Like Nnamdi Kanu Like Hitler

It is no news that Nnamdi Kanu director of Radio Biafra and leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is the immediate cause of the present ethnic tension in Nigeria. Compliance with his sit at home directive to observe Biafra day was largely effective leading to investigations in the north and elsewhere about who he really is. Upon research and discovery of the man certain things become obvious and I will discuss them shortly.

His rise to prominence can be easily attributable to his operation of Radio Biafra in the United Kingdom and leadership of IPOB. Mr Kanu has been speaking passionately about Biafra and his style has been quite persuasive. Something is quite different about the way and manner he chooses to go about clamoring for the secession of Biafra. Kanu has at various times clamored for a violent end to Nigeria arguing that freedom is not granted but taken through force of arms. This approach landed him in prison where he was held without trial until his recent release.

His tactics has included describing Nigeria as a zoo. He often terms it the zoological republic of Nigeria. He then stokes the Igbo into believing their oppression is caused by the Hausa Fulani who are helped by the Yoruba. When a university educated man descends to speaking in this manner, people should get concerned. Yet it is not concern that greets Nnamdi Kanu but patronizing deification. He has been named Supreme Leader and since his release from Kuje prisons becoming a hero of sorts. So it becomes alarming that when a man like Kanu issues a sit at home order and it receives such compliance that there is truly a need to be worried.

When Kanu was in prison, I condemned the Buhari administration for keeping the man in jail especially without trial. I argued that his continued detention was only lending cause to his struggle. I had listened just once to him and felt he was passionate about a struggle that ought to change direction.  An old friend of mine with whom I went to school in Jos informed me that Nnamdi Kanu insults Christian clergy all the time and I had at the time disagreed with this friend. I told him that Kanu was only fighting to have Biafra and as such would not tow that line. I was wrong. I was uninformed. A woman I respect so much at a later date informed me that she had listened to him flagrantly insult a man of God and immediately ceased listening to him.

It did not stop me from continuing to insist that he be released. But I got shocked at the compliance of ndi Igbo to his sit at home directive and realized that his influence has grown so wide and unchecked all along. So I had to do an extensive study on the man as it is not right to hold an opinion of a man until you have first heard him enough.

Fortunately, Kanu has been speaking and a lot of that is on YouTube. His speech is often loaded with a lot of hate for Nigeria. He is obsessed with this hatred. One thing I have in common with other Biafrans he says is “deep hatred for Nigeria”. Severally he accuses the Hausa Fulani of several evils and then includes the Yorubas as being party to the ills bedeviling Biafrans.

His hate speech reminds me of Adolf Hitler. Hitler ultimately and ignorantly hated the Jews. He rose to national prominence by spewing hate against Jews and blaming them for the loss of WW1. Likewise Kanu blames Nigerians for the problems of Biafrans. Like Hitler before him, Kanu may be educated but largely ignorant.

Ignorant:

Ignorance is quite prevalent in his speeches. Misinformation in this day of the internet is quite easy to spot. It does not stop him from displaying this ignorance. For instance he argues that there is no country named after a river except Nigeria. This is not only a little demonstration of his ignorance it shows how unwilling to learn the man is. Congo, Jordan, Belize and India to name a few are countries named by other people after rivers. When the Igbos followed Ojukwu to the civil war, it was understandable that they had an educated and informed leader. It is quite the contrary today. An ignorant and uninformed man makes a directive and better educated people adhere. It is quite worrying.

Generalizations: 

One distinguishing factor between educated and uneducated people is caution with generalizations. Indeed any well educated person ought to carefully consider statements that are untested and unproven no matter how much persuasion he or she has come to see. This is not so with Nnamdi Kanu. In one broadcast, he insisted that Igbo ladies are all prostitutes. This is not only a dangerous and demeaning generalization but one that shows the shallowness of Mr Kanu’s soul. While they promptly removed that from their broadcast, they were not careful enough to hide his apology for the same. There are others but not enough space to bring them out. We cannot continue to generalize on all issues. It is a dangerous course of thought and action. Mark Twain once said “all generalizations are false, including this one.”

