By Tunde Abatan
Monday July 26 2021, is a special date in history for the trio of President Muhammadu Buhari ,Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Igboho and his Biafra counterpart, Nnamdi Kanu.
Buhari
It is a date Buhari’s legendary penchant for gestapo tactics in bringing his citizens, who are running away from home to avoid his dictatorship,to book under strange circumstances.
For Nnamdi Kanu,the irrepressible leader of the Independent People’s of Biafra,IPOB, an organisation agitating for creation of an independent state of Biafra , he had to run away in 2017 when men of state security services DSS, invaded his home while on bail.
Buhari’s men has succeeded with Kanu unlike the fate that befell them in 1984 when they hired some israelis to abduct and bring home, late politician, the late Dr. Umaru Dikko from his London home where he fled to when Buhari sacked the civilian government.
Nnamdi Kanu in court
However. Kanu was not that lucky as he got abducted and smuggled from Kenya, an east African country, to Nigeria.
July 26,2021 is also a date Igboho, who also like Dikko, narrowly escaped being abducted in nearby Benin republic while on his own ‘hejira’ to Germany.
Luck did not smile on him and his wife,Ropo, as men of the DSS acting in concert with Nigeria embassy headed by retd Gen Buratai.
The DSS,it will will be recalled had laid a manhunt for him after invading his house on July 1,and killed two of his men.
On July 26,while Igboho is facing trial in Cotonou,Kanu will continue his own trial in Abuja after allegedly jumping bail four years earlier.
In all this travails,it is remarkable that the two men rose from obscurity to national and international fame on account of Buharis intolerance for freedom of expression as enshrine in United Nations Charter of Human right which Nigeria pledged to uphold. Ironically, Buhari who was once shoved aside by his military colleague during his first coming via a military coup in 1984,also rose to power again in 2015 using the power of protests put together by activists to create a movement and platform against former president Goodluck Jonathan.
Not for once, was Buhari and his opposition train were hounded by the government they mobilized public sympathy and support to remove from office via election.
Today, Igboho,a relatively unknown political sweat- merchant in his Oyo and Osun states,is now a global citizen propped up by Buharis intolerance of opposition and contempt for public discourse on issues of injustice, fairness,ethno- religious policies which has characterised his administration this past six years.
Instead of allowing citizens to debate their mutual co existence,Buhari in his military style choose to drive underground voices of descent and in doing so raise the profiles of political minions to international figure the way the South Africa apartheid regime propelled late icon,Nelson Mandela.
But Chuks Muoma,President Igbo lawyers association,ILA, defended Kanus action for jumping bail procured by,Senate minority leader,Senator Ifeanyi Abaribe in 2017.
As for him,Kanu did the needful when security operatives of the ,DSS, known for their deadly ways reminiscent of the defunct Nigerian Security Organisation,NSO,invaded his father’s house at Afana-Ukwu,Umuahia.
Having suspected that the invasion was aimed at his life,Muoma said,Kanu had no choice but to run for dear life adding ‘and you don’t expect him to do anything.he has the right to self preservation which he did to escape from danger” .
The lawyer argued further that,if Kanu was interested in jumping bail,he would’ve done so before then”.
Yet,since his abduction,his fame has soared home and abroad with little or nothing by government to abate the unrest by his supporters in the South east region and worldwide.
With this approach it is clear that the Biafra agitation and it’s leader gets more noticed.
If Kanu is gaining popularity,Igboho,the dogged fighter and campaigner for Yoruba Nation is attracting more global attention than the federal government could ever fathom.
In the normal gestapo style used for Kanu ,men of DSS,on July 2,2021,also invaded the Soka residence of Igboho at Ibadan and after hours of operation,they left two of occupants of the house dead and carted away 13 into detention in Abuja cells of the security outfit.
Since his arrest on Monday 19th by men of the security services of Benin Republic on promptings by the federal government of Nigeria,as he was about to board a flight to Germany in company of his wife ,his name, exploits and fate has attracted global interest and attention.
