By Andy Ezeani
Until Donald Trump came along in the last quarter of 2025 with threats to recreate a cowboy scenario in Nigeria, “with guns ablazing”, the idea of the Nigerian government being accountable to anyone did not arise.
The government, led by Bola Tinubu, just like its predecessor under Muhammadu Buhari, awkwardly lived its sovereign status to a hilt. Having vanquished the legislature, the presidency is answerable to no authority but itself.
Although they conveniently claimed to have been elected by the people, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governments of the last decade has never really, reckoned with the citizens. Even if any part of the state was caving him, the potentates never seemed to be bothered. They did what pleased them, which translates to doing nothing.
Trump’s sudden turn of attention on Nigeria, even from a distance, was jarringly disruptive of the Tinubu government’s supine posture in matters of the state. Not surprisingly, the government’s response to the charges by the US president did not show any assuredness, either of standing or facts. The government could not boldly stand up with conviction on what it has done over time on the raised issues of concern. It could only duck and hedge. From all indications, the Tinubu government’s strategy was to buy time and deflate international attention on the issue of Christian genocide that was the root of Trump’s indignation
The zeal with which the government plays up any contact with officials of the US government since then, speaks volumes of its weakness in the matter of insecurity and targeted-religious terrorist assaults in Nigeria. For the Tinubu government and whoever its strategists are, playing up the optics of engagement with Americans appears to be counted as achievement.
Such optics of engagement seem of great importance, more than any effort or action to address the existential threat to the country. Not surprisingly, therefore, after an initial lull, arising from uncertainty about what next trump might do, the terrorists resumed their onslaught across the country. Meanwhile the government relapsed to its supine mode. The president went on his way.
Early last week, the government made a breakthrough in its search for how best to address the troubling issue of Christian genocide in Nigeria. A lobbying contract worth a princely sum of $9 million (about N13.5 billion) was awarded by the Nigerian government to a Republican lobby firm, DCI. The deal was reportedly brokered by Mr. Roger Stone, an associate of President Trump.
What were the terms of reference for the contract? To convince the American government that there is no Christian genocide in Nigeria and of course, prevail on Trump to look away. With that Nigeria’s problem is solved! Very typical of the masterly strategies of the Tinubu government.
Stripped of its nicely polished colorations, the contract to the Republican -aligned DCI, speaks of the absolute belief of the Tinubu government in its capacity to “settle” its way out of any challenge, except, of course, that which adds value to the society.
How, in God’s name does splashing N13.5 million to explain to Americans that there is no Christian genocide in Nigeria help the country to contain unrelenting terrorist attacks on Christian and indigenous communities?
Coincidentally, as the Nigerian government was offloading $9 million to the American lobby firm for it to persuade American policy makers that what exists in Nigeria does not exist, a Netherland-based association, Open Doors World Watch, released the statistics that Nigeria accounts for 72 per cent of Christian killings worldwide in 2026.
A visitor from the outer space who just arrived Nigeria will not be wrong if he assumes that Christianity came to Nigeria possibly in 2015 or thereabout, hence the clash with Islam that is defending its turf. That is the way it now appears. Yet for centuries, Christianity and Islam have co-existed within the Nigerian space. Even as rabid religionists existed in the past, fundamentalism and killing Christians in Allah’s name was never the order of the day.
Nigeria never gained global notoriety for the killing of either Christians or Muslims. As it has turned out, some Muslims are crying out that they too are being killed by fundamentalist Muslims also. So, when did this madness become the norm and who are those sponsoring these crimes?
Instead of the Nigerian government deploying its scarce resources to trace the root of the recent blight, with a view to tackling it, it elects to splash $9million to convince America that Christians are not being killed in Nigeria.
Characteristically, the government garnished its indiscretion in the $9 million gimmick with a gratuitous falsehood. Rather than do what it set out to do in the move to lobby or “settle” American interests to look away from the tragedy in Nigeria, the government unashamedly dragged the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) into the matter.
Speaking through planted newspaper stories and rather inane television punditry, the government’s justification of its waste is that IPOB was spending $66,000 on lobbyists in USA, so it responded by getting its own lobbyists at $750,000 a month or $9million per annum or N13.5billion per annum. What a calamity!
The laying out of the whopping sum of $9 million into Washington D.C, to “settle” Republicans has not gone down well with many Americans, from reports. Americans are certainly not Nigerians. A U.S. independent organization that has been working on tracking insecurity in Nigeria has, for one, publicly taken exception to the project of the Nigerian government paying such huge amount to convince Americans that it has no problems when the data on Nigeria’s insecurity is astounding.
The Nigeria Terror Tracking (NTT) initiative which is already in operation according to the group, has incontrovertible data on terrorist-attacks in Nigeria. The tracker identifies who is responsible for each terrorist attack, the location and the time of incident. It has details of all terrorist attack in Nigeria in the last five years through its geo-tracking devices.
The group’s leader warned that If any American group wants to accept what it called “blood money” from the Nigerian government, let it do so, but such persons will contend with public backlash in America.
So sad what the government of Nigeria does to itself and the country before the world.
*Ezeani is a commentator on
public issues
No comments:
Post a Comment