The ReArrest of Nnamdi Kanu - lessons for Revolutionary wannabes

I don’t have the medical qualifications that will allow me to make pronouncements on the mental state of the rearrested Supreme Leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu.

But the picture he cut in handcuffs suggested a confused man who appeared to be totally out of his depth.

The dejected, pathetic figure paraded in handcuffs is a far cry from the fiery militant who, in videos, issued bloodcurdling threats against all perceived enemies to his cause.

I honestly do not know why people preach, form or join organizations for which they are not prepared to face the consequences, or even pay the ultimate price if demanded.

Was the depressed and miserable Kanu we saw in captivity the same one who urged his partisans to wage war?

Why was he prepared to send men into their deaths when the prospect of a jail or death appears to intimidate him so much?

The Yoruba people have a saying: Ti owo omode o ba ti ko eku ida, ki nbere iku ti o pa Baba re / If a child’s hands have not firmly grasp the handle of the sword, he doesn’t make inquiries about the death of his father.

Note this: “A state is a polity under a system of governance with a monopoly on force. There is no undisputed definition of a state. A widely used definition from the German sociologist Max Weber is that a "state" is a polity that maintains a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence, although other definitions are not uncommon”. Wikipedia

What this means is that a state, any state, will tolerate any antics you decide to throw around until you decide to challenge its monopoly on the use of force, at which juncture all bets are off.

It also means that any intelligent and rational person does not decide to challenge the state militarily unless and until he is adequately prepared and ready.

Apart from sheer braggadocio and the launching of empty bombast behind computer screens, what were/are Kanu’s strategies to challenge the Fossil in Aso Rock?

What are his plans to actualize the realization of the birth of his beloved Biafra?

Nnamdi Kanu’s arrest and humiliation should be a sterling lesson to all would be revolutionaries.

©️Fẹmi Akọmọlafẹ

Fẹmi Akọmọlafẹ is a writer and author

June 30, 2021