Media entrepreneur and Ovation Magazine publisher, Dele Momodu, has added his voice to renewed calls for the release of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu.
In a post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle on Tuesday, Momodu shared a clip of one of Kanu’s past broadcasts as he reflected on the IPOB leader’s prolonged detention and the underlying issues fuelling separatist agitation in the South-East.
Momodu argued that the push for Biafra is rooted in decades of marginalisation and exclusion experienced by the Igbo people.
“Shortly before his abduction from Kenya by the Nigerian government, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu made this thought-provoking broadcast in which he philosophised about the reasons he and his supporters became radicalised,” he wrote.
He criticised those who dismiss Kanu and his supporters without examining the historical and political context that revived the Biafra movement.
“I have taken time to listen to his critics and discovered that most of them jumped to conclusions without properly analysing why agitation for Biafra became reignited, attractive and widely embraced after the pogrom that wasted millions of lives and destroyed unimaginable properties in the 1960s and ’70s,” he said.
According to him, the continued marginalisation of the Igbo, “some of the most energetic and vibrant brains in Africa and across the world,” has continued to deepen the agitation.
Momodu stressed that attempts to silence or eliminate Kanu would not resolve the issue.
“Attempts by enemies of Kanu, including some of his own kinsmen, to exterminate him will never solve the problem,” he stated.
He insisted that the concerns of the South-East require a political rather than force-driven response.
“I will never support violence. But any sensible government will keep the geniuses of the South-East very busy with productive engagements, instead of this rabid hatred,” he added.
Nnamdi Kanu is currently facing trial over allegations of terrorism and incitement to violence.
