The wife of the leader of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, says her husband’s disappearance should be the major issue that will dictate discourse as the nation goes to the poll next year.
Uchechi Kanu, speaking in an interview published by BBC on Monday, said the Nigerian government should account for her husband’s whereabouts, else, people will not vote.
“In the next coming election,” she said, “we need to have that in mind that for us to ever be better, we need to stand up.
“Yes, Nnamdi Kanu’s issue should be the number one thing: where is he? You need to provide him; at least tell us where he is. You need to at least do something before you run an election, otherwise we aren’t going to vote.”
Mr. Kanu is wanted by the Nigerian government for alleged treason. He has not been seen in public since September 2017 when the army raised his residence in Abia state.
The army denies knowing his whereabouts.
Mrs. Kanu maintained that the Nigerian Army should tell the world what happened to her husband, saying nobody in his family knows whether he was dead or alive.
When asked how life has been since her husband’s “disappearance”, she became emotional, describing the experience as difficult.
“It is difficult,” she said about raising their child without her husband, adding that the child sometimes says things that break her heart.
“He goes sometime… he says ‘Daddy’, and that kills me more, because I don’t know what to say to him,” she said.
She, however, dismissed the notion that her husband’s action was illegal, saying Mr. Kanu acted within the ambit of the law.
She said, “What makes it illegal? Why? Why should that be treasonous? One asking for self-determination; how’s that a crime? It is not a crime.”
On insinuations that Mr. Kanu kept his family in the safety of Britain and expected other people to die for a cause he could not bring his family in to fight for, Mrs. Kanu said such statements were insensitive, adding that the family has been the worst hit since he disappeared.
“Do they even know what I go through? I can’t even explain,” she said, adding that Mr. Kanu’s immediate family is homeless and suffering too.
“Is that not sacrifice?” she said, adding that such insinuation could only be made by those she called “Typical stupid African person”.
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