Greediness is helping the Igbo build their tower of Babel

On Tuesday, 5 December 2023, the Economic Community of West African States’ Court declared the detention of Western Nigeria secessionist agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, by the government of the Republic of Benin as a violation of his fundamental human rights. The regional court declared as established, the violation of his right to liberty, security and freedom of movement. The court went on to award 20,000,000 (twenty million) FCFA, the equivalent of N26.3 million against the Republic of Benin as reparation for moral damages suffered by Igboho in the violation of his fundamental human rights.

Adeyemo had planned a “Yoruba Nation Rally” in Lagos two days before a combined team of the Nigeria Army and personnel of the Department of State Security raided his residence in the Soka area of Ibadan, Oyo State, subsequently killing some of his domestic staffs and arresting others. Sensing that his life was in danger, Igboho tried to escape the country to Europe but was arrested with his wife, Ropo, in Cotonou, Benin Republic in July 2021. He was detained at the request of the government of the Nigerian President, General Muhammadu Buhari.

The court ruled that the detention of the applicant constituted a violation of Article 12 of the African Charter. It also noted that the applicant was arbitrarily detained and his passport was seized by the respondent's agents. The respondent state did not provide any justification for restrictions that would fall under the provision of Article 12(2) of the Charter, such as protection of national security, law and order, public health or morality that would justify the restriction of the applicant's rights to freedom of movement.

The applicant had initially prayed the court to order the respondent to compensate him in an amount equivalent to $1,000,000 (US) for each day he was imprisoned in Benin until the date of his release and the devolution of his Nigerian passport.

The court said: “Considering the seriousness of the rights violated and their consequences for the applicant, making a global and equitable assessment, the court awards the applicant, by way of compensation for the immaterial damage he has suffered, the sum of 20,000,000 (twenty million) FCFA. The eminent jurists who decided the case were the Presiding Hon. Justice Gberi-be Quattara; Hon. Justice Sengu Mohammed Koroma who served as member and Hon. Justice Ricardo C.M. Goncalves who served as Judge Rapporteur and was assisted by Dr Yaouza Ouro-Sama who served as Chief Registrar.

In every conceivable way, Igboho’s so-called ‘crime’ was very similar to that of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the separatist Indigenous Peoples of Biafra. Kanu was arrested in Kenya some years ago. But unlike Igboho who was not physically manhandled, Kanu was drugged, beaten and tortured for eight straight days. And after each beating and torture, they would place him before a camera, expecting to extract some information from him. Such information they intended to hand over to the federal government of Nigeria which was vehemently opposed to IPOB's quest for a referendum or outright secession.

Nnamdi Kanu was extradited from Nairobi, Kenya while he was visiting that country on his British passport. He was detained and handed over to Nigerian authorities who flew him back to Nigeria. Kingsley Kanu, a younger brother of Nnamdi Kanu, told journalists: “My brother has been subjected to extraordinary rendition by Kenya and Nigeria. They have violated the most basic principles of the rule of law. Extraordinary rendition is one of the most serious crimes any State can commit. Both Nigeria and Kenya must be held to account. I demand justice for my brother, Nnamdi Kanu. The Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, must make it clear to Nigerian authorities that they will not tolerate the unlawful detention of British citizens and that the UK government condemns Nigerians and Kenyans who undermine the rule of law. Foreign Secretary Raab must be clear that there will be consequences for those who resort to extraordinary rendition. The British Government must insist upon justice for Nnamdi Kanu.”

Earlier reports had indicated that Kanu had been brought in from Prague, Czech Republic. He had been wanted by the Nigerian authorities. It was not clear at the time, what arrangements Nigerian and Kenyan authorities had made and how that would possibly affect diplomatic relationships with the United Kingdom.

