (PDP), having squandered
\nthe huge oil boom, \u201chad nothing on the ground for the Igbo masses and
\nthus needed to sustain mass following by deceit.\u201d I added that a
\nperilous perfidy deployed by the Igbo PDP caucus–under the leadership
\nof Ekweremadu–to prevent the restless Igbo youths from revolt was that
\na support for President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 was an automatic Igbo
\npresidency in 2019. In fact, the baloney was the sole message conveyed
\nfrom Jonathan to us at the World Igbo Congress convention in Houston in
\n2014, through Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and Senator Hope Uzodinma.<\/p>\n
Nyesom Wike, then a governorship candidate, took the gambit to the
\nextreme when he threatened secession, if PDP were to lose the 2015
\nelection. Hear him: “I will lead a war against them (Nigeria) like
\nOjukwu. Am not joking, I know am on air, and I am warning them now\u2026 In
\nfact, we from the South-South and South-East we remain in PDP. We leave
\nthe South-West and North to run APC. That is how they tactically shared
\nthe Country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thus, the Buhari\u2019s victory in the 2015 election was read as a coup
\nd\u2019\u00e9tat in the East, particularly among the jobless youths, who thence
\nanswered the call for a Biafran Republic. Yet, the call would not have
\ngained much currency and sympathy, if President Buhari of All
\nProgressive Congress (APC) did not declare vendetta against the Biafran
\narea for voting against him in the said election.<\/p>\n
The biggest beneficiary of the Biafran agitation thus far has been Ike
\nEkweremadu. Upon conniving with Senator Bukola Saraki to snatch the post
\nof Deputy Senate President from the ruling APC, Ekweremadu knew he was
\nin for trouble, big trouble. And President Buhari went after the Igbo
\nsenator and Saraki, the Senate President, like tornado, including
\noutright charges for forgery and corruption. The only strong defense the
\nduo had at their disposal was to whip up the ethnic sentiment; and the
\nIgbo saw an opportunity for revenge against Buhari.<\/p>\n
Ekweremadu suddenly became an Igbo totem. Every Igbo group began to sing
\nEkweremadu or nothing at all\u2014as if some how the region witnessed any
\ntangible development the previous 8 years the senator was the de facto
\nSenate president while his party was in power.<\/p>\n
Yet, the fiercest opposition to Buhari or, rather, the strongest support
\nof Ekweremadu and Saraki came from Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB),
\nled by Nnamdi Kanu. Though Kanu would be arrested and detained,
\nPresident Buhari knew to backpedal on Ekweremadu or risk a serious
\nrevolt from the South-East and the South-South zones. In short,
\nEkweremadu and Saraki would have been jailed by 2016, if not for a stout
\nopposition from the IPOB organization worldwide. Said differently,
\nNnamdi Kanu sacrificed his freedom and the lives of many Biafran
\nactivists, so that Ike Ekweremadu could remain as the Deputy Senate
\nPresident under Buhari.<\/p>\n
It is true that Ekweremadu provided support to the IPOB before and after
\nKanu\u2019s detention, quite alright, including a portion of the bail
\nmoney, but his support was utterly selfish and dreadfully deceitful.
\nThis approach provoked the eminent economist and former Governor of
\nCentral Bank, Chukwuma Soludo, to use the occasion of the launching of
\nthe book, \u201cThe Politics of Biafra: And the Future of Nigeria\u201d, to
\nadmonish such politicians exploiting IPOB for selfish interest to
\nrecognize that the Biafran activists \u201care no fools.\u201d<\/p>\n
The duplicity of politicians in the saga compelled me to pen: \u201cBiafra
\nAnd Corruption: When A Judas Becomes A Muhammad.\u201d I was able to
\nhighlight how the corrupt hawks from the South-East and South-South
\nzones exploit the fact that the Muslim North, which currently holds
\npower, typically appears willing to turn an evil bearer of \u2018One
\nNigeria\u2019 into a saint. I detailed how such Southern leaders, who
\nharbored dream for national leadership, suddenly abandoned the Biafran
\nagitators they helped to create, and started singing a different tune. I
\nnoted the unholy subterfuge in which Governor Wike not only renamed
\nRivers State Stadium after Gowon, but also his dramatic handshake across
\nthe Northwest through the Sokoto Caliphate. More relatively, I
\ndemonstrated how Ekweremadu, after consolidating power as the political
\nleader of the entire Biafran area, betrayed and dumped the IPOB on the
\naltar of political opportunism. That Judas piece was published August
\n16, 2017.<\/p>\n
One month after the expos\u00e9, September 17, 2017, to be exact, Chief
\nEkweremadu and the South-East governors met at Enugu to proscribe IPOB.
\nThe sheer shenanigans have led to maiming and killing of innocent
\nBiafran activists, gross political persecution, and mass exodus of
\nyouths from the East to anywhere but Nigeria\u2014Nuremberg not excluded.<\/p>\n
The popularity of the public protest against Ekweremadu has shown that
\nthe Nigerian masses and IPOB have gotten wiser. As Buhari\u2019s Minister
\nof Transport, Chibuike Amaechi, would say, \u201cIf you see a thief and you
\nallow him to be stealing, what have you done? You have stoned nobody;
\nthat is why we are stealing.\u201d And I say, where there are no
\nconsequences for bad behavior, the bad behavior usually worsens.<\/p>\n
But it does not appear that Ike Ekweremadu has gotten the message. Since
\nreturning to Nigeria after \u201cNuremberg\u201d, the senator has had the
\naudacity to resort back to his familiar m\u00e9lange of propaganda and
\nprodigality. Mr. Ekweremadu has been celebrating failure, deploying
\ntax-payer\u2019s money into chartering private aircrafts, and renting
\ngullible crowds\u2014crowds, who have done nothing but hail the whited
\nsepulcher, while heaping abuse on the tireless masses of the Diaspora
\ncommunity, particularly the IPOB. This is impunity gone too far!<\/p>\n
Be that as it may, the gist of my January 2017 piece, \u201cBuhari and
\nNnamdi Kanu Fighting the Wrong Enemy\u201d, remains profoundly instructive.
\nBoth Buhari and Kanu ought to unite and focus on the common enemy, being
\nthe Biafran politicians who colluded with contractors to loot
\ndevelopment projects in region. Instead of seeing every dissent as
\nterrorism or treason, Buhari should embrace dialogue, switch back his
\nanti-corruption toga, and key into the current wave of worldwide
\nrevolution targeted against the looters of our commonwealth.<\/p>\n
SKC Ogbonnia, a 2019 APC presidential aspirant, is the author of the
\nEffective Leadership Formula.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By SKC Ogbonnia September 4, 2019 The current Biafran struggle has meant different things to different people. For former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, it appears more of a specious…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n