By Lasisi Olagunju

An epic poet describes the Fulani hunter as “shepherd of wild animals.” The hunter is also the one “who knows the calm and wild forest, with its many dangerous paths…..” When a man so described describes you as a target, you had better go sew a dress of steel.

If you are from the South-West and you can read, read this: “Our next target now is this geo-political zone. The south-west geo-political zone. You know we are good at getting the target. We will do all that is possible to bring them into the fold.” That is from Abdullahi Ganduje, immediate past governor of Kano State and incumbent national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He made the solemn pledge in Akure, the Ondo State capital, after his party’s governorship election victory in that state two weeks ago.Now, which fold was Ganduje talking about? And who are the “we” that are “good at getting the target”? Ganduje is smart. He chose his words deliberately and carefully. The strongman from Kano has significantly stepped back from his earlier obsession with capturing Oyo and Osun states. He now targets the entire zone. For whom? It can’t be for the APC – the party already has two-thirds of the zone. In Adebayo Faleti’s ‘Ogun Awitele’ (Foretold War), a band of thieves sent a handwritten letter to a village head: “We are coming to rob your people in seven days’ time.” The tone of the letter rattled the Baale and his chiefs. If you are sure of the efficacy of your amulets, you swear by them. The leader of the band of thieves signed his name as Ajiboogunsoro (he-who-wakes-up-to-converse-with-charms). A significant takeaway from that moment of fear and anxiety is the village head’s charge to his security chiefs to always know that no matter how powerful the boastful invaders are, “you should always remember that you are hunters, they are thieves (ode ni yín, olè ni wón)”. What Ganduje, the big man, said is evocative of a deja vu. There is something in Nigeria’s political history that suggests today’s mission as an echo of a daring, fateful yesterday.But, whatever the man might be saying, I suggest he and his “we” take time to watch closely the Eyo masquerade of Lagos and listen attentively to their songs. The Eyo seductively mock their challengers with a folk song composed for colonialism on the futility of its land-grabbing propensity. They sing: “The white man took Oluwole; Lagos did not utter a word. With ease, the white man took Marina; again Lagos was silent. Now, they want to take Isale Eko. They think we are dumb.” The Eyo actually use the Hausa word, Kurumo (deaf and dumb). The Kano man, Ganduje, understands perfectly the imagery of the speechless who is at the same time dead in hearing. I am very sure that no one ever takes the South-West as a zone of the invalid, deaf and dumb.Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is a former governor of Kano State. He has been the boss (and friend) of Ganduje from the beginning of time. In a speech he delivered at the convocation ceremony of Skyline University, Kano, two weeks ago, Kwankwaso claimed that “Lagos” was working hard to enslave the whole North. He said: “Today, we can see very clearly that there is a lot of efforts from the Lagos axis to colonize this part of the country.” Kwankwaso is an old war horse and a rambunctious power-player. You ignore him at your peril, and to your sorrowYou remember a gentleman called Festus Odimegwu, a former Managing Director of the Nigerian Breweries Plc who was made the chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC) by President Goodluck Jonathan? In October, 2013, because Odimegwu said “No census has been credible in Nigeria since 1816″ (1866?), Kwankwaso stormed the Villa and asked President Jonathan to sack the man as NPC chairman. Kwankwaso told State House correspondents after meeting Jonathan: “I also raised the issue of the chairman of the National Population Commission, NPC, headed by one Festus Odimegwu. We are not happy about that appointment, and (we) think that it was a mistake. He (Odimegwu) had only worked in the alcoholic industry all his life. And my guess is that he’s taking a lot of his products and that is why we feel that his appointment is a mistake because he cannot be the chairman of NPC and at the same time attack what his predecessors have done.” With “automatic alacrity”, Jonathan