By Comr Amos Kalu (AFK)

When I listened to Radio Biafra for the first time, I had a lot of misgivings and apprehension about the methods of IPOB Radio Director – Nnamdi Kanu, as a result of his use of strong words. He has this style of arrogance and an air of rooted animosity that seems to be coming from a man that has a total hatred in him. I loathed all these and decided never to listen again.

But what surprised me is that after the first day, notwithstanding my misgivings and disapproval of his methods, I found it difficult to stop trying to listen again the next day. One may be surprised to believe that after disapproving of his approach on first contact, I still decided to listen again. The answer is simple. I learned some heartbreaking stack naked truth behind those strong words, some of which I already knew but couldn’t believe that nobody was speaking about them. I continued to tune in daily to learn more truth until it became a passion, I got addicted to listening because everything I heard was the truth. And what made this man very special is that he told the truth, no matter whose ass is gored. In his words “We will remain resolute before our enemies, whiter than white and whiter than snow”. I love learning, and I guard my mind well enough to avoid indoctrination or undue influence over my mind, but I love the truth.

People began to congregate, a day without hearing Nnamdi Kanu’s voice became like a wasted day, if Radio Biafra goes off air for a day; people will go sick for a week. That alone made a strong case for the power of truth.

I will not say all the truth I learnt about Nigeria here, but I will suffice all to say that I learnt the irreducible fact that TRUTH is the only price to set people FREE as expounded in the Holy Book – Bible (You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free)

I learnt that it is fallacy for foreign people to be telling Africans that all we need to move forward is good leaders. Nnamdi Kanu argued that no leader is good, but the law compels them to act good even against their choices because they are not trying to be in conformity with law out of their own goodness, but out of the fear of the wrath of breaking those laws. That is why the interest of everybody in civilized worlds is protected irrespective of race, gender and creed. But in Africa, mostly Nigeria, the law is made for just a select few, and the poor masses.

I know many will wonder today why Nnamdi Kanu has within the shortest time on Radio turned the mind of the oppressed Biafrans into strong followership, even when people like Uwazurike, Tompolo, Dokubo etc has tried and failed over the years. The answer is simple – He spoke the truth and remained resolute even at the point of possible death. He refused to succumb when others failed through compromise of accepting money and little comfort in lieu of what they believed to be fighting for.

To further buttress the irreducible power of truth, which is of course my main reason for writing this piece. I witnessed first hand, the protest in Aba today the 9^th Day of November 2015. I experienced that for the first time in Aba after the 1929 women riot, Aba was shut down and at a standstill. Nigeria had always counted and bet on the fact that the Igbos are too serious with their Business to close their shops for a whole day. It worked for them over the years until Nnamdi Kanu came on Radio Biafra and told them that the mentality of “Buying and Selling” was sold to them to continually hold them in perpetuity and oppression. At first it seemed it didn’t work when a youth was shot dead in Ariaria by a trigger-happy Hausa Policeman but Aba refused to heed the call by Nnamdi Kanu to shut their shop for a day. He continued to hammer on the truth until he was arrested. The TRUTH began to dawn on Biafrans. I have seen a full stadium in a football match, but I haven’t seen a crowd like the one I saw today, a multitude. I see no need to give it a number so that it will not seem as if I am trying to justify my point. But the funny thing is that these lies that has kept Nigeria backwards and undeveloped for over 55years has become part of their DNA that even when the truth is staring them in the face, they still prefer the lies.

It speaks volumes to learn that a group of people has turned up in millions all over the South East and South-South to protest the detention of one man, yet Nigeria Media like National Dailies and TV Stations (NTA in particular) has refused to air it or write about it even for a day. That tells you all you need to know.

A ZOO?

The next pressing and burning issue is the incessant habit of Nnamdi Kanu calling Nigeria a Zoo. The big question is – IS NIGERIA ACTING LIKE A ZOO? In Igbo tradition, when a fellow man calls you a bastard, you may pick a fight. But the wisest thing to do is always going back home to ask your mother “Who is my father?”

A zoo in my definition is a man-made habitat where the animals are kept to give them false comfort of still living in their natural habitat. Most times it is either to keep them from extinction and/or to use them as a tourist site for the purpose of satisfying a man.

