Last week, during a health summit for traditional and religious leader inside the presidential Villa, Abuja, a traditional ruler from Enugu State, Igwe Lawrence Agubuzu ambushed President Bola Tinubu, when he pointedly asked him to release the convicted leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu unconditionally or send him back to Kenya.
Igwe Agubuzu made the demand when he was given the opportunity to address the gathering.
The demand was widely viewed as courageous, especially when many political leaders, who were supposed to have led such campaigns, have all remained silent out of fear.
While Agubuzu was speaking about Kanu’s ordeal and the similarity of his case with that of the Yoruba self determination agitator, Sunday Igboho, President Tinubu, who never envisaged such demand coming at that point was seen laughing hysterically.
However, Igwe Agubuzu’s demand has continued to elicit commendation and applause from Nigerians both at home and in the diaspora.
Three Igbo advocacy groups based in the United States, including the American Veterans of Igbo Descent (AVID), Ambassadors for Self-Determination (ASD) and Rising Sun Foundation (RSF), in a statement, have thrown their weight behind the call and praised the Enugu monarch for telling President Tinubu what many have failed to tell him.
A statement jointly signed by Dr. Sylvester Onyia, AVID, Chief Evans Nwankwo, ASD and Dr. Maxwell Dede, said: “We unequivocally commend His Royal Majesty, Eze Agubuzu of Enugu for his unflinching courage in telling President Bola Tinubu what other Igbo traditional rulers have been too weak, too compromised or too cowardly to say: Release Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu immediately or return him to Kenya.
“Let it be known that Eze Agubuzu and Eze Chukwuemeka Eri are currently the only monarchs who have publicly understood the depth of the pain, injustice and anguish inflicted upon our people by Kanu’s illegal detention.
“While Fulani herder murderers are pampered, Yoruba agitators walk free and the Nigerian state continues to show contempt for Igbo humanity, the majority of Igbo kings and chiefs, including the Obi of Onitsha and Eze Cletus Ilomuanya, remain silent. Their silence is complicity; their inaction is betrayal.
“We ask plainly: What are the titles and crowns of these so-called leaders worth if they cannot stand for the lives, liberty and dignity of their own people? AlaIgbo cannot survive leaders who place personal comfort above collective justice.”
The groups called on all the Igbo traditional rulers to abandon cowardice and complicity, and speak with one voice, stressing that the time for half-measures, whispers and veiled statements was over.
“Step up boldly for Mazi Nnamdi Kanu or step aside and make room for leaders who will. History will not forgive those who chose silence while our people suffered injustice,” the statement added.
The groups commended Agubuzu’s courage, saying he demonstrated that moral authority, not fear of Abuja, is what preserves a people’s dignity.
Similarly, a lecturer at the Michael OKpara University, Umudike, Imo State, Prof. Leo Obinna, has described Igwe Agubuzor as a bold and courageous monarch, whose thought aligns with the majority of the Igbo.
“We want President Bola Tinubu to release Nnamdi Kanu unconditionally. Igwe Agubuzor is a bold and courageous monarch. All he told the president is our thought.
“Not many leaders will speak the way he did. I have my kudos for him, he has my respect.
“Sunday Igboho committed the same acclaimed offence as Kanu. Igboho has been pardoned and we hear that the Ooni of Ife is trying to confer on him one of the highest honour in Yoruba land but our own Kanu is languishing in prison,” he said. He said if it were to be in other climes where justice and fairness rule supreme, Kanu would have been released.
Welcoming the call by Igwe Agubuzor for Kanu’s, a lawyer, Godwin Chinonye, emphasised that the IPOB leader did not do anything.
“The traditional ruler was very correct in what he said. In other regions, people like Kanu were released. Indeed, I am commending the traditional for what he said,” he noted.
An Umuahia-based lawyer, Okezie Ohajuruka, expressed his love with Agubuzu’s statement, describing the monarch as “the type of leader the Igbo need at this point in time; people who will speak truth to power.”
Former President General of Kanu’s community, Afaraukwu, Umuahia, Ikechukwu Ndubueze, also commended Igwe Agubuzu for telling the President the truth to his face.
He said the IPOB leader should have long been released if he were from another tribe and called on other Igbo leaders to speak out to get their son released.
“I don’t think if Kanu were to be a Yoruba or Fulani man, he would still be in prison. But because he is an Igbo man, they would want him to die in prison,” he said.