The Indigenous People of Biafra continued to lament over the criminal detention of its leader in the Department for State Security’s solitary confinement. The group had on several occasions stated that Kanu’s detention, in disregard of court orders directing his release, was a violation of his human rights. In a statement made public by the IPOB, the organization’s lead counsel, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, asked the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led government to immediately free the embattled leader of the group. The statement partly read: “The continued illegal and unconstitutional detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in a solitary confinement in the facility of the Nigerian State Security Service, is in flagrant disobedience to various orders of courts of competent jurisdiction, a gross violation of his human rights as clearly provided for under the Nigerian Constitution; African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights; United Nations General Assembly Resolution on the Rights to Self-Determination and other International Conventions and Treaties to which Nigeria is a signatory. The Nigerian State must free Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in compliance with its own laws, conventions and court orders, and the time is now. Enough is enough!” So many other organisatons such as Ohanaeze Ndigbo, South East Governors’ Forum, Anambra state government of Professor Soludo, the Coalition of Northern Nigeria Groups among others have pleaded with the federal government to let Nnamdi Kanu off the hook. Let him go. But the federal government is adamant and seems determined to bend Kanu and his resolve for the federal government to conduct a referendum so that Nigerians can determine for themselves whether they still wanted to remain one huge and strong indivisible country or whether they wanted to go their separate ways because things had fallen apart and the centre could no longer hold – which would shape the way for an outright secession of the eastern states.

Why was Igboho set free and compensated for the violation of his fundamental human rights while Nnamdi Kanu is still left to languish in the DSS facility in Abuja despite several court interventions that ordered government to set him free? Why were prominent Yoruba elites like Professor Wole Soyinka and the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi Eniitan among others practically willing to carry Igboho’s cross, make a case for him with Benin Republic and make sure no evil came by him. ON the contrary, why are the Igbo elites unable to get one of theirs out of the federal government trap that he inadvertently fell into?

Weird as it seems, the reason is simple.

If I suggested that it was his fellow Igbo man who knew about Kanu’s movement to Kenya that betrayed him to the Nigerian government for pecuniary profit, a few people would doubt me. But that is possibly what happened. And if I suggested that it was Nnamdi Kanu’s fellow Igbo who betrayed him to the Directorate of State Security and he was arrested in his hotel in Ikeja Lagos earlier, would anyone doubt me? This is the problem with the Igbo of today. It’s all about money, money, money. Given their greediness for money, they can go to any length. The love of money, we are told in the Holy Book, is the root of all evils. The Igbo not only love money, they love it in the extreme. And sometimes they go to unexpected lengths to have it.

And that is where their danger lies.
Ohaneze Ndigbo socio-cultural group has already raised an alarm that some prominent Igbo politicians and so-called leaders of Biafra agitators are working behind the scene to frustrate Nnamdi Kanu’s release from detention. The apex Igbo socio-cultural organization said that those behind the plots wanted to ensure that Nnamdi Kanu was only transferred to Kuje prisons instead of being released outright, citing the upcoming Anambra gubernatorial elections of 2025.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo cautioned against the clandestine individuals and groups who were obstructing and frustrating the release of Nnamdi Kanu, the detained IPOB leader, Secretary threatening that the identities of those individuals and groups would be exposed to the public if they continued their nefarious activities that were intended to impede the release of Nnamdi Kanu by December 15, 2023. Many interested parties are asking questions. How did the Igbo dwindle to this level?

Many years ago, the Igbo had a culture that was the envy of many nations. Their national government predicated on age grade authority. Igbo people respected their elders, whether such elders were rich or poor. That law was generally accepted by all Igbo because they saw that it maintained equity since everyone is older than someone.

If a child was born last week, there were others born this week who would be obligated to respect their elders. And so, that law held sway and maintained a level of sanity among Igbo people. But today, that respect for elders has been thrown to the winds. Some youths are quick to say the elders no longer deserve respect, that they do not merit it because they betrayed the youths for personal financial aggrandizement. And I think the fact is that Igbo youths don’t understand. How does an old man who has his walking stick as his only defence weapon engage a young rascal who has a gun in a fight? The elderly Igbo people cannot be so easily dismissed. They are certainly not as stupid as the youths claim. What I think is that the Igbo are victims of developing global circumstances.

