Nnamdi Kanu and the Price of Freedom

Nnamdi Kanu and the Price of Freedom

For those who want me to stop writing about the Igbo because they have to hear the truth I say again that I will not be silent. Because of my Igbo brothers I will not be silent.

My stance is the path I have chosen carefully I will remain committed to that path until Nigeria is restructured for the common good of all. The below piece was written by my friend Dr. Eke Eke.

Eke is a medical doctor practicing in the UK. He is one of the most cerebral and logical minds I have come across. I believe his writing was influenced by the worries of many lovers of freedom about the dictatorial tendency of the regime in Nigeria. What Eke wrote summarized all that is on my mind.

I decided to share his kind thesis verbatim so that we can all be inspired and to know there is a price for freedom and liberty and that is what Kanu is paying.

I never knew much of Nnamdi Kanu until President Buhari introduced him to me by locking him up and refusing to obey court orders. I have never held my word against government trying to achieve conviction against citizens at all cost. In Dr. Eke’s words, ‘It is their fate that those who seek for change risk much.

Therefore, anybody, who is supporting or fighting for a cause must first count the cost and convince himself that he is prepared to pay it before he starts.

In a country like Nigeria, which is still struggling to allow a culture of the rule of law and individual freedom to take root, there is need for those who have taken it upon themselves to fight for a better society to count the cost of freedom.

The cost of what one believes or intends to do have been the determinant factor in whether he succeeds or fails, as only those prepared to pay the price of success succeeds. ‘For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he has sufficient to finish it? Luke 14:28 The Igbos say that ‘anaghi aso mgbabu aga ogu’.

Those who go to war, do not fear death. ‘For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. Matt. 15:25’ Freedom is invaluable and at the same time costs a lot to secure.

Often, the love one has for his people or country is shown in their preparedness to pay the ultimate price if required. Jesus recognized this and summed it as the ultimate demonstration of love.

‘Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:23’ During the Second World War, many people willingly paid the ultimate price to secure the freedom we enjoy today. The words of John Maxwell Edmunds immortalized at the Kohima epitaph sums up the price of freedom and show of ultimate love.

“When you go Home, tell them of us and say; ‘For your Tomorrow, we gave our Today” John Maxwell Edmunds 1916 The single litmus test for true and honest leadership, which has no deceit is the preparedness to pay the ultimate price. I call it the Mandela Test. ‘My freedom is inseparable from the freedom of my people’.

A leadership that sees its welfare and happiness as inseparable from the welfare and happiness of the people is what Jesus meant, when he talked about the good Shepard. For several years, ANC, behaved towards Apartheid the way Igbos are behaving today towards, corruption, islamisation and Fulani terror.

“Who will deny that thirty years of my life have been spent knocking in vain, patiently, moderately, and modestly at a closed and barred door? What have been the fruits of moderation? The past thirty years have seen the greatest number of laws restricting our rights and progress, until today we have reached a stage where we have almost no rights at all.” Chief Lutuli, President of ANC 1953 and winner of Nobel Price for Peace.

Things changed, when Nelson Mandela took over and realized that there is a place for ‘just violence’ in response to responds to subjugation, injustice, terror and discrimination of the type apartheid imposed on his people.

He made a clear distinction between terror and use of violence in the fight against tyranny and demonstrated that, while terror is evil and targets innocent people to instill fear and subjugate, violent response is used to incapacitate the oppressor and force him to see the evil of his way.

Could this analogy of great Mandela be the difference between Boko Haram , the Fulani Herdsmen and the Niger Delta Avengers? I scoffed when the President was quoted as saying he will deal with the Avengers the same way he has dealt with Boko Haram. You don’t for God’s sake treat freedom fighters the same way you treat terrorists.

Mandela demonstrated for all time the right and justifiable way to use the one of the languages oppressors respond to in achieving freedom and civil society. In essence, he said, one cannot be docile in the face of tyranny and a man who wants you dead, does not deserve to live either.

Why are the people of the South East docile in the face of terrorists attack by supposedly Fulani herdmen? Mandela had penned the following words “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people.

I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve.

But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die”. Nelson Mandela Anyone, who is not prepared to lose his life for the good of his people and what he believes is right, honest ,loving and of good report is an imposter.

However, this must not be through recklessness, it must be when other peaceful and non-violent means have been exhausted. The oppressor must know during our peaceful negotiation, that the freedom we seek, is nonnegotiable and that we prefer death to servitude. Only then will the oppressor count the cost of oppression’.

Leadership requires the risking of what we value most, our freedom and lives. Freedom is not cheap. The question is: Are we ready to invest in the future we desire and the freedom of people and pay the price.

Today Nnamdi Kanu is paying the price of freedom . His continued incarceration is only designed to weaken him and destroy his spirit, including demoralizing those who share in his vision of freedom for his people. I again call on the Federal Government to free Nnamdi now, dust up the CONFAB report or set another table so that we can as free men and men talk about the future of this country.

-Clem Aguiyi