Insult and Mockery of Christianity:

Perhaps the most worrying issue about Nnamdi Kanu is his careless taunts and jabs at Christianity. He is entitled like we all to a freedom of religion but not a right to publicly assault Christianity, directly or impliedly. Speaking on one of his broadcasts, Kanu confronted the Christian faithful saying “Christianity is from Satan and Jesus is nonsense idol from white people, we’ve been worshipping that idol for many years, without knowing it.” Speaking at World Igbo Congress in California, he tactfully said you go to worship the son of God yet we Igbos have sons of God amongst us and bear it as names.

He insists that Biafra is his religion and that Christianity will fall. He publicly asked for pastor Kumuyi to be killed if he steps foot on Aba. He curses Christians insisting they will die. Not only does he attack Christianity, he attacks the Bible. He has said repeatedly that upon actualization of Biafra that people will not go to church on Sundays as they will only find pastors and rev fathers there. That people will worship only Chukwu Okike Abiama in Biafraland. Such is the nature of Nnamdi Kanu now deified as the freedom fighter of Biafra.

Violent:

At the World Igbo Congress, Kanu likened himself to Golda Meir and demanded for financial support to purchase arms and bullets. “The killing of people to bring the disintegration of Nigeria shouldn't come to anybody as a surprise” he said as speaking as a guest on Sahara TV, Kanu said he supported Biafra’s actualization by peaceful or violent means but went further to insist that he has never seen countries that separate by peaceful means.

Hypocrisy:

While Kanu condemns terror like any right thinking person, he is quick to ask that Biafrans in the police and army kill their commanding officers. He also welcomed an act of terror by a Zionist Movement in Enugu saying that any act leading to the disintegration of the zoo called Nigeria is welcome. 

This material is already long enough. I have not provided any particular reference as necessary. I have personally found all of these materials in audio clips on Youtube. Anyone who disagrees with my conclusions should do his own study.

While Kanu reminds anyone with a sense of history that he is like Hitler in speech and conduct, anyone with sense should also realize that Adolf Hitler eventually led Germany to World War II and brought about the ruins of that nation.

Compare Ojukwu’s struggle with Kanu’s. Ojukwu did not champion a hate campaign against the other Nigerian ethnic groups. Upon his return from exile, Ikemba Nnewi did what a statesman does, he urged his people back into mainstream politics. Ojukwu until his death remained committed principles and an ideology of equality and justice. Nnamdi Kanu is another thing altogether. Hear Ojukwu’s own words:

“I am a Nigerian. But I am also an Igbo. It is my being Igbo that guarantees my Nigerianness as long as I live. Consequently, my Nigerianness shall not be at the expense of my Igboness. The Nigerian nation must therefore work for all ethnic nationalities in Nigeria.” That should be the correct struggle of any reasonable and well-meaning Igbo and not for a separate nation. Kanu cannot possibly compare in terms of blood or effort the price Ojukwu and his compatriots paid at the civil war, yet that was Ojukwu’s summary just a few years before he passed on.

Onye Nkuzi on Twitter has this to say about Nnamdi Kanu:

I heard Nnamdi Kanu talking. He is a man with passion; But I am sorry, not a man a rational person can follow on a journey.

Let ndi Igbo be wary about following this man.We cannot support a man who brings us ill will for an agenda that serves us little good. Some Christian men of God in the south east have joined his call for a violent break up of Nigeria. This is sad. Like a man once said to Kanu at the World Igbo Congress, "...a change of name will not change who we are." Nnamdi Kanu does not represent the entire ndi Igbo nor does he become the voice of ndi Igbo. He acts for himself.

God bless the reader. God bless Ndi Igbo. God bless all ethnic groups in Nigeria. God bless Nigeria.