Gazetting The Unjust Terrorism Label On Ipob Is An Affront On The International Community -- RUSSELL BLUEJACK

Buhari Is Pushing Nigeria Closer To The Red Line

The real problem with Nigeria, it has been observed, is the graveyard quietness that follows every miscreance by our corrupt leaders. Nigerians are the worst set of humans when it comes to reaction to glaringly bad deeds by those we call leaders. Nigerians, I make bold to say, are ready to break through the wall when pushed to it. When Prof. Niyi Osundare wrote "HERE NOTHING WORKS," he actually had the docility and passivity of the masses in mind. The only time Nigerians are bold enough to say something is when someone musters the seemingly elusive and evasive hardihood to question some misdeeds. He becomes the object of scorn for doing the right thing. For some of the sheepish followers of our bad leaders, those that object are not LOYAL. Aha, loyalty is the word that fans the ember of nepotism, subjugation, alienation, and oppression! Any reaction to misgovernance translates to disloyalty. Let me delve into the forte of this piece.

Nigerians are buzzing like flies before decayed organisms in the face of obvious threat to our facsimile existence as a nation. Buhari's hatred for an ethnic group, backed by the fillip from the Hausa/Fulani cabal and elites, has driven this nation to the point of serious international watch. In his quest to evince his baseless hatred for the Igbo and any other ethnicity situated outside the North, he hastily and illicitly proscribed unarmed and victimized agitators for freedom. Extending his angst, he went ahead to label them terrorist after having sicced the Fulani members of the Armed Forces at them. What Buhari and his co-travelers seem not to understand is that the world knows when a supposed leader becomes a ruler and tyrant. The Buhari-led APC government is on the brink of being blacklisted internationally, for it is an international crime for a nation to disagree with the UN, EU, US, and even the UK all at once.

A situation where Nigeria and the international community are on parallel lines as to the legality of the terrorism label on IPOB is very ugly and precarious. The invasion of Libya and Iraq for the onward extermination of Gaddafi and Hussein, respectively, was the aftermath of such disagreement. Buhari, a President even more fragile, should begin to be presidential before it becomes too late. Those applauding his misdeeds are not his friends: they are the real potential beneficiaries of whatever will befall him. No president the world over is more knowledgeable than the UN and US. I heard of a serious behind-closed-doors international confabulation between Trump and his Israeli counterpart, and word has it that Biafra was the topic. These are are very dark days for Buhari and Nigeria. It is not too late for Nigeria.

Any attempt to gazette the internationally proscribed and condemned terrorism label on the peaceful indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) will meet a very stiff and vehement reaction from World Power. No nation can by itself label an organization terrorism, without the examination and justified viva of the international community. If this government were under the control of sapient and intelligent operators, they would have known that terrorism is never limited to any particular nation. The world is too wise and exposed to mouth and swallow the bitter pills of labeling an unarmed organization, which activities are globally known, terrorist. Sometimes I wonder what Buhari was thinking when he made an attempt to get the nod of the international community. Did he think he had them under his control? Meanwhile this is the same Buhari that was summarily apprehended in London in 2015, prior to the presidential election, for the massacre of thousands over his loss in 2011. That case is still breathing in the ICC pending when his diplomatic immunity as a sitting President will elapse. There is a plenitude of cases against Buhari in various courts all over the world. Someone should call this man, or whoever is in Aso Rock, to order before things get irredeemably bad for this ersatz fabrication we call nation. Nigeria is a concocted country, not a nation. Buhari's malfeasances are making that clearer.

The only crime the IPOB has committed is asking for freedom from this fortress called Nigeria. Doing this without resorting to arms is one reason Buhari's hate-induced terrorism label will continue to run into moral, legal, religious, and diplomatic brick walls. It is indubitable that the real crime the IPOB has committed against this government is its activism in the East coupled with its readiness to reach out its sister region, the South-South. The arrowhead of the refined and reinvigorated struggle for restoration of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, as well as its stakeholders worldwide, has taken the struggle a step further to the chagrin of those that plunder the resources of the sister regions. Interestingly, this malicious attempt to clamp down on these peaceful agitators has boomeranged. The struggle has snowballed into a globally-recognised agitation, making it impossible for Buhari to have his way anymore. Nigerians should warn Buhari before he completely blacklists Nigeria. The news bit US-based NBC about the corrupt anti-corruption war of this government does not augur well for the APC-led FGN. Nigeria is in the doldrums, economically and diplomatically. Things have really fallen apart. There is always dire consequence for shedding innocent blood in the guise of fighting corruption. Nigeria is being haunted by spirits of innocents that were brutally killed.

Lastly, our Buhari evoked the ire of the international community when he said little or nothing about the AREWA threat to the Igbo domiciled and doing business in the North. Buhari's criminal silence on that quit notice, preferring instead to pummel the peaceful IPOB on the basis of region, betrayed his tribalism and religious fundamentalism. The international community, even Britain, saw the glaring nepotism and division. Buhari embodies everything the 21st century world is against. As Buhari chases after the IPOB, the economy of Nigeria takes a deeper plunge. What we have is an elusive object of Buhari's scorn (the Igbo) versus a receding nation that is heading for DEPRESSION. What some of us still fail to recollect is that Donald Trump, POTUS, has not forgot that several unarmed Biafrans were chased and killed in Port Harcourt for celebrating his victory. Nigeria is fondly remembered for such nasty deed. If you were Trump, would you forgive? Buhari and his cronies should make hay while the sun shines because a stitch in time saves nine. A word is enough for the wise. A stubborn fly joins the corpse in the pit. Biafra has survived for several years. Any attempt to kill her enlivens her. Biafra is the proverbial cat with nine lives. You cannot stop a struggle that is both national and international. All hail Biafra!

Russell Idatoru Bluejack is a thinker, revolutionary writer, university tutor, and socio-economic and political analyst that writes from the creeks in the coastal part of Biafraland.

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