File Photo: Pro-Biafra group
The current polarization of Nigerians between what could be safely
regarded as the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat according to Marxist
methodology could be better understood when studying Claude Ake's work
titled “A Political Economy of Africa”.
The highly respected Nigerian political scientist from Columbia
University in the U.S argues robustly that in the explanation of social
life, primacy must be given to material conditions particularly economic
factors because economic need is man's fundamental need. He postulates
that in order to understand the culture of a society and other aspects,
one must understand the material, the assets and constraints of a
society.
He made two major valid arguments which I find applicable to the Nigerian society as seen below:
1. Those from the economically privileged group
tend to be better educated, more cultured to have higher social status,
to be more successful professionally and politically. This means that
economic inequality is extremely important, tending to reproduce itself
endlessly in a series of other inequalities.
2. Those who are economically privileged tend to
preserve the existing social order; and those who are disadvantaged by
the social order, particularly its distribution of wealth, have a strong
interest in changing the social order, particularly its distribution of
wealth. In this way, the economic structure sets the general trend of
political interest and political alignments.
This last paragraph above vividly explains the present political
quagmire of secessions Nigeria is facing. As long as the scathing
economic hardship in Nigeria and the massive gap between the rich and
the poor exist, there will be more angry and hungry people who will
align themselves with separatist causes at different intervals of our
history.
It should be noted that according to the Nigeria Deposit Insurance
Corporation, NDIC, a mere 2% of Nigerians own 90% of total deposits in
Nigerian banks. Nothing confirms the wide economic gap which is
reminiscent of the distance between heaven and earth more than this
financial report.
As people in the developed world appreciate critical thinking which
has birthed ground-breaking initiatives like the founding of Apple Inc,
Facebook, Google, BlackBerry, Microsoft, Internet, e-commerce, clinical
research programmes and other innovations that have improved human
life, Africans are also thinking deep. The only problem is that the
products of the thoughts of some African men could be grossly
exploitative and detrimental to the human society.
The fact that the pro-Biafra groups today have thousands and
millions of sympathizers both locally and internationally confirms the
fact that there is an endemic problem in the Nigerian society.
Some of the prominent ones as of today are: Independent People of
Biafra; IPOB, Biafra Zionist Federation, Movement for the Actualization
of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB; Biafra Liberation Council,
BLC, Eastern Peoples Congress, EPC; Biafra Solidarity Movement, BSM;
Biafra Revolutionary Organization, BRO; Joint Revolutionary
Organization, JRO; World Union of Biafran Scientists, WUBS; Biafra
Liberation Crusaders, BLC, Biafra Students Union, BSU; Salvation of
Peoples of Biafra, SPB; Costumary Government of Biafra, CGB; Council of
Elders Indigenous People of Biafra, CEIPB; Bilie Human Rights
Initiative, BHRI; Biafran Government in Exile, BGIE; Ohaneze Ndigbo, OTU
Suwakwa Igbo and others.
These are symptoms of an imminent total system collapse. People are
irked that they believe opting out of the marriage of 1914 amalgamation
that led to the political entity - Nigeria might be their last only
hope to find succor in life. If Nigeria were to be a place like Dubai,
United Arab Emirates, who would want to secede from greatness? An ailing
political system like Nigeria which is dying in all areas will easily
breed people like Nnamdi Kanu of the Independent People of Biafra and
the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra,
MASSOB, Ralph Nwazuruike who can play on the sensibilities of the
despondent to elevate their societal status. Every challenge is a
blatant chance for a breakthrough simply for those that could think
deep.
Today we have numerous pro-Biafra groups that have become forces to
be reckoned with in the political system. They frolic with politicians
and even endorse candidates. They have become foot soldiers of
politicians who desperately hire their services in the areas of
electioneering campaigns. They can also be used by the opposition party
in distracting the government of the day and making it very unpopular
through acute systematic propaganda. They even determine or let me say
almost determined if a gubernatorial election will hold in a democracy
where the rule of law is supreme.
Spearheading agitations is an arm of political business which is
viable of you are valiant enough to lead protests in hostile
environments and also develop oratory skills to psyche up the targeted
marginalized people. Once you win their hearts, they tend to part with
the few coins in their pockets.
Both Nnamdi Kanu and Ralph Nwazuruike have cases of financial
improprieties hanging around their necks. These issues are either being
said loudly in the media or murmured among followers who express worries
about a possible r*pe of their commonwealth. Nwazuruike has been
accused of fleecing some southeasterners of a whooping sum of over N500
million in an audacious international passport and vehicle plate number
scam. He reportedly convinced his followers to ditch their Nigerian
passports and obtain Biafra passports produced by him at the rate of
N10,000 each. He assured them that the passport had international
recognition which ended up being a hoax. An exclusive report by New
Telegraph newspaper stated that Nwazuruike also made about N4 billion
from the MASSOB project from 1999 to 2015.
