Nigeria is currently preparing for the elections to be held on Saturday next week, where the country should elect a president and a new parliament.
There is one small but.
– No elections will be held! Nigerian elections will not be allowed in the Biafra region in 2023. Every Biafran must participate in this, roar Lahti Simon Ekpa in the kitchen of his home for the computer camera.
His speech gets about 800,000 impressions on the instant messaging service Twitter.
Ekpa leads a separatist group operating in Nigeria from Finland, which aims to form an independent state of Biafra in the southeastern part of the country.
He says he commands the IPOB separatist group and its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network, which he calls the Self-Defense Force.
has visited Southeast Nigeria and can confirm that Ekpa has influence in the region. However, estimates of the number of gunmen loyal to him vary greatly, from hundreds to tens of thousands, and his exact position in the separatist groups is unverified.
Over the past year and a half, millions of people in southeastern Nigeria have participated in Ekpa-ordered protests against the country’s central government.
However, many local residents interviewed by say that they have followed the curfews imposed by Ekpa out of fear – not of their own free will.
Ekpa has Finnish citizenship, and his social influence is not limited to Nigeria. Ekpa is a member of the coalition and serves as a member of the public transport board of the Lahti region.
In last year’s regional elections, he was a candidate in the Päijät-Häme welfare region, but was not elected.
Ekpa does not see a contradiction in the fact that he, as a Finnish politician, tries to prevent the organization of elections abroad.
– Nigerian elections are not the same as Finnish elections. There, the court can change the result however it wants. They are not fair elections, says Ekpa.
Residents fear violence
More than 20 million people live in the separatist region of Biafra in southeastern Nigeria. There, Ekpa is a well-known and partly feared figure.
The forces under his command allegedly threaten people who do not obey the curfew every Monday. A video is circulating online where an unknown gunman orders people in the area: Stay home. You have been warned!
– By staying indoors, people are sending a message to Nigeria that you cannot control us. It is non-violent resistance, Ekpa explains the purpose of the protests.
A market trader who defied the curfew declared by Ekpa was shot in the beginning of December in the city of Enugu. The perpetrator or perpetrators have not been brought to justice, which is not unusual in Nigeria.
Ekpa strongly denies the allegations of violence against civilians.
– It’s about smearing. If something happens to someone, they immediately try to blame it on us. It is alleged that I threaten people to stay at home. That is not true at all, says Ekpa.
He emphasizes that civilians are a completely different matter from the soldiers of the Nigerian central government.
– I accept violence against Nigerian government forces. It’s about self-defense. They are constantly attacking us and have committed numerous war crimes. We have to defend ourselves, Ekpa reasons.
International human rights organizations (you move to another service) according to Nigerian security forces are known to have targeted peaceful protesters and other civilians with violence. The separatists also use violence and have been reported to have attacked local police stations, for example. In addition to these parties, numerous criminal gangs operate in the area.
A total of 287 people were killed in southeast Nigeria in the first half of last year, it appears, supporting investigative journalism From the report of the ICIR center. (you switch to another service)
What these acts of violence have in common is that the perpetrators are rarely brought to justice and sentenced. The fact that people are dying in Biafra and the security situation in the region is weak is completely indisputable.
He brought athletics to Finland
Located in West Africa, Nigeria is a former British colony and the continent’s most populous country. With an estimated population of 230 million, Nigeria is also a very ethnically fragmented and unstable country.
In the southeastern part of the country is the region of Biafra inhabited by the Igbo people. This predominantly Christian ethnic group has long opposed Nigeria’s central government, which has traditionally been in Muslim hands.
At the end of the 1960s, a bloody war took place in the region. The State of Biafra remained a short-lived experiment that ended in famine and surrender to the Nigerian armed forces in January 1970.
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Simon Ekpa was born in Biafra in 1985 in the village of Nygo Ohaukwu. His mother died when the boy was very young and he grew up in the care of relatives.
