“I am simply asking you to recalibrate their stance when they stand before the world to speak. Candor. Resoluteness. Magnanimity. These are catch phrases you must instill in these half nuts”
―Don Okolo
These famous last words: ‘Walk slowly but carry a big stick’ does not apply to Nnamdi Kanu. I will state it bluntly; the adage shamefully escapes him and those around him that are working with furious bent to remove the kinks from the body of the Igbo people…to free us.
But with all the kinks snapped, relief would undoubtedly come, but it would be ephemeral (short-lived). And then, it would return, usually, right after you wake up from any slumber, short or drawn-out. Because, it is a natural phenomenon.
Yes, it is naturally a daily occurrence. And in almost every situation, when one stretches to cut loose the sagging cartilages, the act itself is usually carried out unknowingly…instinctively…because nature endowed it so. What one does not do is cut off a limb to undo a pestering kink. In other words, one does not cut off his/her nose to spite his/her face.
Listen; I am trying to be careful here to avoid stepping on any toes stamped in my path. And before this piece careens into the no-go turf, let me say this: Someone has to be the instigator…someone has to start the ball rolling for such egregious wrong as have been bequeathed to the Igbos to gather strength. And I believe that Nnamdi Kanu has done so…and effectively too.
Nature has endowed him. It takes a certain comportment, a wheelbarrow-full ligament of tenacity for one to oil their body down, buy a freaking noose and hand that noose over to the hangman, and then demand that his neck be stretched. It is exactly what Nnamdi Kanu had done. If he were caught, they would gladly use the noose he had purchased to hang him…only they wouldn’t want him dangling by his neck; they would hang this man by his balls…just to show him a brand of unwritten nastiness in their repertoire (catalog).
His impertinence is courage; his impudence is priceless, and his audacity is the gem every one of the Igbo extraction should wear proudly as a halo…
Because of that, his impertinence is courage; his impudence is priceless, and his audacity is the gem every one of the Igbo extraction should wear proudly as a halo and as the enviable gem of the rainforest. His actions belong in the archives…in the pantheon that display gallantry: Shaka Zulu, Nelson Mandela, Julius Caesar, Alexander, the Great, Mahatma Gandhi…the list is endless. Nnamdi Kanu, inadvertently, has his name engraved into the fabrics of these colorful papyri (paper) for posterity.
He would exist as a legend…that is, if he stayed the course and not blow it. Right now, people, he is doing everything to blow this baby looking for a second chance at life with his corrosive style, his crazy antics, his deportment and that immeasurably silly and ridiculous bombardment of anger installments he displays every time he speaks.
He is eroding the well chiseled, macadamized thoroughfare they have been plying on, to a course of meandering loop ways mined with ordinances (bombs, grenades etc.) of death. With no defined, definite trajectory…with just sound and fury from a mole hill, where he sits and wipes down his face of salty wetness, after every other word, the chances the anthill base would grow to a mountain top would most likely not happen, and could die a horrible death.
If this is what the rest of the world sees, the ramblings of one who sits on a makeshift throne he designed for himself, then, we are royally banged.
And it would all be his making. If this is what the rest of the world sees, the ramblings of one who sits on a makeshift throne he designed for himself, then, we are royally banged. If the rest of the world ever sees this man from a set of prisms outside those only self-aggrandizing fellows would erect, we are doomed.
I am taking nothing from this man. His former compatriots, like Uwazurike, got paid and moved on. The color of money! Uwazurike and his cronies abandoned the platter, simmering with deep-seated, deeply ingrained, hearty goodies the Igbo nation served up for their consumption, for the griping, tasteless, flour-based patties they could only hold down with water. It makes you wonder; are there any more men around us that are not corrupt? I thought and believed at the onset, that Nnamdi Kanu was it. Nnamdi Kanu has everything: But he lacks the two things that would guarantee him a place among the gods: Humility and an engaging style.
Until he dons that cloak, he would appear as a despot in the eyes of the world that is watching. He makes it look as if, given the chance to sit on the real throne, he would govern with the same merciless designations of all despotic rulers. His very recent declaration that those that have not donated to IPOB would be denied a place in their homeland smacks me as unadulterated vibes of banishment proclaimed!!!
I would take Nnamdi Kanu any day, before I would have anything to do with Uwazurike…who is, a traitor, if you sliced it any kinda way. You owe it to yourself to steer deeply into the innards (guts) of the organization, IPOB. I did…and I detest what I see…on the surface, I might add. Maybe, there are other convolutions within this organizational order I am not privy to…that I am missing. I would readily grant them that. I have listened to the other voices of distaste regarding certain aspects of how this organization that supposedly represents the entire Igbo nation should be run.