Money exchanged hands, money never returned to the source, the rich
became richer, the poor became poorer, someone was outsmarted, someone
cried and a picaro laughed.
On the other hand, a U.S-based lady named Chioma Amaryllis (from
Mbaise LGA, Imo State) who worked for the Radio Biafra in the United
Kingdom with Nnamdi Kanu as a PR Coordinator also has a story to tell
about suspicious acts of fraud allegedly perpetrated by the so-called
freedom fighter. In a popular video which could be retrieved from
YouTube, the young woman admitted to having a brief romance with Mazi
Kanu. She claimed people who believed in the Biafra cause as championed
by Kanu contributed varying sums of money across different countries but
they were never fully accounted for as Kanu was not only the director
of Radio Biafra, he was the Accountant General, Human Resource Manager,
procurement officer, head of operations and any other offices you could
ever think of. According to her, Kanu crossed the red line when he set
an $8 million financial benchmark in 2014 to launch the Biafra struggle
in Nigeria.
“A lot of donations to Biafra went down the drain and I have a
right to speak out because I contributed. IPOB is built on myth with no
structure.” she emphasized.
This is why it appears that being an activist in Nigeria is like a
full time job that could give you your dream life without you actually
doing anything productive. It’s on this ground that some people have
raised questions about Nnamdi Kanu's educational qualifications which
are conspicuously scanty on his Wikipedia page especially at the
tertiary level. Furthermore, what was he doing before the Biafra cause?
What was his job in the United Kingdom during the Biafra cause as the
movement isn't a full time job that is expected to put food on the
table? How did he sustain his family? These questions might have a petty
outlook but they will certainly lead us somewhere if valid answers are
provided. Europe despite the promising economic realities is a place for
serious-minded people who treat their time the same way they treat
their money.
Unconfirmed sources have it that Kanu studied Political Economics
at London Guildhall University now called London Metropolitan University
(LMU) and that he later established a company named Alpha Phoenix
consulting firm with his friend, Luke Chukuma Egemba and it was
incorporated in 2005. Rumours have it that the company couldn’t muster
up to £900 in four years thereby forcing Kanu to tender his resignation
letter.
Another interesting pointer to sharp practices in the Biafra
movement is the way Kanu and Nwazuruike see themselves. It has become a
case of two captains in a ship or two husbands in a nuclear family.
Nwazuruike who has been running MASSOB entrepreneurially for 18 years
without productivity claims he employed Kanu after picking him from the
streets. According to him, Kanu was an internet fraudster in the United
Kingdom and he was kicked out by his lover. He gave Kanu a new lease of
life by opening Radio Biafra in the UK and handing it over to him.
“Kanu was homeless when I met him in London. I gave him the
first money to rent an apartment after he was thrown out by the Ghanaian
woman he was living with,”
“When I met him (Kanu) in London he had no job and no
certificate; he was into internet crime. So who is Nnamdi Kanu? It is
you the journalists that are flaming him up as somebody; if not, he is a
nobody” he stated.
Kanu has since denied some of the allegations with claims that
Nwazurike ventured into the 'secession business' for economic reasons
which have paid off like crude oil during the former President Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan era.
A deep look at the economic status of these separatists today shows
that things are no longer the same. Levels don change, they are 10/10.
They are not like their followers parading the streets with faded
clothes, empty tummies, varying degrees of indebtedness and no jobs.
They live in posh houses; they wear expensive clothes, drive the best of
cars and even sit with prominent individuals in the society. The Biafra
cause is a ‘win win’ for them in success or failure. If it fails, they
get paid as long as they can sustain the hopes they raise; if it
succeeds, they hit the jackpot by assuming the status of a Nelson
Mandela.
If the words of the seemingly untrusted Minister of Information and
Culture, Lai Mohammed that the treasury looters in the opposition party
and other rogue countries are funding Biafra are to be believed for
once, then profits of secessionist movements might be so "Abacha or
Diezanic" if thoroughly investigated.
In a country like Nigeria where the Human Development Index is low,
it would take more than a ‘Python Dance’ and ‘Crocodile Smile’ to take
the balanced diet off the mouths of Kanu, Nwazuruike and other
front-liners without a bloody fight. This is their means of livelihood,
it is their hustle with due respect.
Osayimwen Osahon George is a political scientist and a journalist. He writes from Lagos State.
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