This week alone, the level of destruction and the number of people killed in Southeast Nigeria are by far higher than the number of people killed in areas like Cameroon, Ethiopia, Syria and Yemen, where there are active warfare going on. The only war theater comparable to the Southeast today is Ukraine only that Ukraine is better because in Ukraine the war is openly declared. The war raging on in the Southeast is not only not declared but is mostly waged by faces groups making the war the most dangerous violent conflict in the world today.
As it appears, stakeholders in the Southeast have thrown in their all to salvage the insecurity ravaging the geopolitical zone. Conferences have been organized, security summits have been held and academics and security experts have assembled to brainstorm on ways of ending the insecurity. The latest in these efforts is the one initiated and currently led by the Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo. He has consulted with Anambra stakeholders both within and outside state as he looks ways of ending the insecurity particularly in Anambra. He has even gone as far as declaring amnesty for the unknown gunmen assumed to be behind the mayhem. The latest in these series of efforts was the visit he paid to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in the DSS dungeon.
However, all these efforts appear to be paying little or no dividends as the insecurity has continued to escalate. Like I said in the first paragraph of this article, the number of people who died in the Southeast this week alone has outpaced the number of those who died in active war theaters like Syria, Yemen and Ethiopia. Come to think of it, why does it look like none of these many efforts is bearing fruit?
Who is Behind the Insecurity in the Southeast?
The funny thing is that everybody in the Southeast, including those who are searching for solution behaves as if they don’t know the actual cause of the insecurity in the Zone. If you ask the security agencies, they will tell you IPOB is behind the problem. However, if you ask IPOB, the will say the atrocities engulfing the zone is sponsored by the DSS and Southeast politicians. Then ask Southeast politicians and you get answers more confusing that the ones coming from the security agencies and IPOB. For instance, at the beginning of the insecurity in the Southeast, Hope Uzodimma, the Governor of Imo stated that IPOB was behind the insecurity. However, after a while, it was no longer IPOB but his political opponents. The same goes for the Governor of Ebonyi State Dave Umahi who had at a point blamed IPOB for the insecurity and later retracted the claim saying that genuine agitation has been hijacked by hoodlums. In other words, nobody agrees that he or she knows who is behind the insecurity in the Southeast but is that true?
How the Nigerian Method is Worsening the Situation
In his book “Because I am Involved”, Chief Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu identity living in denial as the greatest problem facing Nigeria as a nation. Nigerians are like the Ostrich that hides its head in the sand in other not to notice that the hunter is around. But does that save the ostrich from the hunter? Not at all, rather, it makes it more vulnerable. The issue is that an average Nigerian would know where a particular problem is coming from, but no one wants to say it and confront the problem; rather everybody goes round suggesting every solution but the one solution that will actually solve the problem.
Typical examples of this crazy Nigerian situation are Southeast elders and politicians. These are busy pretending that they are looking for the cause and the solution to the problem of the insecurity in the Zone. Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo is shuttling between Lagos and Abuja to consult with Anambra indigenes on how to find solution to the nagging insecurity in the state. Does this mean that these people do not know the cause of the insecurity in the Southeast? The simple answer is that they know but are only afraid to confront the problem. But why waste time and resources on what obviously is not the cause of the problem and on solutions which they know will not solve the problem? The answer is simple: that is the Nigerian method: waste all the time in the world: look for all the causes in the whole world but don’t bother to look at the real cause and try all the solutions available as long as you don’t try the real solution. That is first grade self-deception but Nigerians are first grade self-deceivers.
The Real Cause of the Insecurity in the Southeast
No matter how all of us pretend ignorance, nearly everybody in Nigeria today, especially Southeasterners, knows that the insecurity in the Southeast is cause by two but interrelated problems: the quest for Biafra and the incarceration of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. If these two problems are solved this minute, the insecurity in the Southeast will disappear naturally without requiring anybody to hold any security summit or do any consultation.
Now, let’s assume that these two problems are complex and that it cannot be easily resolved. The question then becomes, why is it that nobody is at least discussing these real causes instead of wasting resources and time talking about things that are quite unrelated to the problem? As a journalist, I have attended many security summits and conferences on the insecurity in the Southeast in the past few months. The most astonishing thing is that in all of these gatherings, these two causes of the insecurity in the Zone are never mentioned. In fact, overtime, I have come to the conclusion that nobody from the Southeast, especially Igbo elites are interesting in ending the insecurity in the zone. They all are only pretending and want to be seen as doing something. In the real sense, they are all working against ending the insecurity.
Why the Insecurity Will Continue
There is an African proverb stating that he who does the same thing over and over but who expects a different result is a fool. Southeast elders and politicians have been moving round in a circle, hoping that the insecurity in the zone will go away. Unfortunately, the insecurity is not going away until the cause is addressed. The most unfortunate thing about the gimmicks these leaders play is that they don’t want Nnamdi Kanu released. While they come to the media to announce that they are working and negotiating with Mr. Buhari to have Kanu released, they are secretly working behind the scene to ensure that Kanu doesn’t come out. Their calculation is that Kanu is the architect of Biafra agitation and that the longer he stays behind bars the more the agitation loses its tempo and would gradually dies off. Unfortunately, they are wrong. Kanu’s incarceration instead of weakening the agitation will make it more deadly and violent. The result is all over the places. Even the blind man can see it. The fact is that until the issue of Biafra and the incarceration of Kanu is resolved, the Southeast will never be the same again.
