Nigerians have been on tenterhooks in the past few days following the re-designation of the nation as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) by the United States of America. The classification comes with many consequences. President Donald Trump, who authored the re-classification, has warned that if the Nigerian government “allows the killing of Christians to continue”, the United States would immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria. To drive home his seriousness, he has instructed the US Department of War to prepare for a possible military strike.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, apparently unfazed by the threat, fended off the allegations with some data and statistics, stressing that both Christians and Muslims are victims of the killings by terrorists and bandits across the regions of the country. Prominent Nigerians and faith-based organisations across the two major religions have also weighed in to debunk the claims. However, to calm frayed nerves, the federal government has assured the citizens that the situation was being handled at the diplomatic level.
However, this is not the first time Nigeria has been classified as a CPC. In December 2020, the United States designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern for alleged severe violations of religious freedom. Two years earlier, when late President Muhammadu Buhari met Trump in the White House, the latter expressed concern over the religion-based violence in Nigeria, particularly the alleged killing and persecution of Christians. After the meeting and all assurances from the Nigerian leader, the crisis did not abate. Upon taking office in his first term, President Trump made it clear that his administration would fight to defend and to advance the inalienable right to worship freely and to live in accordance with one’s faith, whether in the United States or beyond America’s borders.
But the classification did not generate as much controversy as it does today, before former President Joe Biden, who succeeded Trump, removed Nigeria from the list of infamy. The unfolding scenarios in the country over the years do not paint the picture of absolute genocide against the Christians alone. Granted that when the Boko Haram insurgency began to take root in the country, using Borno state as its launching pad, Christians and worship centres became their primary targets because they represented anything western, which their ideology opposed. However, the insurgents lost focus and turned against Muslims alike, apparently because they refused to align with their extremism. For instance, in the over 15 years of its madness in Borno state alone, more than 45,000 lives have been wasted, the majority of them Muslims.
Beyond Borno state, from where the barbarism of the criminals has spread like wildfire, fueled by banditry, kidnapping, and allied crimes, the killings have not only been up-scaled but some marauding fighters have also sacked natives from their ancestral homes and occupied same.
But how did we get to this sorry state to warrant President Trump even pigeon-holing us as a disgrace? At this point, we ask our successive leaders to summon the courage and stand before the mirror and look at themselves. They cut the pictures of a people who have failed the nation. One attribute they all lack is the courage to face the truth. There was a time at the height of the Boko Haram hostilities that former President Goodluck Jonathan admitted that Boko Haram elements and their sympathisers had infiltrated his administration, but he lacked the courage to expose them. Also, some years back, during the Buhari administration, the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) made available a long list of Boko Haram sponsors, but their identities were kept under wraps because of their sacred cow nature. That posture lends credence to the pre-Boko Haram declaration by the late General Sani Abacha that if insurgency lasts beyond days, then the government has a hand in it.
Beyond these were the absence of commitment and political will to end the security challenges. It is a truism that if you stay too long in the dark, you will begin to see. However, that should not apply here at the expense of the people whose lives and properties our leaders have sworn by the constitution to protect.
At the root of this intractable and pervasive insecurity is also systemic corruption. It is to the nation’s eternal shock that $2.1 billion, budgeted for arms procurement to fight the Boko Haram insurgency, was allegedly shared among corrupt politicians ahead of the 2015 presidential poll. Now referred to as the Dasukigate, among the beneficiaries were marabouts commissioned to pray for victory over the insurgency! Successive military chiefs have also been accused of competing with the political class in plundering the tills at the expense of winning the war. It was this thieving posture that led to soldiers refusing to go to the warfronts because they lacked the firepower to face the well-equipped insurgents.
It is gratifying to note that the Tinubu administration is rising up to the challenge thrown by Trump. The appointment of new service chiefs before the emergence of CPC is a step in the right direction. Nigerians expect actions from these new brooms. The presidency should be tired of giving marching orders. We want to see our troops not only marching but also overrunning our common enemies. Terrorism is a global phenomenon, and the government should embrace assistance from anywhere in the world to extirpate these enemies of mankind from our midst.
