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BY KENNETH OKONKWO
President Trump of the United States of America recently designated Nigeria as a country of particular concern. Being designated a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) by the United States means that the U.S. government has officially determined that a country commits or tolerates systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.
This designation comes from the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998, which requires the U.S. Department of State to monitor and report on religious freedom worldwide. Each year, the Secretary of State can designate certain countries as CPCs based on the findings in the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom. When a country is designated as a CPC, the U.S. government can sanction the country diplomatic or economicall, such as limiting aid or trade.
Donald Trump encapsulated these conditions in his tweet declaring Nigeria a country of particular concern. Hear Trump, “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a “COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN” ― But that is the least of it. When Christians, or any such group, is slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria (3,100 versus 4,476 Worldwide), something must be done!”
The reaction of the government of Bola Tinubu was swift and as usual, ill-thought out. President Tinubu among other things, said, “Nigeria stands firmly as a democracy … The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians.”
This unfortunate response of Tinubu expectedly drew the ire of Trump who fired back, “if the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the USA will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”
Tinubu’s response reflects the deep hypocrisy that pervades this government. The first statement from Tinubu reads, “Nigeria stands firmly as a democracy.” Really? Maybe Tinubu forgot that the world was watching the 2023 presidential election campaign, where he said that, “power is not served a la carte. You fight for it, grab it, snatch it, and run away with it”. Where does fighting, grabbing, snatching and running away with power ever reflect democracy? The idea of snatching power means that even if another candidate wins the election, you should snatch it forcefully and run away with it.
Nigeria is not firmly standing on democracy, Sir. It is standing on democrazy. The world has not forgotten how Tinubu, despite the cry of every Nigerian, including very close associates like Wole Soyinka and Ayo Fayose, ill-advisedly declared a state of emergency in Rivers State and removed elected Governor and Representatives of the people. Toppling democracy in a federating unit by presidential fiat is a demonstration of craze.
The only way Tinubu can convince the world that he is a democrat is by embracing free, fair, and credible elections and upholding the rule of law. For now, he is a stranger to these principles and his claim that Nigeria stands firmly as a democracy in his regime is a ruse.
Tinubu’s claim that “the characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians,” also flies in the face of his doom-fated decision to choose a fellow Muslim to contest the 2023 presidential election. To rub salt to injury, Tinubu and Shettima recruited fake Bishops and Pastors to pose as Christian clergy during their campaign. To be clear, no borthern Muslim presidential candidate has ever chosen a fellow southern Muslim to be his vice-presidential candidate since the creation of Nigeria. The reason for this is to avoid any perception of persecution of Christians, who are more than 50% of the population.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who was labelled a religious fundamentalist, cleverly chose a Pastor as his Vice President. In fact, has chose twobpastors as vice presidential candidates in two elections. This worked like magic. I recall how when we were at a campaign ground at Kurudu, Abuja, a citizen expressed fears to Pastor Yemi Osinbajo that a re-election of Buhari may mean the islamisation of Nigeria. Osinbajo simply convinced the person that he is a Pastor and the Vice-President, so Buhari would have to islamise him first before any other Nigerian, just to state how impossible it is for a man who chose a Pastor as his Vice to contemplate islamising Nigeria. He cited section 10 of the 1999 Constitution to assure the sceptics that no President of Nigeria can islamise Nigeria because the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion and secures the secularity of our country. Everyone left satisfied with his explanation.
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Tinubu does not have the same privilege to send his Deputy to defuse this tension worldwide against his regime’s perception of persecution of Christians because his Number 2 is a fellow Muslim. His Foreign Affairs Minister, a fellow Muslim, his Minister for Information, another fellow Muslim. What a tragedy of insensitivity and incompetence. Daniel Bwala, one of his Spokespersons, who left Tinubu because of his unreasonable choice of a fellow Muslim as Vice presidential candidate, described the decision as “audacity of hypocrisy and hypocrisy of competence”. Tinubu’s claim, therefore, to be religiously tolerant can not convince the world as he couldn’t tolerate northern Christians to be his Vice president the way borthern Muslims accepted southern Christians as their vice president.
On the other hand, Donald Trump’s claim that “thousands of Christians are being killed,” is absolutely correct. It is embarrassing that the response of government to this is that Muslims and members of the other religions are being killed too. This is actually an admission not a rebuttal. Yes, in Nigeria, everyone is killed without exception. The solution to Donald Trump’s allegation is to ensure the security and welfare of all Nigerians which will guarantee that nobody is killed. By saying that Muslims are more killed than Christians in Nigeria will attract its own bashing of Nigeria by Muslim countries around the world. Tinubu should raise the morale of the armed forces by ensuring that their welfare is well taken care of. He should put more boots on the ground by recruiting more Nigerians into the armed forces. He must ensure that state police is established immediately to supplement the efforts of the Federal Government in the fight against terrorism.
Trump’s statement that “if the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians,” is a conditional statement which will not be carried out if the killings stop. The government should simply stop the killings. America had come into Niger State, with the permission of the Nigerian Government, during Buhari’s regime, to snatch their citizen from the hands of terrorists. There’s nothing bad if Nigeria seeks the cooperation of America to fight and liquidate all terrorists in Nigeria. Of course, no Nigerian will cherish the invasion of Nigeria by any other foreign power without the permission of Nigeria, not even because of the argument of sovereignty, but because an uncoordinated attack on a multi ethnic and multi religious country can lead to anarchy as it’s found in Libya and Iraq today.
Americans should not invade Nigeria if they truly love Nigeria. Trump’s threat has been very beneficial in bringing the awareness of the destruction of human lives in Nigeria to the world, while the government continues to adopt a lackadaisical approach to it. But let this remain a threat. America should use all its might to bring to justice all the corrupt politicians who steal Nigeria money and deposit it in America. They should send them to long terms in jail in America.
Britain has done it before and America should follow suit. They should impose sanctions on violent election riggers in Nigeria and disallow them to enter America. This will benefit Nigeria more than indiscriminate bombing of Nigeria which will kill both Muslims and Christians. If you kill those people you claim to defend, the whole idea is defeated.
The argument of sovereignty as a bulwark against foreign invasion lost steam since after the second world war when millions of people from particular race and ethnicity were nearly wiped out. Humanitarian intervention is now permitted under international law to stop some heinous crimes against humanity committed by some errant regimes. Even the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was transformed into the African Union (AU) to permit African Countries to intervene in the domestic affairs of foreign countries to stop horrendous abuse of human rights.
Nigeria intervened in Liberia and Sierra Leone to restore law and order when anarchy prevailed in the country that led to the indiscriminate killing of human beings. So the school of thought that a country that abuses the human rights of its people should be sanctioned by the international community is increasingly growing. In the words of Prof. Hersch Lauterpacht: “The first authoritative statement of the principles of humanitarian intervention is the principle that the exclusiveness of domestic jurisdiction stops when outrage upon humanity begins.
Tinubu should immediately appoint cerebral and seasoned Ambassadors to represent Nigeria in all the countries of the world in order to engage with the Americans and other international bodies on the best way to solve the security challenges in Nigeria. Tinubu should not rely on solidarity messages from other world powers on the Nigeria altercation with America. I can guarantee you that none of them will come to our rescue if America attacks us. They are only playing to the gallery to enable them continue the exploitation of our solid mineral resources.
Nigeria will overcome this phase but certainly not with these crop of incompetent and corrupt leaders. What was Tinubu thinking when he went with Buhari to report the insecurity problem of Nigeria to America just to grab power from President Goodluck Jonathan? Whatsoever you sow, you reap.
