Some of these self-appointed experts, acting as sympathisers, are truly the real undertakers we should beware of because they have never meant well for Nigeria as a nation.
By ADEMOLA ONI
Ever since the black man was entangled in the chains of colonialism, he had been told not to think on his own, disdain what he had originally and destroy his values. He is also to depend entirely on what the West, as represented by its agents, would dictate, including how he runs his now beleaguered life with its attendant confusion.
This clinging mentality has long become a debilitating baggage that Nigeria has been unable to shed even till this day, manifesting in economic, political, religious, and educational crises, among other festering challenges.
Has Nigeria survived the serial devaluation of its once very strong currency, which started in 1985 under the military dictator, General Ibrahim Babangida, at the prodding of the same predators, who deceived us that the naira was too strong to attract international investors and attract loans? Close to 40 good years later, we have embarked on a reckless and conditioned devaluation of the naira until the national currency entered into depression.
Recently, outspoken and controversial US Senator Ted Cruz (a Republican representing Texas) stirred the hornet’s nest once again, alleging genocide against the Christian population in Nigeria. As an individual, the US lawmaker is entitled to his opinion and I don’t have any problem with this, by the way. What is terribly troubling is the way some politicians and (not surprisingly) religious leaders have queued behind Cruz in his outlandish genocide claim as if this allegation is the Bible these leaders have been studying but couldn’t gain understanding until now. Genocide? Where?
Even the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English couldn’t help me out of my dilemma. It says this fearful word means ‘the deliberate murder of a whole group or race of people’. If this is true, it appears these leaders have been vegetating in different climes except in this country, as Nigeria’s insecurity, at its peak, could never have been described as a deliberate tool (by whom?) to wipe out any group, section, tribe, race or clan.
I wouldn’t have been troubled if the politicians were the only stakeholders playing their usual political game, but the illogical somersault by the highly respected Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Dr Matthew Hassan Kukah, left a depressing sour taste in the mouth. After submitting that it would be inappropriate to designate Nigeria as Country of Particular Concern by the US a few days ago at the Vatican City, Father Kukah, who has never been afraid to speak truth to power, made an unusual capitulation hours after that, saying there was indeed genocide against the Christian population in Nigeria. One is therefore at a loss as to what could be playing in the mind of Father Kukah during this unusual somersault.
It is, however, gratifying that the President, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Bishop Wale Oke, looks at this self-serving US-made allegation from a different dimension. Oke, another respected pastor, pointed out that Christians were not singled out for extermination in Nigeria, saying what the country is battling with is general insecurity, where Christians and Muslims are at the mercy of bloodthirsty elements.
Apart from Borno State, which has been terribly ravaged by the Boko Haram insurgents, and Zamfara and Niger states, perennially under attacks by factional but known terror groups, Plateau and Benue states are the most affected by ceaseless killings. The latter two states are predominantly Christian territories, which might have given Cruz and other ‘sympathisers’ the impression that the endless killings in them are targeted at Christians.
Are we then saying that Christians, who have been killed in Plateau and Benue states, are more than the Muslims killed in Borno, Zamfara and Niger states?
Agreed, Nigeria is not moving at the pace justifiably desired by the populace; our nation is surely not grounded. Each positive step we attempt to take, some so-called allies, who have continually profited from Nigeria’s gullibility, would traditionally take calculated but subtle steps to either distract or derail (or both) us from making the little progress we should be allowed to make peacefully.
Some of these self-appointed experts, acting as sympathisers, are truly the real undertakers we should beware of because they have never meant well for Nigeria as a nation. Since his election into the US Senate in 2013, how many bills have Cruz and his colleagues sponsored to promote economic or political development in Nigeria? None!
His unsolicited opinion and the bills he has authored amount to another calculated distraction to undermine any positive efforts against the common enemies we have been battling for decades. Where was Cruz when the former President Barack Obama’s government refused to sell attack helicopters to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to tackle rising insurgency on our land because of a dubious allegation of human rights abuses?
Our leaders, religious and political, should therefore understand the antics of some of these self-appointed foreign messiahs whom they wrongly believe are promoting their interests and read between the lines to decipher their true intentions. Not all ‘imported’ concerns are genuine, and they are not divine either.
The government of President Bola Tinubu should go beyond sacking service chiefs (na today?) and replacing them in the efforts against resurging insecurity. From the core North, these deranged killers have extended their murderous operations to other parts of the country, even in the South, attempting to encircle the whole country with the same waves of violence, kidnapping and killings among other evils which have turned the nation into a big killing field.