Onaiyekan to FG: You’re wrong on Nnamdi Kanu, Igboho
■ Archbishop Emeritus says government’s accusation against Biafra, Yoruba secessionist agitators can’t be compared with Boko Haram, bandits, Fulani herdsmen havoc ■ Claims large number of Nigerians do not see Kanu, Igboho as criminals
1st August 2021 in Cover, Features


From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja

The Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, has told the Federal Government that the duo of Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Adeyemo also known as Sunday Igboho, have a justifiable case as far as their calls for secession are concerned.

Kanu, the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was brought back to the country by the government in continuation of his trial, while Igboho who is leading the call for the secessionist agitation of the Yoruba nation, is currently undergoing trial in the Republic of Benin after he was arrested in the country while trying to flee to Germany.



But speaking with Sunday Sun in his Domus Pacis, Abuja residence, Onaiyekan, a former President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), said that the government’s accusation against Igboho and Kanu can hardly be compared to what the country has been suffering from the activities of Boko Haram, bandits, and Fulani herdsmen that are destabilising the security of the nation.

Onaiyekan maintained that the large number of Nigerians do not see the Biafra and Yoruba secessionist agitators as criminals, saying it is up to the National Assembly to kick-start impeachment moves against President Muhammadu Buhari.

Your Eminence, the nation is awash with the trial of Nnamdi Kanu, and Sunday Igboho, who is also on trial in Benin Republic. What do you make of these two scenarios?



Well, it is good you have put the two together – Sunday Igboho, who claims to be fighting for the defence, liberation of the Yoruba people against clear enemies, those whom he says have been harassing Yoruba people in the famous herdsmen-farmers killing, raping. And that complaint has been going on, not only in Yoruba land, but also very strongly felt in Southern Kaduna, in Plateau, in Benue and to some extent, even in our Kogi State. Although our people are not making as much noise, but I do know that my people complain that they can no longer go to farm. So, it is a general crisis. We are hearing, of course, even in the far North, the same problem. At least, in the Northeast, we already knew the exploits of Boko Haram. People have almost forgotten how to farm there, probably taken for granted now that nothing will happen there. But worst still is Northwest and North-central, places that are really farmlands, farming peoples, who are now unable to. So, you could say that what is happening in Yoruba land is not only a problem of the Yoruba people. It is a national problem. But somebody has taken it up on that level. You can say the same thing too with Kanu and his reference to Biafra. He was not the first to invoke the memories of the ideals and ideas of an independent country outside of Nigeria, secession, which led to a civil war then. Before him, there was MASSOB and after him, there is this IPOB. One could say that just as the herder-farmers problem is a national issue which Igboho has taken up very, very strongly in respect of his own people, so also, the things that Kanu, IPOB and before him, MASSOB are all complaining about, was a Nigeria that is not working well for them. But the issue is that the problem they are complaining about is also a national problem. There are few Nigerians who feel that the country is doing very well the way it is. Maybe there are some people, maybe especially now, those who are having a good time and who think the country has never been as good as they have been under Buhari because Buhari is treating them very, very well. But anybody looking at the situation in Nigeria dispassionately in terms of security, in terms of employment, in terms of economic development and so on, will all agree that we have a problem. So, what I am trying to say is that IPOB, Kanu or anybody else, they really have a case, a case we can say that what we are now having as Nigeria, they can find it no longer acceptable. Now, if you don’t find Nigeria as it is acceptable, you have two options, either sit here and fight and make it acceptable or decide that you want to opt out. Both Igboho and Kanu are saying they want to opt out. Our government should know that these people are not seen as criminals by a large number of Nigerians. And here, the ethnic aspect comes in. Kanu and co claim to be fighting for the rights of the Igbo people. We are not sure where the boundaries of these Igbo people are, which is one of the major problems. But still, there are a good number of Igbo people, especially many young Igbo, who see in Kanu, a visionary with a clear agenda. And there are two categories of Igbo that show very much interest and agreement with Kanu, a lot of young elements like Kanu himself who did not see the civil war, who did not see the first, original Biafra. Also, is the fact that Kanu made a lot of impact in the Diaspora. And there is a large Igbo Diaspora, not only Diaspora within Nigeria, that is Igbo living outside of Igbo land all over Nigeria and who resonate with Kanu’s idea, rhetoric that the Igbo man is not getting his proper due and right in Nigeria and that they have given up on Nigeria. In the case of Kanu, the leaders, elders of Igbo land, we have not seen them massively supporting Kanu. We are waiting. Here, when you look at Igboho’s case, there is a kind of linkage, it seems, between Igboho and the Afenifere and the elders there, even as far as the major traditional rulers in many places and now, even the governors are asking questions. So, when we look at these two and then, we look at the other problems of Nigeria, look at Boko Haram and the havoc they have caused and look at the other kinds of attack on the security of Nigeria from other groups in the North, some call them bandits, some call them Fulani herdsmen or terrorists. The only difference is that in the North, apart from Boko Haram that has a clear form of identity with leaders that change so often (and right now, we don’t know who their leader is), but for the group called bandits, we don’t see any leadership. And the Fulani herdsmen, the position of the Miyetti Allah is still not so clear. Whatever we say, many tend to want to agree with other Nigerians that whatever you might accuse Igboho and Kanu of doing against Nigeria, is hardly to be compared to what Nigeria has been suffering from these other elements that are destabilising the security of the nation. This is only looking at the things at the surface and the issue then becomes, where is government in all of this? It will appear that in respect of IPOB and Igboho, the government has acted in the way we expect government to act vigorously, decisively and so on. And the same government, we don’t see acting in the same way in respect of others we are talking about. That they cannot, they are doing their best, is not enough, which is what makes the thing very, very sad. These two, it is all destabilising the coherence of the nation. That Nigeria has a problem is one thing; but the biggest problem Nigeria can have is when we cannot join together to face our problem because when we are together, there is no problem in our hands that we cannot resolve. And I think this is for me, what I believe is the greatest service that the Buhari regime or Buhari himself has caused to this nation, namely, he has taken actions and inactions that have not helped to bring the nation together, but has rather polarised the nation.





https://www.sunnewsonline.com/onaiyekan-to-fg-youre-wrong-on-nnamdi-kanu-igboho/

95 of Nigerians see them as agitators resulting from buhari's nepotism, bigotry and tribalism.
Buhari is the most divisive president in the history of Nigeria.