A Professor of International Relations and Strategic Studies, who is also the Director, Center for Contemporary Security Affairs, Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, Professor Femi Olufunmilade has called on the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami to thread softly in the treatment of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who is in the custody of the Department of State Security Services (DSS).
It would be recalled that the IPOB leader was arrested and extradited to Nigeria from the United Kingdom and was paraded today at the Federal High Court in Abuja in continuation of his treasonable felony charge.
Prof. Olufunmilade, who gave the admonition in a video sermon exclusive to Njenje Media News, advised the President not to gloat over the re-arrest of the IPOB leader.
In his words:
“I am passing this message across to President Buhari, the Attorney General of the federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, both of them, we have been together for a long time as political allies in the days of the defunct CPC and even before then and even though one is not part of those who can take decisions for the administration, one still feels that one should be able to intervene with pieces of advice when it is most needed.”
“I want us not to view the arrest of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB as a thing to gloat or rejoice over because I want to talk to you as an authority in conflict management, conflict resolution, conflict prevention and I am putting on my cap of conflict prevention presently. The Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who was taken to custody, who later jumped bail and now lately arrested is not the same Mazi Nnamdi Kanu of old, the Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in custody right now is one who embodies the hopes and aspirations of thousands, if not millions of Igbo youths who are ready to follow him to any length and we have seen how he is been able to magnetize them to himself, whether you believe in the logic of the cause he is advocating for or not, the fact remains that he enjoys huge followership that is consequential as far as peace and harmony, particularly as the South-Eastern part of Nigeria are concerned”.
While calling for dialogue between the Federal Government and the IPOB leader and other voices of dissent, he said:
“So I would want to plead with the authorities to be magnanimous in victory, ‘victory’ in quote and to go beyond that, to see how a window can be open for dialogue so that whatever the grievances of his followers are, he would be able to resolve it amicably but if you stand on the ground that they are terrorists, they should be treated with an iron hand, well I am not sure we are going to see an end to this any time soon because from my observation of the type of crowd he attracts, it’s quite electrifying, it’s quite magnetic and they are overwhelmingly large and I don’t see just running back into their cocun simply because he has been arrested. So I would rather plead that the Federal government uses this opportunity to portray itself as one that can apply what President Obasanjo called the stick and carrot approach. He should be saying now, let us discuss, what actually is your problem? I am not talking of Nnamdi as a person, I am talking about the collective of Igbo youths and Igbo senior citizens who are also quietly behind the scene in support of the agitation by the IPOB members”
“So if anyone sits in a comfort zone and say these are charlatans, these people don’t matter, it’s like postponing the evil day because the caliber of Yoruba people that I have seen coming out to protest locally and internationally include professors, lawyers, engineers, top medical doctors, some of the first-rate medical consultants and I am not talking of a dozen crowd or a couple of hundred, I am talking of thousands, particularly in western Nations. President Muhammadu Buhari, this is the time for you to put any form of inhibition aside and open a door for dialogue.”
He also called on the President to caution those around him from stirring further animosity:
“Don’t let any of your aides; any of your assistants make this an occasion for passing across provocative messages on the social media, something like: ‘see what has happened to Nnamdi Kanu, and his followers, you will see what will become of you. That will be terribly counter-productive and I am not a soothsayer, I’m not a member of IPOB but I’m a social scientist and an observer of trends in Nigeria and I know that the crowd I see that these guys pull, these Nnamdi Kanu pull, some of them are highly educated, sophisticated, the idea that they are all illiterate, traders is not true. Some of them are highly placed people, so we should not allow this to produce another form of Boko Haram”
Taking precedence from how deadly terrorist sect, Boko-Haram metamorphosed from the mild pressure group it was to a deadly terror group on account of the extra-judicial killing of its leader, Yusuf, he said:
“You know Mohammed Yusuf was arrested too, similarly and we don’t know what happened, the next thing was they produced his corpse and it was like the end of Boko Haram had come and before you knew what was happening, and Abubakar Shekau was upon us. I don’t want an Abubakar Shekau in the case of IPOB; I want whatever grievances these IPOB members have to receive a hearing at the Presidential level.”
He further called on President Buhari to extend the olive branch to the IPOB leader and his oeople as he did to Miyetti Allah:
“Afterall, the Miyetti Allah, despite the atrocities its members are committing across the country, killing, maiming, destroying farms and they keep talking and defending their people, they have not been taken to jail, rather the federal government is talking about reclaiming grazing routes for them. So in a way, the federal government recognizes that they have some legitimate claims and whether the method the President wanted to use to solve their problems is right or wrong, the fact remains that he gave them a hearing and he spoke in a way that would sooth their nerves. Why can’t President Buhari extend the same to all groups agitating.” he added.