By Sunny Awhefeada,
A friend jocularly called to ask me why Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police has not declared Donald Trump wanted and we had a rib cracking laugh. But this should not be a laughing matter. My friend argued that Trump’s designation of Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” with the declared intention of military action against her if genocide against Christians was not stopped was an affront against the Nigerian state and that whoever affronts the state should be dealt with not minding his status or stature. We laughed more! Certainly, Trump is not Omoyele Sowore or DJ Switch. So much has been said about Trump’s threat.
He also threatened the stoppage of aids. Depending on who is commenting, the responses can be calibrated into three strains namely; those against the plan, those in favour and those that remain indifferent. Those against the plan are mostly government people who see trouble from the threat and have been jolted into panic mode.
Some enlightened Nigerians who out of patriotic inclination speak about our sovereignty and territorial integrity pitch tent with government’s position insisting on non-interference in Nigeria’s internal affairs. Those hailing Trump are the hoi polloi who are at the receiving end of unending failed leadership, bad governance and harsh economic realities that have confined them to penury.
Again, some enlightened Nigerian anchor here too. Then there are those who are indifferent to the threat with the view that whatever will happen should happen, Trump or no Trump. This category is insouciant and has given up on Nigeria.
The Nigerian government’s response to Trump’s threat has been tame and cautious. Loquacious government spokesmen, irascible ministers, voluble party thieftains and preening government sidekicks suddenly learnt to speak with decorum. They assured the nation that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would be travelling to the United States of America to seek audience with President Donald Trump. This disposition is akin to begging and it diminishes Nigeria’s status as a sovereign nation.
No other nation has a right to invade or intrude in the internal affairs of another unless on invitation. But this is America. It has done it again and again. From Vietnam to Cuba, to Iraq to Libya, America has taken the battle to places with which it felt displeasure. And they left destruction and tragedy in their wake.
This is why Abuja is jittery and begging for an opportunity for President Tinubu to go and explain things to imperial President Trump. Should President Tinubu go and genuflect before President Trump it would be a significant drawback for Africa and a reversal of the strides the continent has achieved in terms of the dignity of the African personality.
Not long agao, Trump rinsed his mouth on South Africa and President Cyril Ramaphosa merely wagged his tail in subservience explanation instead of asking Trump to focus on America. Now it is Nigeria’s turn to go and dobale for Trump. We must understand the place of Nigeria and South Africa as two of Africa’s leading nations, the third being Egypt.
While it is true that Trump can be irrational, irascible and delusional, his threat must be viewed as something that the Nigerian ruling elite truly deserve.
The Nigerian ruling class approximates the badly behaved child that brought shame to the parents through his parlous conduct. The ruling class has repeatedly betrayed and failed the nation hence an outsider is offering to come to her rescue.
Nevertheless, Trump is the embodiment of America’s moral turpitude and he lacks the moral authority to flay Nigeria. America’s penchant for violating international conventions and assuming the role of a global police has attained notoriety. The same goes for her destabilizing role in global affairs.
The places that experienced America’s blitzkrieg never remained the same. America has been lampooned for craving her economic interest at the expense of humanity. Some analysts are already inferring that Trump’s new posture towards Nigeria derives from an envisaged new economic order that will make the latter free of the former’s economic manipulations.
Diplomacy is moored on interest and intrigues and it is plausible that such selfish considerations are real in America’s reckoning. Diplomacy can be duplicity.
And America is master of both. What matters in this case is the sovereign interest of Nigeria which America must respect. All people of good will must rise in unison to jettison America’s stance or could it be Trump’s fantasy?
Repudiating America’s meddlesomeness in Nigeria must is “first chasing away the fox before warning the hen against wandering too far into the bush”. Trump’s opinion reflects the abysmal failure of the Nigerian state beyond being able to secure its citizens. Trump’s insinuation speaks to religious persecution manifesting in genocide against Christians in Nigeria.
Was there a semblance of this? Were/are Christians being killed? Has government been able to remedy the situation? Is government overwhelmed? Government cannot convincingly answer these questions. That is why denial and begging for Trump’s understanding have become the hobbyhorse of those speaking for government.
The insurgency which is the root of Trump’s threat and trouble began fifteen years ago and mutated into terrorism and banditry. Its origin is traceable to a revolt against bad governance and exploitation enabled by access to western education. It was for this reason that the insurgents christened their movement Boko Haram literally education is a taboo.
For political reasons government after government failed to curtail and contain the menace. Corrupt military officers and crisis entrepreneurs soon saw the insurgency as another cash cow similar to oil bunkering in the Niger Delta.
The menace festered and became cancerous when those seeking political office around 2015 brought in fighters from other places to make the country ungovernable so that they can win elections.
It was revealed that the nineteen northern governors were at some point contributing ten million naira each for the terrorists. It was revealed that a northern governor was the “commander” of Boko Haram. Names of sponsors of terrorism were also revealed. Nothing happened.
Muhammadu Buhari who defended Boko Haram saying that whoever killed them was fighting the north became president and the gangs for whom he stood as advocate turned against him and overwhelmed his government.
They not only attacked a prison facility within the precinct of the seat of government, they also opened fire on his convoy and overran some local governments in his home state of Katsina.
The ravages of terrorism are writ large in the North-East, North-West and North-Central. The case of the North-East and North-Central must have been what is prompting Trump’s threat and trouble. Christians have largely been targeted in these two regions through abductions and mass killings. To make matters worse new terrorists and bandit groups continue to emerge.
Sadly, successive governments and the military appear helpless and overwhelmed. The regime of former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, invited South African mercenaries who almost wiped out the insurgents, but were sent packing when Buhari took over as president. Since then it has been an upward swing for the terrorists. The military seems to have lost the initiative.
The immediate past Chief of Defence Staff did again and again call on Nigeria’s civil populace to take on the war against insurgency as if the people carry arms and ammunition. He also argued that Nigeria’s land borders should be fenced.
The brilliant general did experience mental fatigue. But this was the same Nigerian Army that enforced peace in Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone and other places across the world, but now is unable to undo insurgency at home.
Many contradictions reverberate in Trump’s threat and Tinubu’s dilemma.
Many of those lamenting Trump’s interference in Nigeria’s affairs right now were the same people who trooped to America to canvass that country’s support against President Jonathan. Among those shuddering and whimpering about a possible American invasion were those who applauded President Tinubu for declaring emergency rule in Rivers State.
My friend mischievously asked, if Tinubu can declare emergency rule in Rivers, why can’t Trump do same in Nigeria. He added for good measure that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) should report the Nigerian government to Trump so that he can whip them into doing right by the universities.
