Charles Ogbu, a popular columnist, weighs in on the recently announced stringent bail conditions given to pro-Biafra secessionist leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
[dropcap]H[/dropcap]ate is a very dangerous emotion. The most dangerous, actually. The ironic thing about hate is that it does more harm to the hater than it does to the hated. Sadly, the Nigerian state is presided over by a man who hates for a living. It grieves me beyond reason to see that this senseless hate has found it’s way into the sacred temple of justice that is the Judiciary.
Yesterday, the 25th day of April, 2017, in the case of the leader of The Indigenous People Of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu versus the Nigerian state, the presiding judge, one Binta Nyako, granted bail to the IPOB leader with one hand and took the freedom attached to the bail with the other hand.
According to the judge, Nnamdi Kanu is being granted bail based solely on health ground but in a move that left no one in doubt that the Judge never really meant to grant bail to the Aba-born Prince but was simply bent on distracting Nigerians from the long absence of the gravely ill president Buhari, she gave some of the bail conditions to include that (1) the Biafra strong man must produce a senator, an influential Igbo leader plus a Jewish leader as surety who must all deposit 100 million naira each and must have landed property in Abuja (2) he must not be seen in company of more than 10 people. (3) he must not grant any interviews (4)All his passports must be submitted to the court, among others. And his bail will be revoked if he violates any of the aforementioned conditions.
Now, permit me to analyse these conditions:
(1)The Jewish Leader condition:
In her moronic bid to mock Kanu’s claim to the Jewish faith, madam Binta Nyako ended up mocking the judiciary and subjecting her position as a Judge to ridicule.
If a Nigerian citizen who lay claim to the Jewish ancestry/religion must produce a Jewish leader to surety him on bail in Nigeria, will a Nigerian who pray towards Mecca also be required to produce an Islamic cleric from Saudi Arabia to stand surety for him, too?? Will my father, Ogbu Nwa-chima, an adherent of the traditional religion, be asked to bring an Amadioha priest as surety if he has a case in Nigerian court?
(2)Kanu Must Not Be Seen In Company Of More Than 10 People:
This particular condition exposes this fulani woman Judge as a hopeless bigot playing a script that is far removed from what the judiciary stands for.
Nnamdi Kanu is the most influential Igbo man alive. He has millions of followers both here in Nigeria and outside this country. There are hundreds of thousands of other Nigerians who really don’t care about Biafra but have come to love him because they believe he is a victim of tyranny. Even Kanu’s immediate family is made up of more than 10 people seeing as he is of royal blood.
Except you were born dumb or a product of Quota system, how do you grant bail to such a man and still insist he must not be seen in company of more than 10 people??
The hospital he will visit for his health problem, will he hire soldiers to keep every other persons away?
Even outside the court premises, how do you stop his number-less followers –many of whom have categorically told you to either give them freedom from oppression or kill them– from mobbing him??
In a clime where confidence in the judiciary holds meaning, madam Binta Nyako would have been relieved of her duty immediately. No Judge whose brain was not producing anti-bodies against itself would give this kind of senseless condition for bail.
(3)Kanu Must Not Grant Interviews
A wise man once said and I quote: “When you cut off a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar. You are only proving to the people that you are afraid of what that man might say”
I will leave this here.
If Madam Binta Nyako was not a hate merchant like her principal, Buhari, how would she grant bail to a man on health ground and still attach all these devilish conditions? Without Nnamdi Kanu’s passport, how would he be able to get medical attention outside Nigeria? Does Binta Nyako really want Kanu to get medical treatment or she plan on seeing him die of ill-health in prison?
If Muhammadu Buhari was not a dark hearted man, why would he be releasing boko haram terrorists from prison with cash compensation and protecting his murderous fulani kinsmen with a special army taskforce while he is using his stooge, madam Binta, to ensure that Kanu who has never killed a fly remains in jail?
If the so called human right activists in Nigeria weren’t as useless as the Buhari presidency, they would have since seen that Nnamdi Kanu’s case is now a clear case of the abuse of the fundamental human right of a citizen by a 16th century brained highly vindictive No-Where-To-Be-Found President.
Any man or woman, Igbo or not who brokered this kind of evil deal for the IPOB leader is more devilish than the devil.
Life is fraught with ironies, though. Beautiful Ironies, sometimes. While Nnamdi Kanu and his comrades are smiling and looking healthy in prison, where is their jailer, Muhammadu Buhari? What is his condition today?? Don’t get it twisted. Charles Ogbu is simply asking for the whereabout as well as the health status of his “dear” president. Between Kanu and his jailer, who is really in prison? Indeed, evil does not pay!
In all of this, I am glad beyond words that the bravest of them all, Nnamdi Kanu, have put the murderous Nigerian govt to shame once more by rejecting those satanic bail conditions. By insisting he would either walk out of prison with his comrades unconditionally or die in prison with them, he has again proven that true leaders are born, not made.
Isn’t criminally funny that the Buhari govt which flouted the Dec.17th order by justice Adeniyi Ademola that Kanu be released unconditionally is now expecting reasonable folks to treat the stage-managed ruling by a Judge who has never hidden her bias against the defendant with any iota of seriousness?? It is settled in law that even if a Judge delivers a ruling while visibly under the influence of alcohol, that ruling must either be obeyed or appealed. The Buhari govt neither obeyed nor appealed Justice Ademola’s ruling on Kanu.
A president who chooses which court order to obey or disobey is the biggest threat to his country.
A Judge who allows hate to cloud her sense of judgement is not fit to even work as a cleaner in a court.
Nnamdi Kanu was wrong, though. Nigeria is not a Zoo. It is not even a jungle because in jungle, it is all animal for himself. The Jungle does not have a govt which uses the instrumentalities of state to give undue advantage to certain categories of animals while oppressing another category of animals as is the case with Nigeria.
Nigeria is a walking tragedy. Not because a certain Charles Ogbu said so but because it is the only country where pre-historic hate-filled men and women like Buhari and Binta Nyako who are deaf, dumb and blind to the sanctity of human lives as well as the fundamental human rights of citizens are the ones presiding over the affairs of decent people and serving in the temple of justice.
This country is nothing short of a crying shame!!
Charles Ogbu is a social media activist. Connect with him on Facebook.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
