The international community has categorically rejected the Nigerian establishment’s attempt to label Mazi Nnamdi Kanu a terrorist. Instead, he is widely recognized as a separatist leader. A diligent examination of major international headlines today suggests that the Nigerian government has inadvertently enhanced Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s stature as a prominent separatist leader through a disgraceful and egregious miscarriage of justice perpetrated by Justice Omotosho.
Mazi Nnamdi Kanu initiated a widely supported campaign for a Biafra referendum and was subsequently targeted for elimination by the Nigerian military under General Buhari in 2017. After escaping, he was abducted in Kenya in 2021 and subjected to extraordinary rendition to Nigeria. Notably, on June 24, 2025, a Kenyan High Court, presided over by Justice E.C. Mwita declared that the 2021 abduction and transfer of Nnamdi Kanu from Kenya to Nigeria were unlawful and constituted a violation of his fundamental human rights. The court awarded KSh10 million (approximately $70,000) in compensation to Nnamdi Kanu against the Kenyan government for its complicity with Nigeria in this covert operation, which resulted in his abduction, torture, and extraordinary rendition. Although several state and federal courts in Nigeria have made similar declarations, these rulings have been disregarded by the Nigerian government. In fact, the Nigerian Court of Appeal discharged and acquitted him in 2022; however, he has not experienced a single day of freedom since then.
Furthermore, it is noteworthy that Kanu’s organization, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), is legally registered in the United Kingdom and strongly supported by Eastern Nigerians in Diaspora. The U.S. State Department (2017) and United Kingdom (2022) stated that it does not classify IPOB as a terrorist organization, whereas the Nigerian government designated it as such in an ex parte proceeding—without a fair hearing. Although some Nigerian courts have ruled this designation unconstitutional, the matter remains pending in the appellate court.
While I urge Ndigbo in particular and the good people of Eastern Nigeria in general, to remain calm and law-abiding in the face of this extreme provocation, I must assert that the conquerors of the Nigerian estate and their local collaborators should not celebrate prematurely. As the adage goes, “When conscienceless power collides with a powerless conscience, the former may laugh first, but the latter will ultimately prevail.”
It is important to note that I disagree with certain aspects of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s past rhetoric. However, the apparent conspiracy involving a conscienceless judge and the Nigerian government to impose a life sentence on him for advocating a Biafra referendum through radio broadcasts from abroad—while simultaneously negotiating pardons and compensation with known jihadist terrorists who have committed mass atrocities in Nigeria—only serves to underscore Kanu’s claims of Igbophobia against the Nigerian state, thereby amplifying the call for a Biafra referendum on a global scale.
Charles Obinna Chukwunaru is President,
Eastern Nigeria Development Association (ENDA).
