The Pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere on Tuesday stated that the recent threat by the United States President Donald Trump to attacks islamic terrorists in Nigeria was a decoy to mask his displeasure over the resolute stand of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu on matters of public interest.
Afenifere in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, said 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”
According to Afenifere, there are extraneous reasons behind the stand of the American President, adding that the major reason for the posture was economic.
” 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”, it said.
Afenifere added, ” 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.
Afenifere stressed, “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 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”.
Afenifere maintained that “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”
