The IPOB attack on Ekweremadu is a big deal.

The DPA News analysts are wondering what to make of the widely reported assault on Senator Ike Ekweremadu yesterday in Nurnberg, located a few miles Southeast of the famous city of Nuremberg, in Germany.

Senator Ekweremadu, one of the most successful Igbo politicians in the modern times, had been attending an Igbo diaspora cultural event in Germany when the incident occurred. He had been invited along with the leader of the Igbo social cultural group, known as Ohaneze, Chief John Nnia Nwodo. For some unknown reason, Nwodo avoided the event.

At the venue of the diaspora event, a group of men, apparently members of IPOB arrived at the event and disrupted the proceedings. In the process, they manhandled Ekweremadu, as was clearly captured on a video clip that has gone viral.

The grievance of the unruly mob was not  clearly articulated. But it had to do with killings of civilians in the Igbo areas in Nigeria by the Nigerian military. The group seems to believe that the Igbo politicians have not been doing enough to stop these killings. This is a fairly legitimate grievance, and quite justified.

However, the choice of Ekweremadu and the method of expressing this grievance have raised multi-faceted questions about the Igbo agitations for sovereignty, the IPOB, and actually the position of the top Igbo political elite in that agitation.

IKE EKWEREMADU:

Using Ekweremadu as a representative of the top Igbo political elite, it is clear that there is a serious disconnect, characterized by tension and hostility, between members of IPOB and the Igbo political elite. This is not the first time, the IPOB members have attacked Igbo political figures, ranging from some Governors to even the leadership of Ohaneze. If Chief Nwodo had dared to attend the diaspora events, he would likely have been assaulted as well.

As seen from his statement after the event, Ekweremadu was shocked and embarrassed by what happened. To have been humiliated to a point of being rescued from an Igbo group is a terrible situation for him as an Igbo leader. It is either that IPOB is fundamentally wrong or that Ekweremadu failed in some serious ways as a leader. Or maybe both. And if Ekweremadu failed, then most other Igbo politicians failed.

IPOB AND ITS METHOD:

Ekweremadu apparently sees IPOB as Nnamdi Kanu. Hence, he spoke of his support for the process that led to the grant of bail to Nnamdi Kanu’s bail through the instrumentality of another Igbo Senator.

The personification of IPOB as Nnamdi Kanu,  is the worst setback for IPOB, as would be the case with any other such organization. Naturally, such personification will tend to dwarf the organization and frustrate every potential for success.

IPOB’s tendency to use force, threats and intimidation is not only a sign, but evidence, of a strategic weakness. It reflects an admission on its part that it has not been able to persuade  the people through logic and reason. It also reflects a belief on the part of IPOB that majority of the Igbos cannot be trusted to form objective and logical opinion about the IPOB, that they need to be somehow forced into the right place. That is a fundamental weakness.

BIAFRAN SOVEREIGNTY:

With the continued tendency toward failure of the Nigerian State, the objective conditions for the breakup of the present Nigeria continue to coagulate toward fulfilment. Yet, it will be hopelessly foolish for IPOB to expect to succeed in leading that process without the support of the Igbo political elite, the likes of Ekweremadu. If it were that IPOB was having a problem with one of few members of such elite, it will be no problem. But to seek to antagonize the entire class of Igbo elite is a mission dead on takeoff.

The irony of what happened to Ekweremadu is palpable and that was the reason the story went viral immediately. Those members of the Igbo diaspora in Germany, who invited Ekweremadu did not wish for him to be assaulted by a much fewer group of people. What about the interest of the larger group that invited Ekweremadu? Clearly, their interest is different than those of the IPOB? Igbo leaders like Ekweremadu may not be able to publicly identify with Igbos in diaspora for fear of being assaulted by the IPOB.

The implication is chilling. It means that IPOB members are now the enemy of other Igbos. And it means that whenever an Igbo group in diaspora is organizing events, they must either invite the police to keep IPOB members from such events or simply appoint some of their members to knock sense into any IPOB member that comes to disrupt the proceedings.

What happened in Nurnberg should better be an isolated incident that does not represent IPOB. Otherwise, expect other countries to join in outlawing IPOB.