This Monday, while final year secondary school students across the country were sitting for English Language in the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), one of the courses they must get a credit pass in, to be able to secure university admission, their counterparts in some parts of the South-east part of the country were denied that opportunity.
Members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) were reported to have invaded schools in Imo State and dispersed students either waiting to start or already taking the examination, in enforcement of a sit-at-home order by the body, which prescribes that all offices and businesses in the South-east states remain shut every Monday.
The group gave the sit-at-home order on July 30, and said it will continue every Monday until its supreme leader, Nnamdi Kanu, is released from the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).
For a region whose students often record the most impressive results in such examinations, this is a serious setback.
The IPOB situation has been going on for a while now and beyond arresting Kanu, the leader of the group, it appears the government and security agencies do not have any strategy in place to arrest the situation which is now spiraling out of control.
The government, for whatever reasons, has allowed IPOB to take control of the narrative with its separatist agenda and so many people in the region have keyed into it, even though some of them are beginning to retrace their steps, seeing that the group lacks a clear ideology.
Between August 20 and 26, SB Morgan (SBM) Intelligence, conducted a survey in the South-east which showed that the sit-at-home order has been effective due to fear of attacks and sympathy for IPOB’s cause.
The survey which was conducted among 1000 respondents in the region found that 464 respondents were more supportive of the sit-at-home action, 312 respondents were less supportive, while 233 respondents were lukewarm. It was also discovered that more than half of the four age ranges – 18-30 years, 31-40 years, 41-50 years, and older than 50 – admitted to having their productivity affected by the action.
In reaction to the latest attacks by IPOB, governor of Ebonyi state, David Umahi, was right when he said the sit-at-home order by IPOB was “war brought by the people upon themselves” as it affects the people of the region and not the governors, who according to him, have food in their homes and whose children are out of the country.
Umahi thinks that the peoples’ decision to comply with the IPOB order is fuelled by fear. This is also correct, at lesat the SBM survey proves this.
If the people are afraid, their fear is justified because the way I see it, the government of the day has not shown capacity and willingness to protect the people if they decided to defy the order, even as the attacks by IPOB are not widespread but limited to a few locations, especially in Imo State, which appears to be assuming the position of epicentre of the crisis.
I would also be afraid if I was in the South-east because some of those who defied IPOB have had to pay with their lives.
It was reported that a priest with the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Emeka Merenu, was killed by yet-to-be-identified gunmen, suspected to be members of IPOB, in Iheteukwa, Orsu area of Imo state on Tuesday, for allegedly inviting soldiers to secure the mission school, where he serves as the principal, after Mondays invasion of Comprehensive Secondary School in Nkume area of the state.
These are the kinds of situations to expect when the government is not at a good place with the citizens and totally disconnected from them.
The governors, who are the political leaders in their respective states, do not have any form of control over the people, who would rather disobey them than incur the wrath of IPOB, even though the group, as it stands, lacks ideology and with latest developments, it would seem that they are either playing a game or the group has grown bigger than its leader, to the extent that members would rather do as they please than obey orders by the group.
If not, how else do you describe a situation where IPOB has come out to deny involvement in the disruption of the WASSCE examinations, saying its sit-at-home order had been lifted, to only hold on days Kanu appears in court?
Who then can we say is responsible for the enforcement of the order every Monday, in different parts of the South-east?
The way I see it, the time has come for South-east leaders to speak up in one voice against the menace that IPOB has become.
This is not something they will leave in the hands of the federal government. The people suffering the consequences of IPOB’s actions are the same people who elected them, their people, the same ones they represent.
Governors, National Assembly members, traditional leaders and other leaders from the region must do something now to save the situation. They should not wait until such a time when the people decide to take their destiny in their hands and push back in a way that would further devastate the region.
This must be done fast because the handshake has already gone past the elbow.
