Must Read: Python Dance, IPOB and Other Matters

Robert Obioha reacts to the Operation Dance, IPOB agitation and others matters that have kept Nigeria on edge in recent times.

The Python Dance (Egwu Eke) Part 2 of Nigerian Army in the South-East reportedly aimed to check crimes in the ember months has reportedly left some people dead and others wounded. It has also heightened the political tension in the country. Videos and images of dehumanized members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in mud water, some being slapped, caned and bruised mercilessly, have been trending in the social media and they do not paint the Nigerian military and the federal government in glowing colours.
The attack on IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu’s country home and their members by those involved in the python dance is in bad taste and condemnable. In fact, the Army/IPOB clash is indeed avoidable if the military has conformed to rules of engagement and restricted itself to the python dance. It is regrettable that what ought to be a dance, turned bloody and further opened our fault lines and divisions. I don’t want to go into the semiotics of python dance and its cultural implication to people in the South-East. But let me say that python dance is a cultural taboo in Igbo land. Our pythons hardly dance. They crawl and at times raise their heads up. They are sacred and harmless creatures. They can be seen in people’s homes. They don’t bite. They sleep with human beings at times. Most parts of Igbo land don’t kill or eat pythons. Python is the totem of some deities/gods in Igbo religious cosmology in some communities. Anybody that kills a python in some Igbo cultures will organize its funeral like that of a human being.
Apart from deaths and wanton destruction of properties, the python dance has led to proscription of IPOB activities in the South-East by South-East governors while the military authorities have reportedly designated it as a terrorist organization, a label that IPOB has rejected.
Designating IPOB as a terrorist organization is still debatable within and outside our shores because the group has never been a violent organization. Getting a court pronouncement to that effect does not necessarily translate to its being tagged a terrorist organization. Let’s keep watching as the matter unfolds.
Thank goodness that we are in a democratic dispensation where due process ought to take precedence over brute force. IPOB is known and generally regarded as a freedom fighting organization. Their members are agitating for a Biafran Republic. Why are they agitating for a Biafran Republic? This question should worry the Nigerian authorities.
But let me suggest some of the reasons behind the agitation. The IPOB members felt that Nigeria is not treating them well. As a result of this maltreatment, they are aggrieved. They resent and repudiate Nigeria. No doubt, they have the right to be angry. They are venting their anger on a nation that neglects them. All things considered, they have a genuine case that should attract the sympathy of all Nigerians. However, their methodology is problematic, especially the fiery and bile rhetoric of their leader, Kanu. His hate utterances are attracting enemies to their cause. The IPOB leader is well armed with potent and lethal words and he releases them at will.