Seven days after Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, MNK, was sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism after he was found guilty on all the seven counts filed against him by the Federal Government of Nigeria, we believe the leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and indeed his counsels-turned-legal consultants, can see clearly now, much like the Reggae superstar, Jimmy Cliff, sang many years ago.
Since the judgment was handed down on Kanu by Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja on Thursday, November 20, 2025, many Nigerians including Ndigbo leaders have interpreted it to mean an assault on their ethnic group.
For instance, Mr. Peter Obi, the 2023 Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate, faulted the judgment in a statement posted on his X handle on November 22, 2025, saying Kanu’s conviction could worsen insecurity in the South-east.
“Rather than reducing tension, this unfortunate development may well only aggravate it,” he said, adding that Kanu ought not to have been arrested, but that his arrest, detention and subsequent conviction “represent a failure of leadership and a misunderstanding of the issues at stake.”
Obi argued that rather than prosecute Kanu, the Nigerian government should have resorted to political solutions, negotiated settlements, and even amnesty to settle the matter.
“The government’s approach has only deepened mistrust and created an avoidable distraction at a time when citizens are overwhelmed by harsh economic realities and insecurity,” he said.
It was obvious Mr. Obi did not remember the atrocities MNK’s IPOB perpetrated in the South East in the past few years.
Conversely, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu lamented that although he was instrumental to the bail initially granted Kanu in 2017, the secessionist agitations linked to the activities of the IPOB leader led to the death of over 30,000 people and the destruction of businesses across the South-East.
Kalu described the destruction as widespread and deeply personal, recalling traders who lost their livelihoods, including his late mother’s friend, whose rice business was wiped out during the unrest.
“Let Igbos stop being emotional. I want us to settle down, go on our knees and find a way that a man can be released. It’s part of my job to do it.
“I know my discussion with Nnamdi Kanu. I was the first to see him in 2016 and the first to meet him when he came from Kenya. I know my discussion with him. The DSS was there. They heard my discussion with him,” he said.
Kalu also defended Justice James Omotosho, who convicted Kanu, insisting that court judgments must be respected even when contested. “Nobody should question the decision of Justice Omotosho. If you are displeased, you go to the appellate court. It’s not to start insulting the man.”
He criticised Kanu for being “unruly and unnecessarily aggressive toward the judge,” contrasting it with his own conduct during his corruption trial.
“If you remember, I was given 12 years (imprisonment), but I never insulted the judge. The other day, I saw the judge at the National Assembly when he came to be confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice. I embraced him and gave him all the courtesy.
“We must condemn certain behaviours. You cannot rant up in the competent jurisdiction. I take exception to it. People might say it is good. Justice Omotosho is just a messenger of the court. It is his job. If you are displeased, you go to the appellate court. It’s not to start insulting the man,” he said.
We call for and support reason over emotion in Kanu’s ordeal. And instructively, top Igbo legal practitioners have condemned the IPOB leader’s erratic behaviours during trial, such as asking “where is the law,” “show me the law” under which he was being tried.
It is trite that once criminal charges are filed against anyone, the relevant sections of the applicable laws and penalties would be stated clearly.
Above all, we enjoin Nigerians to stop ethnicising the Mazi Nnamdi Kanu conviction and sentencing.
Rather than examine the issue dispassionately, most commentators have blamed the judge for the guilty verdict on MNK. They’d rather he was freed to assuage ethnic feelings, forgetting completely precedents of terrorism trials.
We recall that when a Nigerian court sentenced Kabiru Sokoto, the mastermind of the massacre and bombing of the Catholic Church, Madallah, Abuja, to life in prison for terrorism, the Hausa-Fulani did not claim that the country was fighting Arewa or being unfair to the North and Islam.
Also, when Charles Okah, leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, bagged a life in prison sentence for terrorism, no one alleged that Nigeria was against the Ijaw nation or the South-South.
“Rather than examine the issue dispassionately, most commentators have blamed the judge for the guilty verdict on MNK. They’d rather he was freed to assuage ethnic feelings, forgetting completely precedents of terrorism trials.”