The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Setting of the “Jubril Al-Sudani” Agenda: A Qualitative Review of a Failed Securitization Move (Published)
The value of “good name” in politics and political movements is highly invaluable and is most appreciated when confronted by agents of demonization. Cases abound where angels are presented as demons and fugitives packaged as saints; thus, while a sparkling reputation can enhance political demagogues and even parachute political victory, “bad name” is deleterious to the state, the agents of the state and forces against the state and provides justification for the utilization of extra-legal means in solving “perceived grave” problems. This work evaluates the attempt by the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, to demonize President Muhammadu Buhari’s personality and present him to the Nigerian audience as an impostor and a security threat from Sudan. Content was generated from secondary sources which comprised mostly online media publications and published and unpublished literatures. Using the securitization model, we have subjected the demonization to several levels and units of securitization analysis and have concluded that the IPOB’s securitization was not successful in the sense that it dominated the agenda over a period of time and even captured the interest of a reasonable proportion of the Nigerian political audience but faded away without successfully demeaning the president as a threat, albeit, to the majority of the citizenry
Keywords: Indigenous People of Biafra, Jubril al-Sudani, National Security, Nnamdi Kanu, Securitization