By Ahmad Salkida and Johnson Chinedu Edwin
In two separate newspapers articles published in 2006 and 2009
in the New Sentinel and Sunday Trust, and credited to one of us, the manner Boko Haram’s total disregard for civil values was the point of discourse. The
report in question warned that government’s disregard of this rebellious inclination of the group would amount a calculated catastrophe to society. The authorities ignored this at society’s general peril.
Last week, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) of Nigeria urged
Nigerians to simply ignore radio Biafra, a broadcast platform that has committed time energy and resources to peddling resentful communication about Nigeria and her constituted authorities. The Management of NBC claimed that they were
aware of the pirate radio station that is “transmitting seditious and
divisive content contrary to the provisions of the Nigeria
Broadcasting Code and law” and they are “working with security
agencies to track the source of the broadcast.”
Nnamdi Kalu, the name behind the radio and who is fondly called director, is not going about his objective in a manner that should not agitate well meaning members of the public. As it seems, the radio is winning many admirers among Southerners in Nigeria on a daily basis. According to a random survey for the purpose of
this article, an increasing number of traders, men and women in
villages, schools and in commuter buses tune to 97.6 band
width. In Aba, Abia State the radio’s audience is growing steadily among young people.
A public commentator known on tweeter as “Onye Nkuzi” (@cchukudebelu), recently dissected this phenomenon, lamenting on twitter that ‘the Nigerian State doesn't
have a narrative to challenge alienation - we've seen it in the North
East and Niger Delta. It pops up again.’ Radio Biafra, like the ongoing
insurgency in northeast Nigeria feeds on alienation to peddle a
culture of violence through retribution of real and perceived
injustice.
Meanwhile, it serves every society well to pay due attention to
signals and other sub-signals with the potentials to erupt into other
disturbing cauldrons of widespread violence. In Asaba,
Delta state, an Igbo man brought the consciousness of radio Biafra to
one of these writers one evening in the southeast with frightful
alacrity and implored everyone present there to tune to the station.
As soon as the right bandwidth was accessible, the voice of the
‘director’ Nnamdi Kanu was coming forcefully over the airwaves. It was
an arresting almost hypnotic voice to say the least, but it was not
the voice that was the problem but the substance of what he said and
how he said it that calls for concern.
Many unsuspecting listeners with a warped history of what led to the
Biafran civil war in 1967 and its concomitant effect of seeming
irreconcilable differences listened spellbound as the voice of
“director” resonated over the waves with ceaseless histrionics. He
seemed tireless, with his commentaries on a wide range of subjects all
geared towards the need for the burdened southern region to secede
from the north and “the hypocrite southwest” to quote the words of the
radio’s presenter.
Our investigations have observed most painfully that the director has
a growing influence on the minds of many from the other side of the
Niger. The danger in this is that people in that region are beginning
to accept whatever he says as the gospel truth, to the unreasoning
mind, the director, as he chooses to be addressed is framing the minds
of many of his listeners and predisposing them to dangerous
tendencies. Without going into specifics to underscore what one is
trying to say, but relevant authorities should know the danger of
collective mind-set propelled towards a particularly dangerous direction.
On a bus from Asaba to Onitsha, the bus conductor was busy regaling
passengers the resurgence of the Biafran agenda; Biafran
currency; Biafran flag; Biafran identity card and how personnel of the
Nigerian Police tactfully accord great recognition to Biafran I.D
cards and are liable to set one free of any offence the moment one
brandishes the I.D card. The bus conductor was very vociferous in his
claims and an attempt to draw passengers attention to the folly of
these claims, one suddenly realised that the commuters were more given
to emotion than reason and to avoid the rising belligerency of some of
the passengers including the driver one was
compelled to channel the discussion to safer grounds.
Late Muhammad Yusuf, the founder of what started as a band of
fundamentalists in Maiduguri that transformed into a dreaded global
Jihadi movement, did not have a radio of his own. He relied on
cassette recordings of his messages which was influenced by hardline Salafi teachers to woo youths to his flock. However, both
late Yusuf and now Kalu, have one thing in common, in as much as their
messages are in sharp contrast of one another, they both have the
undivided attention of teeming youths in their regions.
It is important to note here that ‘terrorism’ means different things
to different people. While a weighty number of people in the Muslim
world do not view groups like Al-Shabab, Taliban, Islamic State and
their affiliates as terrorists, majority consider them as full blooded
terrorists. The same with the Biafran movement, a growing number of
people consider the rebellion as an inalienable right that may offer
Igbos freedom from the superficial Hausa/Fulani hegemony.
Indeed, Radio Biafra is a ticking time bomb, while we must accept that
some of the claims made by late Yusuf over a decade ago, and now by
Kalu on the air waves have merits like that of the alienation of
people, a fact which is very obvious to any discerning mind but the
general thrust of radio Biafra’s mono cast is more emotive than
rational. Hopefully the new government of Muhammadu Buhari should get
set to combat some of these obvious imbalances and marginalization
which underpin the restiveness.
The Hutu power radio and the resultant Rwandan genocide that heralded
the 1994 Rwandan genocide should be a relevant example of what dire
propensities could result to if such hate rendition is left unchecked
not only by Kalu but championed by different groups across Nigeria. As
persons with background in media studies, we need not overemphasize
here the power of the media and its inherent capacities as willing
instruments to be commandeered to negative or positive ends. But
suffice it to say that the power of the media should never be
underestimated, at least not in this case. Every serious federating
unit should be mindful of the insidious influence of proponents of
divisive rhetoric within their midst and their potentials to nurture
and fan the embers of schismatic discords and prurient chasm in their
unit.
Salkida and Chinedu are both journalist from north and south Nigeria
respectively.
