How Kanu stopped RUGA, Water Resources Bill – IPOB

From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has said its detained leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, was pivotal in halting the Federal Government’s RUGA settlement programme and the National Water Resources Bill, describing both interventions as major achievements of his agitation.

In an internal memorandum to IPOB members worldwide, and signed by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, the group said Kanu’s broadcasts and grassroots mobilisation forced political leaders to reject policies it described as part of a broader “Fulanisation agenda.”

“What tangible thing has Mazi Nnamdi Kanu achieved in his agitation for the restoration of Biafra that has benefited ordinary people?” the memo asked.

“Let us answer them plainly. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu stopped RUGA. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu stopped the National Water Resources Bill.”

According to the statement, when the Buhari administration introduced RUGA in 2019, Kanu used Radio Biafra and IPOB’s global network to frame it as a question of land ownership and territorial control, not just livestock settlement.

“He did not have a seat in the Federal Executive Council. He did not control the National Assembly. He was not a governor. He did not possess a statutory veto. His power was the people,” Powerful wrote.

IPOB said Kanu’s intervention made it “politically dangerous” for Southern and Middle Belt governors to cooperate with Abuja on the programme, arguing that leaders had to answer to communities who feared losing ancestral lands. The group noted that governors, traditional rulers, farmers and lawmakers eventually joined the resistance, after which the Federal Government suspended RUGA.

The memo made a similar claim regarding the National Water Resources Bill. IPOB said Kanu connected the bill to questions of who controls rivers, riverbanks and waterways, and took the issue “directly to the people.” It added that the bill ultimately “failed to become law in the form proposed” after pressure from legislators, communities and regional interests.