obeyed Kwankwaso and asked Odimegwu to go on October 17, 2013. That is how you feel the power of power.Ganduje was direct in naming his target: the South-West. Kwankwaso went poetic; Lagos was (is) his metaphor for the West. The man who wants to be president of Nigeria also spoke on tax collection. He said: “Today, we are aware that the Lagos young men are working so hard to impose taxes and take away our taxes from Kano and this part of the country to Lagos.” Who are Kwankwaso’s “Lagos young men”? And what VAT is Kwankwaso fighting over? VAT from confiscated products of “the alcoholic industry”? Or from the leveled groundnut pyramids of Kano?Kwankwaso spoke about colonialism; Ganduje spoke about “getting the target.” Those two deserve more than anyone’s passing attention. Between them, Kano has been a captive cripple since 1999. Ibrahim Shekarau who acted during an interlude was Kwankwaso’s permanent secretary. The incumbent governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, is Kwankwaso’s son-in-law. Check the figures: How many poor people did they meet in Kano in 1999, how many do they have now? In his ‘The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance,’ Abraham Maslow wrote in 1966: “If the only tool you have is a hammer, it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail.” Some describe what Maslow propounded as the ‘law of the instrument’. Others say it is the ‘law of the hammer’. Yet, some other analysts prefer to christen it ‘Maslow’s hammer’ or ‘the golden hammer.’ For persons whose idea of leadership is all about slave raiding, zone targeting and capturing, their choice of mission will always employ the rhetoric of slavery.While Ganduje and Kwankwaso are doing their own their ways, the third Kano man, Shekarau, has been busy setting up a group he calls League of Northern Democrats (LND). At a meeting with the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) in Kaduna some days ago, a more nuanced Shekarau spoke on why he is doing what he is doing: “This marks the beginning of what we hope will be a transformative coalition for Northern Nigeria to confront its challenges…The challenges facing our region – poverty, insecurity, illiteracy, religious intolerance, disunity, and diminishing political influence – are indeed serious. The North is today in an ugly situation…” There is a fitting quote here attributed to Albert Einstein: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Those who disfigured the face of beautiful northern Nigeria cannot now beautify it. You know what happened when the monkey insisted she wanted to beautify her child’s ugly face? She pushed the eyeballs deeper into the sockets. Monkey’s fingers are not structured to beautify anything. Take a look at them.So, when I heard Ganduje say that his target was the South-West, I wondered why it is not his “target” that Kano’s groundnut pyramids are restored. And, when Kwankwaso said ‘Lagos’ was determined to colonise his “part of the country”, you should wonder why his rhetoric was all about power and not how to make his part of the country as safe and prosperous as the part where Lagos belongs. And Shekarau spoke about the North’s “diminishing political influence.” If I would counsel him, I would suggest that what the North of 2024 needs to regain its mojo is for its leaders to make the region safe by educating their young, and empowering and feeding their poor without enslaving them.I call Kwankwaso, Ganduje and Shekarau the three musketeers of Kano. A soldier armed with a musket is a musketeer. In French history, we read of the Musketeers of the Guard (Mousquetaires de la garde) or the King’s Musketeers (Mousquetaires du roi). They existed to fight the king’s battles. Their exploits of guile, of swordsmanship and chivalry later spilt over to the plains of popular culture. Because of them, we have books and films with ‘The Three Musketeers’ (Les Trois Mousquetaires) as titles. The story of Kano since 1999 has been an intricate story of war and romance among those three musketeers who shared the years equally among them. They are not done with that city state, and with their North. They are not even done with the whole country. That is what you get when an elite band targets, captures and enslaves an enclave. Get your popcorn. They appear gearing up for war – with “Lagos”. And a good fight is coming.

