The late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua engendered relative peace and harmony throughout the country by the way he handled recalcitrant agitators. Shortly after he was sworn in as the president of Nigeria in 2007, Yar’Adua granted amnesty to the Niger Delta militants who had held the nation by the jugular during the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration.
As someone who Obasanjo imposed on Nigeria as his successor, he had the option of dancing to the drumbeats of his predecessor by continuing in his style of governance, but he chose to toe the path of peace. Yar’Adua quickly stopped the violent agitation in the Niger Delta without firing a single bullet unlike his predecessor who couldn’t stop it even with maximum force. Since 2007, a lot of dangerous militants have become very responsible and useful to themselves and the society through the numerous programmes of rehabilitation by the federal and state governments. Some of them have acquired degrees from tertiary institutions and are now gainfully employed while some of their leaders have become traditional rulers, for example, Ateke Tom. Even Government Ekpemupolo( alias Tompolo) who was one their leaders is today a top and influential pipe line protection contractor with successive governments including the current one.
Granted that some people may argue that it was during the Yar’Adua administration that the current plague of Boko Haram started in 2009. If Yar’Adua had lived longer, he would have equally applied diplomacy to nip the terrorism by Boko Haram in the bud. If he could engender peace in the South of Nigeria, would such a man had allowed turmoil to engulf Northern Nigeria? Boko Haram terrorism only transmogrified to the beastly stage it is today just because Yar’Adua was succeeded by President Goodluck Jonathan. The sentiments of religion and region came into the mix to compound the insecurity problem during the Jonathan administration, and, of course, fuelled by evil politicians.
President Bola Tinubu should never toe the path trodden by his immediate predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari, on every facet of governance. There is absolutely nothing to emulate Buhari for if Tinubu wants to succeed as the president of Nigeria. Of course, the president has started well by spreading the appointments of service chiefs by giving a considerable fair distribution to almost all the regions of the country. He may be having challenges on the economic growth and development but its rather too early for history to judge him.
On the vexed and sensitive issue of Nnamdi Kanu, the incarcerated leader of the terrorists group, the Independent People of the Republic of Biafra (IPOB), the president has history before him to write it as he deems fit. Buhari refused to release Nnamdi Kanu even after several pleadings by eminent and respected Igbo leaders. A prominent personality and a first republic minister of aviation, Mbazulike Amechi, on a wheelchair, led a delegation of Igbo leaders to Buhari pleading with him to release Nnamdi Kanu, yet Buhari rebuffed such an elder statesman till the man died heartbroken . Several other Igbo leaders and interest groups pleaded with Buhari to no avail. Yar’Adua and Jonathan wouldn’t have been that heartless.
The lame argument that the matter is before the court and only the judiciary will decide his fate is puerile and untenable. The federal government that renditioned him has a choice of entering a nolle (discontinuance of the case) currently before the Federal High Court which recently refused his application for bail. The federal government had discontinued its matters with Sunday Igboho and most recently that of Omoyele Sowore who was facing treasonable felony trial during Buhari’s regime. Why is that of Nnamdi Kanu different?
President Tinubu may not have been supported by some Nigerians, particularly Igbo, during the last election but he still has a few supporters in the South-east. His die-hard supporters are also bearing the brunt of continued incarceration of Nnamdi Kanu. It has crippled their businesses and may have resulted in some deaths among Tinubu’s supporters in the zone by the menace of the unknown gunmen who have hijacked and are hiding behind Nnamdi Kanu’s detention to wreck havoc on the people. Shouldn’t Tinubu save the lives of his few supporters by releasing Kanu? Is it not said that it’s better for thousands of criminals to escape in order to save the life of a single innocent human being than killing the single innocent along with the criminals?
On the part of Nnamdi Kanu, I do hope that he has learned some lessons from his ordeal even if his agitation is justified. Biafra agitation is as a result of gross injustice being meted on the Igbo in Nigeria. Altruistic Nigerians like the late President Shehu Shagari wanted to correct that injustice by picking an Igbo man as his vice president just nine years after the civil war.
If other Nigerians, particularly our leaders, had continued in that trajectory, Biafra agitation would have died a natural death long time ago. The massive participation of Ndigbo in Nigeria’s general elections especially the last one shows that they still have hope in Nigeria. The Igbo just want to be treated fairly and equitably.
Nnamdi Kanu should have also realised by now that the propaganda being bandied about before his latest arrest that the United Kingdom and the United Nations will fight for him if Nigerian government arrest him is all fallacy. President Tinubu should emulate Yar’Adua by releasing Kanu even if with a little condition that there would be no more agitation from him and the rest of the Igbo as long as Nigeria is treating the zone with fairness just like Shagari, Yar’Adua and Jonathan treated them as presidents.
Ifeanyi Maduako,
Owerri, Imo state
