The continued custody of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu (MNK) in the dungeon of the Department of State Services (DSS) is condemnable. If MNK were an American citizen, the matter would have ended and saved lives before his state-sponsored seizure from Kenya.
When DSS arrested activist Omoyele Sowore in 2019, we quickly gathered at the office of US Senator Bob Menendez in downtown Newark, NJ. He was the chair of US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), whom I had known since he was a city councilor, was in attendance. And so was Sowore’s wife.
Menendez sent a letter demanding Sowore’s release. Done! Abuja seized his Nigerian passport. Hakuna matata: He was free, and he was not done with activism.
Sowore sensed the MNK situation brilliantly and decided to up the ante: He called for #FreeMNKOct20. Those against cited the brutality of security forces, as seen during the EndSARS protests. Ms. Obianuju Catherine Udeh, DJ Switch, is still in self-exile. The dead did not get a respectable repose.
Those hurt by the random violence of freelance Biafra insurgents oppose participation. No one should be cajoled to join. Chuba Okadigbo could still be here and possibly the president of Nigeria, if he had not gone marching with Buhari in Kano. Nigeria happened to him.
Why do some people read meanings into Sowore’s supposedly Yoruba ethnicity? Sowore is not Yoruba! Hear him: “I am an Ijaw person, most people don’t know this”! His activism has nothing to do with his parents’ ethnic extraction.
Before Yele Sowore, there was Wole Soyinka, a Yoruba. During the war, Soyinka took his rabblerousing radicalism to Enugu. Hear him: “… creating a third force which would… repudiate and end both the secession of Biafra, and the genocide consolidated dictatorship of [Gowon] …which made both secession and war inevitable.” [‘The Man Died,’ p. 18] Soyinka extirpated Biafra’s initial war momentum with a fake liberation of Western Region—which, if genuine, could have been done.
Sowore seeks outlets for his #RevolutionNow campaigns. David Hundeyin opined that a big masquerade is drumming for Sowore, making him a proverbial “nwanza.” Could President Tinubu sense a Madagascar, overreact, and crush the demonstrators?
Dr. M.I Okpara was the premier of Eastern Region when he stepped into the Western Region’s civil crisis, sheltered Prof Sam Aluko, Wole Soyinka, and Awolowo’s wife Hannah. He also intervened to make sure that Chief Obafemi Awolowo was not unalived in jail, as Abacha’s regime did to General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua.
I fear that #MNKOct20 may drag folks into #RevolutionNow—just as Soyinka suckered Biafra into #ThirdForce fiasco with Agbam, Alale, Banjo, and Ifeajuna in 1967. Tinubu’s tepid attempt to diffuse the situation with a court injunction was rejected by a judge on Friday. The US Embassy warned of potential violence. Saturday: rumors. Just let MNK go. Renew hope!
Those who coldheartedly chant “no pain, no gain” anticipate blood on the streets as a necessary price to pay for change in Nigeria. This giant green god with calloused clay claws has gulped barrels of blood already. Enough!
The shaming of Southeast governors and Ohanaeze statesmen should stop. Challenging Obi, Soludo, Otti, and Mbah to march is unwise. Their efforts failed to free MNK, unlike the Afenifere arbitration on Igboho’s case. Oduduwa is not as Biafra: Ask IBB, whom Biafra kept awake and Oduduwa sent to sleep… reportedly.
As if Ndiigbo needed more Monday Sit@Home, the Ohanaeze Youth Council has urged a closure of Igbo-owned commercial outlets in solidarity. May this be the last Monday!
#moe @OkaaMoe
Saturday, October 18, 2025