"Behave Like a State": Uchechi Okwu Kanu Challenges IPOB to Build Stability, Security, and Unity for Freedom

 "Behave Like a State": Uchechi Okwu Kanu Challenges IPOB to Build Stability, Security, and Unity for Freedom Uchechi Okwu Kanu, t...

 "Behave Like a State": Uchechi Okwu Kanu Challenges IPOB to Build Stability, Security, and Unity for Freedom

Uchechi Okwu Kanu, the wife of Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, delivered a poignant live podcast on Saturday, February 21, 2026, titled "Empowering Biafran Voices: A Call to Reflection, Responsibility, and Leadership." Broadcast aimed to rally Biafran supporters toward introspection amid ongoing challenges in their self-determination struggle.

In the approximately hour-long address kept concise to maintain focus and respect listeners' attention Okwu Kanu, a transformative life coach, emphasized that meaningful progress requires deep personal and collective reflection. She urged listeners to examine their origins, current positions, and necessary changes to advance toward their goals.

Notably, she deliberately steered away from recounting historical grievances, ongoing violence in Biafran territories, the "illegal and unjust conviction" of her husband, or internal infiltrators and setbacks. Instead, she focused inward, warning that liberation movements like IPOB often falter not from external attacks but from internal factors such as indiscipline, ego-driven conflicts, and a failure to grasp structure, timing, and strategy.

Okwu Kanu stressed the critical importance of time and strategy, underlining that a movement's true maturity emerges under pressure particularly when its leader is absent and internal tensions rise. She posed a direct reflection question to her audience: "Does my behavior portray IPOB as a serious liberation movement?"

Drawing historical parallels, she referenced the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa during apartheid. Despite Nelson Mandela's 27-year imprisonment (following earlier detentions), the ANC maintained discipline, respected its chain of command, avoided public self-sabotage, and strengthened advocacy efforts. Loyalty to the cause remained unwavering, even without direct access to the leader, preventing the apartheid regime from benefiting from internal fractures.

She situated the Biafran struggle within a broader African context, citing examples like South Africa's anti-apartheid fight and Somaliland's pursuit of self-governance. These cases highlight shared themes of confronting injustice, marginalization, and conflict while seeking dignity and recognition.

Throughout the session, Okwu Kanu reiterated the necessity of peace and unity as essential for stability and the realization of a sovereign Biafran state. She described the current period with her husband detained by what she termed Nigeria's "kakistocratic government" and the British government accused of turning a deaf ear as a defining moment for committed IPOB members under Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's leadership.

Okwu Kanu noted that IPOB, being a younger movement still consolidating its architecture, requires even greater discipline to weather external pressures like propaganda, infiltration, and morale-sapping tactics. She rejected narratives portraying IPOB members as predominantly uneducated or "E trades," asserting the movement's intellectual depth and embedded strength.

She acknowledged that disagreements and offenses are inevitable within any organization including families, companies, or movements but insisted they must be handled through proper internal channels, such as conflict resolution mechanisms or direct communication, rather than public disparagement. Public fragmentation, she warned, only provides openings for adversaries watching closely.

Okwu Kanu personally affirmed her unwavering commitment to discipline and structure, rooted in peace and unity. She recounted her understanding of the DOS's role from discussions with her husband before its formalization and stated her loyalty would extend even to unconventional appointments, as long as they come from Kanu. She clarified her support for figures like Mazi Chinasa Nworu stems solely from his DOS membership and loyalty to Kanu, not personal acquaintance.

Okwu Kanu rejected character attacks, gossip, and competitive activism as distractions from coordinated liberation efforts. She emphasized that not all roles in a movement are visible or public, but alignment with structure and collective commitment sustains progress. Addressing live comments and accusations such as unsubstantiated claims that DOS member Mazi Chinasa Nworu sought to usurp Kanu's position she dismissed them as illogical without evidence, reaffirming that Kanu's leadership is "untouchable" and irreplaceable. DOS members, she said, merely "hold the fort" until his return and will account to him.

Okwu Kanu highlighted Somaliland's recent diplomatic milestone as a key case study. Israel became the first country to formally recognize Somaliland's independence on December 26, 2025 after 33 years of de facto self-governance since its 1991 declaration from Somalia. Despite no prior international recognition, Somaliland built functioning institutions: a stable currency, disciplined security, peaceful power transitions through elections, and a culture of dialogue prioritizing "Somaliland first." Recognition came not from shouting or begging but from earned respect through consistency, internal order, and strategic maturity qualities Okwu Kanu urged Biafrans to emulate.

She contrasted Somaliland's quiet nation-building with Somalia's ongoing instability, noting that external validation follows internal construction. Parallels were drawn to other movements like the ANC (enduring Mandela's long imprisonment through preserved structures), FRELIMO in Mozambique, ZANU-PF in Zimbabwe, and Eritrea's liberation front all surviving detention, exile, and propaganda via discipline rather than internal sabotage.

Okwu Kanu addressed past challenges, including efforts to disassociate Kanu from alleged atrocities (e.g., violence or cannibalism claims she attributed to government psychological warfare and a "midget in Finland" infiltrator). She credited IPOB's media and DOS for countering narratives that could have branded Kanu an international terrorist, citing achievements like recognition by the state of Georgia in the US and preventing broader global labeling.

The address called for maturity over emotion: responsible speech, organized advocacy, unified political voice (avoiding multiple factions or contradictory narratives), and institution-building even without recognition. She advocated local structures, community security (praising the Eastern Security Network or ESN), economic cooperatives, dispute resolution, and historical documentation of Biafran legitimacy (including pre-colonial identity, the 1967-1970 civil war, and alleged genocides). Recognition, she argued, is earned through behaving like a state: stability, coherence, and strategic alliances.

Personal reflections underscored her stance rooted in dignity, consistency, and integrity despite past hardships like starvation, blackmail, isolation, and humiliation. She urged channeling anger internally through proper channels rather than public division, which creates openings for adversaries. Leadership, she said, demands strategy, patience, sacrifice, and placing the cause above personal grievances.

Okwu Kanu closed by pleading for an end to insults against Kanu or DOS members, reminding listeners of shared suffering and the absence of normal life. She stressed that a divided house cannot negotiate freedom and that Biafra must be built through disciplined unity, not noise or emotional outbursts.

The podcast, amid technical difficulties, served as a motivational and cautionary address at a critical time in Biafra struggle, with Kanu still imprisoned following his life sentence. It reinforced IPOB's call for internal resilience, drawing from Somaliland's path to urge Biafrans to build quietly, protect structures, and earn global respect through maturity and focus on the shared objective: freedom and dignity.

Family Writer Press International.