The violent assault by some hoodlums said to be members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on Senator Ike Ekweremadu at Nuremberg, Germany, where he attended the new yam festival is totally senseless, utterly ridiculous, disrespectful and very condemnable. The physical assault that was unleashed on Senator Ekweremadu by these misguided IPOB members is not warranted. It is an unfortunate infringement on the fundamental rights of the senator.
There is no justification whatsoever for the misplaced anger, not after all the Senator had achieved all these years in the Senate within his capacity. Ekweremadu is one of the outstanding leaders that has the milk of human kindness in Igboland. The people he represents in Enugu West Senatorial zone can testify to this. We all have constituencies in the country and we have our different representatives, non in South East has achieved 40% he has been able to do. Ikeoha as he is popularly addressed represents the good people of Enugu west who have been delivering their mandate to him all these years.
Even if any Igbo leader should be attacked, it definitely shouldn’t be anyone in the personality of the former Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate who has contributed immensely to the growth and development of Alaigbo. He is one of the political elites who understands the plight of the people and works towards alleviating their sufferings. How many of the miscreants that attacked Ike Ekweremadu can come to Nigeria and speak in defence of Ndigbo against the establishment like the senator has done? Ekweremadu has and still doing his own bit for Ndigbo in general, raising his voice on the floor of the Senate and elsewhere against the injustice meted out on Ndigbo and raising concerns for the betterment of Ndigbo. He remains one of the foremost great sons of Ndigbo who has proved his mettle over the years in the Senate.
It is also on record that the kindhearted senator facilitated the eventual release of the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu from detention and rather than appreciate this kind gesture, IPOB choose to unleash terror on him.
The brutal attack on Ekweremadu highlights the problems with Nnamdi Kanu’s IPOB. Their approach is always draconian and lacks strategy, constituting nuisance in Germany instead of lobbying their host nation to look into the plight and marginalization of Ndigbo including the killing of Ndigbo in some African countries like South Africa. This has always been the case with frustrated and ignorant people who have the least idea about governance, allowing only emotions, sentiments and violent outbursts to overwhelm their sense of judgement.
One wonders if it was the Senator that proscribed IPOB as a terrorist organization or if it was him that orchestrated the infamous Operation Python Dance that sent their leader, Kanu parking from his ancestral home at Afara-Ukwu, Umuahia. Or is the senator now the Federal Government or the president of Nigeria that has continued to maltreat and marginalize the Igbo in the country.
IPOB’s shameful and misguided act cannot be equated to that of one fighting a just course but a pure act of barbarism and violence unleashed on a wrong person. Who told them the senator holds the key to Biafra? Absolute madness. Even the devil can’t give thumbs up to this despicable act.
We must not glorify criminal behaviour in the name of protesting bad governance in Nigeria. The allegations are simply primitive and devoid of reasoning.
Senator Ike Ekweremadu does not deserve the mob attack and assaults he was subjected to on Saturday which has not addressed any problem or issues confronting the people and until we collectively distance ourselves from this stupidity by the unchained and untrained mad dog that is perpetuated and given a breather through bandwagon of Biafran hierarchy, we would find it difficult to achieve Biafra.