Athletics was Ekpa’s ticket to Europe. In 2005, a young man in his twenties sprinted 100 meters in 10.3 seconds. It’s strong.
Ekpa represented Nigeria in competitions organized in the neighboring country of Cameroon and soon came an invitation to train in Britain. While living in Manchester, the Finnish coach paid attention to Ekpa’s gifts and in 2007 the sprinter headed to Lahti to play sports.
– Everything seemed to work here, Ekpa recalls his first impressions of Finland.
In Pohjola, Ekpa learned the Finnish language for the first time. After receiving citizenship, rookie Ekpa joined the army in Hennala, Lahti. Found a wife and a job. A child was also born.
Ekpa’s life could be a textbook example of a good integration into a new country. At the same time, Ekpa never stopped following the affairs of his old homeland.
– The connection to the old country was not broken, because I had lived in Biafra for so long. From here, I started to see many of the problems of the old country even more clearly, Ekpa describes.
– I don’t know a better place than Finland. Here everyone participates in society and the law is the basis of everything. These issues should now be brought to Biafra, continues the legal aid entrepreneur.
The store manager was imprisoned
In 2019, Ekpa’s interest in Biafra turned into activism. Ekpa participated in the conference of the Igbo people organized in Germany at that time.
He claims there that he started to defend a man connected to the Nigerian central government, who had been attacked in connection with the meeting.
– Even if we disagree, I do not accept violence. It must be possible to disagree. This was the thing that then brought me into the spotlight and to the attention of the store’s management.
The leader of the separatist movement Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is British-Nigerian Nnamdi Kanu. In 2021, Kanu was abducted by Nigerian intelligence agents from Kenya and brought to Nigeria as a captive.
After that, Ekpa says he took on the role of a leader in the movement. According to Ekpa, this has happened with Kanu’s approval.
Ekpa says he is in contact with Kanu through his lawyer. As proof of his position, he presents with a picture of a document whose origin cannot be certain.
A Nigerian court ordered Kanu’s release last year, but that has not yet happened.
– If Kanu is released, the movement will of course still be under his leadership. Of course, on the condition that he has not changed his line in captivity, Ekpa reflects.
Based on ‘s interviews, not everyone in the international IPOB organization approves of Ekpa’s leadership. His real position in IPOB, which is classified as a terrorist organization by Nigeria, is difficult to accurately verify.
Ekpa himself calls to see what is happening in Biafra. “Sit-down strikes” continue, even though the country’s official leadership opposes them.
– You can ask who rules there. The governor or me? Ekpa smiles.
Nigeria demands action from Finland
The Nigerian government is concerned about Ekpa’s growing influence.
– This gentleman has a lot of followers. And when he gives instructions, the result is destruction the very next day, a representative of Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zubairu Dada commented on Tuesday for the Businessday web magazine. (you switch to another service)
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria has discussed the matter numerous times with the Finnish ambassador to Nigeria Leena Pylvänäinen with.
This week, Nigeria wanted the media to attend the meeting and it was decided to make the matter public.
– Nigeria demands that Finland stop Ekpa’s activities, Ambassador Pylvänäinen sums up the purpose of the meeting.
In Finland, citizens have extensive freedom of speech and political activism is allowed. Neither the EU nor the United States have defined the organization piloted by Ekpa as a terrorist organization.
The ambassador points out that it is not the diplomat’s job to find out whether a Finnish citizen has possibly committed a crime by calling for a boycott of the elections and supporting separatism.
– The competent authority here is the Finnish police and the information has passed to them. They are well aware of this situation, says Pylvänäinen.
According to the ambassador, the election boycotts promoted by Ekpa are not something that Finland as a state supports.
– Safe and peaceful elections throughout Nigeria is the goal of Finland and the EU, which has also been strongly supported.
It is possible that this goal will not be realized.
According to Ekpa, instead of elections, there will be a struggle and the end result will be an independent state of Biafra.
– This moment has been awaited for a long time, Ekpa says from the couch of his home in Lahti.