Source: http://www.chenkeleb.com/2017/06/the-leader-denounces-killings-and-rapes.html

The prison has not started his fight in Nigeria. She rather gave a name to the young Biafran independence leader Nnamdi Kanu, long unrecognized. And propelled him to the front of the political scene.

The slow pace, he advances in the family courtyard of his hometown, Umuahia (southeast of Nigeria), acclaimed as a "savior" by a crowd of supporters in red-black-green colors of the Biafran flag. He put on the tinsels of a traditional chief.

"I am more determined than ever," the leader of the independence movement for indigenous peoples of Biafra (Ipob), released on bail late April after 10 months behind bars, told AFP.

Still under accusations of "betrayal", he seems to have no use whatsoever of the conditions imposed on him by the courts: a formal ban on speaking to the press and participating in rallies of more than 10 people.
There is no need for him to remain silent as the key date approaches: the fiftieth anniversary of the proclamation of the independence of Biafra, a disinherited region in southeastern Nigeria that was the scene of a bloody civil war between 1967 and 1970.

His goal ? The "civil disobedience" until the organization of a referendum of self-determination for the region. It calls for the "absolute boycott" of all elections.

After the death of more than a million people and the failure of a rebellion, Biafra had finally reintegrated into Nigeria, an ethnic and religious mosaic of nearly 200 million people regularly shaken by tensions intercommunal.

But in igbo territory, the dream of independence never really dissipated, fueled by the feeling of abandonment of Nigerian power.

In turn, veterans and young activists rush to listen to the speaker talents of the 40-year-old with round glasses that has revived the cause. In the living room where he receives, a life-size painting covering a whole wall represents the prodigal son in a martial posture.

The leader denounces the "killings" and "rape" of Igbos by the security forces, the "deliberate policy" led by Muslim President Muhammadu Buhari "to impoverish" his people.

His childhood spent in Umuahia, former capital of the independent Biafra, a few meters from the former bunker of the Biafran armed forces, is undoubtedly not foreign to its political commitment.

He was barely born during the war - he refuses to give his age - but the elder of a sibling of five children is lulled very young by the stories of his father, who logistically supported the resistance.

Lost Tribe of Israel

Unknown to most Nigerians two years ago, the independence activist for a long time launched his virulent diatribes against central government from London, where he settled at the end of his studies, and created the pirate station Radio Biafra in 2009.

He worked in real estate and worked at night on his radio. He joined for a time another independence group, the Movement for the realization of the sovereign State of Biafra (Massob), which he will slam the door to found the Ipob in 2013.

Kanu crosses the red line when he calls openly to take up arms two years later at the Igbo World Congress in Los Angeles: "We need weapons and we need bullets (...) If we do not get Not (the creation of) Biafra, everyone will have to die ".

He was arrested at his hotel in October 2015, during a visit to Nigeria.

The arrest was "inappropriate and unjustified," said Nigerian political scientist and academic Fred Anibeze. "He used the cause of Biafra to make easy publicity through the broadcast of Radio Biafra and it reinforced the demigod that it has become since its release," he told AFP.

His incarceration provokes the anger of the Igbos and several manifestations organized to demand his liberation turn to the bloodbath.

According to Amnesty International, Nigerian security forces killed "at least 150 members and supporters of the pro-Biafra Ipob organization" in 2016, which Abuja denies en bloc.

Kanu embodies "the aspirations of a new generation more militant, more radical" than its elders who have already known the war, assures Don Okereke, security analyst. "He tells people exactly what they want to hear."

If it is difficult to know precisely its capacity of mobilization in the south-east of the country, its faithful devote almost a cult to its person since its exit. It must be said that Kanu maintains the legend, permanently protected by an impressive security service, which thoroughly searches each of its visitors.

Religion is omnipresent in the discourses of the one who now wears talit (the Jewish veil) and observes the Shabbat. Everything started from a "revealing vision" during a trip to Jerusalem: the Igbo - the vast majority of whom are Christians - actually descend from a lost tribe of Israel.

Biafra is the "promised land" which it has set itself the task of re-establishing. And at the Ipob, we wear the kippa.

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