To Nnamdi Kanu – Seek First the Kingdom of Naija

If I ever go to a zoo, I would not behave like the late prophet Daniel of Ibadan zoo saga. I will also carefully avoid the mistakes of Nnamdi Kanu of Radio Biafraud. Decades ago, Daniel a prophet of a white garment church in Ibadan read the Bible literally and started hallucinating. He thought himself the reincarnation of the Biblical prophet Daniel cast into the lion’s den and rescued by God. What better place to proof his megalomania than at the Ibadan zoo. He scaled the barbed wire fence and jumped in. At first, the beast was taken aback, but the animal instinct kicked in as he approached the beast; he was mauled in the full glare of curious observers.
Megalomania imbues you with delusion of grandeur. Nnamdi Kanu is a megalomaniac. Like the proverbial bastard that points at his own father’s house with the left hand, he called the country of his birth a zoo, disparaged its leaders and had the temerity to tour the pride. If handlers (security agents) hadn’t gotten to him first, he could have been mauled by ravenous lions.  Now he roasts in detention, unable to find anyone crazy enough to put his or her worth as collateral for his freedom. Nothing attests to the fraud of his enterprise than that.
We all have our axe to grind about the way Naija has treated us all. We and our forebears gave it our all, but we are disappointed daily; from the almajirai in the north to the Omo oraisa or area boys in Lagos, to the unfortunate girls turned into baby factories in Enugu; from Bakassi and Egbesu boys of Onitsha and the Delta to the neglected lepers of Orji River colony, we are all victims. The Gbagyi, natural owners of the FCT have been unfairly cheated, they have no corporate say in governance, no political appointments and they are landless. The Gbagyi like the Ogoni could afford to throw bombs – but they do not, they want their bread buttered in a better Naija.
Our country fought a civil war and the gory pictures are visible in cyberspace, but the average Ibo, arguably the most itinerant, most industrious and most travelled and integrated have moved on; their enterprising spirit makes them tick. Their contributions to industrialization and rural health care are well acknowledged. They buy land, build homes, settle down, intermarry but never forget home. The events of 1968-1970 are a sore on our national psyche, we are yet to either come to terms with it or reconcile with it, but we can work at it.
From the age-grade of Kanu and his fellow agitators, they did not see war or the atrocities of war. Most of them have never left their villages and towns and are unaware that for every Ibo man at home, there are five outside working hard to make ends meet. If post-Biafra was an Eldorado, they possibly wouldn’t have left home at all. To these misguided youths, their elders should tell them that war is not a game on the computer screen- it costs lives, maims its victims for life, displaces people and sets people back decades or centuries.
We all have our axe to grind with Naija. We’ve all been unfairly treated and we all need freedom. We need freedom from the oppression of the political buccaneers holding our country hostage; from those who kidnap others for ransom; those who turn young girls into baby factories; from armed robbers. We need freedom from ritual murderers who believe that money spins from human body parts and not from hard work. We need freedom from the instinct that replaces greed for needs.
It’s a shame that elders have left Kanu to himself just like Kanuri elders did to Mohammed Yusuf and Shekau. Kanu found radio as a powerful medium. He should use it to ask questions such as how states collecting huge allocations from Abuja cannot control erosion. Why they drive in long convoys when salaries are unpaid. He should use his medium to demand accountability from elected leaders whose collective action or inaction helped underdevelop their states. He should query their patriotism.
Governors and elders are responsible for any breakdown of law and order within their domain. They should find work for the idle hands stoking the embers of ethnic violence. We have a nation and a constitution that is not perfect; older nations work at it. No nation is perfect, not even Britain that gave Kanu abode. These idle agitators should seek first the kingdom of Naija and its corporate peace and progress and every other thing would be added unto it; stoke the embers of war and ethnic hatred and you’ll be consumed by it. This resurgence is dead on arrival. None of the nationalities that bought or were sucked into the failed Biafran enterprise in 1967 want anything to do with it today. If things go down, you’re all on your own.