While the activities of the Mazi Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) continue to rattle Nigerian rulers who conspired to commit him to life imprisonment, the United States (US) celebrates the global stature and personality of the Biafra nation agitator amid his persecution over agitation against South east marginalization
By Jude Nzennaya, Port Harcourt
On Monday, January 26, 2026, governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Soludo, was full of irritation. While Soludo’s intestines bit and his bile boiled, members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in Onitsha, his archenemy, gleefully mocked the governor.
In sheer retaliation, and miscalculated move to quench his rage against Onitsha traders for obeying the IPOB Sit-at-home order in the South east every Monday, governor Soludo ordered the shutdown of the Onitsha Main Market the same Monday, for a period of one week. The IPOB Sit-at-home order, though counterproductive, was imposed on the entire South east region and some parts of the South south as a protest against what the group regards as illegal arrest, detention and the eventual imprisonment of their leader, Mazi Kanu. Governor Soludo is one of the South east politicians who is sore afraid and envious of the rising profile of Kanu across the globe.
Governor Soludo ordered the immediate shutdown of the Onitsha Main Market for one week, following defiance of the market leadership to open, despite the government directive.
According to his press secretary, Mr. Christian Aburime, the one-week shutdown of the market is an administrative penalty.
“It is the latest, and perhaps most drastic, salvo in a protracted war over who controls time and economic life in South-East of Nigeria on Mondays. The governor’s move is a direct response to what the government sees as baffling defiance. Despite repeated assurances of enhanced security and appeals to reclaim public spaces, many traders at the iconic market again chose to keep their stalls locked. Their absence was a quiet rebellion, but one that spoke volumes about the lingering climate of apprehension.
“The government cannot stand by while a few individuals willfully undermine public safety and disregard official directives meant to restore normalcy. This is plain economic sabotage.
“If the market does not reopen for business after this one-week shutdown, it will be sealed for a month. And so on and so forth. You either decide that you are going to trade here or you go elsewhere. I am very serious about this”.
The central government of Nigeria as with Soludo has equally refused to allow Kanu and his IPOB a breathing space after it locked him up in faraway Sokoto Prison. Just recently, the Presidency alleged that the long-debated claim of Christian genocide in Nigeria was falsely originated by members of the IPOB.
A report published early January by The New York Times had accused Emeka Umeagbalasi, a trader and leader of an Onitsha-based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Intersociety, of masterminding the genocide claim that prompted the action of U.S. President Donald Trump and some lawmakers.
Reacting to the report, President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, said the facts are beginning to emerge.
In a statement on his official X handle, Bwala recalled a series of interviews where he declared that IPOB was behind the narrative. These are all orchestrated allegations, according to IPOB, aimed at tarnishing the image of the group and its leader, Kanu who is still serving a life jail.
However, while Kanu and IPOB are still being vilified in Nigeria, the freedom fighter has been conferred with the Honorary Citizenship of the State of Georgia in the United States of America (USA).
Kanu was equally adopted as an ‘Outstanding Citizen’ who should be “accorded every courtesy as a Goodwill Ambassador from Georgia.”
The proclamation of Kanu’s outstanding posture in the global community was made by Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, on behalf of the Republican-controlled US State.
The proclamation letter, dated January 16, 2026, was presented on Friday, January 23, 2026 at Milledgeville, one of the capital cities of Georgia, by the State Representative, Gab Okoye.
Former Consul General of Nigeria in South Africa, Ambassador Uche Ajulu-Okeke, received the certificate of citizenship on behalf of Kanu.
Ajulu-Okeke described the imprisoned Biafra independence activist as “Africa’s most famous political prisoner and global prisoner of conscience”.
The proclamation reads, “I, Brad Raffensperger, Secretary of State of the State of Georgia, do hereby proclaim Nnamdi Okwu Kanu as an Honorary Georgia Citizen.
“May this Outstanding Citizen be accorded every courtesy as a Goodwill Ambassador from Georgia in his travels to other states, to nations beyond the borders of the United States of America, or wherever he may hereafter travel or reside. Thank you for your service to our state.
“In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of my office, at the State Capitol, in the City of Atlanta, this 16th day of January, A.D. 2026”.
Kanu was tried for treasonable offences which he denied, and challenged Justice James Omotosho of an Abuja Federal High Court and the prosecution to show him the law which he allegedly contravened. The IPOB leader has since challenged his incarceration at the Court of Appeal.
Kanu was abducted in Kenya and extraordinarily renditioned to Nigeria in 2021 under the watch of the late President Muhammadu Buhari. Since the award by the State of Georgia, many critics of Kanu especially the Nigerian government and some corrupt South east politicians who hates the freedom fighter, have remained downcast.
But analysts have argued that the elevation of Kanu to the status of a Goodwill Ambassador of the State of Georgia, USA, is an indication that the IPOB leader may not have committed any treasonable felony offences or terrorism-related offences for which the Nigerian government committed him to prison. They insisted that it was out of envy and malice that Justice Omotosho acting the script of the Federal Government of Nigeria, found Kanu guilty of the trump-up charges.
Many commentators have also argued that the conferment of such prestigious awards by the USA on a man found guilty of terrorism in his country is a testament to the fact that Kanu is only being persecuted by Nigeria because he is seeking to liberate his people, the Igbo, from the iron claws of the Nigerian oppressive government. These equally argued that the US adoption of Kanu as a worthy Ambassador and citizen of the country should be an eye opener to the Nigerian Judiciary that the IPOB leader should be let off the hook.
Many admirers of Kanu across the world have been celebrating his status as a world leader and a credible representative and brand ambassador of the United States of America.