In the words of Afenifere leader,Chief Ayo Adebanjo,Igboho had a right to flee,”because the powers that be wants to kill him because of his agitation”.
Adebanjo submitted further that Buharis regime is afraid because Igboho is leading a popular revolt adding,”when they see the crowd that Igboho is pulling at every meeting, that is what is terrifying them.”
Said he,”Can Buhari summon the crowd that Igboho is summoning each time he holds a meeting even with the fact that he(Buhari), gives money to who will attend the meeting that is a rented crowd?
The Yoruba leader called on his people all over the world not to leave Igboho alone adding,” he should not be brought back to the country.he should not be allowed to suffer alone for the liberation of the Yoruba”,Adebanjo challenged the people.
And true to type,the level of support and popularity of Igboho soared more than his traducers could ever imagined.
From Ibadan,the political capital of the Yoruba,to London, hundreds of supporters took to the streets in response to Adebanjos clarion call protesting against his release to Nigerian authorities by the Beninois government which Thursday released his wife.
Indeed,Igbohos appearance in court last Friday,was turned into a carnival of sort as supporters who came from Nigeria in lorry loads of buses and Yoruba residents in Cotonou proceeded to the Appeal Court premises to witness the proceedings.
Besides,lawyers from Nigeria joined their Benionoise counterparts in what may prove the most celebrated case in the West African country in a long time.
As for allegations being allegedly preferred against the duo by the state for using forged travel documents to run away from the country, both Mouka and Adebanjo , lawyers in their own rights may be right after all in their support of means adopted if the allegation is true.
Many other lawyers and international observers have gone back to records to draw a parallel between the travails of Kanu and Igboho to justify their flight from a country they are not sure of justice.
They cited the REF: 1951 Refugee Convention which stipulated that..an asylum seeker cannot be held criminally liable for using fake documents to make his escape.
The Convention also held that while it is a criminal offence for anyone to travel into the UK on false documents,but asylum seekers who are fleeing for their lives and have no other way of travelling to safety have a defence under the 1951 refugee convention.
Professor Bola Akintehinwa, past Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs,NIIA,observed that the federal government is not taking the right ght approach to the attempt to repatriate Igboho back home.
As for him,since Republic of Benin is a Franchophone country,where rule of law is followed strictly, any underhand move to abduct Igboho outside the laws of that country is not in Nigeria’s interest.
Besides,he pointed out that the FG should accept the fact Igbohob”is representing the clamour of and interest of the average Yoruba man and anything done against him will definitely affect the government and Nigeria as a country.”
Yet, as at Friday,July 23,2022, the federal government of Nigeria is yet to file a charge against Igboho before the Appeal Court where he is being tried.
Though, the trial is supposed to resume Monday ,the agitation has continued worldwide unabated thus turning a hitherto unknown fighter into a global citizen and ambassador for freedom and justice for his people with interests all over the world.
Indeed, until last year when he resisted the murder of his Igangan farming community in Oyo state by leading a movement and revolt which ejected the murderous Fulani herdsmen from their domain.Before then the Fulani herdsmen had enjoyed unchallenged murderous activities even as settlers with support from law enforcement agents who protected and brazenly encouraged their murderous activities.
As for Buhari and the federal government,refusal to ensure justice against victims of murderous Fulani herdsmen raping,killing,maiming and destroying farmlands in the South West, has inevitably turned a local hero into a global citizen with active support from his Yoruba people worldwide thus becoming a powerful non state actor.
Refusal by the federal government to allow for robust discussion of the national question which has come into the front burner as a result of insecurity all over the country has aggravated the security situation.
This prevailing issues which the government has failed to tackle for hitherto unknown agenda has promoted hitherto unrecognised non state actors.
Definitely, the federal government has many bridges to cross between now and 2023 for it’s stability, if it continues to make global heroes of those against its policies in a fragmented nation.
Time will Tell.
