NOW THAT TINUBU HAS JAILED NDIGBO

EXPRESSO_Umb-rage>>By Steve Osuji

Kanu Remains Prisoner Of Conscience

Igbo weep not
You’re now imprisoned
Dot in a circle in gaol
No thoroughfare
Not in the north
Never in the west
Nor in the creeks
But you can’t be caged
Path-beaters you are
Yes, paths uncharted
First through your soul,
Yes, your restless SOUL…

NO THOROUGHFARE FOR NDIGBO IN NIGERIA: It was a premeditated outcome: President Bola Tinubu wanted to jail Ndigbo. He got his prize.

Now that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has been finally slammed in prison for life, it is necessary to give the matter the requisite perspective that we all may learn the lessons if the moment.

The first lesson to be learnt from the Mazi Nnamdi Kanu (MNK) saga is via a historical overview of the Yoruba-Igbo relationship in Nigeria.

The sentencing of MNK to life imprisonment by Justice James Omotoso yesterday, 20th November, 2025 seems to confirm the impression held by many about the unending bitter feud between Igbo and Yoruba in Nigeria. Though many shy to say it but it’s our reality.

Consider the tell-tale facts: MNK was renditioned (abducted) by the former President Mohammadu Buhari from Kenya to Nigeria in June 2021.

He was detained and a sham trial ensued. It’s trite and commonsensical that you cannot achieve justice from injustice. You cannot gain legality from illegality.

You cannot abduct a man illegally and charge him to court to seek legal remedies. You must remedy your illegality first.

So MNK’s trial was declared an illegality ab initio by legal experts and international organisations. This explains why Buhari couldn’t try MNK for many years.
Even the appeal court in Nigeria had made a pronouncement, asking that he be freed.

Therefore, a political denouement was the solution begging to be applied. Buhari shunned all entreaties from home and abroad due to his mortal hatred for Igbo. He would rather MNK languished in detention than afford him clemency.

ENTER PRESIDENT BOLA TINUBU: Nigeria was frayed and nigh disembodied by Buhari. When Tinubu came in May 2023, conventional wisdom dictated that he set about imbuing critical repairs and healing on the polity.

He did a bit. He set Sunday Igboho free. Igboho is a Yoruba separatist fighter like MNK. Igboho, like Gani Adams before him, fought against injustice meted against the Odu’a nation by the Hausa-Fulani.

Tinubu also set free some Myetti Allah extremists held in detention.

TINUBU JAILED NDIGBO: People thought he would afford the same joy to Ndigbo by freeing MNK and granting him amnesty for peace to reign in the fractured southeast.

Tinubu shafted Ndigbo.
Delegations upon delegation appealed to him. Entreaties upon entreaty were made. No way. He was bent on having one up on Ndigbo.

All actions of Tinubu as President point to innate hatred against Ndigbo.

It would never have hurt him to free MNK on some strict conditions of his own.

Amnesty was no novelty in Nigeria. Niger Delta militants like Tompolo and Dokubo were pardoned after setting fire on the creeks of Nigeria. Gani Adams led OPC to slaughter scores and make Lagos ungovernable. Sunday Igboho is an unabashed Odu’a champion. They were all forgiven.

Further, all of Tinubu’s appointments and presidential actions support the perception of hate towards Ndigbo.

In fact, it’s not out of cowardice that Buhari dilly-dallied over MNK. It was political sagacity. He saw no gain in deeply antagonising Ndigbo. And there’s truly nothing to be gained.

NDIGBO, KNOW YE TODAY THERE’S NO THOROUGHFARE THROUGH THE SOUTHWEST: In FG. Vs. MNK: In the historic case involving the Federal Government versus Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, look at this picture.

Arrayed against MNK are President Bola Tinubu, AGF, Latest Fagbemi; CJN, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun; judge,James Omotoso and lead prosecutor, Adegboyega Awomolo ((SAN).

The entire southwest juridical armada arrayed against one man. Ironically, it’s this kind of inequity the MNK canvases against!

The very best of Yoruba jurisprudential firmament ganged up to bury Ndigbo. None said to the other, “hey, wait a minute, what does it profit us going this route.”

This action gains from numerous historical precedents.

First, Nnamdi Azikiwe and his NCNC won popular election on Lagos House in 1951 but it took an especial tribal subterfuge by Chief Obafeme Awolowo to “sink” Zik’s ambition to lead the Western House.
That singular action marked the beginning of tribal politics in Nigeria.

The example of 1951 and the current antagonism against Ndigbo in Lagos is quite reminiscent of what has been going on in Lagos State since the elections of 2015. Voting in Lagos has been a running ordeal for Ndigbo in Lagos.

But by far, the most troubling example of Yoruba war of attrition against Igbo is the Nigeria-Biafra civil war.

Chief Awolowo was prosecuted (persecuted) and jailed in Calabar, Eastern Region by the Hausa-Fulani led Federal Government in 1963.

Note that the supposed ‘Igbo’ coup of January 1966 was planned to ensconce Chief Awolowo to power.

