Nnamdi Kanu and the Jewish question

Nnamdi Kanu, leader of separatist movement, IPOB, was, without notice, back in the news last week. He reportedly surfaced in Jerusalem in what appeared to be a pilgrimage, putting paid to frightening speculations about his fate. What has been confirmed is not his whereabouts, but that he is alive. His attorney, Barrister Ejiofor and his friend, Femi Fani-Kayode, have said they spoke with him on phone. That he is alive must have gone a long way to calm frayed nerves. And I can feel a sense of relief in Garba Shehu’s pronouncement when he said to BBC: “If it happens to be true, the video footage showing Mr. Nnamdi in Jerusalem” would expose to the world the lies that Nnamdi Kanu was kidnapped or killed by the government. He recalled that some members of IPOB went to demonstrate at the UN suggesting that Kanu had been brought to harm by the government.

Kanu’s appearance after 13 months and uncharacteristic silence at that, must be a big relief. That is far more important even if the question about his whereabouts is still not solved. The video showed him in Jerusalem fidgeting with what looked like the Bible in the accustomed Jewish dress quite alright. But the Israeli Government spokesman, Mr. Emmanuel Nashon, said there was no record of him visiting Israel recently and that the video must have been an old one. There was another video also last week showing him addressing Nigerians of Igbo extraction in Malaysia. That too could not have been a recent one. However, from the report that the British Government is said to have informed the Federal Government of its plans to issue him a travel document which he will use to return home, it can be assumed that he is in Britain. Also, he made his first live broadcast on Radio Biafra on Sunday in which he reportedly announced his plan to return home and threatening, as he is wont to do , to bring hell with him. The Presidency has already reacted to the threat assuring everyone that there was nothing to worry about, dismissing it as a mere distraction, “a re-enactment of his bizarre, episodic threat which will not be allowed to detract from the existing cordial relationships between Nigeria and other countries.”

His unceremonious appearance has kicked up dusts about his claim of being a Jew and indeed that the Igbo are Jews. This belief is strengthened with the recollection that a Jewish priest, Ben Elshalom, signed Kanu’s bail along with two Nigerians—Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe and Tochukwu Uchendu. The claim is generating debate anew in the social media to the extent that Kanu is being asked to go for DNA to ascertain his ancestory and that it costs only $10; within two weeks the result would be out!

It is not only Nnamdi Kanu that has said the Igbo are Jews and that they came from Israel. Several Igbo persons have made the same claim or have had the same feeling even if they did not speak out. As of today what we know is that the Igbo are Nigerians and they bear Nigerian names. The claim must then have come from some observations of shared characteristics, behaviour and nature between the Jews and the Igbo. It is believed that if you lock a Jew up in a room, he will come out the following day with a bomber. They have been maligned, and persecuted; they have suffered pogrom. They were victims of holocaust in Germany during the Second World War. The experiences have consequently put them on the alert, toughened them and gotten them to be battle ready. The Igbo are resourceful. For them it is the dictum “He who dares, wins”, a saying made more a sing song during Margaret Thatcher’s Falkland War. An average Igbo is adventurous and can squeeze water out of stone. They too have suffered pogrom, seen war and have been marginalized.

However, can these qualities and traits of resourcefulness and drive be a peculiarity of only the Jews and the Igbo, or it is a question of style? What do we say of the Japanese, the Germans, or the Chinese, the South Koreans? Or in Nigeria, what do we say of the Ijebu or the Ijesha and the Ondo, or the Dantatas of Kano? It is said of the Ijebu in a popular song: “Small or big, young or old, an Ijebuman is money.’’

On deep reflection the claims will be seen mainly from the material perspective. However, does the foregoing strength vitiate or render non-existent the deep feeling of a man or a group of people that they are Jews? To dismiss off hand without reflection that an Nnamdi Kanu cannot be a Jew will be correct only to an extent but not the extent of his total picture, nay, the total picture of all of us. We would be correct to the extent that we are considering the present life from cradle until we depart this earth life that is from cradle till death. When he says he is a Jew, we do not know where he is coming from. He may have been a Jew and he may have been a British in a previous earth life or indeed one of his earth lives. Whoever and whatever he may have been, what is being brought poignantly to our attention is the verity of the question of reincarnation.

The knowledge of reincarnation has existed from time immemorial. Denials of anything like it have refused to leave our consciousness. Not even the decision of the Second Council of Constantinople convened on 05 May, 553 AD has succeeded in erasing the knowledge of reincarnation from the consciousness of man. That meeting decided to expunge the teaching of the pre-existence of soul, thus the teaching of reincarnation from the teachings of the Church on the orders of Emperor Justinian. Yet it is in the concept of reincarnation that the understanding of the Love and Justice of the Almighty Creator is convincingly laid bare before all men. It is through it that we find explanation for the varied circumstances and experiences of people—apparent injustices, sufferings, horrors, joy and happiness; even material endowments or lack of same, the emergence of prodigies in different societies. Take for example, Rachel Carson (1907-1964). She launched into a literary career at the age of 10. She was author of Silent Spring. We can’t but remember the Blind Slave Boy, Thomas Bethune who took the concert circle in the United States by storm aged seven years. By the time he was 15, he had mastered Beethoven, and Bach. Nor can we forget Mozart and Schubert who manifested their prodigy by composing before they were 12. Indeed, Chopin and Johann Hummel burst out staging public concerts before they were 11.