You put all that together, and I heard one collective gripe; change your style, Mr. Kanu. Make no threats. Walk slowly and carry a big stick…and schtick (plan) See how much Nelson Mandela achieved for his people being restrained from excessive loftiness and stupid bombasts. Gandhi did the same for India, by being cagey and always mellowed in his comportment. Both men did so with unmatched, unpretentious modesty. If one cannot shape a gun, one should look at the tail of a hawk for help. Even Martin Luther King Jr. imbibed the culture of non-violence he learned from Gandhi to frame his own protests…and it worked…at least, to some measurable degree. Do so. Biko!!!
You have men about you that are detrimental and causing irreparable damage to you. These are men that readily massage your ego to keep your spirit flying high. I am not asking you to let them go. I am simply asking you to recalibrate their stance when they stand before the world to speak. Candor. Resoluteness. Magnanimity. These are catch phrases you must instill in these half nuts. They are incredible virtues to possess. Your boys take to the internet and spew scatology (bad words) like these words are going out of style.
And the world is watching, bending over these morsels your minions are putting out, to dig the whiff first. This is the point of sale; the world has so far taken that bite. But hold on now; you should pray that the mouthful would cause their taste buds to reach an orgasmic plateau for them to make that turn and follow us home. If that does not happen…if the world does not hallah with us, we would be spat out and discarded for good…like the harlot out of the six hundred and sixty-sixth gate of Bargersville.
♦ Don Okolo, Professor and filmmaker, is on the Editorial Board of the West African Pilot News. He is the author of many books.
2 comments
Ubaka
July 26, 2020 at 1:46 pm
“Perhaps There’s A Method To Kanu’s ‘Madness.'”
What beautiful English and excellent prose this Prof Okolo piece! In the mold of Zik, Mbadiwe and Okadigbo! But the question is: Where is the beef? Were the fulani ever afraid of any of the three above? No! They were not.
So Kanu has done something no Igbo- indeed no nigerian-has ever done since the Biafra War: Put an acute fear of the Igbo in the fulani islamic caliphate. And he did it only with words and without firing a shot! Indeed he did it with his incredible organizational skills and great oratorical prowess-mobilizing millions at Home, establishing hundreds of IPOB chapters Abroad, establishing TV/Radio stations and newspapers with his groups of warrior journalists trained for the Cause. And he enhanced his power and influence exponentially by mastering social media, where he is an undisputed Leviathan. Not since Zik established his “Zik Group” of newspapers in the 1930s has an African Freedom Fighter so adroitly and efficiently used the media to facilitate the liberation of his people.
And what an incredible feat it is to mobilize the notoriously “proud” and “stubborn” Igbo who are known for being “very difficult” to organize. If he doubts it, Prof. Okolo should try to organize a small group of his fellow intellectuals for the Biafra Cause or for any other cause in order to better appreciate Kanu’s genius as a leader.
Moreover, anyone who can “compel” thousands of Ndigbo to make monthly financial contributions to a Movement as controversial and risky as the Biafra Restoration Project, must be doing something right; for Ndigbo-like Americans-do not easily part with their money. Perhaps there is after all a manner and method to Kanu’s “madness” that Igbo intellectuals like Okolo can never understand. For if they did, they themselves would have initiated the Biafra Revival after the war and not those they describe as “illiterates” and
“unrefined;” but they did not; the “deplorables” did it. Neither is it yet too late for Prof. Okolo-and other critics like him- to rise to the occasion by organizing a group of Igbo elites with the polish and refinement they believe Kanu/IPOB lacks. Perhaps this will help Prof Okolo to mobilize those professionals who are pro-Biafra but refuse to join IPOB because of the profane language and “wild” antics of their leader. And with the fulanization and islamization of Alaigbo in full swing, now is the Time for More Action and less criticism.
Don Okolo
July 26, 2020 at 10:31 pm
UBAKA,
Daalu. Your prose is just as magnanimous and fluid. Ndewo. Listen, my brother, I swear to God, I love Nnamdi Kanu. I have written about him in the past…and they are all good. If you asked me, he was chosen to do this…by Providence. Everything you said about him is true. The only thing that compelled me was the antics…because, the world is watching. Anger has a place in any revolution…but it should not be worn like a halo. I would prefer that calm gaze a cheetah has before the strike. We cannot afford to swing and miss.
Thanks, my brother.
Don Okolo