A Reminiscence by Iyorwuese Hagher OON.

Wanteregh Paul Iyorpuu Unongo, Nigeria’s Stormy Petrel, is no more. For more than sixty years, Unongo dominated the Nigerian political stage. He was a groundbreaking catalyst for social progress, a public intellectual, a revolutionary idealogue, a ferocious fighter for social justice, a cultural icon, a peace-builder, and a perpetual source of political enchantment.

Above all, he was the Lion of Tiv and a foremost Nigerian nationalist.

As a young man growing up in Tivland in the Benue Valley, Paul Unongo was nothing special or significant except his good looks. Like other young Tiv children, he was born on fresh green leaves inside his parents’ thatched hut.

He suffered deprivation and the horrendous collective despair of Tiv society.

The Tiv lacked everything that made life meaningful. There was no electricity until the 70s; there was a chronic lack of potable water, and there still is. The Tiv were Nigeria’s designated hewers of wood and drawers of water. They sacrificed sweat and much blood-fighting world wars, building the colonial railways across the country and the two major national bridges on the Benue and Niger rivers uniting the country. And they mined the Tin (Kuza) on the Jos Plateau. They died in droves to make the British empire rich.

The colonists appropriated Tiv agriculture and subverted from food production to cash-crop production of export commodities, mainly soybeans and sesame (renamed Benue seed—Benniseed). Tiv farmed and cheaply sold these crops to the British monopolist John Holt, who determined commodity prices. Meanwhile, the colonial government assessed horrendous taxes payable to the colonial government. They labored extensively and got little to nothing for themselves.

Paul Unongo’s academic brilliance saw him through the Nigerian school system. He tasted the feel of fresh, crisp bank notes working in the Barclays Bank and even rose to be a sub-manager. But Unongo had his sights on being much more than a prisoner of bank vaults. He wanted to pursue education to the farthest, and that he did. He came to Canada to study Psychology at the University of Alberta and Edmonton. But he learned much more than mere psychology.

He became radicalized. The Black Civil Rights Movement in the United States profoundly impacted the young Paul Unongo. He enlisted in campus and mainstream Canadian politics that elected Pierre Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, in 1968.                                                              

While in Canada, Unongo compared his situation to the appalling conditions of Tiv land, where he came from, and his emerging country, Nigeria, pathetically embroiled in a needlessly shameful civil war. He wanted to return home and make a difference. In his mind, he was both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Soon enough, opportunity dramatically presented itself.

Biafra was gaining world sympathy from the perception that the Nigerian Civil War was a genocide being waged by Northern Muslims against the Christian Easterners. Unongo’s relative and mentor, the Federal Minister of Transport, Hon. J.S. Tarka, enlisted Unongo’s charisma and loquaciousness alongside Rev. Father Akor in the Nigerian diplomatic response to Biafran propaganda. The duo traveled through Canada and the United States, dispelling the propaganda of Northern Muslims warring with Eastern Christians; they were credible voices. They succeeded in their mission.

Both Paul Unongo and the Rev. Father Akor were Northern Christians. Unongo’s effectiveness as a diplomat endeared him to the Yakubu Gowon administration, and he created yet another opportunity to serve by returning home to start and head the Department of Psychology at the University of Lagos. This became the return, the homecoming, and the rebirth of Paul Unongo to Nigeria’s historical and political significance.

Unongo’s decision to return home to Nigeria and join the politics of agitation did not go well with the Tiv political leadership. Hon. J.S. Tarka was particularly miffed that his hitherto brilliant assistant, Paul Unongo, now back from abroad, had grown wings and had a different vision for Tivland. He had enlisted the new military administration in Jos to erode Tarka’s legitimacy, influence, and grip on Tiv politics.

Unongo’s iconic booklet “Where Do We Go from Here”  laid out a coherent manifesto for the nation and Tiv land. He then cheekily announced his arrival on the Nigerian political stage.

“I confess most proudly that I am a Tiv Tribesman but a most dedicated Nigerian nationalist.”

Throughout the sixty years of Unongo’s political reign in Tivland and his activism on the Nigerian political stage, Unongo maintained dual loyalty and allegiance to the country, Nigeria, and his beloved Tiv nation. Paul Unongo’s political mobilization of Tiv cultural dances and performances, finance, the youth, and the elite left little room for Hon. Tarka. Even when J.S. Tarka tried to make a come-back during the Constitutional Conference of 1978, Unongo’s smart moves had Tarka disqualified for not filing taxes on time.  Barrister J.T. Vembe, a young lawyer from Mbakor, his immediate constituency, took his place. Unongo led his team of intellectuals to the 1978 Constitutional Conference to craft the 1979 Constitution, while Tarka retreated ruefully into exile to his Home in Highgate, London. He watched the grave of the great Karl Marx from his bedroom window daily. He resolved to return to Nigeria and avenge his humiliation at the merciless hands of his former political mentee, Paul Iyorpuu Unongo.

