retotuw990:
seriously

naijachix:
Alot of friends have sought my opinion on the ongoing IPOB/ Nigerian Army faceoff, i found this on whatsapp with no attribution. Most of the points raised here reflect my views about the ongoing South east crisis:

My #ThereIsABetterWay tag is primarily directed at the government. There is a reason why a decent society frowns at rape, domestic violence and child abuse. The common denominator here is the ABUSE OF POWER.

When any of the earlier referenced vices occur, a civilized judiciary demands restraint and responsibility, not on the victim, but on the powerful. It is a weak defense in court to insist that I raped a woman because she wouldn’t stop flirting sensually in front of me. Neither would a decent world understand it that I pummeled my wife to death because she said things to me that I disliked. Even a disobedient child is never killed by his parents simply for being naughty.

The hallmark of civilizational progress is RESTRAINT ON POWER. Freedom, in all its variants, cannot thrive when power over life and property is exercised at the discretion of the powerful. Even the bible demands an instinct and disposition from us, such that protects the weak relative to the strong. The so-called provocations of the weak are secondary because the powerful are generally less vulnerable.

The images of Tiananmen Square protests and the Arab Spring shook the world because unarmed men stood up to armored tanks. We Nigerians cheered them and tagged them courageous (and indeed they were), but when the scene is swapped for South Eastern Nigeria, and the youths are IPOB – it becomes PROVOCATION.

How do we cope emotionally with the pictures of boys wielding stones, in front of armored tanks that have invaded civilian spaces? Not in a military barracks BUT IN A VILLAGE, in a zone which the United Nations report of this year considers the ‘most peaceful region in Nigeria’. But somehow, we deduce some valid justification for it.

Remember that in the issues of life, details are subordinate to PRINCIPLES. We can get lost in the details, which always have multiple sides to it. But principles are constant and consistent. And the principle to which I appeal is that which undergirds civilization – placing the burden of restraint on the powerful and not the weak.

That is why I place the responsibility on the government to de-escalate the situation.

But a look at some of the details still discounts the moral claims against IPOB. To the best of my knowledge (howbeit, limited), IPOB is demanding a referendum. A referendum is a civilized and democratic practice the world over in resolving thorny constitutional issues that a parliament is not equipped to.

It has been used in Nigeria in 1961 to determine the fate of Southern Cameroon. It has been used in the UK, Europe etc. How this call translates to a call for war or ‘beating the drums of war’ cannot stand in any court of law.

The video where Kanu was soliciting for arms has been explained as self defense for communities vulnerable to the Fulani Herdsmen attacks in the East. No matter what you and I may think of the explanation, the law demands that we must wait for the courts to tell us what it thinks of it. Not even the Army can usurp that role from the courts.

Terminologies aside, the Biafran Secret Service (or whatever fancy name) cannot be treated differently from any other vigilante group in the country for two reasons – 1. That the army has been unable to prove that the so-called Biafran security service is armed, in spite of the massive military and intelligence gathering apparatus at the disposal of the military. 2. The declared mission of the BSS being to provide security information about the operations of herdsmen in the east.

Bakassi boys, OPC and our Niger Delta militants were never deemed existential threats to the nation, despite common knowledge that they were armed. The Herdsmen have conducted slow-motion genocide across the nation, but they get are cattle protection unit in the military. Arewa declares a genocidal threat against an entire nation of people, and they cant be touched.

But BSS/IPOB is different, why? They are demanding a referendum. Don’t we feel intellectually conflicted when we think this is a legitimate reaction from the government? I do.

That Nnamdi Kanu uses rhetoric that you and I do not like is constitutionally meaningless to the equation. The constitution guarantees him right to call Nigeria a Zoo or whatever. It is his opinion, and he is entitled to it. And if he breaches the constitution, the courts will decide. A wise man once said ‘I may not like what you have to say, but I will defend with my life your right to say it.’

Nigeria and Nigerians have reached a cross-road on our journey of progress. Our basic assumptions about who we are, is being tested. We mouth progress and think ourselves democratic, even on paper. Now that claim is being tested and we must decide whether to retreat to the darkness of the Middle Ages (where we have dwelled for long), or take a leap into the 21st century.

When I see Nigerian youths baying for the blood of unarmed youths taking a stand for what they believe in, against a fully armed military unit, I CRINGE. Can there be any valid reason where a trained soldier can pull the trigger on a boy whose only weapon is a stone and the words ‘Give me Biafra or death!’

Have we lost our moral compass? Are there no longer absolutes in life? After all these, would I still want to share a nation with those who think it valid to bring ‘a gun to an ideological fight’ (as Kingsley Nwabugwu would put it), against an opponent whose only weapon is his opinion and vocal cord.

And concerning the comparison of BH and IPOB, Nigerians take solace in the inherently non-violent disposition of the Igbo man and IPOB. This is partly due to the peaceful demands of the Christian faith which holds sway in the region.

But this overlooks the religious slant of IPOB, and its Zionist inclinations. It would be a grave miscalculation to assume that provocation can go on forever against a group who believe in their mandate being God-given. It doesn’t take much to theologically justify armed resistance against an oppressor. History affirms this.

The Nigerian government must do more to de-escalate the situation by engaging with IPOB ideologically. Go to the polls and test their popularity. If you win, the agitations die forever. If you lose, you peacefully re-jig the African narrative forever.

Win-Win!

Courtesy: Pius Okoroafor