… hints at motives behind Washington’s decision*
The pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, has stated that the recent threat by the US President Donald Trump to invade Nigeria to ‘fight’ terrorists was a decoy to mask his displeasure over the resolute stand of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu on matters of public interest.
In a release by the organisation’s National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, Afenifere maintained that the claim that government is complicit in bandits’ killing of Christians in Nigeria was not only unfounded, but an attempt to ‘give a dog a bad name to have a justification to kill it’.
It would be recalled that President Trump late last week stated that he had ordered US Department of War (Pentagon) to draw up “a possible plan of attack” to stop what he purported to be ‘killing of Christians in Nigeria”.
But President Tinubu had not only refuted this claim, he added that the picture being painted of Nigeria “is not the way we are”!
Minister of Information, Alhaji Ibrahim Mohammed Malagi asserted that:
“Portraying Nigeria’s security challenges as a targeted campaign against a single religious group is a gross misrepresentation of reality”.
Many patriots, including respectable voices across the globe have also denounced Trump’s claim. Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, submitted that “extremist groups make no distinction in pursuing their objectives. They use violence against anyone they perceive as an obstacle”, he said, adding that “We should recognize that many Muslims in Nigeria are themselves victims of this same intolerance”. The Cardinal spoke in Rome during the presentation of a report on Global Religious Freedom by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
At a separate event to launch the same report in the United Kingdom, Bishop John Bakeni of the Catholic Church, Maiduguri, described the root causes of terror acts in Nigeria as ‘multi-faceted’. They include poverty, climate change and competition for land, according to the clergy.
Maintaining that there are extraneous reasons behind the stand of the American President, Afenifere stated that the major reason for the posture was economic and the attempt to drum it into the everyone’s ear that ‘America is the lord of the manor’ as far as the world is concerned. By sounding so harsh, Mr. Trump hopes to get President Tinubu to negotiate with him with a view to having more inroad into Nigeria’s economy and to possibly force Nigeria to buy more goods, especially weapons, from America. Nigeria’s recent rapport with China does not seem to go down well with the US.
Besides, some interests in America do not like the principled positions being taken by Bola Tinubu administration on some issues. For instance, Vice President Kashim Shettima did not mince words when he expressed Nigeria’s preference for a two-state arrangement for Palestine and Israel when he represented the country during the last United Nations’ General Assembly in New York. “It is a known fact that such a position did not go down well with America”. It is on record that Trump has been very critical of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa for denouncing Israel over Gaza invasion. Also, President Tinubu, only last week, imposed 15% tariff on oil import. Nigeria imports a lot of fuel from America.
Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Yusuf Tuggar recently disclosed that the US Government was pressurizing Nigeria to take deportees from America. He said that Tinubu administration has refused to budge on this. The Washington Post reported that Trump administration approached Ukraine for the same purpose. Just as it did with some other African countries like Gabon, Senegal, Liberia, Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau.
Afenifere spokesman said that Nigeria is a sovereign country. The matter at hand falls within the purvey of what the government can and should deal with. And government, through its various security arms, is not resting on its oars. It is working on insecurity. Government can do more, certainly. The change of security chiefs is one of the steps being taken by Mr. President to buckle up on security.
“It is a known fact that the claim of genocide against Christians in Nigeria is not valid. Not that people are not being killed. The reality is that bandits and terrorists do not discriminate. Their target is economy. Those funding them are interested in the mineral resources underground. So, they sponsor bandits to cause mayhem in places where they spot mineral resources. When the people in those areas are displaced, the ‘sponsors’ step in and begin to exploit the resources”.
Afenifere spokesman submitted that President Trump can use any excuse to induce or escalate tension in different parts of the world. “It is not for nothing that he ordered that the Department of Defence in his country should be renamed ‘Department of War’! Thus, Nigerians should refrain from acting in a manner (or making pronouncement) that those who may want to create theatres of war would have justifications for doing so.
Ajayi urged those who kept carrying information on seeming religious-induced genocide to think of the damages they are doing to the polity.
“When you deride your country, it is not always easy to undo the damages. As such, we should be mindful of what we say or write about our country”.
It is on record that an Onitsha, Anamra-based organisation, International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (a.k.a Intersociety) has since been rolling out figures and making claims to the effect that Christians in Nigeria are being killed in thousands.
But an American-based body, Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) refuted this: “Insurgent groups such as Boko Haram and Islamic State of West Africa often present their campaigns as anti-Christian, but in practice, their violence is indiscriminate and devastates entire communities” said Ladd Serwat, a senior African analyst at ACLED.
“There is no doubt that Nigeria needs all the help it can get to tackle its security challenges etc. Threatening it with war attack is not the way to help. If anything, such would escalate the already undesirable situation” Ajayi stated. He concluded by urging Nigerians to, as patriots, remember that none of the countries where America had made incursions has known peace.
“When we cry, we should open our eyes so as to see what is in front of us”.
EagleStrideTV
Call/WhatsApp
+234-0-808-206-0714
Comments