About 50 years ago, the Igbo were distinguished for their apprenticeship practice. There was so much trust among Igbo people that parents would send their children to go stay and learn trading from an established business man for two to five years. Afterwards, the boss would “settle” his boy by helping him set up his own shop, giving him goods on credit which he sold and returned the money to the boss because of the trust that existed. But these days, it is either the master falsely accuses the apprentice of stealing his money and bundles him back home a few weeks before his graduation in order to avoid “settling” him or the boy would actually steal a huge amount of money from his master in other to “settle” himself. All this is because there is no more trust among Igbo people. Sadly, the trust that existed among the Igbo and for which they were distinguished has gone with the winds.

All these misunderstandings created a rift among the Igbo people so that the tendency for them became, “each man for himself and God for us all.” That situation presented the answer to the question: why are the Igbo no longer able to speak with one voice? And that led to another very pertinent question: how would any form of agitation in Igboland succeed when the Igbo keep betraying themselves because of monetary inducements?

The other day, Professor Soludo thought it was best to play politics with the pathetic case of Nnamdi Kanu, thinking he was fooling everyone. As if he so much cared about the battered IPOB leader during his political campaign in Awka, the state capital, he pleaded with the federal government to release Nnamdi Kanu to him. He pledged that he would produce him on demand. The Attorney General, Abubakar Malami said he had not got any documentation concerning Soludo’s request. He wanted Soludo to put his request in writing to the government. But Soludo did not. He refuse to follow his request up in writing and the story ended there. Any Igbo governor who was that interested in his peoples’ freedom would have followed the matter up with the help of other Igbo elites. But that was not the case with Professor Soludo. What Professor Soludo actually wanted was to use Nnamdi Kanu’s precarious position to garner votes in the pretence that he cared about what was happening to the young Igbo man. And I ask myself: who did this to the Igbo? Who is blindfolding the Igbo from seeing how deeply they are exercising self harm as a people?

The self-destroying position of Ndigbo worldwide reminded me of the Tower of Babel in the Bible. The Tower of Babel was built by the descendants of Noah in the plain of Shinar, soon after Noah’s flood. The aim of the builders was to make a name for themselves by creating a city with a tower that would reach the heavens, a tower that would protect them from another flood, should one happen. The Book of Genesis tells the story of Babylonians who wanted to make a name for themselves by building a mighty city and a tower “with its top in the heavens”. God disrupted the work by so confusing the language of the workers that they could no longer understand one another. The city was never completed, and the people were dispersed over the face of the earth.

And as I reflected on this spectacular narrative, I asked myself: are we not talking of the Igbo nation here? The circumstances seem to fit. Just like former President Olusegun Obasanjo once noted: For the Hausa, Kano is the world. For the Yoruba, Lagos is the world. But for the Igbo, the world is their village.”

Today the Igbo are scattered in every nook and cranny of the universe. Some people even say wherever you go and you don’t see an Igbo there, take to your heels because no good thing would come from there. So, if the Nigerian government continued to violate court orders because many think the judiciary in Nigeria has been compromised, why cannot the Southeast Governors’ Forum take up a case with ECOWAS to free one of their own as the Yoruba did in the case of Sunday Igboho? In a very critical way, that would become a pointer to the Igbo that they can or cannot get justice on the continent of Africa which they contributed so much to build. The leaders of Ohaneze Ndigbo should start to restore the integrity of the Igbo nation by returning the people to their original cultural values of age grade, respect for elders, trust among themselves and similar values for which the Igbo were distinguished. They must see that God is pointing them to the Tower of Babel and they must come around and learn once again to speak with one voice to Nigeria and to the world. It is never late.

* Asinugo is a British-Nigerian veteran journalist, author of ‘The Presidential Years from Dr. Jonathan to Gen. Buhari’ (Vol. 1 – 3) and Publisher of ROLU Business Magazine (Website: https://rolultd.com)