The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB), Mr. Nnamdi Kanu is back on the front burner following his brief quiet carriage since he was released from prison two weeks ago.
This time, he is not burning energy on the struggle for an independent state of Biafra, the deed for which he was arrested by the federal government and taken to court, but
politics.
Very reliable sources told this magazine that Kanu may have been convinced by ‘some friends in power’ to try politics for his agitation since the previous combative method failed him and his co-travelers.
Although, Kanu’s lawyer, Barr. Ifeanyi
Ejiofor said that the Biafra campaigner would not be drawn into politics for anything, insiders claimed that Kanu became more than convinced for the ‘new project’ after meeting with some top Igbo
politicians.
We gathered that the politics idea was first sold to Kanu by a Southwest governor who visited him at the court the day he was
released. Before the governor’s meeting, it was said that the governor, who worked in tandem with another Southwest top politician who is a die-hard fan of Kanu’s campaign, had sent emissaries to the detained Kanu to illuminate him on why politics would be a safer mode to realize his freedom crusade.
It was these two politicians that we learnt encouraged the few South Eastern state governors who have now shown solidarity with Nnamdi Kanu after his release from the prison. However, political analysts are contending over the public support given to the IPOB leader by the two Southwest politicians.
While some believe it is genuine, others
theorize that the purported support was for their own interest. They argued that all they are after was the Easterners’ support for their own future political aspirations.
Meanwhile, Barr. Ejiofor has said that, rather than Kanu joining partisan politics, his release has made him a hero of a sort, and “it is the more reason now that Kanu is strongly saying that Federal government should conduct a referendum.”
-Arthur Igbolaju Richard
