Until we have nationalists who truly understand what it means to be a sovereign nation, as leaders, we will continue to find ourselves in positions where the actions of our leaders and their external collaborators blur the line of sovereignty and spur concerns about our independence as a nation.
On Wednesday, the United States government announced that it carried out airstrikes on some ISIS terrorists in Nigeria’s North West state of Sokoto. The airstrikes came more than a month after the designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern over purported targeted killings of Christians in the country. President Donald Trump had also threatened to authorise the invasion of Nigeria if the government did not put an end to the heinous and despicable activities of terrorists in the country, who he claimed are killing Christians.
Trump’s stern admonition sparked mixed reactions. While some welcome the idea of a foreign power ‘helping’ Nigeria tackle its perennial insecurity, many are concerned about the danger that such involvement by a rapacious, powerful foreign nation, widely known to act only in its own interest, portends for our nation and its sovereignty. No matter what the position of anyone is on the matter, one thing we can all agree to is that turning to the US, no matter the reason and justification of the Nigerian government, does not look good on the West African nation and it does not only negatively affect the image of the nation and undermine it position among the comity of nations but it also raises unsettling and important questions about the capacity of those in power to lead and govern.
Those who support foreign military intervention in addressing our security challenges cannot be entirely dismissed as unpatriotic vermin or gullible oafs who are ignorant of the dynamics and intricacies ofgeopolitics. For some time now, Nigeria has ceased to act as a sovereign and independent entity. Those who are elected to manage the affairs of the nation have shown an incredible capacity to do everything but that which benefits the country and the people.
We are not a normal, regular functioning country. We are a country that has fallen off the precipice and plunged into the abyss. We are a failed nation. For over ten years, successive governments have abdicated their basic responsibilities of providing safety and security for the people. Runaway widespread corruption has jarringly impeded our abilities and capacities to succeed in the most basic national endeavours. We solve power problems, no local government can boost municipal-wide potable running water, government schools have become nothing more than decrepit and rundown animal shelters and the roads suffer from the double whammy of dilapidation and kidnappers. Failure comes with consequences and a failed entity really has no choice.
Beyond the hoopla of the American airstrikes in Nigeria, something much bigger is at play here and it has little or nothing to do with the deepening security crisis in Nigeria. Beneath the neatly worded press release and perfunctory airstrikes on a desolate plain in a sleepy village lies a grand geopolitical plot. America does not do anything out of the goodness of its heart. Whatever assistance you get from Uncle Sam comes with heavy and burdensome strings attached. For America, it is about its interests and those of its allies. Any assistance America renders to any nation, no matter how well intentioned it is portrayed, is a debt owed by the assisted nation and will likely be paid for with huge and crippling socio-economic and political interest.
Furthermore, Americans, either with boots on the ground or an aerial offensive, have not been able to end terrorism permanently anywhere. Not even on their own turf. It takes far more, especially outside of what they ventured into. The airstrikes have been described by the Nigerian government as a “collaboration” but everyone knows that is not what it is. The presidency claimed it shares intelligence with the United States regarding the strikes. If the Nigerian government truly has intelligence on ISIS activities in the country, why did it not move in to rout the terrorists and had to wait for a foreign nation to do that?
Also latest media reports have further cast doubts and raised questions about the credibility of the claim of both the Nigerian and the US government. The feelers we are getting now are that there has never been a presence of ISIS in the area bombed by the US.
What Nigeria needs to permanently solve its security crisis is not airstrikes conducted by another nation. If at all it needed collaboration with other nations to comprehensively and holistically address its security challenges, such bilateral defence and security synergy should be in the form of intelligence and technological advancements, sharing and supplies of needed ammunition. Once you require a foreign power, that you’re not at war with, to come into your country to solve an internal conflict, pogrom, banditry, acts of terrorism, that’s another indication of a failing state.
Finally, we will continue to find ourselves in this kind of uncomfortable and somewhat demeaning situation until we get leadership right. Until we have nationalists who truly understand what it means to be a sovereign nation, as leaders, we will continue to find ourselves in positions where the actions of our leaders and their external collaborators blur the line of sovereignty and spur concerns about our independence as a nation.
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