As the ban on party politics was lifted, Tarka resuscitated his structures of the UMBC and plotted his revenge even as his body was now wracked with cancer. He rallied his traditional base and even recruited young elements from among Unongo’s elite. He formed the National Club that became the NPN, and Paul Unongo likewise formed an alliance with DR. Nnamdi Azikiwe and became Secretary of the Nigerian People’s Party.

Unongo aggressively entered Tiv and Benue politics, carving a vast political niche and creating a mass of passionate followers. He refused to compromise, dialogue, or seek accommodation with the older generation, which equally fawned over their leader, J.S. Tarka, whom the Tiv loved with a blind passion. Unongo referred to Tarka and his political base as “Those Tiv who belonged to that unique group of false apostle politicians of the First Republic.”

The elite versus masses dichotomy was born and has continued to dictate the political pulse of Benue politics. The 1979 elections were the test case of whether Paul Unongo’s NPP would win the election in Benue State or the NPN headed by J.S. Tarka. The NPP lost, and the NPN won with a landslide. But Paul Unongo took advantage of it. He authored the NPN/NPP alliance that ushered in the Second Republic, to the chagrin of J.S. Tarka, who led the NPN to victory. Indeed, but for Shagari’s strong sense of justice and political sagacity, Unongo’s ministerial position would have been a mere pipe dream. Unongo’s adversarial strategy now gave Benue State more than its share of Ministers.

Tiv Land had both Minister of Steel Development in Unongo, while Hon. Isaac Shaahu became Minister of Commerce. Paul Unongo was a profoundly polarizing personality, and the NPP Party never accepted defeat at the polls. Even after the death of J.S. Tarka in 1980, Unongo’s political fortunes dived. Allegations of corruption from irrefutable whistle-blowers confronted him. He resigned from his ministerial post, as J.S. Tarka had done earlier.

Tarka became a Senator, and his son, Simeon Tarka, became a Member of the House of Representatives. He decisively descended on Paul Unongo, whom he described as “Braggadocio.” Throughout the rest of his life, Paul Unongo suffered electoral defeat after defeat. He was hexed and jinxed to run and never win. He serially lost the race to the Governorship of Benue State and the Senate. He lost the nomination for Presidential flag bearer in the SDP under option A4.

His candidates also lost to the traditional base of Tarka. Unongo continued to lose until he withdrew from all political contests to be a celebrated elder and statesman. In this new role, Unongo profoundly influenced Nigeria’s Military and Civilian presidents, who found his charisma and intellectual appeal on public policy irresistible.

Paul Unongo’s Legacy to Benue

1. Paul Unongo’s generosity was legendary. He gave scholarships to Tiv youth to study in America and Russia and made critical appointments to Tiv sons like Tachia Jooji and Moses Saror at Ajaokuta Steel Company. Before his Ministerial appointment, Unongo had accumulated a sizeable financial chest, and he built Secondary Schools and a Specialist Hospital in Katsina-Ala, the headquarters of one of the newly created Local Governments.

2. Unongo’s alliance and friendship with the Benue-Plateau Governor, J.D. Gomwalk, split the large Tiv Division into three Local government administrations.

3. Unongo pioneered and cultivated the interest of the Tiv youth in academic careers and pursuits.  Unongo claimed, “Concern for Tiv deplorable and unacceptable social condition has forced me to descend from my comfortable ivory tower in Lagos and speak frankly with and to the Tiv people demanding that they face the harsh reality of their miserable backwardness and do something about it.” (Source): “Where Do We Go From Here?”

4. Unongo introduced the Tiv and Benue youth to modernization. He introduced the youth to nightclub life and pop music. Several youths crossed the threshold of morality and became victims of crime and anti-social life. The effect of Unongo on the youth was electrifying and riveting. Although Unongo never drank alcoholic beverages nor smoked, Jos, Gboko, and Makurdi youth danced, drank, and smoked.

They also kept late hours at Juladaco nightclubs. They cultivated long hair, wore the peace pendant, and sang the anthem of the Black Power Movement, “Say it loud, I am black and proud.” He spread the music of peace, love, and harmony. Many of my contemporaries abandoned the quest for higher education to follow the cult-like social movement of Paul Unongo.

