MEND is playing the script of Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB

IPOB demonstration in London

By Tim Tochukwu

For Biafra Choice Writers

There are many things those who are currently using the franchise called Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) did not know. They did not know that, like the Nigerian government, they were foolishly playing into the hands of Biafran agitations.

It can even be said that they were unknowingly playing out the script of Nnamdi Kanu and Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). The script in a nutshell was to first expose Nigeria to the world as an abominable contraption (a zoo), which is not fit for human habitation. It is after that is concluded that they hoped to move restore Biafra.

But MEND did not know that IPOB was neither an organisation of one man, nor depending on one source for survival. They did not know that IPOB was not set up for, nor prepared for a hundred meter dash. Instead, they were prepared for a long struggle that could go on for a hundred years and beyond. MEND did not know that what it was doing, which was trying to demean Kanu and the IPOB he leads, as well as blackmailing them, was what IPOB and its leadership wanted and prayed for. The Biafran agitators knew it would give them the ample opportunity to explain to the world, the issues of Biafra.

IPOB knew that Nigeria would not be dragged down and destroyed by one quick action. Instead, they knew and were prepared for a long-drawn battle in the media, in the courts, with the economy, and even in the streets. IPOB had the belief that it is only by preparing to prosecute the battle on those fronts that the abomination called Nigeria would be exposed to the world.

Now, by first claiming to have been engaged in dialogue with Nigerian government on behalf of Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) and IPOB, without contacting these groups, MEND showed itself as an irresponsible and meddling organisation. It made no sense to anyone that a group would be negotiating on behalf of groups that it neither made contact with nor invited by the groups to do, made it a laughing stock in international discussion. IPOB loved it and went to work in their ever vibrant worldwide media.

For Nigerian government, it showed itself as a collection of dubious and clueless individuals that were prepared to do anything just to confuse the legitimate aspirations of a people, the Biafran people. MEND had claimed “MEND and the Federal Government have, however, flatly rejected the IPOB/Kanu hypocrisy to remain defiant in public; while accepting to secretly renounce secession”, left no sensible individual in doubt that MEND was careless and lying.

This is in spite of the fact that they had no evidence that what they claimed happened, they failed to show where the secret agreement took place, who and who was there, and when it was agreed. This is why one can dare to say that engaging in the dubious activities; MEND went a long way in playing the script of IPOB.

That was the same foolishness Muhammadu Buhari and his Nigerian government exhibited when they kidnapped Nnamdi Kanu in Lagos last year. They thought IPOB was the kind of organisation that would break and scatter because its leader was taken out. But they did not know that the leadership of the organisation was established solidly in more than 88 countries of the world.

Apart from that, they thought IPOB leadership could be bought like Ralph Uwazuruike of Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). They did not know that IPOB is made up of individuals that are diehard Biafrans who would not trade Biafra freedom and restoration for anything.

As things stand today, Buhari and his advisers will forever curse the day they arrested Kanu, which has given IPOB the opportunity to saturate the world with the message of Biafra. MEND will soon realize that is has destroyed itself.