Every time someone says Kanu’s sentence is “selective judgment,” I realize how deeply unserious most people are about justice and how casually they erase victims.
But not on our watch.
There is nothing “selective” about this judgment.
Nigeria has been sentencing terr0rists to life imprisonment long before Kanu or IPOB/ESN entered the picture.
Charles Okah , leader within the M END network , was sentenced to life imprisonment for the 2010 Independence Day bombing in Abuja and the Warri explosion. Nobody cried persecution. Nobody said it was “selective judgment.” He faced the law.
Kabiru Umar (Kabiru Sokoto) , a senior figure in B0ko Har am , was sentenced to life imprisonment for masterminding the Christmas Day b0mbing at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Madalla that kil*led dozens. Again, nobody said the system was being unfair. He faced the law.
Several Boko Haram financiers and operatives have received life sentences or near-life sentences in mass terrorism trials. Nobody defended them with ethnic excuses. Nobody romanticized them. They faced the law.
So what exactly is “selective” about Kanu getting the same punishment other terr0rists and terror leaders have received?
Is it because he killed Igbo people, and that doesn’t count as terrorism to you? What is it? A family dispute?
If anything, the only selective thing happening is the selective morality of the people defending him.
These are the same people who cry for justice for victims in Plateau, Zamfara and Benue states, yet somehow develop sudden blindness when the victims are in Orsu, Ihiala, Ukpor, Orlu, Okigwe, Mbaitolu, Arondizuogu, Lilu, and countless Igbo communities ripped apart by IPOB/ESN and the armed men of terror acting under his direct orders.
You claim to care about terrorism, until it is your own leader who sanctioned the violence.
You claim to care about injustice, until it is your own group committing the atrocities.
Then suddenly the law becomes “persecution.”
You can’t demand justice when it suits you and play dumb when the mirror turns in your direction.
The law did not single Kanu out. Your conscience did.
And until some of you can look at the devastation in the Southeast , the thousands of innocent Igbo killed, the communities destroyed, the fear implanted , and admit that accountability is not “selective,” it is simply overdue, we will keep going in circles.
Justice is not selective. Your memory is.
By Chioma Amaryllis Ahaghotu