5. Paul Unongo has significantly impacted Tivland culture. He has changed mores and morals, even dress codes, and awakened interest in Tivland’s traditional religion and rituals. He has imported costly festivals into Tivland and the un-Tiv practice of keeping corpses for a long time without burying them. To cap it all off, Wantaregh Paul Iyorpuu Unongo declared himself the spiritual and political leader of Tivland. These claims have not been contested!

6. Unongo gave his wealth and possessions to the people. No Tiv politician has displayed more incredible generosity than Wantaregh. Apart from scholarships, he gave out loans to farmers without seeking repayment. He made the modern life of education, capital accumulation, and social inclusion appealing. Unongo’s entire existence was a labor of love for the Tiv people and Nigeria. He strove to be a change agent to improve the Tiv people’s deplorable plight and sought social inclusion and justice for all.

Unongo’s Legacy to Nigeria

1. Unongo’s contribution to Nigeria’s civil war effort was genuine and patriotic. He said that he undertook it “on the official behalf of the Federal Military Government. I challenged the wisdom of foreign friends, foreign meddlers, foreign apostles of doom and racial hate, and foreign corrupt organized Churches.”

Unongo’s dual loyalty to the Tiv tribe and Nigeria made many Nigerians proud of their culture, as Unongo was fiercely a Tiv cultural icon. Unongo believed in the power of Nigeria’s diversity and the resolute dignity and rights of the ordinary people who had been robbed of their citizenship by a retrogressive traditional cabal that still treated Nigerian citizens as their conquered subjects despite Nigeria being a republic.

He promoted Tiv republicanism and scoffed at offers to be conferred with a traditional chieftaincy. Brazenly, he gave himself a somewhat whimsical and mystical title, “Wanteregh,” son of the land (Son of man?), which he clung to with magisterial fierceness. He was the iconic Tiv leader and sought to teach Tiv values of integrity, courage, boldness, and justice. Unongo was the bright knight with shiny armor who warred against all injustices. He was a total enigma who took life by its horns, making his rules and creating his political, social, and cultural spaces. He lived and died by his terms.

2. Unongo’s greatest gift to Nigeria was his blunt refusal to cooperate with the enemies of Nigeria who tried to enshrine the Sharia law into the 1979 constitution. Unongo led a team of young intellectuals like Mvendaga Jibo, Solomon Daushep Lar, Abubakar Rimi, Omo Omoruyi, Femi Okunnu, and others determined to have a circular constitution.

The supporters of the inclusion of the Sharia law into the Nigerian Constitution made this the most crucial aspect of the Constitution of particular significance. Ultimately, Mr. Unongo’s team prevailed, and the Sharia was left out of the 1999 Constitution. Unongo had won his first major political battle, determined to have a secular nation where religion is private and the Constitution is secular.

3. Unongo was Chair of State Creation at the Constitutional Conference in 1994-95. I was an elected member, and he was a government nominee. I nominated him as Chairman, and we worked hard to create the Apah and Katsina-ala States. But we failed even as Unongo, like Odili, was removed from the all-powerful Chairmanship position that created new states. We successfully recommended the creation of six zones for the country and the establishment of the Federal Character Commission.

Unongo as my Leader

I was in my final year of secondary school in 1968 when Unongo colonized Gboko town. He drove into Gboko with a long convoy of costly cars. He had a security outfit of hundreds of veterans. These security men mounted a guard of honor for Unongo every morning and marched through the town. Unongo’s veteran guards were rumored to have firearms. Unongo was handsome, articulate, elegant, and debonair. He was rarely seen, yet he had a ubiquitous presence, and many youths deserted dormitories to hang around and glimpse the legend. I adored him. I coveted such opulence and his clever ways and overflowing intelligence and confidence.

But I equally feared and hated his moral ecology of excessive permissiveness in breaking barriers and taboos. I was too timid to try these. I also resented him because J.S. Tarka was my first idol. I was born into the Tiv resistance movement against the NPC and its doctrines.  To my youthful sensibilities, Unongo stood for all that was despicable, evil, and reprehensible.

