BAIL JUMP AND ANOTHER REQUEST
It may become unbearable for someone like a president receiving in audience the elder statesmen for something that is quite impossible perhaps legally frowned at and fragile to the well being and security of the nation, purposely for the pardoning the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People Of Biafra Kanu in the state house. It's quite flabbergasting by all and sundry sightings of such statesmen converging towards the Seat Of Power having the knowledge of what transpired between the group and the Nigerian state. This raises enormous questions that need to be properly drawn by the statesmen and answered before heading to the State House.
There has been over the pages of history activists across the world fighting for the freedom of their people on a peaceful and legitimate stance, Mahatma Gandhi of India, and Mandela of South Africa, worth mentioning in this regard. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the self-acclaimed IPOB leader who has a cross-national identity, created the movement in 2014 which goes contrary to the attainment of freedom of Biafra on legitimate stance. propagating via Radio Biafra: incitement, conspiracy, public disturbance, who was quoted on 15 September 2015 in Los Angeles at the World Igbo Congress to have said to the audience "we need guns and we need bullets" as a guest speaker.
This call, plus the radio broadcast from the UK which ignited the militancy group which resembles the kind in the South South during Ya'a Adua: attacking high-profiled personalities, in the SE alongside security personnel, burning down government establishments, hoisting Biafran flag which led to his arrest on 15 October 2015 in Lagos. His arrest stirred up a massive protest in Abuja, SE and SS, after too much court trial he was released on bail, and jumped bail and fled to the UK and continued instigating from there, which led to the formation of Eastern Security Network.
Later the Senator Abaribe who signed his bail withdrew from the agreement that the Nigerian Army did not adhere to the condition in which the bail was granted, on the invasion of Kanu's residence, which Kanu became a free man on his own 'half-exile' since he has the UK Nationality.
The president's response “You’ve made an extremely difficult demand on me as a leader of this country. The implication of your request is very serious. In the last six years, since I became President, nobody would say I have confronted or interfered in the work of the Judiciary. When Kanu jumped bail, got arrested and was brought back to Nigeria, I said the best thing was to subject him to the system. Let him make his case in court, instead of giving very negative impressions of the country from outside. I will consider your demand, but it is a heavy one" is superficial in the administrative language. The pragmatics within is quite ambiguous in its interpretation.
Mr President has trapped himself in a seemingly promise which perhaps if interpreted, he expressed such to recognise the highly reputable Igbo elders. If the constitution and the rule of law could be subverted on a premise of the African stereotype of 'respect for elders' as it's being done when a child offends, elders would go on his behalf and lobby, then that is a tradition where no rule governing the system. This is a matter of constitution and rule of law once interfered and tempered with, the system becomes a white paper on which people draw their sentiments.
Igbo people are now in a dark tunnel with hooks. When Kanu began his agitation, even if there was a voice from the so-called Igbo elders to call him to order, the voice was low; they were pandering from behind, surreptitious consensus endorsing what he was calling for. That is to say he was given trial-and-error tactics and they released a trigger on their legs. As he was apprehended again, he still has a powerful voice to command the ESN to raid and maim individuals subduing the economy of the region on the sit-at-home order plunging to fair and despair.
For the Igbo elders to request his release 'unconditionally' pragmatically means "give us our Biafra". The President has stated his stand, he has never interfered in Judicial proceedings, Zakzaky was granted bail, Sambo Dasuki, etc.. there was no presidential intrusion, then why this, why Igbo Elders are scared of free trial and justice on their son ?
Mr President said the implication of their request is very serious, quite weighty it would transgress to anarchy once the law is subverted, the president of course has a power to do but has no right to exercise such power. Here is a man who was granted a bail and he jumped it, facing a treason and terrorism charges, how sure is the country that if such a request is granted again, a leopard will change its hole ?
The amnesty program granted in the past to the South South militants, plus the Boko Haram rehabilitation and deradicalization program situated in two different geo-political zones were just a cursory of the whole idea, the pretension has not yielded a desired result. This of course opens the crack door to which a set of groups of people would go to the seat of power to lobby. The ball is now at the President's court to decide on his legacy he is writing on the surface of history, as his tenure elapsing heading to its sunset, a tough decision that will determine if the right of the citizens who lost their lives during this mayhem, the citizens who received the unleashed catastrophe would be recompensed and if releasing Kanu would end the whole jamboree on the ground and restore peace.
Ahmad Murtala
Ahmadmurtala43@gmail.com
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