Echoes from KadInvest 7.0: Did South-East governors found ESN?

Between the 13th and 15th October 2022, the Kaduna State Government headlined the 7th edition of the Kaduna Economic and Investment Summit (KadInvest7.0). The forum was initiated in 2015 by the administration of Governor El-Rufai as an annual economic conference aimed at promoting trade and investment in Kaduna State. 

This year event featured politicians from diverse background who used the occasion to address economic issues that faced the country. The host himself admitted that economic policy of the ruling party has failed. Despite trying to be at their very best, all the presidential candidates made one or two faux pass which are excusable.

Politicians are not infallible. Every single politician has their moments of gaffes; hence they have had reasons to walk back their statements.  Tinubu, for instance, gaffed where he described the host as ‘a man who can turn rottens to bad’. I heard him right but I am sure that slip wasn’t what he intended. But his opponents set the social media on fire. They said he is incoherent and stumbled on words. Not many also understood the relevance of his analogy between climate change and church rat eating the poisoned communion.

Atiku Abubakar also made a major slip when he said the North does not want the Yoruba or Igbo man as President. Certainly, that’s not true because he, Atiku, weeks back, told the South East political leaders that he is the surest  route to the emergence of a South East president. Atiku’s response to the question would have been a near perfect answer if he stopped at the point where he said ‘what the average northerner need is a Pan-Nigerian President of Northern extraction.’ The additional statements he made were awkward. I felt like muting the mic on him. Those words were not helpful to his image as a unifier and bridge builder.

While Obi’s supporters were clobbering Atiku and some even demanding that he resign from the race even when his campaign has walked back on the statement by clarifying it, then came ‘the mother of all gaffes’. In an attempt to dodge the question why he has not openly condemned the activities of Eastern Security Network- a security outfit formed by IPOB ostensibly to secure the South East from the marauding armed gangs, Obi claimed that ESN was formed by South East Governors. That to me was a major slip and mixing of facts.

Like other campaigns that walked back on their statements, I expected that the “Obidients” should have dealt with this gaffe in a mature manner and put it to rest. It is surprising to me that even up to the time of writing this opinion, some of them are still dragging their feet in walking back the statement as if Obi is infallible. This is not open to debate.  An objective fact cannot be argued about. Information can only be true or false.

The issue of this opinion is whether or not the South East governors actually did organise the Eastern Security Network (ESN) as claimed by HE Peter Obi? My answer to this question is, NO. And that indeed is a verifiable fact. The South East Governors Forum of which Peter Obi at some time was the Chairman is a forum with limited sphere of influence in the South East.

For emphasis, there is a remarkable difference between Eastern Nigeria and South East Nigeria. Whereas Eastern Nigeria comprises states in both the South -South Zone and South East Zone, the South East is limited to the five Igbo speaking states of Nigeria. Therefore, there is no way the South East Governors would organise a security outfit to cover areas outside their sphere of influence.

The fact is that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) created and established ESN in 2020. The South-Eastern governors had nothing to do with the Eastern Security Network (ESN) presently and in the past. It wasn’t their brainchild, and they didn’t even come up with the name and has never offered support or cover for the group. 

When ESN was formed , IPOB said in a statement published in Vanguard Newspaper, Posted On December 14, 2020 :

“We the global family of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), under the command and leadership of our great leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, wish to announce with delight, that IPOB has floated a special security network to guard and protect the whole of Biafraland from the rampaging killer herdsmen terrorists activities and other criminal groups in our land,” IPOB said in a statement.

After IPOB established ESN in 2021, the South Eastern Governors belatedly floated the notion of Ebubeagu, which IPOB vowed would never fly. The Ebubeagu unit founded by the South East governors has been battling with members of ESN. Both aren’t just rivals; they are mortal enemies. 

In the light of this, one has to wonder why Mr Peter Obi would make such a blatant ‘mistake,’ and why he and his campaign have failed to repair it. Or they believe it wasn’t a mistake in the first place. In several social network forums, some of his followers persist in saying he was right. But no. Unfortunately, he was dead incorrect. The idea that it was just a slip of the tongue also fails to hold water.

His answer to the question posed to him in Kaduna has yet to be revealed. The reporter wanted to know why he hasn’t spoken out against IPOB/actions. Obviously, the correct response was not that Eastern Governors founded ESN, else he would have been able to condemn it. Contrary to popular belief, ESN was not founded by South East Governors. As a result, we are still left wondering what the deal is with that inquiry.

I pray that individuals who claim to love Peter Obi more than others aren’t just using his run for office to vent their own animosity and petty concerns. In that case, they should put on their thinking caps and stop bombarding him with insults and meaningless chatter on WhatsApp designed solely to stroke the egos of the already converted.

With all due intelligence and responsibility, I must remind my “Obidient” brethren that the North will always remember that Peter Obi, the Labour Party candidate, either provided a false answer when asked a question regarding IPOB/ESN or that he is ignorant about the ESN’s founding members (which is impossible)  or he was trying to hide a dark secret hence he avoided the subject about IPOB/ESN.

The fact that HE Peter Obi, after all these months, still didn’t seem to realise that the IPOB/ESN question could be his potential waterloo if it wasn’t handled properly and prepared for it, even as he was going to the North, so as to soberly confront it, leaves much to be desired for any sincere, informed, and discerning mind or politician.

The North is not naive or easily misled by grammar, noise, or sentiments/emotions when it comes to politics. They think in terms of the future and conduct themselves in a business-like, pragmatic, strategic, calculating and futuristic manner. This can be discerned from the kind of questions posed to virtually all the candidates.

It’s going to get more complicated as Peter Obi leaves the sycophantic media houses and confronts the actual voters and decision makers in Nigeria, each of whom operates in their own sphere with their own set of dynamics.

The real test has now begun and this is for all the frontrunners. I pray that anybody this may concern will read this and take my free, helpful counsel into consideration. I won’t even take a cent for it.

Otherwise. If we’re on opposite sides of the political spectrum, then your loss is my gain. For me, it’s a triumph if you fail.