Popular journalist and publisher of Ovation International, Dele Momodu, has called on the Federal Government to release the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu. He recently urged the FG to tackle the underlying causes of separatist agitation in the South-East.
In a post shared on his X handle, the former presidential candidate disclosed that the agitation for Biafra is deeply rooted in what he described as “decades of marginalisation and deprivation” suffered by the Igbo people.
He faulted those who blasted Kanu and his followers without understanding the historical and political context of their agitation.
“Shortly before his abduction from Kenya by the Nigerian government, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu made this thought-provoking broadcast in which he philosophised about the reasons he and his supporters became radicalised.
I have taken time to listen to his critics and discovered most of them only jumped to conclusions without proper analysis of why agitation for Biafra became reignited, attractive, and fanciful after the pogrom that wasted millions of lives and destroyed unimaginable properties in the 1960s and ’70s,” he wrote.
He further quoted Nnamdi Kanu as saying that the “continuing marginalisation of the Igbo, and deprivation accorded some of the most energetic and vibrant brains in Africa, and globally, rekindled the Biafra sentiment.”
Momodu concluded by warning that attempts to silence or eliminate Kanu would not end the agitation.
“Attempts by enemies of Kanu, including his own kinsmen, to exterminate him will never solve the problem.
The Igbo struggle goes beyond legalese. It requires serious political reconfiguration, and urgently too.
I will never support violence. But any sensible government will keep the geniuses of the South-East very busy, with productive engagements, instead of this rabid hatred,” he added.
