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“Ponder and deliberate before you make a move.” … Sun Tzu – A Chinese Military General, Strategist, Philosopher, and Writer Trump’s Narratives or Threats Should Not Define Nigeria: The notion about Christian genocide in Nigeria is completely untrue and misguided. It is a calculated attempt to further sow seeds of discord and further degenerate the fragile inter-religious, ethnic, and tribal relationship and sentiments between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria. I’m saying so for the practical reasons that there is no way that there could be Christian genocide in Nigeria, especially under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is a Muslim, and he has a wife, Senator Remi Tinubu, the first lady who is a Christian, not just a Christian, but a very senior pastor in the Redeemed Church of Christ of Nigeria, a Church that has one of the largest following in Africa. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria also ensures that the power-sharing structure and formula is such that Christians CANNOT be excluded from the leadership of Nigeria at all strata. In this administration, the 3rd most powerful position, the President of the Senate, is Senator Godswill Akpabio, a Christian from southern Nigeria. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Head of Service, Chief of Defense Staff, Chief of Air Staff, the Director General of the Department of State Security Services, the Chief of Defense Intelligence, Comptroller General of Immigration are all Christians. In terms of the economy, the key managers of Nigeria’s economy, i.e., the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Group CEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, and the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, are all Christians. Furthermore, while the Inspector General of Police is a Muslim, his wife is a Christian. Therefore, it is impossible for all the aforementioned leaders and other leaders that are holding critical political, economic, defense, and security positions will allow Christian genocide to be perpetrated on their people. Indeed, there is no way that there will be Christian genocide in Nigeria, and a President whose wife is a Senior pastor will emerge as the Executive President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. More importantly, there is no way for Christian genocide to happen in Nigeria when the majority of the votes the President Tinubu got in came from the northwest, northeast, and north-central, where there is a very high number of Muslims who cast their vote for a president who has a Christian wife. Indeed, if there is Christian genocide, it means that every Christian’s life in Nigeria is in danger from any other religion. It means that every Christian is being sought out, attacked, and killed by Muslims. Pushing this narrative is very dangerous. Read Also: FEC approves $396m loans for northern IDPs, Sokoto health project A classic example of genocide is what is happening in Gaza under the watch and guidance of President Donald Trump. Interestingly, the Palestinians are a mix of Christians and Muslims, while it is true that the majority of Israelis are not actually Christians. There is no where we have seen the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) separating Christian Palestinians from Muslim Palestinians before annihilating them. It is worthy of note that the United Nations, the Red Cross, Amnesty International and other respected global humanitarian institutions have never stated that Christian genocide is happening in Nigeria. Any USA attack on Nigerian soil without the approval and collaboration of the Nigerian government and Nigerians is, first of all, an unprovoked act of war, and secondly, it will be a failure and a disaster. A lot of innocent Muslims and Christians will die, either due to the attack or due potential fallouts of the attack on non-Christians. By the way, anywhere the USA has gone to provide “intervention” or “save” a people or a country, the USA leaves the people and the country devastated and far worse than they met it, with no date of recovery in any foreseeable future. Examples are Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Ukraine, etc. A Message to some Nigerians who are promoting Trump’s Threat: The message to bitter Nigerians that are cheerleading Trump’s threat, I say to you; Just like the bandits and terrorists, when and if the USA attacks Nigeria With jet fighters, bombers or the drones (because it is highly unlikely that Trump will put soldiers on the ground), I wonder if the American fighter jets or drones are configured to identify Muslims or Christians, if they will recognize “ALLAHU AKBAR!”, or “JESUS IS LORD!”, so that the Christians will be spared! I wonder if, in the aftermath of an attack on Nigeria by the USA, the USA will send troops to provide Medicare and other humanitarian support only to the Christians. Trump does not care about you. He has is objectives, and certainly, our liberty, peace and prosperity are not part of his objectives. Think about it! Nigeria is facing multi-dimensional Insecurity and not Christian Genocide While ethnic and religious sentiments are key root causes of crises across Nigeria, it is also important to note that another critical cause of insecurity, as it is globally, is economic objective, which I term “economic terrorism”. Therefore, the trend of always giving religious connotations the insecurity, in my own humble view, is a huge mistake. I think we should expand our views and mindsets beyond ethnic and religious connotations. For instance, while Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda, ISIS/ISIL, Lakurawa, etc. claim not to be Islamic fundamentalists, they are actually economic terrorists who hide under the guise of Islamic extremism to perpetrate their evils and pursue their economic expedition and imperialism with the backing of some Western nations. And we have seen evidence over the years of how the Western world, not just America, has been supporting the disintegration of African nations and other emerging economies for economic benefits. Countries that are blessed with natural resources suddenly find themselves in the midst of religious, tribal, and ethnocentric strife that strangles efforts to find solutions. During the record of a Christian President in Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan he sought the intervention of the United States of America under the leadership of President Barrack Obama to provide support with Super Tucano Jets, and other weapons to fight terrorists and restore security in Nigeria, but President Obama refused to approve the procurement while the terrorists continued killing, maiming, raping, and pillaging Nigerians whether they were Christians, Muslims, or Pagans. Moreover, facts and statistics, and reality have shown that the ratio of muslims that are being killed is higher than the ratio of Christians that are being killed by the so-called Jihadists. They attack mosques, churches, schools, hospitals, marketplaces, etc., with no isolation. They do not select, identify, or isolate Muslims or Muslim communities when they perpetrate their evil of raping, killing, maiming, and resource pillaging under the influence of drugs and alcohol. In addition, facts have shown the deep involvement of the “deep state” in the destabilization of emerging economies for political and economic benefits. It is instructive to note that northern Nigeria, just like every part of Nigeria, is blessed with abundant natural resources, and yearly, more discoveries are made of large volumes of high-quality deposits of these highly sought-after minerals. The discoveries and abundance of rare earth metals that are in high demand by the world superpowers, in the northern northwest, northeast, and north central states of Nigeria, is the key attraction of non-state actors, their “deep state” collaborators that are supported by Western nations. I am therefore not surprised that President Trump had to look for an excuse to invade Nigeria under the guise of intervention. We have seen what happened some months ago, how President Donald Trump has leveraged a deal with the Democratic Republic of Congo to practically hand off a lot of their rare-earth metals for US “intervention” to stop the crises in DRC, which was induced by the Western powers Trump’s Threat Should be a Wake-up call to the leaders of Nigeria: Trump’s Threat should be a reality check for our leaders, that unless they deal with this issue of insecurity and good governance in Nigeria, there will be continuous characterization, politicization, and gaslighting of Nigeria’s security and socio-economic situations by Nigerians and the international community. I dare say that if the issue of insecurity is not addressed forthwith, it will further polarize the country and put Nigeria at the precipice of a meltdown that we may not be able to contain Therefore, President Trump’s decision and threat should wake up the political class for them to step up and take responsibility and do the needful, and get Nigeria out of this very embarrassing and brutal insecurity, and other debilitating socio-economic situations in the Country. Propaganda, denials, counter-denials, deflections, and perception management will not solve our problems. We need decisive, efficient, effective, impactful, and sustainable actions and solutions. Anything else would only make things worse for Nigerians and Nigeria.