My father, a school headmaster and UMBC activist, a Tarka fanatic, laughed at Unongo’s antics. He believed Unongo’s source of wealth was purely satanic. Tarka had nicknamed Unongo “Braggadocio,” and his followers laughed at Unongo’s antics as merely comical. The Tiv had never seen such concentration of wealth, education, and good looks. I was a young pioneer- (Yan Panya) of the UMBC. My best friends, Peter Dzoho, Yima Sen, and Mfa Ikpa, left their jobs, and Peter abandoned the University to work for the Unongo organization. I held back with great restraint.

Later in life, I drew nearer to Wantaregh, or more correctly, we drew nearer to ourselves. We were in the same Senatorial zone, and when I ran for Senate in 1983, Unongo’s NPP candidate, Chief Atongo, stood down and supported me in the NPN to victory. Despite this, we drew nearer, and his wife, the ever-adoring Vickie Avarave Unongo, my maternal Aunt, made being friends with Unongo so much easier.

When I was nominated Minister in 1995, my leader, Unongo, summoned me to his house in Jos. He convinced his core supporters of why he withdrew his interest in the ministerial position and demanded that they cooperate with me. In 2001, when the Tiv race was on fire, and Tiv people were being killed in neighboring states, Unongo, alongside me, Iyorchia Ayu, Joseph Waku, and General Atom Kpera, worked for peace under the umbrella of the Mzough U Tiv.

Unongo assiduously worked for Northern Unity in his senior age and tried to bring peace to the North. We were both members of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF). When, during the Buhari administration, the herders and bandits started assaults and killing of Tiv in Benue State, we continued to dialogue with other Northern leaders. Unongo used his position as the acting Convener of the Northern Elders Forum to condemn wanton ethnic racism, banditry, and genocide against the Tiv.

Unongo’s Last Public Outing

 A week before his final hospitalization and death, Unongo attended a meeting of the Northern Elders in Minna with IBB and in Abuja. On Tuesday, 20 April 2022, Unongo made his last public outing. He asked me to meet him at the Peniel Apartment and escort him to meet the Governor of Benue State, Dr. Samuel Ortom, his political protégé.

When we arrived at Ortom’s home at Games Village at 11:am, I held his left arm, and his beloved son Tyolumun Unongo held him on the right side. Slowly and gingerly, we climbed to the top steps and were ushered into Governor Ortom’s living room. The Governor joined us quickly when he was informed. In total embarrassment, Ortom tried to blame me for troubling his leader, Unongo, from coming when he was the one who traditionally went to visit.

But Paul Unongo absorbed the blame and most tearfully recounted how, in the past, Wantaregh had invested heavily in his goodwill to allow the young Ortom to enter politics as Chairman of Guma Local government. He begged Ortom to “bury” him by giving Tyolulum Unongo the ticket to contest the election for the House of Representatives. There was no way the Governor could refuse this request. He accepted all of Unongo’s appeals for his son. Tears flowed down my cheeks as I witnessed this ordeal. It was a political deja vu moment. History was repeating itself.

I remembered how in 1979 Hon. J.S. Tarka had similarly requested that we, the NPN Caucus in Benue State, give his son, Simeon Tarka, nomination to the House of Representatives. Simon Shango, a motley band of young party men, and I vehemently opposed this as undemocratic and demagogic. We were foolish and shallow. Tarka sniffled, and tears rolled down his face. With Tarka crying, the meeting had to end abruptly.

The following day, the party elders approved Tarka’s request when Tarka confided in his health situation that the doctors had given him only a few more months to live. Hon. Simeon Tarka was elected to the House of Representatives the day his father was elected Senator. Tarka returned to the hospital in London soon after he won the 1979 elections, and a few months later, he died a happy man.

The meeting between Ortom and Unongo, both of the Ichongo lineage, and me, from the Ipusu lineage, was chilling and ominous. That same day, 20 April 2022, Unongo left for Jos and was hospitalized. It was his last public outing.

Tyolumun Unongo was not nominated on 5 June 2022 as agreed. Political difficulties and overwhelming forces tied His Excellency Governor Ortom’s hands. If Unongo had succeeded in his appeal to elect Tyolumun, he would have finally earned a political victory. After a series of political setbacks, Unongo had an uncanny belief that his name, Iyorpuu, was a bad omen. Since Tiv’s names were prophetic, Iyorpuu means people disapprove, but Tyolumun means the people approve. Tyolumun was not meant to lose an election. Wantaregh Paul Iyorpuu Unongo never left his hospital bed till he gave up his ghost five months later.

