One thing I have observed in the course of following Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB is that he has an impressive fighting spirit and he never gives up. My only concern about him is that his energy keeps flowing in the wrong direction. Last year, he gave hope to his base that the secession of the South-eastern region from Nigeria was coming alive again with some photo-ops. He visited the European Union parliament in Brussels, Belgium where he reportedly spoke. After that, he claimed he was heading to Geneva to speak to the United Nations about the actualization of the Biafran dream. His media team has always done the best job when it comes to circulating information. They have contacts of top media practitioners at their finger tips.
Many people who might have been frustrated by the Federal Government stormed Nnamdi Kanu's social media page to salute him for the 'good work'. The Radio Biafra page soon came alive again and fake news pervaded the media space as usual in the narrative that suits the group. Later on, nobody heard anything about the outcome or the benefits of Kanu's purported meetings with the international organizations. Kanu returned to his traditional role as a chronic social media critic of the Federal Government.
As this year started, Kanu needed to give his camp something to be ululating about. The ideal country he felt could help was the most powerful country in the world, the United States of America. He simply announced his attendance of the President Donald Trump's campaign rally on Thursday, January 30, 2020 at Des Moines Iowa after being allegedly invited as a 'special guest' by the Republican Party in the state.
According to a statement released by the Publicity Secretary of IPOB, Emma Powerful, the development indicates that 'Biafra is near'.
Since the news went viral, the Biafra dream got reinvigorated as some purposely uninformed or maybe ambitious people feel Kanu is slowing getting closer to Trump who could help realize the secession of Biafra. This is nothing but an illusion!
The last thing America will want is to meddle in the internal affairs of a sovereign state when it has nothing to gain. Since it had a hand in the crises of Libya, Iraq, Palestine and other countries which has strained it's resources in terms of human and financial ones, the U.S has been more tactical and circumspect in dealing with local issues of other countries which doesn't affect it. From a realist point of view, what does the U.S stand to gain from the splitting of Nigeria? I need good answers.
Most cases of secession in Africa are never peaceful. The last thing the U.S will want to do is to cause a humanitarian crisis in a country of over 200 million people. If the U.S breaks it, it will certainly be forced to buy it.
Going by recent developments, if Trump cares about Nigeria that much, the travel ban will not be extended to us. Today, we have many African countries on travel restriction to America and they are not even strong enough to retaliate against America with sanctions as most powerful countries would have done.
Well, Kanu's fresh effort seems good but it's not good enough. Only the shallow-thinkers and the ignorant will fall for it. He needs go try harder next time.
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