by Alexander O. Onukwue
A stinging post on Facebook by a supposed supporter of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, has evoked reactions.
The Facebook user made the comment that all Biafrans should look up to Mazi Kanu as their saviour and leader, claiming that he was greater than Jesus. The post was published on the day of Kanu’s visit to Umueri in Anambra State, to a site reckoned to be one of the ancestral homes of the Igbo race. According to reports, Kanu’s visit was to pay homage and pray for the success of the actualisation of the agitation for Biafra.
Kanu, a Jew, has made salty comments about the Christian God, Jesus, once calling him ‘a white man’s God’. Though mostly donning Igbo traditional attires, Kanu’s physical paraphernalia also includes vestments that bear the Star of David or other Judaic insignias. He has once stated his desire that Biafra would be a Jewish nation-state.
The post by Chukwudi Leo, the Kanu and Biafra apologist, claims that he’s “bigger than Jesus”. This incensed Christians as though directing that they should not rest their hopes on Jesus as the Messiah and that it is, in fact, Nnamdi Kanu who is that Messiah. It is not clear if ‘Leo’ means this in the literal sense, that would imply that the Jews in Israel and other parts of the world also become subject to Kanu as their Messiah too. In that case, we may be looking at Biafra becoming not just a separate sovereign state, but as something of a Vatican, becoming the seat of a religion.
But to take Leo’s claim in the more reliable sense, the call would be interpreted as a rally for members of the Igbo race “who love freedom” to become guided by the leadership being provided by Nnamdi Kanu – at this time, towards reversing the ‘marginalisation’ it has borne in the Nigerian union. This would be the sense conveyed considering he made a number of other posts to the “highly respectable” Ohanaeze group whom, he believes, have become “confused”, shying away from speaking “truth” for the Igbos.
Any comments that compare anyone with Jesus is sure to push the button for Christians, as the outrage that has followed the post does clearly show. Chukwudi Leo appears to be one of many whose disillusionment with Nigeria has led them to feverishly jump on the alternative provided by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. It would have been easier to make a better judgment of him if he were not faceless.