Wantaregh has left us when there is still so much to be done. Our country, Nigeria, still oozes from the social tumor of virulent poverty and deprivation. The Nigerian political class still generates economic spoils for itself by manipulating ethnic cleavages. Nigeria is still the World’s third-largest Christian and fourth-largest Muslim country. Now that Wantaregh is no longer there, who will have the fearless grace to tell Nigerians to show the World the power of tolerance and love?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Who, like Unongo, will stand with the oppressed whose lives are perilously fragile and raise a voice for their defense?

End of an Era

With the passing of Wantaregh, all of us who have inherited the Leadership Mantle of Tarka or that of  Wantaregh are now political orphans. It is time to declare the end of an era. It is time to break down the walls that have held us prisoners and prevented us from creating history together. It is time to hold hands and remember our common political ancestry. It is time to say no to guile, greed, and disrespect.

May the soul of our hero, our leader of all seasons, Wantaregh Paul Iyorpuu Unongo, rest in peace! 

Prof. Hagher OON, is once represented Nigeria in Canada.

By Zayd Ibn Isah

Simon Ekpa, the self-styled leader of the Biafra secessionist movement, appears to be facing his long-overdue reckoning following his arrest by the Finnish government on allegations of terrorism. Ekpa has consistently stirred the hornet’s nest for years with his incendiary remark and actions, so much so that his name has become synonymous with terror in the once peaceful and thriving southeastern region of Nigeria.

 

Ekpa rose to prominence after the erstwhile leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, was arrested in Kenya and extradited to Nigeria to face justice under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR.

Like Kanu, Ekpa’s leadership and influence enabled the perpetration of a cycle of violence and instability that has made lives nasty, brutish and short (Apologies to Thomas Hobbes).

Even now, following his arrest, IPOB has emerged to distance itself from Simon Ekpa, vehemently denying any affiliation with him and declaring that he was never a member of the group, let alone its leader. Whether this claim is believable remains to be seen. However, one thing is certain: Ekpa’s self-proclaimed sit-at-home orders, enforced through fear and brutality, have crippled the region’s economy and inflicted unimaginable suffering on the people he claims to represent. Schools, markets, and businesses have been forced to close, and innocent lives have been lost—all in the name of a misguided agitation for independence.

Ekpa was reportedly appointed to oversee the affairs of Radio Biafra following Kanu’s arrest in June 2021. However, after being dismissed from the role, he formed his own faction. From that point onward, Ekpa began issuing orders, including the controversial sit-at-home directives, which IPOB’s leadership has publicly and repeatedly disavowed.

This faction, led by Ekpa, has been linked to escalating violence in the region, including attacks on security forces and the destruction of public property. Recently, Ekpa declared himself the “Prime Minister” of the Biafra Government in Exile (BGIE) and oversaw the formation of an armed group called the ‘Biafra Liberation Army.’ What Ekpa and his followers fail to grasp is that justice cannot be built on a foundation of injustice and blind brutality. There is no strategy for agitation more self-defeating than one that amounts to cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Throughout history, true leadership has required accountability and a commitment to the welfare of one’s people, rather than the reckless perpetuation of fear and violence. This is something Simon Ekpa fundamentally failed to understand—until his recent arrest.

The consequences of IPOB’s activities are staggering. A recent report estimates that sit-at-home orders and violence have cost the southeastern economy over ₦5 trillion in lost productivity over the past two years. Small businesses, which form the backbone of the region’s economy, have borne the brunt of the crisis, with thousands closing their doors permanently. Education has also been severely disrupted, with countless children missing significant periods of schooling due to fear of attacks. Healthcare systems, already strained, have seen delays in critical services as movement is restricted on declared sit-at-home days.

