When I wrote five months ago that, unless the South East wises up and fights the monster growing in the area, the region would end up becoming IPOB’s biggest victim, I had no doubt that it would come to pass. But did not think it would be so swift. I compared IPOB’s escalating violence to early Boko Haram and urged Igbo leaders to not be as complacent as the North East had been, lest they see their region as devastated as our own region had become. I warned that if IPOB attacks continue to escalate, the group would become indiscriminate, and the soft targets of Igbo civilians and the economy of the region would be destroyed by separatist atrocities and government countermeasures.
As I wrote in April, IPOB was attacking security forces, destroying electoral offices and election materials, and targeting northerners living in the South East. Seeing that IPOB was sparing them, a vocal number of Igbos cheered them on social media. When some of us flagged to them that this beast that they were cheering would turn back on them like Boko Haram devastated the Kanuri, we were told that an Igbo man would never kill or harm his fellow tribesman and that a Boko Haram in the South East is simply impossible. The last two months have shown that complacency to be wrong, naïve and dangerous.
It started with a so-called “sit-at-home’’ order by which IPOB forbade working on Mondays anywhere in the five South Eastern states: Imo, Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi and Abia. Banks, businesses, shops and restaurants, churches, schools, and recreation centres were told to stay closed. Manual labourers, usually only paid for the days they work, such as bricklayers, plumbers, drivers and carpenters have no choice but to remain home for four Mondays every month. While the impact on businesses translates to a loss of billions of naira per week, the effect on poor families that live hand to mouth is one of survival. By one estimate, the South East lost N50 billion in the four lockdowns last month. For daily wagers, it means a day every single week without food on the table for no fault of their own.
Cities, towns and villages remain closed not out of solidarity with IPOB, but out of fear. People cannot refuse to obey, as those who defied the group are met with IPOB’s wrath. They are harmed and their businesses, vehicles or their possessions burnt. A truck owned and operated by an Igbo man, fully loaded with motorcycles and spare parts worth millions of naira was torched two weeks ago by IPOB operatives for allegedly refusing to obey that Monday’s sit-at-home order. So much for not harming fellow tribesmen.
But there were two sit-at-home orders last week, something that is now declared at the least opportunity. The group announced that it was locking down the region in protest at Buhari’s visit to Imo state. Despite the threat, Buhari went on to complete what appeared to be a successful visit.
The dumbest attack came last Monday when gunmen reported to be IPOB militants attacked a secondary school in Imo State while final-year students were writing their West African School Certificate Examination for English Language. The group’s enforcers stopped the exercise, forced the students and their teachers out of the school and burnt eight vehicles belonging to teachers and invigilators. The affected students may have to wait a full year to retake this paper. Clearly it is not only Boko Haram that is opposed to Nigerians getting a good education. Shekau must be saluting in the direction of Nnamdi Kanu’s prison room from his grave.
But it is not just economic or educational warfare – both of them serious enough in their harm to the Igbo people. IPOB committed its most heinous crime yet on the people of the South East a day after the school attack when it killed an Anglican priest, who was himself Igbo, and burnt his car. Rev. Emeka Merenu’s ‘crime’ was to have sought military protection to secure his church and secondary school so that students can get on with their education. The group is reported to have disrupted several other schools that opened to continue their examinations.
The group’s latest threat is to stop the gubernatorial election in Anambra State, due to be held on November 6, vowing that no election will take place in the entire South-East. Earlier this week, IPOB invaded and dispersed a political meeting in Enugu West Senatorial District, declaring in video footage that “We’ve stopped political campaign in this land. We don’t want anybody coming out for anything campaign. There will be no election in this country anymore”. Who knows their plan? Do they want south eastern states to stay without governors and legislatures? Or would they prefer leaders appointed in Abuja? Since IPOB claims to have the support the majority of the ordinary Igbos, why doesn’t it field candidates for the elections and get their supporters to vote for them.
IPOB’s strategy is illogical. It intends that by killing fellow Igbos and destroying their livelihoods, pressure will grow on President Buhari to release its leader. But the group also claims that Buhari hates Igbos with every fibre of his being. So IPOB is killing Igbos to pressure someone who they claim wants Igbos to suffer!
Of course, the South East has now started screaming. Influential figures are now condemning IPOB in the harshest language possible, with some likening it to Boko Haram. South East governors, senators and other politicians have started speaking up and mobilising their constituents to defy IPOB.
Seeing the backlash, IPOB is in damage control mode. It has rescinded the Monday sit-at-home order except on days its leader will appear in court. It doesn’t care if the people it claims to be fighting for lose over N12 billion each time. It has also said it would replace the property it destroyed; I will believe that only when I see it. But how can they replace the examinations they prevented, or the lives they took? IPOB’s colours are becoming clearer by the day. It does not exist to liberate Igbos, but to worship the ego of a deranged narcissist. Only a narcissist could claim that a murder was for the benefit the victim, if only the victim was clever enough to realise.
Even as the IPOB terrorism is growing, some politicians are still trying to curry favour with the group. A case in point is Peter Obi, the vice-presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in the last election. He condemned the invasion of examination centres, but claimed that IPOB couldn’t have been the culprit since the group has suspended its illegal order. Instead, Obi – the newly self-appointed IPOB spokesperson – suggested that “other forces might be hiding behind IPOB to draw back the South-East”. Those still equivocating about the threat IPOB now know full well what they are backing: the destruction of their people and their region. IPOB will not bring any good to Nigeria or the Igbo people. Anyone who seeks to defend them should be considered an accomplice to their crimes, and has no place in Nigeria’s public life.
