OF PROSCRIPTIONS AND CURFEWS; UNDERSTANDING THE @GovernorIkpeazu CHALLENGE

By Onyebuchi Ememanka

Let me start this way. 

When Mazi Nnamdi Kanu chose to make Umuahia the operational and tactical headquarters of the IPOB struggle, I was deeply worried. 

My worry stemmed from the fact that there certainly would be consequences and the bulk of these consequences will be borne by the government and people of Abia State. 

I foresaw what is happening now. I knew a time would come when IPOB and the Federal Government will clash somehow and the main theatre of the clash will be in Umuahia with Aba on standby.
That clash was inevitable and it was just a matter of time. There was no way the Federal Government will sit back and watch IPOB carry out its real threat of stopping elections in the South East beginning from the November elections in Anambra. This is the truth.

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu did not bring IPOB to Umuahia, neither did he bring the Army. The two situations were completely out of his control.

It is on record that throughout the time Kanu and his men held rallies upon rallies in Umuahia, and later Aba, at no time did the Abia State Government stand in their way. Ikpeazu is a hardcore democrat and believes that democracy gives people certain fundamental freedoms and rights, and for as long as they were not violent and do not infringe on the freedoms and rights of others, they were free to do their thing.
On one occasion, Umuahia was shut down by IPOB. The crowd was crazy. It must have been up to a million persons. All the major entrances into the town were on lock down. From the Ubakala end and the Abia Tower end were completely closed by human and vehicular traffic. Schools, hospitals, banks, etc had to shut down. Government business suffered greatly that day. Ingress and egress out of the Government House Umuahia were herculean tasks. Yet Governor Ikpeazu chose to play the role of a father and statesman.

"Since they are not violent and destroying things, please allow them do their thing. This is a democracy". That was the response Ikpeazu gave to security agencies then.

Then, the Army launched OPERATION PYTHON DANCE 2. They gave a date for the commencement and notified the SE Governors. It was also made public. We all read and saw it. They said they will start on the 15th of September. Nobody was overtly worried. The Army also did OPERATION PYTHON DANCE 1 last year in the SE. There were no issues. So, no cause for alarm. No one was worried.

Few days to the scheduled date, the Army started their parade of tanks and fearsome armada of military hardware. They moved straight towards Afara, the home of Nnamdi Kanu. At this time, no one had notified the Governor.

By the time Governor Ikpeazu knew what was happening, a clash had started between some members of IPOB and the military guys. The story was that while the Army guys passed Kanu's compound, the boys threw stones at the convoy and shots were fired by the Army. Someone, an IPOB member got hit in the leg.

Embarrassed by this development, the Governor started making all necessary contacts. He got across to the Presidency. He spoke to the Army Chief of Staff, Chief of Defence Staff and the National Security Adviser.
President Buhari was out of the country then. Ikpeazu summoned an emergency security meeting. All the service commanders were in attendance including the GOC 82 Division Enugu.

What's going on in my state? Are we at war? He kept asking. Please order your men to stop this. Tension is growing here. Why the change in date of commencement of the dance of the Python? How come I wasn't informed?

I was on ground and I saw everything...the frantic phone calls, the meetings, etc. Throughout that period, no one slept. How dare you sleep when your boss is awake? Ikpeazu worked the phones...day and night.
As he spoke to Abuja, he also spoke to our people. Please be calm. Don't play into the hands of those who would want this situation to be mismanaged.

When I read people blame the Governor, I just shake my head. Our elders have a saying...THOSE WHO WERE NOT PRESENT WHEN THE CORPSE WAS BURIED, START EXHUMING FROM THE LEG.

Meanwhile, IPOB members had regrouped from Aba and heading towards Umuahia. There was a fiasco along the Expressway. The Army was ready with guns and tanks. IPOB members carried sticks, stones and  Biafran flags.
The situation had deteriorated and for Ikpeazu, he was under intense pressure. The Army wasn't taking direct orders from him. The IPOB too. And this is a man elected to secure the lives and properties of his people, yet the two warring groups were not listening to him.

By the next day, Aba had caught the buzz. The Army had entered Aba. It was inevitable. Aba will always be Aba...defiant and strong. The people felt that the Federal Government in cahoots with the Hausas had declared war on Aba. In such situations, the immediate target is the Hausa Community in Aba.
Boys Oyee...our people shouted and headed towards the mosques. It's a normal thing here.
There was pandemonium everywhere.

