Southeast APC leaders and Nnamdi Kanu: The failure of courage, by Emmanuel Aziken

When Senator Orji Uzor Kalu recently paraded himself in an attire emblazoned with “Tinubu 2027” insignia and Governor Hope Uzodimma became a regular sight at the Abuja Airport waving goodbye to President Bola Tinubu or welcoming him back from foreign trips, a certain impression was created.

Their public performance of loyalty suggested that the Igbo had finally attained strategic relevance in the ruling party’s inner circle. To casual observers, the imagery was deliberate political theatre: the Southeast was now “inside”, plugged into the arteries of national power.

 But the inability of these same men—and other vocal canvassers of a second term for President Tinubu—to fulfil their long-standing promise of securing Nnamdi Kanu’s release has brutally stripped away that illusion. Their boasts of influence, whispered at caucus meetings, murmured at rallies, and circulated confidently among party faithful, have collapsed under the weight of political reality.

The Southeast APC establishment must now confront a truth they hoped would not be tested: proximity to power is not the same as influence over power. And nowhere is this reality more glaring than in the unfulfilled promise to “resolve” the Kanu matter once Tinubu settled into Aso Rock.

 For years, a number of Southeast APC chieftains projected themselves as power-brokers who could mediate between Abuja and the aggrieved Igbo political class. They hinted that the matter required a “political solution,” and that such a solution was within reach. Yet today, the region is exactly where it was before the Tinubu presidency—if not worse positioned. Kanu remains in detention, the political agitation continues, and Southeast APC leaders now appear embarrassingly neutered.

Broken Promises and Evaporated Bravado

 During the countdown to the 2023 elections, Southeast APC figures worked hard to present themselves as key stakeholders who enjoyed privileged access to the President. They sold the idea that the “Tinubu government would listen”. Their confidence was performative, designed to show the Southeast that APC membership came with benefits.

 But months after Tinubu took office, nothing changed. No breakthrough. No signals. No roadmap. Not even a face-saving rhetorical shift from the government to suggest the dialogue had progressed. Instead, the silence on the issue has grown louder, with each passing month eroding whatever credibility these leaders once claimed.

 For a party already struggling for acceptance in the region, this failure has been costly. It reinforces an existing suspicion: that Southeast APC figures are more interested in personal advancement than regional advocacy.

Kanu’s Temperament vs. a Failed Political Class

 Admittedly, Nnamdi Kanu’s own disposition has complicated matters. His courtroom outbursts, his refusal to compromise, and his famously rigid posture have frustrated even those who may have wanted to help him. His defiant shouts in court—questioning what law forbids him from filing his written address—typify his confrontational approach.

 But even if Kanu were the calmest defendant in the world, the structural weakness of Southeast APC politics would still have been exposed. This is because Kanu’s activism hit a nerve that runs deep in the Igbo psyche: frustration over federal neglect, political exclusion, and economic disillusionment.

 The inability to secure his release is not just a failure of negotiation—it is symbolic of the diminished political worth of Southeast leaders in Abuja.

 One of the most enduring contradictions in Southeast politics is the reluctance of some of its leaders—especially those in the APC—to publicly articulate the region’s grievances. Unlike the North, where governors and lawmakers unapologetically champion northern interests, or the South-West, where regional solidarity drives political strategy, the Southeast elite often behave like guests in a system where others behave as landlords.

 The fear is palpable:  fear of offending the centre, fear of being labelled “sympathisers of IPOB”,  fear of revisiting the trauma of 1967 and lastly, the fear of being politically isolated

 This reluctance has created a vacuum. And into that vacuum stepped Nnamdi Kanu, who boldly voice-framed the anger, the exclusion, and the perennial demand for justice. His rhetoric resonated precisely because the political class had abdicated its duty to speak.

 Thus, even if Kanu were released today, the underlying crisis would remain: the Southeast has leaders who shy away from fighting for the region’s deepest concerns.

The Abuja Syndrome and the Optics of Subservience

 Nothing captures the present predicament more sharply than the now-iconic image of Governor Hope Uzodimma repeatedly appearing at the Abuja Airport to see Tinubu off or welcome him back. Critics interpreted this as overbearing loyalty or political servility. Supporters framed it as alignment with the President.

Yet for all this public loyalty, Uzodimma has achieved little on the matter that arguably matters most in the Southeast today. If influence is measured by outcomes, then his proximity to the Villa has produced nothing for Kanu, nothing for the region, and nothing for the political credibility of Igbo APC leaders.

A Leadership Crisis Exposed

 Ultimately, the failure to secure Kanu’s release is not just a failure of influence—it is a failure of courage. A failure of identity. A failure of purpose. The Southeast political elite, especially those in the APC, have become performers of loyalty rather than advocates of regional justice.

 This vacuum has empowered non-state actors, fueled separatist sentiments, and deepened distrust in mainstream Southeast politics.

 Kanu’s detention is no longer only a legal or security matter—it is the mirror through which the political irrelevance of Southeast leaders is exposed.

 For these leaders, the question is no longer whether they can free Nnamdi Kanu.  The real question is whether they can free themselves from the politics of timidity, reclaim regional credibility, and prove that their presence in Abuja is not merely ceremonial—but consequential.

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