An urgent, open letter to African-American service men and women

From his statements and actions, you already know who your President Donald Trump is and what he represents. It is no brainer to say he is racist and a bigot and makes no bones about it.  

In America and worldwide, he holds people of colour in utter contempt, believing them to be the scum of the Earth. In America, he hobnobs with the Ku Klux Klan, the murderous, terrorist group of White extremists who have a history of lynching African-Americans, burning their houses, killing their babies often with impunity. If he had his way, African-Americans would be wiped out of America like the native Indians who used to inhabit the entire country but who are now restricted to living in concentration camps called ‘’reservations’’ in remote, off the beaten track areas of America.

He refers to Africa as ‘’Shithole’’ and regards the people who inhabit the continent as a waste of space in the World.

Since his coming to power, against the overwhelming opinion of Americans, he has lurched from one fiasco locally and internationally to the other, embarrassing his countrymen who have had to bear the brunt of global opprobrium.

The latest of such mischief that Trump has embroiled himself is in Nigeria. Last week he signed a declaration that designates Nigeria as a ‘’Country of Particular Concern’’ (CPC) on alleged ‘’genocide’’ on Nigeria’s Christian population. This is taken to mean that the American government will take actions from sanctioning Nigerian officials who have the responsibility to stop the killings but have neglected to do that. The declaration could also lead to visa denials and to placing comprehensive economic sanctions on Nigeria.

Just as the impact of the declaration was being assessed by Nigerians and non-Nigerians alike, President Trump suddenly shifted the bar to contemplating military action against Nigeria on this very matter.

It is on this score that I am addressing this open letter to you, the African-American service men and women in the American armed forces. A military action against Nigeria as contemplated by Trump will almost certainly include you. In effect, President Trump will deploy you to bomb and kill your own kind on a matter that he had not taken time to explain and convince his own American people of its necessity to America. He has not explained to the American people whether what is happening in Nigeria affects only Christians. He has not convinced Americans whether what is happening in Nigeria is a threat to America’s security and economic interests. Trump has also not pointed out one American citizen that has been harmed or injured by the terrorists to warrant America citing that as reason to invade Nigeria.

I don’t even believe that Trump knows the true dimension of the terrorist activities taking place in Nigeria. He may probably be aware from the Intelligence briefings he is getting from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency electronic intel intercepts and reports from the American Embassy in Nigeria. From these reports he will know that definitely that what is happening in Nigeria is not what he is making out to be. But driven by hubris and a sense of opportunistic transaction that has been his hallmark, as he had tried to do in Canada, Europe, Russia/Ukraine, China, Middle East, and South Africa, he sees an opportunity to threaten and intimidate Nigeria into agreeing to do concede to him certain economic and commercial rights.

From his antecedents, to believe that Trump cares about Christians in America or for that matter Nigeria and elsewhere is to be grossly deceived.

From the American war of independence to the latest wars, African-Americans have served with distinction even if they had been denied their due recognition in America. Indeed, the very first person to be martyred in the American war of Independence in 1776 was an African-American by name Crispus Attucks. African-Americans also fought in the American civil war in the 1860s to prevent the dismemberment of the country. They also fought in the first and second world wars, the Korean war, and in Vietnam were in most cases they were deployed mostly as Canon Fodder to take the fierce fire from the Viet Congs. Thousands of them were also deployed to die as ‘’mine sweepers’’ to clear the heavily planted Vietnamese mine fields so as to allow the advance of white American soldiers in their tanks, fighting vehicles and infantry columns.

In Nigeria Trump wants to use African-Americans to fight his cause of securing economic concessions. But I urge African-Americans to consider between 40 to 50 per cent of their ancestral origin are derived from Nigeria’s Yoruba, Igbo, Niger Delta ethnic groups and the rest. In effect African-American servicemen and women will be deployed in Nigeria, their ancestral home land to achieve Trump’s transactional agenda. With the help of American-Americans Trump will walk off with a deal that will strengthen his white American compatriots and little or nothing of that will benefit the African-Americans in America in terms of improving their condition of living and their status in the country.

African-American have been fighting for America but in Nigeria and Africa this is one fight they should not accept to be involved in emphatically. What benefit will a war they will help to fight in Nigeria bring to them and their folks back at home? If a great many of them including the legendary Muhammad Ali conscientiously refused to be drafted to fight the Vietnamese on account of not having any issues with them, why then should African-American service men and women agree to be drafted to fight their ancestral brethren with whom they have no issues at all?

If there is any war in which African-American servicemen and women should refuse outrightly without any equivocation it is this Trump’s personal war against Nigeria. It is neither in the interest of America nor in the interest of African-Americans. Indeed a war on Nigeria by Trump with the involvement of African-American servicemen and women will polarize the African-American community and create incalculable damage to their centuries of abiding struggle against white oppression in America. It will embolden President Trump and his fellow white supremacists to crow and say, ‘’we beat you in America and now with your help we beat you in Africa against your own people too.’’

If Trump insists African-American must fight for him in Nigeria, you must massively mobilize African-Americans in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Baltimore, Washington DC, etc and oppose it.

If Trump wants to fight a war in Nigeria African-Americans should rise and tell him and the world they do not support it and have no truck in it. They should bear in mind that the  spirits of Martin Luther King, Malcom X, Stokely Carmichael, Marcus Garvey, W.E Dubois will be watching and thousands of martyred African-Americans are watching.                     

Gadu can be reached via [email protected] and 08035355706 (Texts only)