Hidden agendas behind the protests, by Faruq Atofarati

Suddenly, Asari Dokubo despises them. The Yoruba’s Afenifere does not want them on their lands. The Emirates do not like them. Soludo admonished them, reminding them of the importance of unity. They ignored his advice and found a father figure in Alex Otti, who, like Obi himself, is lost. They haven’t gotten over their loss at the polls—or maybe they have—but they haven’t gotten over Tinubu’s victory. They obsess over his name daily, seeing him in their dreams. Their metaphors have turned into hatred, first for Tinubu, then for the entire Yoruba. Their wits are withering, and they are depressed.

Initially, they were lovers of Nigeria. Obi was their messiah, but he turned out to be a Greek gift, packaged to foster their Biafra agitation. Many saw through their deception. Soyinka warned against them, calling them myrmidons, but they were blasé and never proved otherwise. Truly, Obi was their messiah, supporting their anarchist agenda. Omatseye said, “Farewell, Kanu. Welcome, Obi.” They have much in common. Recently, Obi called for war, saying, “If we are at war, let us know.” It became evident that he and his emissaries want war.

This is not about bad governance. Obi himself was a bad governor. He crippled local government and the health sector. Doctors went on strike for months under his regime. Obi couldn’t boast of a single building during his tenure as Anambra governor. His people despised him and prayed never to see his return. But suddenly, he became a friend because he endorsed Biafra, and they made a U-turn. It’s about the man in Aso Rock—they don’t like him.

They made their grievances about the entire Yoruba. They fixed a point of rendezvous but not in the East, because they have nothing to lose there. Few thought Obi’s movement was genuine; many thought it was a movement with a few bad eggs. Time revealed the truth: it was a movement with a few good ones, because he sheltered them. Now he has openly declared war on peaceful parts of Nigeria. His emotions betrayed him, revealing long-held intentions.

Obi wants war. He wants to lead them against the Southwest and North, using his loss at the polls as an excuse for anarchy. Where he won as governor, peace has never been known. The IPOB Omegas slaughter his people on Mondays, yet he has never raised a finger. He is unfazed, but he wants to protest against bad governance—a notion too ambiguous for his person.

Now that Obi has declared his interest in war, the rabble-rousers have gone to re-strategize. They will converge on places with valuable infrastructure, even though Obi never boasted of building any in Anambra. He is bitter, but bitterness alone cannot quantify his emotions.

Lagos is their first target. Although they prospered and made their wealth in Lagos, they don’t see it as home, so it takes nothing for them to soil the state, as IPOB gunners did to their homes.

For this essayist, his emissaries are agents of doom who do not like Nigeria. “But this psychology is nothing new. The private man and the public man may not always cohere. In their huts, they are Biafrans. On the frontlines of battle, they are Obi. It is like Mr. Mani in A.B. Yehoshua’s novel, who calls himself a Jew but does not believe in Jehovah. He embraces the culture but renounces its mystery. One of the 20th century’s top philosophers, Hannah Arendt, obsesses over this schizophrenia in his opus, ‘The Origins of Totalitarianism.’ The Obi followers accept Biafra but reject Nigeria. They abandon the mystic of the cause, Nnamdi Kanu, and follow Obi, its inauthentic saint. It is the pragmatism of the cause. Kanu is the unarmed prophet, sulking behind bars. Obi is out in the open, a bird in hand. Machiavelli warned against the unarmed prophet, who fights without power. Elijah was armed against his foes. So was Jesus until he was crucified. They see Obi as armed with an electoral quest. It is their version of the Trojan War. Obi is the Greek gift that they will ride into battle for conquest.” Omatseye’s rhetoric has described them well.

Why is there no protest organized in Anambra or Enugu? Are they doing better than Lagos? Have they ostracized the East from Nigeria? Why don’t they want to protest in their homes? Obi knows there is nothing there to destroy. They have no BRTs, no blue or red lines. They sit at home on Mondays but want to turn the Southwest into a burial ground, as they did in the East. They disguise anarchy as a protest, and Obi endorses them.