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| Nnamdi Kanu |
Tony Blair, a very pragmatic former British prime minister will be forever remembered as a man who lied his country into Iraq war.
A fruitless war which did not only amount to waste of human and material resources but also contributed to the partial collapse of Iraqi state.
Tony Blair, who convinced himself with unjustified certainty that late Iraqโs president, Saddam Hussein, had weapons of mass destruction when intelligence reports had not established beyond doubt that they truly existed.
On the 18th of March, 2003, Blair dribbled and persuaded the House of Commons to give the go ahead for military action against Iraq when at the time of the parliamentary vote, diplomatic options had not been exhausted. Blair’s actions perhaps, gave keen observers the clear impression that military action on Iraq was simply premised on flawed intelligence, assessments and ulterior motive.
Since the end of the war, Iraq is still scrambling to recover from the agonies Bush and Blair left behind. The both leaders, out of ego and propaganda prosecuted one of the most ominous war that almost compromised the entire security formation of the Middle east. The effects of the war in Iraq are much more pronounced till date as the security forces in the country are continually engaged in an endless fight with ISIS and other terror groups.
The mendacious disposition of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB who is presently in exile has made him another Tony Blair. Hence, the only difference between the two convoluted characters is that while Blair obviously went to war in Iraq and eliminated his target (Saddam Hussein), Nnamdi Kanu stupendously staged a war he was beaten thoroughly and chased out of his fathers compound to a foreign land like a petty noise maker. Blair had enormous military hardwares and allies that made his mission very easier but Nnamdi Kanu, fronted his franchise radio, lumped with abusive followers as his own weapon of warfare. I’m yet to understand what typically convinced Kanu that a radio and assembling of uncoordinated multitude of followers will suddenly restore his utopia Biafra.
Apparently, Kanu is really good at lying people away from their businesses and homes in other to wage a war they are absolutely inadequate to prosecute. Giving false hope over things that doesn’t exist has become a huge market strategy for Kanu and his friends. A congregation of people that brags up and down without having an ordinary banger knockout or a scary diplomatic teeth to bite their opponents to a standstill.
Kanu Created Unnecessary War Fronts
Nnamdi Kanu over time lost focus, land crashed and started opening a lot of unnecessary war fronts through his flippant tongue. His last flippancy resulted to a brutal military operation in the Southeast. Let’s briefly look at some of the ways Kanu created unnecessary war fronts. First, after he was released from the prison, instead of concentrating on the main target, he veered out of control and started a different mission altogether. Kanu in the open told his audience that visited his Afaraukwu home that, if the government of Buhari should make the attempt of re-arresting him again, the officers who will orchestrate his arrest will not go back home alive. That was a provocative challenge. Similarly, he also announced to his followers at Elu Ohafia that in his next court case, he will travel to Abuja and return home with the head of Buhari as a gift. Millions of us were rattled by his bold and open confrontation.
Unfortunately, when the real fight was brought to Kanu’s door step, he was beaten mercilessly and chased away to lick his wound in exile. The same man he threatened to return fire and thunder gave him a devastating uppercut that squeezed his empty vituperations into pieces. His opponent thought him a bitter lesson that wars are not fought and won with bare hands or through radio jamboree but by strategic military assaults.
However, Nnamdi Kanu lied to his emotional unstable audience into believing that men were on the ground to address any eventuality. He was screaming on his business radio that “guns and bullets should be given to him”. But when the opportunity was presented to Kanu to unleashe his much touted men against the so called zoo, the whole story line nosedived. People were arrested, killed and imprisoned. It became glaringly obvious to everyone that Kanu’s words were ordinary radio gossip and showmanship. Nothing was on the ground for the people to hold on. IPOB leader finally crowned himself as a man who lied his people into a battlefield unprepared.
Consequently, Kanu’s mantra has changed from, “we have men on the ground” to, “run to Twitter, twitt and put the world on notice that the Nigerian government is killing us”. What a lost battle! When will IPOB leader talk less and pull more actions? Biafrans are sick and tired of too much talk. We are tired of abuses, insults, gossips, showmanship, blackmail, threats, elephant promises and pitting ethnic groups against each other. When will the zoo fall permanently and never to rise again? If indeed the zoo has fallen, what are we still doing here? At least, we should have been building our own nation if the zoo has truly crumbled.
Please, let’s learn how to blab less and pull more profitable actions. We need justice in Nigeria because we have been cheated and treated unfairly.
Kalu Nwokoro Idika is a political analyst, investigative and freelance journalist
