It’s been so since the ages. One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. Victory or defeat eventually, unfortunately, decides the abiding epithet.  Mandela was once labelled a terrorist. Nnamdi Kanu, can take heart. That baptism could be reversed by history. Mandela won and became a world acclaimed freedom fighter. 

Biafra was justice and freedom. But Biafra has become a tool for charlatans, a toy for dissipation of youthful exuberance. Biafra once evoked Igbo unity and enterprise. But Biafra has now been appropriated by jobless opportunists who exploit the frustrations of their poor brothers. Biafra was Igbo fellowship. But this their  new Biafra  thrives on  cannibalizing  fellow Igbos. Biafra was consultation, consensus. This Biafra is now  extremism, hallucination, egocentrism. 

My President. We are still in the season, so happy Eid Mubarak. I had wanted to send you this message in Igbo. So that you get the message. But I hate tit for tat.  And I know you will never give us a Sallah message in Hausa again.

Nothing baffles the public anymore. A senator accused the Inspector General of Police of corruption. He painted a picture of money for postings and promotion. No one felt enough repugnance to demand an inquiry.  Zero tolerance for corruption is a mere slogan. He announced that the police hierarchy leases policemen to companies and individuals and feeds on the returns.

It’s not impossible Lord Lugard is laughing in his grave.  It’s not often that  a man’s selfish and commercial adventure   come to be venerated as a moral ideal. When he strapped the southern and northern protectorates together in 1914, he did it to meet British colonial interests.