Now, Simon Ekpa has come to judgement—not equity. For he who comes to equity must come with clean hands. Ekpa’s hands are stained with the blood of innocent Nigerians in southeastern Nigeria. At the height of his reign, as stated earlier, he declared himself “Prime Minister” and created an office—a position he later denied in a Finnish court. Imagine a king denying his kingdom! What manner of “Prime Minister” is this? If Simon Ekpa were Moses, I doubt he would have been able to lead his people to the promised land.

This is someone who was almost running a parallel government from Finland, barking orders to his foot soldiers at home, who wreaked havoc at will. Faced with the prospect of jail, he is now backtracking. Doesn’t this betrayal of trust confirm the allegations of using the secessionist agitation to enrich himself and his cronies?

If there is anything his arrest and subsequent remand in prison have demonstrated, it is that the long arm of the law, though sometimes delayed, is relentless. Interpol’s involvement in investigating his activities sends a strong message: incitement to violence and terrorism knows no borders. Nations that once served as safe havens for such agitators are waking up to the consequences of harbouring individuals who incite chaos abroad.

Ekpa’s rhetoric and actions have exposed the dangerous intersection of diaspora activism and local instability. From his Finnish base, he exploited digital platforms to spread propaganda and issue directives, while the real cost of his commands was borne by Nigerians on the ground. This disconnect between the instigator and the affected is emblematic of the broader challenges posed by globalized radicalism. Tragically, this chaos was allowed to go on for far too long.

As Simon Ekpa faces the prospect of repatriation to Nigeria to face the full wrath of the law, it is imperative to reflect on the broader implications of his actions. The Southeast, a region historically known for its industrious spirit and resilience, has been hijacked by a narrative of violence, stagnation, and division. Yet, the people of the region deserve better. They deserve leaders who prioritize dialogue over belligerence and unity over division. It is high time right-thinking Nigerians in the South East rise up to counter rhetoric that unfairly cripples the progress of their homelands.

This moment should also serve as a wake-up call to Nigerians at home and in the diaspora. While grievances and aspirations are valid in any democracy, the methods employed to address them must remain lawful and constructive. Ekpa’s judgement should not only be seen as a reckoning for his actions but also as a deterrent to others who might consider taking a similar path.

His arrest also reminds me of another self-acclaimed secessionist leader, Adeyinka Grandson (now forgotten), who was advocating for a Yoruba nation with his platform, Young Yorubas for Freedom. He spoke ill of other tribes, especially the major tribes, on social media, but it wasn’t long before he got his comeuppance. He is now serving a four-year jail term in a UK prison. Sadly, the country is bedeviled by secessionist agitations left, right, and centre, more than sixty years after independence. Almost all the regions feel marginalized. And this has given rise to mutual suspicion.

South East is a region that has been made to feel marginalized for several years, it is important for this administration to cultivate ways to fully reintegrate the South East into a renewed sense of hope and national cohesion. Such efforts would counter secessionist discourse that thrives on the belief that the South East is unfairly sidelined in the country’s grand scheme.

Now more than ever, the federal government needs to re-establish a strong sense of presence and involvement within the region. This would not only curtail secessionist propaganda but reaffirm the inclusion and significance of the South East to Nigeria’s progress as a nation. Gone are the days when disruptive figures or groups could exert undue authority over people who are meant to obey only constituted authority.

As the curtain begins to fall on Simon Ekpa’s campaign of terror, one can only hope that his judgement will herald a new dawn of peace, progress and genuine leadership for the South East. More of his ilk should now understand that the perpetration of violence and instability will no longer be tolerated. Nigerians have already endured a great deal due to ongoing reforms under the new dispensation.

While they hope for a light at the end of the tunnel, they cannot afford to suffer more pain and loss from the likes of Simon Ekpa. At this juncture, there must be a resounding reminder that no one is above the law and that the path to freedom should never be paved with the blood and tears of the innocent citizens.

Finally, the jubilation that greeted Simon Ekpa’s arrest in Finland points to the fact that many Nigerians are still committed to a peaceful, prosperous, and indissoluble country. As I always say, what binds us together is stronger than what tears us apart. The fault lines are always there, but, as someone once said, we will continue to disagree to agree, but never to disintegrate. Just as our national anthem reminds us, “though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand”.

Zayd Ibn Isah can be reached at lawcadet1@gmail.com.