In two separate newspapers articles published in 2006 and 2009
in the New Sentinel and Sunday Trust, and credited to one of us, the manner Boko Haram’s total disregard for civil values was the point of discourse. The
report in question warned that government’s disregard of this rebellious inclination of the group would amount a calculated catastrophe to society. The authorities ignored this at society’s general peril.
Last week, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) of Nigeria urged
Nigerians to simply ignore radio Biafra, a broadcast platform that has committed time energy and resources to peddling resentful communication about Nigeria and her constituted authorities. The Management of NBC claimed that they were
aware of the pirate radio station that is “transmitting seditious and
divisive content contrary to the provisions of the Nigeria
Broadcasting Code and law” and they are “working with security
agencies to track the source of the broadcast.”
Nnamdi Kalu, the name behind the radio and who is fondly called director, is not going about his objective in a manner that should not agitate well meaning members of the public. As it seems, the radio is winning many admirers among Southerners in Nigeria on a daily basis. According to a random survey for the purpose of
this article, an increasing number of traders, men and women in
villages, schools and in commuter buses tune to 97.6 band
width. In Aba, Abia State the radio’s audience is growing steadily among young people.
A public commentator known on tweeter as “Onye Nkuzi” (@cchukudebelu), recently dissected this phenomenon, lamenting on twitter that ‘the Nigerian State doesn't
have a narrative to challenge alienation - we've seen it in the North
East and Niger Delta. It pops up again.’ Radio Biafra, like the ongoing
insurgency in northeast Nigeria feeds on alienation to peddle a
culture of violence through retribution of real and perceived
injustice.
Meanwhile, it serves every society well to pay due attention to
signals and other sub-signals with the potentials to erupt into other
disturbing cauldrons of widespread violence. In Asaba,
Delta state, an Igbo man brought the consciousness of radio Biafra to
one of these writers one evening in the southeast with frightful
alacrity and implored everyone present there to tune to the station.
As soon as the right bandwidth was accessible, the voice of the
‘director’ Nnamdi Kanu was coming forcefully over the airwaves. It was
an arresting almost hypnotic voice to say the least, but it was not
the voice that was the problem but the substance of what he said and
how he said it that calls for concern.
Many unsuspecting listeners with a warped history of what led to the
Biafran civil war in 1967 and its concomitant effect of seeming
irreconcilable differences listened spellbound as the voice of
“director” resonated over the waves with ceaseless histrionics. He
seemed tireless, with his commentaries on a wide range of subjects all
geared towards the need for the burdened southern region to secede
from the north and “the hypocrite southwest” to quote the words of the
radio’s presenter.
Our investigations have observed most painfully that the director has
a growing influence on the minds of many from the other side of the
Niger. The danger in this is that people in that region are beginning
to accept whatever he says as the gospel truth, to the unreasoning
mind, the director, as he chooses to be addressed is framing the minds
of many of his listeners and predisposing them to dangerous
tendencies. Without going into specifics to underscore what one is
trying to say, but relevant authorities should know the danger of
collective mind-set propelled towards a particularly dangerous direction.
On a bus from Asaba to Onitsha, the bus conductor was busy regaling
passengers the resurgence of the Biafran agenda; Biafran
currency; Biafran flag; Biafran identity card and how personnel of the
Nigerian Police tactfully accord great recognition to Biafran I.D
cards and are liable to set one free of any offence the moment one
brandishes the I.D card. The bus conductor was very vociferous in his
claims and an attempt to draw passengers attention to the folly of
these claims, one suddenly realised that the commuters were more given
to emotion than reason and to avoid the rising belligerency of some of
the passengers including the driver one was
compelled to channel the discussion to safer grounds.
Late Muhammad Yusuf, the founder of what started as a band of
fundamentalists in Maiduguri that transformed into a dreaded global
Jihadi movement, did not have a radio of his own. He relied on
cassette recordings of his messages which was influenced by hardline Salafi teachers to woo youths to his flock. However, both
late Yusuf and now Kalu, have one thing in common, in as much as their
messages are in sharp contrast of one another, they both have the
undivided attention of teeming youths in their regions.
It is important to note here that ‘terrorism’ means different things
to different people. While a weighty number of people in the Muslim
world do not view groups like Al-Shabab, Taliban, Islamic State and
their affiliates as terrorists, majority consider them as full blooded
terrorists. The same with the Biafran movement, a growing number of
people consider the rebellion as an inalienable right that may offer
Igbos freedom from the superficial Hausa/Fulani hegemony.
Indeed, Radio Biafra is a ticking time bomb, while we must accept that
some of the claims made by late Yusuf over a decade ago, and now by
Kalu on the air waves have merits like that of the alienation of
people, a fact which is very obvious to any discerning mind but the
general thrust of radio Biafra’s mono cast is more emotive than
rational. Hopefully the new government of Muhammadu Buhari should get
set to combat some of these obvious imbalances and marginalization
which underpin the restiveness.
The Hutu power radio and the resultant Rwandan genocide that heralded
the 1994 Rwandan genocide should be a relevant example of what dire
propensities could result to if such hate rendition is left unchecked
not only by Kalu but championed by different groups across Nigeria. As
persons with background in media studies, we need not overemphasize
here the power of the media and its inherent capacities as willing
instruments to be commandeered to negative or positive ends. But
suffice it to say that the power of the media should never be
underestimated, at least not in this case. Every serious federating
unit should be mindful of the insidious influence of proponents of
divisive rhetoric within their midst and their potentials to nurture
and fan the embers of schismatic discords and prurient chasm in their
unit.
Salkida and Chinedu are both journalist from north and south Nigeria
respectively.
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