Nnamdi Kanu’s Braggadacio: Charismatic IPOB Leader Is a Megalomaniac, Psychotic Conman – Charges Blessedom

This YouTube video produced on Blessedom Channel is focused on the controversial leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Mr. Nnamdi Kanu. Mr. Kanu’s visibility within the ranks of pro-Biafra agitation escalated since he became the Director of Radio Biafra based in London, UK. Passion for Biafra nationalism heightened since the constituent ethnic nationalities inhabiting the Biafra territory (former Eastern Region), particularly the youths, became increasingly irritated by their apparent 2^nd-class citizenship status in today’s UNITARY Nigerian state. Some of them consider their fate to be that of slaves, despite the fact that they still live on their own ancestral lands. They readily surmise that their slave status is engendered and sustained by the perpetual seizure of their ancestral lands by minders of the status quo at the helm of an imposed UNITARY government in Abuja. Modern online communication tools have enabled the IPOB to reach many youths, especially those of Igbo ancestral background, worldwide.

Nnamdi Kanu became a household name within Nigeria when the IPOB leader was apprehended, arrested and jailed by the Buhari administration at the Lagos Murtala Airport as he arrived from a London flight. His arrest and incarceration were predicated on an allegation by the Nigerian authorities that Mr. Kanu’s strident comments on Radio Biafra London were inimical to national interest and thus constituted a security risk that could not be left alone. High-drama courtroom appearances helped to place more spotlight on Nnamdi Kanu as well as the group he leads. After resisting bail on several occasions, the Abuja High Court succumbed to mounting pressure by releasing the fiery IPOB leader under certain strict conditions. As part of his preferred operational stratagem, Mr. Kanu opted to flout his bail conditions by ratcheting up his defiant rhetoric against the Nigerian UNITARY government and the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Mass rallies were organized featuring the IPOB leader – a development which contravened the terms for his bail.

Popularity for IPOB and its principal grew with Mr. Kanu’s defiance. His larger-than-life public stature was reaching mythical proportions as greater numbers of youths trooped into the IPOB faction led by Mr. Kanu. To manage the new fame, a tightly controlled command structure was built around the Radio Biafra broadcaster. An aura of invincibility, omnipotence and omniscience was created around the personality of Nnamdi Kanu, especially among his dedicated followers. Some would go as far as to even deify him. Before too long, a new image of the IPOB leader began to emerge. Those who are close to Mr. Kanu noted that he was indeed beginning to see the IPOB as his own personal brand and whoever subscribed under its mantra have no leeway for dissent or deviation from the leader’s views and preferences. To buttress supremacy of the IPOB leader, the top leadership clique labeled Mr. Nnamdi Kanu as the “Supreme Leader” of IPOB. That he indeed accepts this label goes a long way to justify his harshest critics’ assessment of the IPOB leader as “an egomaniac, megalomaniac and psychopathic conman”.

Then came the Operation “Python Dance” II, a special military exercise in the Igbo states of the Southeast with a special focus on Abia, Mr. Kanu’s home state. On September 14, 2017, a unit of the Nigerian Army was deployed to Mr. Kanu’s ancestral hometown, Afar-Ukwu, with a mandate to raid his parental compound where he lived at the time. The military raid rapidly mushroomed into a severe crackdown on IPOB and its rank and file. According to Mr. Kanu, 28 persons were shot dead at his residence while hundreds of IPOB youths were reportedly killed and tortured to death elsewhere in Abia state before the military operation was concluded. For more than one year, no one saw or heard from Mr. Kanu who simply disappeared without a trace. Many had created the impression that the IPOB leader could have been seized by the Nigerian Army after he was captured during the raid at his residence. Even Mr. Kanu’s personal lawyer had to go to court to file a motion requesting that the Nigerian Army should produce the IPOB leader whose sudden disappearance was marked by the bloody military raid of September 14^th.

Now that Mr. Nnamdi Kanu has finally emerged in Jerusalem, Israel, it is evident that he was able to slip away before the trigger-happy Nigerian Army troops could get to him. The IPOB leader revealed in a recent televised interview in Israel that he was alerted about the plan to raid his residence ahead of time, hence his escape. His critics reacted to this revelation by blaming Mr. Kanu for not instructing his ardent followers to melt away soon enough to avert the mass massacres that were unleashed on September 14^th. Furthermore, many IOPB sympathizers had trooped to the vicinity of Afara-Ukwu were they became easy pickings for the raiding Buhari troops. In Owerri, the Imo state capital, thousands of IPOB women sympathizers organized public demonstrations to press for the whereabouts of their leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who had disappeared after the Operation “Python Dance” II raid at his ancestral compound in Abia. Some critics blame the IPOB leader for the unnecessary exposure of the protesting women in Owerri to the brutality of the Buhari security outfit. If Mr. Kanu had revealed his safe escape from Nigeria earlier, the latest street demonstrations and their associated risks to our womenfolk would not have been necessary.

In the press release broadcast by Nnamdi Kanu from his safe haven in Israel, he was said to have threatened to bring “Hell to Nigeria” with the “formidable force” loyal to IPOB. This YouTube video dismisses the IPOB leader’s threat as mere braggadocio. The video presenter doubts if Kanu has what it would take to directly challenge the Nigerian Army’s firepower and wonders why the IPOB leader should prefer to make threats that he is ill-equipped to deliver upon. Some unfortunate adherents to Nnamdi Kanu’s pronouncements were often the victims during emboldened confrontations with the central government security forces since the principal managed to elude capture.

Mr. Nnamdi Kanu and his ardent followers are repeatedly reminded that the Biafra-agitation project is a call to freedom fighting and not a personality cult. The charismatic IPOB leader is chided for relying too much on propaganda, showmanship and hyperbole which are usually not associated with well-known successful freedom-fighting endeavors of the past.