Trump, Nigeria and captivity of Truth

Suddenly everyone, including those responsible for Nigeria’s parlous state, has become a patriot, who wants to defend her sovereignty against foreign interference.

Expectedly, government and its agencies Tecaare talking about their successes in combating insecurity and refuting the alleged of genocide against Christians. Hurriedly, ambassadors are being considered after over two years of this government. Alarmingly, Sheikh Gumi, the famed bandits defender, is all over the media space warning of a religious war in the event of a U.S intervention.

All of this happened just because of one Tweet by President Donald Trump accusing the government of condoning Christian genocide, declaring Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern, CPC, and threatening intervention to end it. Characteristically, the narratives and reactions have not focused on the issue and allegation but on distractions: the sanctity of sovereignty, U.S interest and motive in Nigeria, reliance on false figures, instigation by certain unpatriotic Nigerians, and outright denial. A starkly distinctive attribute of the APC government since 2015 has been propaganda, and the repudiation of everything for which they once stood.

However, they forget that, though Nigerians may be deceived and cajoled to believe a lie, the world is not. It sounds so infantile and elementary to say that the world has become a village, and nothing is hidden again. Yet, our government and its minders continue to think and act as if Nigeria exists in isolation, and insulated from the rest of mankind. They may keep the people in the cage of falsehoods but the world sees, hears and knows differently.

In the ensuing cacophony of voices and their muddled logic, truth is abandoned and the message is lost, a typical APC strategy. None of the reactions has addressed the issue of the truth and veracity of the allegation. In the context of President Trump’s statement, what’s the truth?

The truth of the statement is not that Muslims are also being killed, nor that the killers are a small group of bad elements giving Islam a bad name, nor that government is spending trillions of naira to curb insecurity, nor that Nigeria is a sovereign state that cannot be interfered in, nor that U.S. has economic interest in Nigeria etc. None of these answers the question of truth nor negates Trump’s position.

An obvious truthful answer is yes, there are mass killings of Christians in Northern Nigeria, whether by the coincidence of geographical location, or as a deliberately well-orchestrated ideological attacks motivated by religious preference, is immaterial and beside the point. Without acknowledging this inexorable truth, we are wasting previous time and chasing shadows, and implying that we not only condone it but are willing to let it continue.

It’s only after we have owned up to the fact of truth that we can then insist on the illegitimacy of Trump’s threat to intervene in Nigeria, or any other attenuating conditions. We cannot live in denial of the truth of what the world believes is happening, and still assert our claim of sovereignty; it makes us hypocrites and irresponsible. The people of Plateau, Benue, and Southern Kaduna are mainly Christians, and killing them for any reasons, whether for land or pasture is irrelevant. The issue is, are they being killed and why?

Another issue thrown up in this ruckus is whether government is doing enough to stem the killings? Again, what’s the truth, and not what government is saying? The truth is that government has not only failed miserably but seems to be a collaborator, albeit unofficially. No time was this so evident than under Buhari, who turned a blind eye while Christians were being massacred. The statistics are still there.

Former president Jonathan once confessed that there were Boko Haram members in his government, Gen. T.Y Danjuma accused the military and government of complicity, Gen. Lucky Irabor, former Chief of defense staff, and Gen. Christopher Musa, also former CDS, both had alleged that insecurity persists due to lack of political will; the NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, the minister of defense, Mattawale are advocates of amnesty and payment of money for peace to terrorists, who wage war against the state, and kill Nigerians.

Wadume, a terrorist kingpin, arrested by the police in Wukari in Taraba state, was violently released by soldiers, killing five special taskforce police officers in the process. Nothing was ever done. The UAE, after the trial of some terrorist financiers, sent to Nigeria names of 400 alleged sponsors, nothing happened since 2022. Villages are destroyed and sacked, nobody is ever brought to book.

So, where is the government in all this? Is there a government at all? Yet trillions of naira are going into a drain-pipe. According to Nextier Advisory, Nigeria recorded 20,000 casualties in the past four years (death and injuries), while Terror Watch reports 12,768 deaths. Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo in Plateau State has a cenotaph containing 500 names. Kawu Baraje said these terrorists were imported by APC people then in opposition for election purpose, while Buhari opened the borders for them through free immigration. These are cases of complicity and duplicity in the matter by government.

Government defenders should explain the propaganda video by ISWAP at the weekend espousing their vision and strategy for Africa in particular and the world generally as counterpoint to U.S CPC policy on Nigeria. The terror group insist that their activities in different parts of Africa is strategic to ensure that the U.S is unable to stop them from achieving their objective of a global government. These terrorists actually justify their atrocities, and make those denying it look very stupid.

Evidently, most of the people discussing this matter, especially in the Southwest, who control the public narrative neither understand the subject, nor its complexity and practicality in Nigeria. At the risk of sounding offensive, most Yoruba people don’t understand this Islam, in fact even the Izala Muslims in Nigeria, which is considered traditional and conservative by this Islam, do not regard Yoruba Muslims as really genuine because of their cultural inclination. The Yoruba are first cultural in orientation, even as Christians, before anything else.

So, this Islam is completely lost to them, hence their unconscionable attempt to defend it apart from their own being the president. It is an Islam that regards the traditional Muslims as kafir, does not brook dissent or criticism, and sees violence as a legitimate tool of propagating their belief and ideology. It is both political, ideological, and religious combined, which makes it doubly dangerous as Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah.

This Islam has a global ideology, which makes Nigeria part of a larger vision, objective, and ambition rather than an isolated local “distraction” as Sheikh Gumi characterized it, which is a lie. He knows what’s happening and is actually promoting it by counseling dialogue and appeasement while they entrench themselves. Recall that Gumi was ban from entering Saudi Arabia for his activities with terrorists.

There are different violent groups fueling insecurity in the North. Boko Haram is a religious sect fighting for sharia in its domain; there’s the ISWAP – Islam in West African Province – which is part of the global jihadists movement and affiliated to Al Qaeda and ISIS; and the bandits, who were initially local cattle rustlers, but later graduated to kidnapping – these are just criminals. There are also the Fulani herdsmen, who are territorial irredentists, now in cohort with the jihadists due to convergence of interests.

One issue that often distorts clarity of understanding is the killing of Muslims by these groups. As already stated, everyone who opposes them is an enemy deserving of death. Ask: why are most Northern leaders silent and acquiescent? This is the answer: criticized or condemn them at the risk of death. So, they kill Muslims who opposed or resist them in anyway. However, the fact is that most Muslims, who, though may not agree with them, would still prefer them to the Nigerian secular state.

Here’s how one of its intellectual champions, Dr. Ali Shariati, whose writings and ideology inspired the Iranian Revolution in 1979, in the book, ‘What’s to be done,’ defined this Isam: “An Islam whose slogan has always been to fight oppressors on the earth, the Islam that aspires to the formation of universal government, the Islam that considers this world to be the cultivating ground for the hereafter, the Islam that invites the oppressed to rebellion, to armed struggle (Jihad), and martyrdom…

“The Islam that demands that all capital or resources should be redistributed among the people and the treasures that some people have hoarded be confiscated…so that the principle of equality of people would be held as binding not only before God, but also before governments…the Islam whose two slogans of “blood and sword,” and leadership and justice, embody the symbolic essence of Shiism.” (italics added, pg. 43, 1971)

This is what we are dealing with and you can see why it is so attractive and alluring, and equally ideologically lethal.