Prominent ex-Biafra warlord and elder statesman, Col. Joe Achuzia, rtd, has without mincing words declared the arrest, detention and
ongoing trial of the leader of the Indigeneous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu as political. He therefore called for the immediate and unconditional release of the IPOB founder.
In this interview with PAUL OSUYI in Asaba, the Delta state capital, the respected Biafra veteran also dwells on what Igbo must do to clinch Nigeria’s number political seat, the presidency.
Do you feel that the trial of Nnamdi Kanu is political?
First, one has to understand the nature of the trial but the trial is based on what they call political offence because he was charged with treasonable felony, which is a political offence. If you pick a gun or a knife or anything to try to attack the president, it is a criminal offence, it is not treasonable, but act or word spoken against a country can be interpreted as treasonable offence.
Why? I don’t know, it is only the lawyer that can tell us why. From what I understood that Kanu did was that he was promoting a radio that translates the idea or the supposed grievances of his friends, his kinsmen or all those who think alike, that is what I understood that Kanu was doing.
How that constitute a treasonable felony, I can’t tell you but to me treasonable felony is a political offence, particularly once what is being said is against the belief of the political party in charge of governance.
Those actions led him to this trial and do you feel those actions are justified? I have not seen any action from him because from what I gathered, he arrived the country and was arrested. So I don’t see how and where he performed the action being attributed to him.
What I understood he was doing was that he was promoting a radio station through which friends, groups of people who think like him air their views, hence I said what you asked me, not being a lawyer, I regard as a political trial.
With this, do you strongly hold the opinion that he can be released unconditionally?
For me, he should be, not that he can be released unconditionally. Why we say unconditionally is that there should be no condition attached to his release, he has the right to be freed under the Nigerian law, and a competent court of law has already asked several times that he should be released.
This issue of Kanu is very intriguing. If something happens to him while in custody, the government would have created a matter and an indelible black mark. He should be released unconditionally and given the opportunity to defend himself. If something should happen, it will be a sorry day for the country.
At this point in time, is Biafra still achievable?
The word Biafra is a name, everybody has the right to a name. The people who are asking for Biafra preferred to be called Biafrans rather than being called easterners, Igbos, Efiks, Ibibios, Urhobos because they come from the same ethnic groupings within one location of Nigeria known as South-Eastern Nigeria. And they are Nigerians.
Former President Obasanjo has canvased for an Igbo man to take a shot at the presidency in 2019. How can Igbo presidency be realized?
How can a former president say it should be turn of Igbo people, is he an Igbo man? If he is an Igbo man, then one will consider his aspiration as Igbo man. But not being an Igbo man, what crystal ball has he to make him say that the next president should be an Igbo man.
I don’t understand that statement. But beyond the statement by the former president, what do the Igbo need to do so that one of their own can be the president of this country? What they have to do is what every other Nigerian is doing – join the right kind of political party or help to promote your own political party that you know that the support will be sufficient to place you there.
You don’t get it by being verbose or writing so much English in a newspaper, no! Mobilize your people, mobilize others because to get to the apex position in Nigeria, it is not one ethnic group or one tribe.
