by Alexander O. Onukwue

By naming certain countries as being complicit in the prosperity of IPOB, the Nigerian Government wishes to follow-up on the signal it has began sending on IPOB being a terrorist organisation.

Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information, made headlines Thursday, by naming the UK and France as being partly responsible for sponsoring the Nnamdi Kanu-led group, beginning from the allowance given to him to run the Biafra radio from the UK. A court order had on Wednesday proscribed the group as performing terrorist activities, and it now appears the Government, through the Minister’s words, wishes to start embellishing the narrative of the group as being terrorists.

It is still being contended in various circles that IPOB could not be legitimately tagged as terrorist on the evidence of the actions credited to them so far, even as other groups like Fulani herdsmen have caused more mayhem in terms of the loss of lives and destruction of property. Garba Shehu, the president’s spokesman, has been quoted as defending the stance that the herdsmen cannot be called terrorists, while supporting the proscription of IPOB.

Many do not agree with the Mr Shehu, neither has the statement by Kashim Shettima, the Governor of Borno state, about IPOB being more dangerous than Boko Haram, made sense to a lot of people. But the Government seems to have concluded its mind about IPOB and now wishes to go ahead to create the conversations that will reflect that, one step towards that being to establish links with sponsors.