Biafra agitation: Simon Ekpa is a clown who shouldn’t be taken seriously, says prof

Cyril Orji, a US-based academic and author, has described Simon Ekpa, factional leader of the proscribed Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB), as a clown who should not be taken seriously.

Orji, a professor of computer science, said this on Sunday during an interview with Rudolf Okonkwo on 90MinutesAfrica.

He said Ekpa’s sit-at-home directives forced him to relocate back to the US from Owerri after his retirement.

“When COVID hit and I retired, I sold my house and moved all my things. I returned to Nigeria and moved to Owerri,” he said.

“I didn’t stay three days, and he declared a ten-day sit-at-home. My wife and I rushed out, saying we’re not going to have this.”

Orji said Ekpa “should have been told in a language that he will understand that he is destroying lives,” adding that he believes the agitator is being paid to cause trouble in Igbo land.

He also argued that it would be even more difficult for a Biafran secession to succeed today than in 1966.

Commenting on a passage in his book ‘First Is Last’ regarding Nigeria’s pre-independence negotiations, Orji said if Nnamdi Azikiwe had towed the path of Ahmadu Bello, Nigeria might have entered independence as a “confederacy of regions” and the subsequent civil war could have been averted.