Days before the recent designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern, CPC, by the United States government over alleged ‘Christian genocide’, Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno state raised the alarm over the escalation in attacks by Boko Haram on both military and civilian targets at the epicentre of insurgency in the country.
Zulum, apparently shocked by the successful use of armed drones by the insurgents to attack military assets, soldiers and Borno communities including Mafa, with precision recently, lamented that despite well-circulated intelligence, troops could not prevent the attacks thus exposing the vulnerability in Nigeria’s airspace and posing a serious threat to national security.
We note with concern, therefore, that the increasing use of deadly sophisticated weapons by the terrorists on Nigerians clearly contradicts the long-held notion that the nation’s gallant armed forces were on the verge of defeating the blood-thirsty enemies.
Regrettably too, the unquantifiable collateral damage inflicted by Boko Haram and the Islamic State – West Africa Province, ISWAP, armed Fulani herdsmen and bandits including the massacre of hundreds of citizens among them women, children and soldiers as well as damage to property estimated at billions of naira, now demand that the federal government solicit urgent support and active collaboration of such developed nations as the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, China and Russia to eliminate the jihadists once and for all.
This is because experience has shown that Nigeria’s current national security architecture lacks the requisite military personnel and modern weapons to successfully defeat the terrorists, who since 2009, declared war on fatherland following the killing of Mohammed Yusuf, the founder and leader of the Islamist group Boko Haram by security agents.
Consequently, we completely disagree with the United States President Donald Trump’s designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern primarily on account of an alleged ‘Christian genocide’, and reject his threatened military invasion if the Nigerian armed forces fail to act swiftly and stop further massacre of Christians.
The truth of the matter is that terrorists since launching their bloody campaign 16 years ago in the North East made no pretence about their mission to enthrone an Islamic State in Nigeria and had been targeting all citizens, including women, children, policemen and other security personnel irrespective of their religion.
They neither spared Christians in churches nor Muslims in mosques while empirical evidence abound that majority of those massacred in the North Central were Christians, while those slaughtered in the North East and North West were predominantly Muslims.
It is also particularly worrisome the swiftness with which the US government on October 31 redesignated Nigeria as a ‘country of particular concern’ due to claims of ‘Christian genocide’ and a stern warning that the Nigerian government should act fast to end the “killing of Christians,” stressing that 3,100 out of the 4,476 faithful killed worldwide were Nigerians.
Worst still, without prior formal consultation with President Bola Tinubu and in flagrant disregard of international laws as spelt out in the United Nations, UN, Charter, Trump in a video message declared that he wasn’t ruling out air strikes or boots on the ground in furtherance of his plan to “completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists killing Christians in Nigeria”.
Besides, apart from condemning the killings, which he attributed to radical Islamist groups Trump further vowed that the US would halt all aid assistance to Nigeria should the violence continue, adding that “there would be hell to pay”, a measure we note that will also harm the victims of insurgents if enforced.
Describing Nigeria as “the now disgraced country”, he also instructed the US Department of War to prepare for possible military action, emphasising that any intervention would be “vicious and sweet” just as he maintained that Christianity in Nigeria is facing “existential threat”.
“If the Nigerian government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the USA will immediately stop all aid assistance to Nigeria. We are going to do things to Nigerians that Nigeria is not going to be happy about 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” he warned.
But we want to point out that the proposed unilateral action by the US will be a gross violation of the UN Charter and related declarations which prohibits states from interfering in the internal or external affairs of other nations. As a matter of fact, this principle of non-intervention is based on respect for state sovereignty and territorial integrity.
We are however, mindful of Chapter VII of the UN Charter which stipulates that “the principle of non-intervention does not prevent the UN Security Council from taking coercive measures especially on issues of threats to international peace and security.
That being the case, Trump, who is perhaps motivated by the wrong notion that ‘might is right’ should not usurp the responsibility of the UN Security Council which comprises five permanent members namely the US, Russia, United Kingdom, China and France in the interest of international peace and stability.
It is not surprising however, that the threats by the US drew instant reactions from China and the European Union, EU, with the former declaring total support for Nigeria’s fight against terrorism and faulted the interference of foreigners.
Specifically, in a post on his X handle, the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Yu Dunhai wrote: “As a comprehensive strategic partner of Nigeria, China firmly supports the Nigerian government in leading its people to a development path that fits Nigeria’s national realities.
“We oppose any country’s interference in other countries’ internal affairs under the pretext of religion and human rights. We strongly oppose the wanton threat of sanctions and use of force” insisting that China is willing to continue supporting Nigeria in combating terrorism and maintaining domestic stability.
But we want to state categorically that only a very potent broad coalition of committed allies and Nigeria can defeat these murderous terrorists given that several underlining factors ranging from religious, pecuniary interest to economic motivation for solid minerals exploitation had been identified as major drivers of insurgency, banditry, and terrorism in States like Benue, Plateau, Sokoto, Zamfara, Taraba, Katsina, Niger, Kaduna and lately Kwara.
Again, the worsening insecurity can be attributed to the woeful failure of successive administrations to either arrest or prosecute perpetrators decisively which created room for several conspiracy theories, including state complicity under the immediate past late President Muhammadu Buhari.
So, we totally welcome President Tinubu’s resolve to seek the active support of the international community including Nigeria’s African neighbors and intensifying diplomacy as part of renewed strategy to eliminating terrorists in the country especially against the backdrop of threats by the US.
But it is our view that such heightened diplomatic engagements will only be meaningful if Tinubu expedites action on the appointment and deployment of ambassadors to adequately represent Nigeria’s interest at the global arena. It is clear that the non-appointment of career envoys since May 29, 2023 when Tinubu assumed the mantle of leadership has hampered the country from maximising her diplomatic resources and options.
Based on the foregoing, it will be unacceptable and counter productive for some states and even local governments to embark on so-called peaceful negotiations with terrorism masterminds openly wielding weapons who were earlier declared wanted by the Defence Headquarters in Abuja and still unwilling to lay down their arms and ammunition.
We challenge the newly appointed Service Chiefs and redeployed military commanders in the various theatres of the war against terrorists not to leave any stone unturned in taking the battle to the strongholds of these criminals, strengthen intelligence gathering, and ensure greater synergy between the ground troops and the air wing for better results.
This has become very compelling because both Boko Haram and ISWAP have proven to be increasingly well organized and equipped such that over the past year, they reportedly overran 15 Nigerian military bases using night vision technology to launch vicious attacks on these bases.
More frightening has been the display of operational expertise to deploy armed and surveillance drones, shifting the battlefield in addition to dealing devastating attacks on both military personnel and civilians in Borno.
It is against the backdrop of such escalation of the raging battle that we demand that international community led by global powers like the US, Russia, United Kingdom, France and China should partner Nigeria through supply of modern military hardware, surveillance equipment and other weapons to prosecute the war against terrorists in the country. We are hopeful that such collaboration will serve as the much-needed impetus for the Nigerian Armed Forces to defeat the common enemy.
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