By Ifeanyi Izeze
Mischief, a major preoccupation of the human mind is glaringly being perfected by the twin words: Government and Politics, in Nigeria and this is manifested everyday by what we hear and see coming from these same quarters.
The exiled leader of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, last weekend, allegedly appeared in a video praying on the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. In the video, which surfaced online, the IPOB leader was seen donning an Israeli outfit used for prayers while holding a book.
His whereabouts had been unknown since July last year when the military launched Operation Python Dance to check the activities of IPOB.
Ordinarily, it would have been better to simply ignore the statements credited to Kanu, who allegedly spoke from Jerusalem but for the fact we need to read in-between the lines these days to make clear deductions and help our sanity.
Kanu who recently resurfaced in Israel had on Sunday 21st October, in a broadcast declared that there would be no election in the entire South-East in 2019.
He also said he would return soon to Nigeria bringing “Hell” to revive the agitation for Biafra independence.
Curiously, some things are simply not just adding up in the entire Nnamdi Kanu matter. No better way to put it than to say that his expressed disposition of making sure elections do not hold in 2019 in the entire Igboland is outrightly suspect.
Whosoever prepared the speech allegedly delivered by Kanu must in all sincerity be intelligent by half. In the first instance, why worry about elections in a country you don’t believe in? How come the IPOB leader is making the activities of the Nigerian government his priority concern? You want Referendum, but you don’t want your people to participate in an election that will produce people that can even discuss your position? How does this sound?
Tragically, the outburst by Ndigbo since Kanu’s alleged resurfacing in Jerusalem have been at best very reactive and at worst very shallow or rather outrightly unintelligent.
The Igbos should just wake up and view deeply into what is happening around them because of a surety, there are matters miscellaneous about the video of Kanu praying in Jerusalem and the audio speech he allegedly directed to his supporters.
Ndigbo should take seriously the allegation by the MASSOB Leader, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike in a press conference in Owerri, urging the people of South East to treat the touted disappearance and resurfacing of Kanu, as “a non-issue because it was carefully pre-arranged by the Department of State Services, DSS.
“Not many of his ardent followers truly know that Kanu is not sincerely working for the independence of Biafra. His coming to Nigeria, his arrest, detention, trial, release on bail and his alleged disappearance and resurfacing were all prearranged by the DSS.
“How did he disappear from his country home? How did he survive the onslaught even when he claimed that about 28 people were killed during the military operation in his home? How did he leave Nigeria and what document did he use to traverse all the nations before arriving Israel? We couldn’t have forgotten so soon that the DSS seized all his travel documents.” Uwazuruike asked.
First, if he actually sneaked away from the country, why did he decide to come public at this time as he knows that wherever he is, the Nigerian government can still use diplomatic channels to get him back to face their charges against him?
If he has been in Israel all these while, the question is: when did the Israeli security and intelligence authourities become so dumb that Nnamdi Kanu could enter there and they are not aware of it. Is it possible?
When did all the Israeli intelligence apparatus become so dumb like ours that Kanu alongside his convoy made their way to the Western Wall of the city of David, prayed and walked away comfortably and later made a broadcast? Haba!
Could it be that Kanu was actually whisked away for safe keeping by the Nigerian authourities who now see him as a willing tool to destabilise and obstruct elections in the South East and parts of South South where Buhari’s major opponent has his strength?
As said by a cyber Forensic expert, “if the speech was really Nnamdi Kanu’s, he would have been videoed live to his supporters, and not by audio knowing how he has always done his things before he went underground. The fact that it is more difficult to digitally fake the voice to correspond to mouth movements is why we had it on audio, but only those that want to be fooled will be fooled.”
Even if the Israeli intelligence had helped him get out of Nigeria, it is definitely not what he would be allowed to say. The Israeli Authourities are not as dumb and casual as our people here to allow one Igbo man create problems for them with Nigeria and other African countries. That’s clearly not how diplomacy works. Whether we like it or not, Buhari remains the President of Nigeria, and every country will work with him, until we change him.
Meanwhile, The Government of Israel has said that Nnamdi Kanu is not in the country.
The Spokesperson of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Emmanuel Nashon, who reportedly spoke at an interactive section with some African Journalists in Jerusalem, said that there was no evidence that the leader of IPOB was in the country of recent.
“There are no details about his (Kanu) recent visit to this country yet,” Emmanuel said adding that the pictures and videos which Kanu displayed to show that he is currently in that country could be old ones.”
It should be clear to Nigerians especially Ndigbo that this is desperation time and any game is fair including releasing Nnamdi kanu’s old pictures/videos or using his image and cloned voice to create fears and voters’ apathy in the South East with a view to shrinking votes from that zone for the opponent of the sitting president. God bless Nigeria!
(IFEANYI IZEZE: iizeze@yahoo.com; 234-8033043009)