Donald Trump’s threat: Matters arising

Less than a week after President Donald Trump issued his weekend ‘’guns-a-blazing’’ threats to bomb terrorist locations in Nigeria, Senator Ted Cruz has vowed to release the names of Nigerian officials who are complicit in these high crimes against the Nigerian people. In a tweet Tuesday night, the Texas senator praised President Trump for declaring Nigeria CPC (country of particular concern) and pledged to continue to fight to protect Nigerian Christians and Christians all over the world.

He writes: “I have been pushing legislation to designate Nigeria a CPC and to impose sanctions on the Nigerian officials responsible…Now we should take the next step and hold Nigerian officials accountable. I intend to be very explicit about who they are in the coming days and weeks.”

I look forward to seeing the names that would be released by Senator Cruz. I will plead with the senator to go beyond and publish the names of those politicians who have, in addition, looted this country dry and bought properties all over the world. Enough is enough! Senator Cruz is the Republican Senator from Texas who is the main accuser of the Nigerian government of allowing terrorists to kill Christians. Even if you disagree that there’s been genocide against Christians in Nigeria, there’s no debate about the fact that hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have been slaughtered in this country by terrorists, and the government has been incapable of combating the crimes.

Meantime, the Tinubu administration has gone into overdrive to save face and manage the humiliating crisis that is unfolding daily. A delegation of government officials, led by Emmanuel Bwala, has been dispatched to Washington, DC, to offer the government’s position on the matter and try to put a positive spin on the beleaguered administration in Abuja. But it’s not clear what such a low-level delegation would achieve. When Buhari was facing a similar meltdown, it was Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, an erudite law professor, who did the dirty job of cleaning up the mess.

There’s no such guy in this administration. To shift attention from its inability to stop terrorism, the government is cleverly focusing attention on the issue of genocide, and avoiding addressing the main focus of President Trump’s threat. The central core of this problem is the unabated killings of Nigerians, both Christians and Muslims, by terrorists and the seeming inability or unwillingness of the Nigerian authorities to combat it. President Trump’s statement on Saturday only threatened ‘’to completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities’’ if the Nigerian government could not stop the killers. There’s no debate about the provisions of our constitution.

It is, therefore, baffling that instead of the government telling the world how it intends to stop the terrorists, its officials are busy quoting the constitution to stress that genocide is not tolerated in the country. Some are even making the ridiculous claim that more Muslims have been attacked or murdered than Christians, as if it is okay for any Nigerian to be killed by terrorists. In my last essay, I had made the point that it was actually Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who in 2014, had first announced to the world rather portentously that ‘’Christian worshippers’’ were being slaughtered by terrorists and that the then-President Jonathan was too incompetent to protect Nigerians. Now that Tinubu is the president, he should do well to unveil his plans on how to protect those ‘’Christian worshippers’’ and other Nigerians.

On Monday, the Chinese government made a statement on the crisis, advising the US government to stay clear of Nigeria’s sovereignty. But the Asian country did not indicate its own plans to assist Nigeria in the fight against the rampaging terrorists. Nobody should be beguiled by China’s flowery diplomatic language. In the first place, China has been severely criticised by the international community for its human rights abuses and for violating the rights of its Muslim citizens, particularly the Uyghur people, who are concentrated in Xinjiang province.

As world powers and global economic rivals, China and the United States typically warn one another from taking certain international actions that may advance their national interests. More often than not, the US is hardly dissuaded by such advisories. In June, for example, President Trump sent B-2 Spirit stealth bombers to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities inside Iran, including the Fordow Uranium Enrichment Plant, Natanz Nuclear Facility and Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre, despite warnings from China. The US will never be deterred by China from attacking those terrorist camps in Nigeria if the US really wants to do so.

China is not known to have helped Nigeria fight Boko Haram. China does not care about the well-being and human rights in other countries. But the US has the promotion of human rights and democracy as part of its ideals. In fact, the US has provided significant support to Nigeria to fight terrorism, and these include $650 million in security assistance between 2017 and 2021, including $500 million in Foreign Military Sales; delivery of six A-29 Super Tucano aircraft in July 2021, with more aircraft pending delivery.

I urge President Tinubu to take President Trump’s threats seriously and prove to the whole world that the Nigerian government can now protect all Nigerians, including the ‘’Christian worshippers’’ he alluded to 11 years ago.

Otherwise, we should be ready to welcome the US bombers into the Sambisa forests and other hideouts to take out the terrorists. It was Henry Kissinger, the immutable US diplomat and secretary of state, who said in November 1968 that ‘’it may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal’’.

It was a warning about the risk of taking the US for granted.