The Americans are coming? By Obi Nwakanma

Penultimate week, the US president, Mr. Donald Trump sent Nigerian tongues wagging. He accused Nigeria of engaging in “Christian genocide.” He declared Nigeria “a Country of Particular Concern.” Then he threatened to send US troops, “guns a blazing,” into Nigeria to save Nigerian Christians from genocide. It was almost melodramatic. But it was the culmination of a series of events, and of pressures mounted by some very interesting characters – Mr.Ted Cruz, the Senator from Texas, Chip Roy, his alter ego, Erik Prince, founder of the private military organization, Blackwater, and such like. The discussions, and really loud chatter in Nigerian groups think Trump’s declaration of war of a sovereign country, Nigeria – for indeed that is what it looks like – the result of some misunderstanding of the facts of Nigeria. 

Many have argued that it is deliberate American cocamie. In what universe, many have asked, does a political hawk like Ted Cruz, or Chip Roy, two of America’s most extreme right-wing Republican politicians, care about Black Christians in West Africa? Ted Cruz is not a friend of Black folk. His politics in the United States is extremely against black people and hurts African-American interests. If he does not care for Black people in America, what is his interest in Black Christians in Nigeria? That is why many Nigerians are suspicious of the motives behind this move. Those pushing it from the US are not people Black folks trust. As a matter of fact, the hard silence of the Congressional Black caucus on this threat, neither in support nor in disagreement with President Trump’s aggression against Nigeria does speak volumes.But there are millions of Nigerians who view this declaration about Christan genocide in Nigeria, as an attempt by the US government to give Nigeria dog a bad name in order to invade it. But invade it for what? What is there for the US? This group of Nigerians think it is simply a pretext by the US under Donald Trump to instigate war in Nigeria and corner its enormous natural resources. 

They also see it as a rattling of the panes in reaction to Nigeria’s move to embrace BRICS and its romance with China. In more recent years, Nigeria has been moving significantly away from the US towards closer relationship with China. The US is not too happy about this, and it was not lost to Nigerians that the threat to invade Nigeria by President Trump happened  immediately after his state visit to China. But there have been other Nigerians who are equally unconvinced by the more “nationalist” attitude of those who have protested the US threats as a violation of Nigeria’s sovereignty.They are equally loud in welcoming the American President’s promise to rescue Christians and affirming Christians genocide in Nigeria. 

For many of these Nigerians, what is the value of sovereignty if a country cannot defend its Christians, and if it seems that there is Federal Government involvement, even if it is indirect involvement, either by inaction, or by various  acts of omission and commission against Christians in Nigeria? Indeed, on the argument that the US is making the move to secure enormous access to Nigeria’s natural resources, many have asked, “of what use are these resources to Nigerians who do not derive benefits from it?” In one of these WhatsApp groups in which one of these fierce debates played out, an interlocutor wrote: “The Americans are coming? What is the use of Nigerian resources when Nigerians are dying like flies. Let them come!” But of course, it is important to know that with Nigerians, what you see is not always what you get. The US will make a great mistake if it invades – “guns a blazing.” It will be shocked how quickly Nigerians, fractious and fiercely ethnic among themselves, unite quickly against an external foe. It has been known to happen. I really need to put this out there, because Nigeria is a very complex society, and the US must not overestimate the current depth of disenchantment against the Nigerian system and its public leadership.  I must say, quite upfront too, that I too have joined in these discussions myself, in insisting that there is no directed genocide against Christians in Nigeria. That is to say, there is no official program of genocide. There is clearly industrial scale killing in Nigeria. 

Nigerians are slaughtered at a scale that is evil and intolerable, but it is not only directed at Christians. Muslims have been killed and displaced in great numbers too. What is therefore going on Nigeria is very complex. It is inexcusable, and it is of the dimension which should force a government to resign. There have been some very interesting insights about this situation: on one hand, it is true that these killings; these slaughters have been conducted by Muslims – usually under the aegis of Boko Haram or Fulani herdsmen – against Christian communities particularly in the North. No Christian militias have been organized to conduct any killings against Muslims or Muslim communities. This fact is why those advancing the Christian genocide argument insist on the term. 

I personally think it is a misnomer, and might obscure the real, in fact, more dangerous truth, which is that the federation of Nigeria is under attack by external forces, whose intentions are clearly to subvert and dismantle Nigeria. The Federal government of Nigeria is overwhelmed. Now, it is not impossible that a network of powerful Northern interests instigated the Islamist movement and unleashed it against Nigeria, to subvert its  secular idea, and these powerful Northerners are known, and  they include the late Muhammadu Buhari, who protected  them. They lost control of this armed militia, and who have circulated in the North Central region, and have linked up with Boko Haram, and are now killing Nigerian citizens, most of them Christians in that middle belt. Boko Haram itself has a strange progeny. Recently, a US senator revealed in the US Congress that the United States government through USAID funded Boko Haram; a startling claim which has lent much to the confusing conspiracy narratives about the actual nature of these killings and insurrections in Nigeria. 

In the East, under the direction of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, the Security Services allegedly recruited mercenaries against Buhari’s opponents and subvert the East, particularly the Southeast. Southeasterners are mostly Christians. This is why this story of a Christian genocide feels apt and has grown traction in this region. But we should also not ignore the economic impulses of these killings in the Southeast: many, although originally instigated by the Buhari program of freeing and unleashing felons broken free from Federal prisons on the East, many of these criminals have now expanded their operations, to include contract killings, drug trade turf wars, and resource control militancy. 

Does Nigeria have the wherewithal, and the political will to contain all this centrifugal violence? This is the only good thing with President Trump’s threat has achieved: it has put the Nigerian administration, largely long noncommittal to the issue of killings in Nigeria, now on the run. Yes, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is now under pressure by the Americans. It is very odd that the APC brought to Nigeria, this level of violence which now exposes the nation to international ridicule and threat. It was a ploy to discredit President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP. I remember Dr. Ebenezer Obadare, then in 2015, professor of African Studies at the University of Kansas, now Senior Fellow at the American Council of Foreign Relations, on the US National Public Radio, NPR, pushing for the US government to invade Nigeria and remove Jonathan as president, over issue of instability in Nigeria. I was extremely scandalized, and disenchanted with Ebenezer. But it is odd today, that he revises himself under the current threat to invade Nigeria under Tinubu. I do not agree with the US designation of Nigeria as a Country of interest. I do not agree with the accusation of Christian genocide. I do not agree with President’s Trump’s direction to invade Nigeria on that premise. It is American overreach, and threat of war against a sovereign state. 

But it is incumbent on the Nigerian administration to learn its lessons, and embark on its own broad strategic Weapons Development program for its National Defense: it should use the Biafran RAP model; reform, expand, and equip its National Defense Forces, including starting a Compulsory Military Service and turning the NYSC into a military service, reform the National Security apparatus, and rootout those who are working with Boko Haram that have infiltrated its service. Nigeria must also restore the secular state, and erase the Sharia system secretly inserted into the Nigerian constitution.

 It must henceforth end the use of state funds to support pilgrimages for Muslim or Christian pilgrims. This is unconstitutional. It is the basis of too much religious conflict. Religious adherence must be made a private and should no longer be a public thing in Nigeria; and the Nigerian government must move quickly to end this violence against Nigerians/Christians and restore its integrity. It must never take a threat from the US for Nigeria to take its sovereign responsibility seriously, otherwise it loses legitimacy. This is what the US threat has brought to fore: it questions the legitimacy of Nigeria, if as a nation, it cannot defend and secure its Christian citizens.

The post The Americans are coming? By Obi Nwakanma appeared first on Vanguard News.