The rise and fall of IPOB

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was created a few years ago by Nnmadi Kanu as a breakaway faction of the “compromised” Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). It was envisioned as a radical separatist group that would quickly deliver the Republic of Biafra to the Igbos through secession. Apparently, IPOB has powerful patrons who generously funded it. There was plenty money for memorabilia and other emblems evoking Biafra - flags, T-shirts, hand fans, bracelets, etc. IPOB also has a powerful radio that broadcasts the notorious hate speeches of its founder, Nnamdi Kanu, a dual citizen of Nigeria and Britain. Due to IPOB’s financial muscle and his exposure, Kanu was able to globetrot and solicit more funds while escalating his propaganda that the Igbo people are hated and are receiving a raw deal in Nigeria. The IPOB leader also insinuates that the Igbos are loved by God and are better than any other group in the country. According to Kanu, all other Nigerians are no more than animals living inside a zoo and so Igbos must have their own country out of Nigeria. Kanu also declares that he has been sent by God to lead the Igbos whom he enjoins to desist from idol worship as a precondition for quick realisation of Biafra.

In October 2015, following a hide and seek game with him, officers of the Department of State Security, Nigeria’s secret police, arrested Kanu at Golden Tulip Hotel, Lagos and took him into detention in Kuje, Abuja. He was charged for treason along with his accomplices. However, in April this year, after much persuasion, Justice Binta Murtala Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja, granted him bail on health grounds under stringent conditions which precluded him from being seen in a crowd exceeding ten persons, addressing media, travelling outside the country and ordered that monthly report about his health be made, etc., all of which he flouted. Presently, Nigeria’s Attorney General has applied to the court for the revocation of Kanu’s bail.

So powerful was Kanu that Igbo professors, politicians, businessmen and young people were falling over one another to run errands for him, defend him and stand near him for photograph. Since his release from detention in April, he had become a nightmare particularly for the South East governors and other politicians who have become desperate for audience with him as they showered him with money and gifts. Up to last Friday, the South East Governors Forum was on standby for talks with Kanu which the chap called off. Kanu relentlessly broadcasts on Radio Biafra that President Muhammadu Buhari is a paedophile, Hausa people are goats and Yoruba are cowards or bastards. All attempts to persuade him to discontinue the use of hate speech against other sub-national groups fell on deaf ears.

In May this year, IPOB demonstrated that it enjoyed huge following in the South East when it successfully convinced the people to shut down business in honour of those killed in the so called Nigeria-Biafra civil war. The call for sit-at-home was largely heeded in Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Imo states and partially so in Ebonyi as banks, markets, petrol stations, schools, etc. were closed. The sitat-home was a change of tactics by IPOB which said its cadres had been shot in previous face to face confrontations with the soldiers of the Nigerian Army.

Questions have been raised about how Kanu became such a popular figure among the Igbo and how his quest for Biafra has earned him leadership and such a large following. Nigerians are puzzled at how the Igbos who put premium on personal achievement are lining up behind Kanu’s leadership, when he has not distinguished himself as academician, professional or wealthy person or anything of that sort. Until his emergence as IPOB leader, Kanu was basically unknown. According to Wikipedia, Kanu first enrolled for studies at University of Nigeria, Nsukka, before he went to London Guildhall University where he obtained a degree in Political Economics.

Igbos are predominantly Christians, whereas Kanu claims that he is a Jew. All through his trial at the court, he wore Jewish prayer shawl and what appeared to be a skull cap. According to him, he believes in Judaism and is a Jew. So, why are these Igbo Christians blindly following a Jew?

One theory is that Kanu’s toxic rendition of the marginalisation of Igbos and the use of incendiary rhetoric to describe those he thinks are responsible for this state of affairs is sweet music to the ears of the many of his young listeners. For many Igbos, Biafra is also an emotive issue and having unbelievably lost it when they thought they were on the threshold of getting it, Kanu’s sound bites are re-assuring that it is still achievable. When this state of their mind is combined with the realities of Nigeria’s economic misfortune, characterised by unemployment, poverty and hopelessness, there is clear appeal that Biafra could provide an escape route for these Igbo youths.

Analysts are of the firm belief that for a long time, rather than outright secession, the IPOB has been the arrowhead and possible enforcer of the frustrated Igbo elite’s determined bid for the Nigerian Presidency in 2019 or 2023. So popular was IPOB that its activities and pronouncements really sent jitters through the spine of Igbo elders who pretended that any intervention by them would earn them the sobriquet Efulefu or black leg.