By Emeka Alex Duru
While alive, erstwhile Biafran Head of State, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, had a way of explaining his leadership position in Igboland, in a way that seemed trivial, but quite instructive. On such occasions, he would throw a challenge to those questioning his status, to take a walk through one side of a typical Igbo market square while he followed the other end and at the end, a census would be taken on who commanded the greater followership.
None of those who raised voices against him, dared him in the open invitation. Of course, knowing what Ojukwu meant to the people, nobody would have ever done so with any success. For one, in his actions and utterances, he was never at any time, counted to have betrayed his kinsmen. Even when he had taken positions that did not go down well with some of the people, he was readily excused to have done so out of human error and not in an attempt to trade on his people. This explained why he commanded a larger-than-life image among the Igbo.
To some extent, the Indigenous Peoples Of Biafra (IPOB), a group seeking a separate independent State for the people of the South Eastern part of the country, is stepping into that mould. Even in outlawry, IPOB, is increasingly becoming a credible voice in the region and for the people.
The strength of what the organisation represents among the people, can simply be explained in two forms – when it is silent, suspicion mounts; when it speaks, tension mounts. This is even when members of the group are not known to have hurled any stone at anyone in going about their activities.
When, thus, the IPOB high command called on the indigenes and residents of the South East to stay indoors on Friday, September 14, in honour of their members and indigenes of the zone who were murdered by men of the Nigerian Army in the Operation Python Dance operations, last year and at various encounters in the past, it was another test on the relevance of the group to the people.
Incidentally, in one accord, the Igbo nation, not known for centralised administration and accompanying principles, obeyed the instruction. Reports, at the day, indicated total compliance to the appeal from the major towns and cities in Igbo land. The situation was the same last year and years before.
That is the extent the IPOB phenomenon has caught up with the people. Knowing the Igbo and what they stand for, there is a lot to learn from the exercise. The Igbo, in their republican disposition, are not given to herd instinct, as the erstwhile German dictator, Adolf Hitler, would argue in his book, Mein Kampf. They are not the type that would readily fall in to a particular line of action. In them rather, is an orientation which allows members of a family to ride to the village square in a common platform, take different positions on a topical issue and still return to the house in the same vehicle without breaking bones.
This is what commentators who do not have full grasp of fine principles of Igbo village republic, mistake for the people not agreeing with one another. But that is the very essence of the bourgeoisie democracy that we pay lip service to in the country.
So, when IPOB galvanised the people to stand up for their fallen kinsmen and draw the attention of the world to the oddities in the administration of the country, a nation conscious of its responsibility to its citizens, should pay heed to their agitation.
Incidentally, their message is simple. They seek for justice and equity, they ask for a level playing ground in a system that they and their parents have put in their best in its existence; they demand fairness and evenness in the scheme of things. But since these are not being attended to, they are asking to be left alone in a separate State of Biafra. That, simply, is their offence against the country.
For their audacity, they have been visited with pains and sorrow. A Report by the global human rights watch, Amnesty International on the atrocities of the Nigerian Army on the group, between August 2015 and August 2016, was, for instance, simply, dastardly.
The Report which was released in November, 2016, put members of IPOB killed by the soldiers within the period at over 150.
What was startling was that the Amnesty account of the situation was not based on hearsay, nor conjecture. It rather relied on the analysis of 87 videos, 122 photographs and 146 eye witness testimonies, all revealing soldiers of the Nigeria military firing live ammunition to disperse IPOB members whose only offence was demanding a separate independent state of Biafra.
A chilling aspect of the report was on how, at least 60 defenceless IPOB protesters were shot dead within two days leading to the Biafra Remembrance Day of May 29, 2016.
There had been other incidences of attacks on the unarmed group. There are still fluctuating figures on the number of IPOB members wasted or missing on account of the Operation Python Dance operation of last year.
But one thing keeps the people going, despite the volume of violence regularly unleashed at them. They are convinced of the justness of their cause and the godliness of their conviction. In this frame of mind therefore, death, loses its meaning to the average IPOB operative. If anything, rather, it is seen as a welcome relief from a system that seems to have sworn to hand the wrong end of the stick to them in its policies and practices.
This is where the Nigerian State, needs to be careful on how it manages the IPOB dilemma. Handling the pervading acceptance of the group’s message to the teeming youth and surprisingly, women of the South East, calls for maturity among the managers of the country at all levels.
If with regular deployment of troops against the group, employment of maximum military action against it, targeted annihilation of its members and a controversial proscription, IPOB still commands the attention and sentiments of the republican South East, it then calls for a better and proactive strategy in negotiating the organisation.