At the onset of the civil war in 1966, Awo was released via the instruments of the Eastern region government of Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu.

But no sooner did Awolowo return to Lagos than he teamed up with Gen. Yakubu Gowon, apparently to seek the extermination of Igbo.

First, Awo advised Gowon that in war, all was fair including starvation.

He initiated a strict regime of blockade of food supply to Biafra territory. This Awo policy led to the outbreak of kwashiorkor and the death by starvation, of millions of Igbo, especially, children.

The Igbo annihilation didn’t end there, after the war, Awo advised a policy of £20 only to all Igbo bank account holders in Nigeria, even if he had £20 million in his account.

There were also, stocks, insurance policies, fixed deposits and all sorts of financial instruments lost irretrievably by Ndigbo after the war.

As if the economic shellacking wasn’t enough, the Indigenization programme was introduced barely two years after the war where most of the equities of the multinational corporations in Nigeria were acquired by the Yoruba.

After the civil war, Yoruba robbed their Igbo ‘brothers’, stripped them stark naked and left them for death.

This is a historical fact.

NNAMDI KANU AS PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE: True students of history can confirm that Yoruba has always nursed a sustained animus against Ndigbo. The animosity can be quite intense and debilitating.

Some say the reason is out of envy while yet others blame it on the congenital and vast disparities between the two ethnic groups.

Of course, the feeling became mutual after a point, especially from the period of the civil war during which many Igbo thought the southwest betrayed the southeast by teaming up with the north. The feeling has remained I intensified and latent since then.

Though education and acculturation have dulled some sharp edges over the years, the aggro sits deep.

Though this is a preponderant disposition, but of course, there are wonderful exceptions to every rule.

GENESIS OF IPOB: Injustice, inequity and marginalization have provided fertile soil for agitation to take root in the Southeast.

From MASSOB, to IPOB, the lingering vicious inequalities against Ndigbo have fermented the anger of everyone in Igboland since after the war.

So even if MNK was sentenced to death (as recommended by Awomolo), the calculated exclusion of Igbo in politics and socio-economic activities will continue to foster restiveness.

IPOB WAS NON-VIOLENT: Recall that IPOB grew from MASSOB in 2012 as a more vociferous, yet non-violent splinter.

It was not until 2015 when Buhari came to power that IPOB became redicalised.

Buhari couldn’t stand the vituperations of MNK through his Radio Biafra.

First he had MNK arrested as he entered the country and began his trial. His members in peaceful marches and gatherings were arrested, detained indiscriminately and many of them killed in extra-judicial ways.

The cap came when then Chief of Army, General Tukur Buratai untutoredly organise his self-serving operations “Python Dance” and Egwueke” in Igboland during which he further garrisoned the territory to the pleasure of his master, President Buhari.

Buratai was said to have made good big time from these vindictive operations against IPOB.

Today, there are more military checkpoints all over the southeast than the entire north.

These ugly checkpoints (extortion-points)have become the shame of the Nigerian Army as they openly take bribes from commuters. Army checkpoints in the Southeast and south South are said to be a multi billion naira business which explains why they would never be dislodged even though they serve little or no purpose.

Officers and men are said to pay heavily to get these checkpoint postings.

It was thereabouts 2017 that IPOB formed the Eastern Security Network (ESN). This was a kind of buffer against the incessant killing of its unarmed members who insist on non- violent campaign for self rule in Igboland.

It was also to protect Igboland against a rampaging Fulani Killer herders who had been emboldened by the Buhari Presidency!

By 2019, Igbo were being massacred on their farms in Ebonyi, Enugu, Abia, Anambra and Imo States, by Fulani extremists.

It was ESN that stood up to them in some places as SE governors like Hope Uzodinma and Dave Umahi proved impotent. It was at this period that the southwest governors led by Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) formed AMOTEKUN to protect the zone from the rampaging Fulani murderers, much against the will of the Buhari Presidency.

HOW MNK MISSED THE WAY: Having become the face, voice and liberating figure of Ndigbo against marauding Fulani and Igbo-hating President Buhari, MNK gained exponential popularity and following.

Ndigbo of all classes saw him as the authentic voice as he pushed for a referendum to determine the fate of the southeast in Nigeria.

The worship and veneration got into his young head and he lost it. Even after he was bailed (and subsequently jumped bail,) he still couldn’t put a rein on his ways.
He publicly abused OHANAEZE leadership and respected Igbo elders. These were his undoing.

FINALLY, THE TINUBU DENOUEMENT: But President Tinubu missed it all. At his coming in 2023, if he had a shred of statesmanship in him, he could have reigned in MNK on his own terms and won over the southeast and over 50 million Igbo worldwide.

By a simple blitzkrieg act of bringing MNK to Aso Rock and extracting the best release term ever from him.

But Tinubu apparently insisted on his own strategy which is perhaps based on total conquest of Ndigbo.

Even if MNK is eventually granted a pardon by Tinubu, it would be an anticlimax. It would amount to a mistimed and an ill-conceived action.

Igbo as a people have once again, been dealt a deep machete cut by Yoruba.
That’s the perception today.#