quest is not only noble and pure but also deeply courageous. It is an aspiration that we should mirror and admire and not attempt to rubbish or belittle. This is all the more so because it has been paid for by the blood and suffering of many that have been killed over the last 50 years for daring to voice it, including many young people and many children.
If Miss Henshaw’s Efik ethnic group had suffered just 10 per cent of what the Igbo have been subjected to since 1966 they would have agitated to leave Nigeria long ago or perhaps been driven into extinction by now. That is the bitter truth. Finally let me say this: whether anyone likes it or not Nnamdi Kanu symbolises the Biafran struggle today.
He has earned it by the suffering he has endured, by the immense courage that he has displayed and by the gargantuan risks that he has taken. He has energised his people and inspired and brought hope to millions of Igbo youth all over the world. He has given them back their pride and self-respect which is something that no other leader has managed to do since the end of the civil war.
This is a beautiful thing and I wonder why anyone that lays claim to being enlightened or educated would attempt to besmirch or denigrate him? Why try and demean him or discredit and belittle the views that he and his followers hold so dear? Whether anyone likes it or not the truth is that Nnamdi Kanu speaks for millions.
And many other ethnic nationalist groups in the south and Middle Belt have precisely the same aspirations and dreams of emancipation and freedom that he espouses, enunciates, epitomises and holds so dear. The challenge that they are faced with is that, unlike the Igbo, they have yet to produce a leader like Nnamdi Kanu that can unite and rally them together under one banner and lead them to the promised land.
