Whitewashing Nnamdi Kanu..lol

This why I laugh when people try to dissociate him from Simon Ekpa

When Nnamdi Kanu started gaining prominence with his Radio Biafra around 2015, I was an ardent listener. I had to listen primarily because it was a rival radio station to ours (I worked for a radio station in Anambra then, and radio Biafra was terrestrial in the east).

I miss radio low key. I miss my locks high key

We started noticing that our audience size was diminishing. It was natural to find out why. We were already told the audience had moved to Radio Biafra, so I and my colleague, Tony Olisa Mbeki, decided to start paying attention to this radio Biafra to see exactly what was happening over there. Tony and I would finish morning program and go to our regular joint, tune to Radio Biafra and start listening.

To prove we were regular listeners in his early days, Tony and I still joke with some of Kanu’s presentations till date. Like when Tony calls me now, he usually goes, “Barrister, can you hear me” and I would reply, “I can hear you live and direct.” This was Nnamdi Kanu every time he was to exchange correspondence with a certain Barrister who always called in for analysis. “We speak the Truth and Nothing but the Truth” is another one of Kanu’s signature quotes. Tony still says this to me till date.

Tony and I at the Burial of one of our colleagues (2017)

It was easy to understand why he was winning listeners; he’s funny and sounds captivating. His radio show was simply far from boring. But 2 weeks in, I started noticing this guy was not okay at all. You could tell a potential dictator by just hearing them talk. Kanu was heading in that direction. Everything was lies and propaganda. He would dedicate a segment of his show to analyzing Nigerian Newspaper headlines, there the agenda was Hausa-Fulani-Yoruba. Everything was the fault of Hausa-Fulani-Yoruba. Nigeria media was Yoruba media for him, it didn’t matter if you operated in the east, west, north or south, everything was Yoruba media and every journalist, brown envelope.

You know that situation where you decide to give someone benefit of the doubt, but they just can’t stop lying and go as far as lying about certain things you are 100% sure of. That was Kanu. It got to point he accused FIFA (world football governing body), of Hausa-Fulani agenda. It was that bad. But the one that broke the camel’s back was the day he said the most outrageous thing I have ever heard anyone say. “when we get Biafra, we will conduct DNA on every single soul in Biafra land and if Hausa-Fulani-Yoruba blood is found in you, you would be deported” - Kanu (2015). I found that insane cos not only is practically next to impossible, it’s also a stupid idea. Imagine saying that knowing fully well that there’s such thing as inter-ethnic marriage. I just shook my head and said, “damn it, I have had enough of this man, he clearly is up to no good.”

Kanu, broadcasting on Radio Biafra.

I started telling everyone close to me that this Kanu guy was not who they should be listening to. Today everything I predicted is happening. I told them he was on a mission to radicalizing them and the end won’t be funny. Here we are today! It took personal experience for some of the folks I warned against listening to Kanu to understand my point. Some them had to lose businesses and loved ones due to sit at home to realize they were being scammed by Kanu.

I have to blame Buhari and the Nigerian government though for the role they played. And not like they played a partial role, the Nigerian govt had always (through its puppet masters) been central to the plot. Everything was according to plan, including Kanu’s arrest that turned him into a full blown monster

Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s most useless President arrested Kanu needlessly.

Of course we all followed events post-arrest of Kanu. He became a god. He was worshipped, and elevated far above any form of criticism. It got into his head and he went full authoritarian. It’s either his way or death for you. Any contrasting opinion, and you are a saboteur. Everything became burn this one down, burn that one down. That’s how southeast slowly started twinning with the northeast.

And before you open your smelly mouth to talk about, “criminals are taking advantage or hoodlums have highjacked the movement, this is not IPOB blah blah” remember that if Kanu didn’t introduce his extremist ideologies, there will be nothing for “bad-faith actors” to highjack.

You people better receive sense now or continue gassing up the new fraud Simon Ekpa, the market wey una dey price, una go buy am. By the time you’d realize you are destroying your region by yourselves, it will be too late.