ObunikeBy Obunike Ohaegbu
In every major trial with national and international attention, the accused person’s greatest advantage is the opportunity to defend himself — to place before the court and the world his own version of events, supported by evidence and witness testimonies. Unfortunately, that golden opportunity was squandered — and in my honest view, by Nnamdi Kanu himself, in his characteristic all-knowing manner.
It is on public record and across multiple media platforms that Kanu habitually interrupts, shuts down, and talks over his lawyers, sometimes even warning them not to speak while he is speaking. With such an attitude, what outcome could anyone have expected? You cannot engage brilliant, independent-minded lawyers like Kanu Agabi, SAN, and other respected senior advocates, and then publicly humiliate them before a global audience. Naturally, no self-respecting lawyer would remain in a team where the client is both the accused and the sole adviser.
Unfortunately, the ethics of professional confidentiality mean we may never know what advice his earlier legal team gave him or how much of it he rejected. But anyone who has followed his rhetoric could have easily predicted this outcome. The trial was never about law alone — it became a theatre of ego and spectacle.
Even more worrying is that this entire drama seems to have become a money-spinning venture. We all saw videos of celebrities like Davido publicly pledging hundreds of millions of naira for his legal battle, and many others allegedly contributing privately. Meanwhile, ordinary, vulnerable people in the South East — the same people Kanu claims to defend — have become the real victims: living in fear, economically crippled, and forced into silence by intimidation and the constant threat of being branded “saboteurs.”
Imagine the irony: those agitating for Kanu’s release on grounds of freedom of speech are the same ones threatening death to anyone who dares to speak freely against him.
The most worrisome part is that some are now asking Ndi Igbo to “shut up” — arguing that “Northerners do not expose their own.” That argument is not only ridiculous, it is dangerous. Have we forgotten the impact of such irresponsibility in the North? Today, cities lie in ruins, communities are deserted, and IDP camps have become permanent homes. Families that once lived in dignity now depend on handouts to survive. And that is exactly where Ndi Igbo are being led — into silence, destruction, and dependency — all in the name of blind loyalty.
God forbid!
My only hope is that Alaigbo survives this season of madness. I pray that our children can return to school on Mondays, that no child is attacked again for daring to write WAEC or attend classes. Boko Haram says Western education is forbidden, and yet ESN allegedly slaughters our own people for going to school.
We must wake up and heal. The land of our fathers is bleeding not from external oppression, but from internal misdirection.
In saner societies, a man exhibiting this level of obsessive self-deification and delusion would have long been under psychiatric observation, not political worship.
May God help Alaigbo to survive this phase and rise again — wiser, freer, and truly united