Here at home, we may begin to wonder who taught Adeola Odutola, Michael Ibru, Lawrence Omole, Nathaniel Idowu, Dantata, Ugochukwu the transporter the principle of corporate governance. Odimegwu Ojukwu Senior, the father of Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu indeed took away his son from Kings College Lagos and sent him to Eton College in the UK and from there Emeka went to Oxford where he read history. Reigning today with Dangote as the band leader are our financial tigers—Mike Adenuga, Oba Otudeko, Jim Ovia, Tony Elumelu, Fola Adeola and Atedo Peterside. They may have had their talents and abilities refined in institutions of higher learning and business schools, they came with their gifts. The stories of Bill Gates and Buffet are well known. They would tell you they move guided by intuition. All can be said to have acquired their abilities and cultivated their talents in their previous earth lives. They are accumulation of experiences in those times. And those who are going through the inexplicable pangs of fate, they are consequences of overdrafts from the bank of life in previous earth lives.

Our forebears who were permitted knowledge of reincarnation named children Babatunde, Babajide , Nnene, Nnena, Iyabo, Yetunde, Olutunde etc because they were close to Nature. Even if they were not correct as to details, they were permitted glimpses of transcendental happenings and their father, son, mother or daughter coming back. Such knowledge is closed to the arrogant man of the present time. In other words, life should not be measured by one single earth life of say from cradle to the time of death. As it has been revealed in higher knowledge spreading on earth in this End Time, there is no single human being on the face of the earth today who has not lived here before, some more than 20 times. When there is re-embodiment which is what reincarnation is, the man comes in a different body. He may come as a Caucasian in white pigmentation or as Blackman and at other times vice versa. What is constant is the spirit. The body is no more than a garment, although it should be especially cared for as a veritable gift and tool of manifestation of the Creator. But a man’s life is a continuous existence. Thus we have procreation, incarnation and birth. Conception of a woman sends tone of invitation to the Beyond where there are several souls longing for opportunities of a repeated earth life. Only one or two or three or even four as the case may eventually succeed in gaining entrance into the womb of the expectant mother. The entry is when pregnancy has gone half way and the woman experiences the first kick.

The primary purpose of reincarnation is to afford us opportunities to atone for our past errors through experiences without which correction progress in the Beyond is not possible. The progress is towards back home in the Spiritual Realm more commonly known as Paradise because of its inconceivable and indescribable beauty, orderliness, joyful activities and bliss. Such is it that every breath, every step, every activity is in worshipful adoration of the Creator and His Holy Name, the tone of which reaches the earth as Holy, Holy, Holy God Almighty. It is the land of pure spirits, those who have washed their linen clean. The purpose of reincarnation is to help us drop our uncleanliness and strive for perfection. Our shortcomings which we may not wish to admit on earth stare us full in the face in the Beyond. There separation takes place automatically in accordance with the Law of Sowing and Reaping, the Law of Homogeneity, that is souls of the same kind pulled together and the Law of Gravitation which ensures that those not burdened by dross rise towards Paradise but those weighed down by sins are dragged down to the Region of Darkness, to different sections of Hell consistent with the nature of the sins.

To be granted the Grace of Reincarnation depends on the nature of our misconduct or crime. Remorse after a long suffering and scale falling off a person’s eyes in the Beyond may force a person to supplicate for another opportunity on earth to atone for and correct his errors, and with the vow that such grave errors would not repeat themselves. Upon reincarnation however, a bandage is drawn over our eyes so that we can live a normal life and not work to the answer. On earth it may so happen that there are very sparing revelations in calm moments by the seaside, in the woods, in the bathroom or in one’s sleep. It could be fleeting or prolonged especially during dreams. It is possible for people at such moments to recognise where they had lived before and why they are in the country they are today. For advanced and mature people in terms of inner development, their past identity may be revealed to them especially as a warning when they begin to waiver and stray once more to squander the opportunity they now have to atone and make progress and fulfill. There are those who have come as helpers in the service of the Lord to carry out spiritual tasks.

If people claim they had been Jews in the past, it may have arisen out of deep sensing whether they are Igbo, Yoruba, Jukun, Kanuri, South Africans Aussies, Canadians, Germans or Americans. They may not be wrong. However, we are where we are today as a form of help in the wisdom of the Most High and in the Divine Laws. It is where we belong , where we deserve or require to facilitate the attainment of our purpose in life, which is mainly the attainment of our spiritual goals in the end. Whatever claim each person makes, we may never know where he is coming from, under what pressure he fell to make him make the claim. It may be true; it may be false. If false, there are grave consequences especially when people are misled with the claim.

Many Igbo may have been Jews or Germans in previous incarnations. There are as many among other ethnic groups or peoples in the land who can make a similar claim of having been Jews. Human spirits are human spirits. They flow to places they need in furtherance of their development or for atonements, or to carry out tasks for the advancement of humanity if the time is ripe and the soil is receptive for such help. What is important, we are admonished, is for every human being to live in the present and stop clamouring about the past. Such can be borne out of fruitless curiosity only!