Libation for Soludo, By Majeed Dahiru

Once again, Charles Chukwuma Soludo, a professor, economist, former university teacher, Central Bank of Nigeria governor and current governor of Anambra state has demonstrated transformational leadership when he took the decisive step to end the scourge of “ghost Monday” [sit a home] every first working day of the week in Onitsha, the largest commercial city east of the River Niger. Having followed his key leadership decisions on the economic and security management of Anambra state, which has sustained the state as a leading sub national economic power house, his storming of the Onitsha Main Market, said to be the largest in West Africa to enforce a ban on “sit at home” on Mondays by shutting the market until his orders are complied with, sets Charlie Nwa Mgbafor as he is fondly called apart as a hands on, effective, visionary, competent and capable leader that is commensurate with his education and exposure.

It was sometime in August 2021 that in reaction to the arrest in Kenya of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and his subsequent detention by the Nigerian authorities that a ‘’sit at home’’ across the entire south east region was declared every Monday to press home the demand for his release. Before his August 2021arrest, Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB, A Biafra Republic separatists group had a running battle with the Muhammadu Buhari administration between starting from 2015, when Kanu was first arrested. The group was subsequently declared a terrorist one and banned by the federal government of Nigeria. Following his release in 2017, Kanu fled Nigeria citing threat to his life by the Nigerian authorities.

And from his base in the diaspora, Kanu continued his Biafra Republic separatist’s agitations with renewed vigour. Unfortunately, Kanu will transform his agitations from a peaceful demand for a separate Home land for Nigeria’s Igbo people into a militant movement when he formed the Eastern Security Network [ESN] purportedly to fight against killer Fulani herdsmen that were terrorising Nigeria. But with arms and ammunition flowing into the hands of ESN militants, it was only a matter of time before a Boko Haram like insurgency was launched in the south east. This insurgency will transfigure the Igbo heartland of Nigeria from the most peaceful, secure and prosperous part of Nigeria to war zone.

No doubt, the resurrection of the spirit of Biafra Republic fifty years after its still birth in 1970 can be attributed to President Muhammadu Buharí’s mismanagement of Nigeria’s diversity through a most clannish, sectional, parochial and hyper-partisan leadership style that particularly marked Ndigbo for marginalisation because he was democratically rejected by the region in the 2015 election that brought him to power. I was a vocal voice against Buhari’s sectional tendencies and particularly his anti-Igbo posture as a failure of his leadership to unite Nigeria by failing to administer it by the principles of equity, fairness and justice.

However, as somebody who actively lent his voice against Buhari’s mistreatment of Ndigbo, I took special responsibility the unintended outcome of the subsequent reaction to Buhari’s marginalisation, which I considered an unwise attempt to cut ones nose to spite the face. As soon as Kanu floated the ESN, I picked up my phone and reached out to prominent Igbo leaders warning of the coming disaster and why it was time to severe ties with Nnamdi Kanu’s IPOB sentimentally, emotionally and financially before it’s too late.

I will hence go from private discussions to public discourse on this page, when Nnamdi Kanu was brought back to Nigeria from Kenya as Buhari’s guest in Yellow House and the unilateral declaration of ‘’sit at home’’ every Monday in Igbo land to press President Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani man for Katsina state, North West Nigeria to release the IPOB leader. In cautioning against this folly of ghost Monday in article titled “In Buhari’s Nigeria Ndigbo lost Nothing”, I wrote “Like their previous attempts to cut their nose to spite their face, the” Ghost Monday” declaration of IPOB on the south east is another self-defeatist misadventure that will bring enormous economic losses to Ndigbo. The Ghost Monday declaration will neither affect President Buhari and his “Fulani Jihadists” nor will it put pressure on him to release a man that was tactless enough to sleep walk into his jail a second time. The enormous emotional investment on Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB has made many Ndigbo oblivious of the fact that they do not need to cut their nose to spite their face by embarking on political and economic self-immolation just to protest President Buhari’s marginalisation. In Buhari’s Nigeria, Ndigbo lost nothing to his marginalisation just as Arewa gained nothing to his favouritism’’.

Writing further, I stated, “Whereas, Ndigbo are excluded from the kitchen cabinet and headship of security services in Buhari’s Nigeria, Ala Igbo is still the most prosperous and secure parts of Nigeria while Arewa land is poorest and most insecure parts of Nigeria. With a reputation for being the masters of Nigeria’s commerce and industry sector, the wealth and prosperity of Ndigbo has not diminished but grown phenomenally in Buhari’s Nigeria in spite of his marginalization. On the contrary, Buhari’s Arewa land is embroiled in war on many fronts ranging from Boko Haram insurgency in the North east, Herdsmen terrorism in the northwest and north central. Despite appointing the heads of the army, navy, police, DSS, NIA, Civil Defence, Immigration, Customs in addition to the ministers of defence, police affairs and National security adviser, from the region, northern Nigeria remains the epic centre of Nigeria’s insecurity. As the largest human slaughter slab in Africa, northern Nigeria recorded over 3000 deaths in the first half of 2021 alone with thousands of people kidnapped for ransom and thousands more displaced from their homes’’. I concluded by advising thus, ‘’ The time has come for Ndigbo to divest their emotional investment away from Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB before they lead them to the next round of self-destruction and this emotional divestment should start by defying the “ghost Monday” order by the separatist group.”  

In taking the decisive step towards defeating the last frontier of IPOB influence in Igbo land, which happens to be the largest market in West Africa, where Igbo traders from the five states of the South East converge for trading activities, Governor Soludo is only seeking to severe the umbilical cord of Nidigbo from Nnamdi Kanu’s IPOB before they are led into another round self-destruction arising from indoctrination and mass radicalization around ideals that have proved injurious economically, politically and socially. And the eventually reopening of Onitsha Main market by the following Monday without any breach clearly shows that Governor Charles Chukwma Soludo has won the ideological war against misguided separatists and have substantially freed Ndigbo from a disastrous ideological captivity that often sets them into a self-destruct mode.

I have always said it that government is the god on earth and Governor Soludo has proven this beyond reasonable hence he deserves our libation. As leader, Soludo will not allow the tail to wag the dog. This is transformational leadership at its best and Soludo has essentially saved a people from themselves. To sustain this success, Ndi Anambra and by extension Ndigbo should support and rally round Charlie Nwa Mgbafor as he is deserving of our libation. If only northern Nigeria had governors like Charles Chukwuma Soludo, Nigeria would have been spared the disaster of Boko Haram insurgency and Fulani banditry.

Majeed Dahiru, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja and can be reached through [email protected].