As part of the struggle for self-determination in the Southeast, the family of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has challenged all the Governors in the region and Igbo leaders to disclose why they had suddenly kept mute over the restructuring of Nigeria.
Kanu’s younger brother, Prince Emmanuel, stated this while speaking to newsmen in Umuahia at the weekend, said that “nobody is talking of restructuring again after those leaders, although without success, wanted Kanu to drop agitation for self-determination and agree to a restructured Nigeria.”
He said that at the peak of the agitation, the leaders lured Kanu to a meeting in Enugu where they put him under pressure to accept restructuring, a demand Kanu even agreed to oblige with a condition.
According to Emmanuel, before the meeting with South East Governors in Enugu, some respected Igbo leaders had also made a similar proposal to the IPOB Leader.
His words: ”Precisely on 30th August 2017, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu met with South East Governors. In fact, before the meeting, he had met with the late Dr Alex Ekwueme who pressured him to agree on the restructuring of Nigeria along the 1960 and 1963 Constitutions.
”The late Chief Mbazulike Amaechi and Professor Ben Nwabueze told him the same thing. They put him under pressure to accept restructuring.
”I remember he told them including the South East Governors that if they start negotiations on restructuring, he would tone down agitation for 12 months, but shockingly the South East Governors never related these messages to the Federal Government. They swept it under the carpet and four days after the meeting, our house was invaded during the infamous Operation Python Dance ll”.
Emmanuel, however expressed doubts over the real motives of the South East Governors for the Enugu parley with his brother as they never raised the issue of restructuring even after his father’s compound was raided.
“So, we are now thinking: was the reason they invited him for that meeting to kill him? This is because while we were going for that meeting, there were things we observed along the road but such observations are better disclosed by Onyendu (Kanu) himself.
”Regrettably, the trauma from the invasion of our compound was what killed my parents”, Prince Emmanuel maintained, adding that the family will not forget the bitter experience in a hurry.
He, therefore, wondered why the clamour for restructuring had died down since then.
”How come up till today, nobody has ever mentioned the discussion that took place in Enugu? Why are the South East Governors and senators keeping mute?
”They tried to convince Nnamdi Kanu at the meeting that restructuring would be better than outright Biafra. So, restructuring was a choice proposed by Igbo Leaders.
“My brother told them at the meeting that if they were serious about it, he would want everybody – the necessary stakeholders – to be on the table for genuine discussions on how to move Nigeria forward.
”He told them that the federal government and other nationalities that make up Nigeria must come together for serious discussions. But could that discussion that my brother was insisting on what they wanted to avoid by invading our house?
”Now my question to the Federal Government, South East Governors and Igbo leaders: why are they mute about restructuring? Why is nobody mentioning restructuring again?”
Kanu’s brother also wondered why the world is keeping quiet over the continued detention of the IPOB Leader even after several court judgements ordering his immediate and unconditional release.
”Why is everybody quiet even after the Umuahia Federal High Court and Abuja Court of Appeal ruling ordering the immediate release of my brother? Injustice to Kanu is injustice everywhere not just in Nigeria but all over to the world!”