Ikpeazu was in a fix.
Once Hausas are attacked in Aba or any part of Abia State, then there certainly would be reprisal attacks up North.
While there are few hundreds of Hausas in Aba, mostly butchers, beggars ,shoe shiners, nail cutters, suya sellers, security guards, we have over 11 million Igbos in the north. Top businessmen, millionaires, federal workers, etc. While the Hausas come here alone, our people in the North live with their families. For some, everything they have labored for in their lives are in the north.

Will Ikpeazu, as Governor sit back and watch our people slaughtered in the north in response to any attacks on Hausas here?

While this pandemonium lasted, the rest of the states of the South East were calm and peaceful. All those who swarmed into Umuahia for rallies had returned to their states and lived peacefully.

Ikpeazu battled on three fronts.

First, he was speaking to the Presidency and the Military High Command on how to scale down the operations of their men here.

Secondly, he was battling to see how to calm IPOB members down.

Thirdly, he had a crisis on his hands in Aba. By then, it was no longer about IPOB. Once you hear Boys Oyee in Aba, it becomes a general thing. Even non IPOB members had joined the fray. AWAY WITH THE HAUSAS, they all cried.

Ikpeazu acted fast. He slammed a dusk to dawn curfew on Aba to help reduce tension and avoid any clashes between the Army and the people. His main objective was to save lives.

While this was on, he kept speaking with Abuja. At a point, they saw reasons with him and agreed to pull soldiers away from the streets.

It's easy to sit back in the comfort of your house and apportion blames. I have not seen any person proffer a single solution. What would you have done differently if you were Governor in the face of such military bombardment of your people?
Act a James Bond, make inflammatory statements and call the bluff of the Military and the Federal Government, thereby exposing your people to more danger?

Act like some hard man, ask your people to enter the streets and fight soldiers? Escalate the situation? Watch as streams of blood flow on our streets?

Give a reason to declare a state of emergency here and allow the FG to now bring in a military administrator who will turn our state upside down?

The decision to "proscribe" IPOB by the Governors of the South East was made in a hurry to help calm things down here. A man whose family faces real threats of danger will do strange things to save his family.

In supporting that decision, Ikpeazu wanted to save the lives of even the IPOB members themselves because the proscription will somehow make it tough for them to gather and get exposed to danger.
When looked at from a purely legal standpoint, the proscription appeared rather like a knee jerk reaction but under situations of extra ordinary emergency, knee jerk reactions are common place.

A man will prefer that his only son be called a fool by a man with a sharp cutlass and be allowed to live than to engage in a needless show of disproportionate power and end up losing your only son.
The Army had guns of different kinds, they had machine guns, they were ready to shoot. They actually shot. People died.

What could the Governors have done?
They have no guns.
They have no arms. They have no Army.
Yet they are expected to protect lives and property of their people.

I have read several comments from people who I know personally are facing family crisis and they look helpless. I know of one guy, who is my friend, who is in deep trouble because he abandoned his wife and kids abroad, came here and remarried, now the wife abroad plans to storm Nigeria like Nnamdi Kanu and my man shits in his pant everyday calling all of us to help beg the wife. He is afraid of his own wife. He doesn't want any crisis in his family. He is afraid that his aged parents may not survive any such wahala. He calls everyone that knows the wife to beg her to wait for him to come over for talks. The wife threatens to get him arrested once he steps his feet in that country. My man is confused...and afraid.
Yet, he shamelessly  blames Ikpeazu for saving the lives of our people.

Call Ikpeazu what you wish.
Call him a coward, if you like.

But today, Ikpeazu stands tall because he averted bloodshed and loss of the lives of our people.

After all, our people say...

YOU STAND IN COMPOUND OF THE COWARD TO POINT TO THE RUINS OF THE COMPOUND OF THE DEAD STRONG MAN.

Ikpeazu prefers that he be called a coward so that our people may live.

My very good friend once called me a Jew Man at ABSU. He told me that I am not a man. What offence did I commit to warrant such branding?
I refused to go with him to join a cult. I heard that you will beaten blue and black to ascertain your membership suitability.
I wondered...why would I join a group that the main entry requirement is general beating? When there is the Kegites Club that you just go and dance, sing and drink palmwime.
Before we graduated, my guy was shot dead at Okigwe Express. Some said then it was a cult clash, others said it was an armed robbery case. I shed tears for my friend. That's what cowards do...shed tears when we lose the hard men.

By Barr Onyebuchi Ememanka