In the case of Nigeria, the only thing that makes us different from Zoo in the natural sense is that we walk on two legs, eat cooked food and wear cloths. Besides that, one can clearly observe the similarities that make a zoo what it is. Therefore I see his term as a metaphor. Examples.

• Nigeria is the only country that has sold oil for over 30 years and still have up to 80% living as paupers.
• Nigeria is the country where a politician can steal a total allocation of a State and go scotch free.
• Where there are 4 international standard refineries  but they still import petrol products because few men benefits from the process.
• The country where past leaders have working private refineries but the country lack one.
• Where the state of hospitals are in shamble, no medical treatment because the few rich people can fly abroad to treat themselves.
• Where a politician can be brought to court with 50 count charges and go free if he can give the right percentage of the loot to equally corrupt judges.
• Where a man said that he will soak monkeys and Baboons in blood if he loses an election and went ahead to do it by killing innocent Nigerians in the North and still became the president.
• Where a man says that an attack on Boko Haram, “a group of terrorists” is an attack on the North and still rose to lead same country without educational qualification as prescribed by the constitution of Nigeria.
• Where they are two laws of Sharia in the North and Circular in one country of much ethnic, religious and cultural diversity.
• A country where only people from a particular part of the country (Biafra) are adjourned corrupt in office whereas their counterparts from the North and West do worse looting and nobody even mention it.
• A country where admission into universities is based on the State you come from.
• A country where over 3million innocent people were starved to death for asking to be free in1967, and to date the matter is still being swept under the carpet.
• A country where a supposed head of anti-crime fighting body stole all the money in the EFCC treasury and goes free because he is from the Northern extract.
• A country where people are clamped into prison for mentioning Biafra or running a violent free protest, whereas people from the North kill at will in the name of Islam and go scotch free.
• A place where you must denounce being a Biafran before you can get a federal contract like Sunday Oliseh did to become Super Eagle’s coach.
• A country where people like IBB, OBJ and Buhari still boast about committing war crimes and still walk free and detect the fate of the country.
• A place where a particular part of the same country does not have right to build any industry to make sure they are never self-reliant.
• Where coal mining was banned to make sure the particular area of Biafra become unproductive.
• A place where you are told that your brothers are your enemies whereas the people saying it are the ones killing you.
• Where Cattle headers are free to carry AK47 around and have every right to kill, encroach on your land to feed their cattle even if it means grazing down your cash crops.
• A place where the word of a president if above the order of the Supreme court on the right of citizens.
• No good roads, No clean drinking water, No infrastructure, No good hospitals, No employment, No good education. But one of the highest world oil producing countries with two houses of law makers whose salaries is 4 times higher than that of the America’s president and yet they have nothing to show for it.
• Where a particular group of people has been forced to abandon their land to foreign countries because surviving in Biafra has become a crime.
• Where you drill oil from a particular region (Biafra) and use the proceeds to enrich and develop the North, leaving the area producing the oil to lay waste in use through environmental degradation, poverty, oppression and neglect.
• A country where people are arrested and locked up for listening to Radio Biafra or having the App on their phone.
• Where a man was discharged by the court for committing no crime but remained held by DSS for exercising his human right to freedom of choice and association.

With all these stated above, one wonders why Nigeria was made to satisfy the interest of another.

What was in Buhari’s mind when he called Nigerians “Monkeys and Baboon?”

What more do I need to count? Nigeria has blinded and blanketed people in lies for long. Now people has heard the truth and seen the lies. I don’t think it is going to be possible to continue to hold them. What we need to do is to do the needful. FREEDOM. Educated people are easy to lead but difficult to drive. They had drove Biafrans in the time of their ignorance, now that Nnamdi Kanu has given them education in truth. Free them.

Ijaws, Ibibios, Ikweres, Izons, Idomas, Igalas, Ibos, Effik, Urhobos, etc have learned that they were never enemies with their brothers but were only told so and has decided to reunite. Which power can stop the spirit of resolve and ideology? The time to be wise is now before the inferno consumes all that breath in Nigeria. LET NIGERIA GO BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD AND RIGHT THEIR WRONGS.