For years, Nigeria’s political class has watched passively as citizens are murdered daily — in villages, on highways, and in places of worship. They have surrounded themselves and their families with state security details while their fellow citizens perish like flies. Now, the same clique that routinely manipulates the state against its people has suddenly rediscovered the language of “sovereignty.”
But sovereignty, properly understood, is the collective will of the people, freely given and exercised in trust for the public good. That will has been consistently subverted by fraudulent elections and elite capture. What Nigeria’s rulers now seek to defend is not sovereignty, but their own sources of livelihood and privilege — which are threatened by President Donald Trump’s designation of Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” and his suggestion of possible U.S. military intervention.
But before anyone applauds, serious questions must be asked. Military action against whom — the terrorists, the state that tolerates them, or the Nigerian people? And by what legal or moral authority does Mr. Trump assume the role of judge and enforcer over us?
Why the sudden American concern about “Christian genocide”? Why now, after decades of documented massacres ignored by Washington? Why not condemn all atrocities, regardless of faith or identity? And what tangible assistance has the U.S. offered Nigeria in addressing its dire security challenges since they began? Do Nigerian lives only count when they fit neatly into Western narratives of persecution?
Equally puzzling is the reaction from many Muslim and Arab nations, who — despite their silence over years of violence justified in the name of Islam — now rise in indignation against the U.S. for naming “Christian genocide.” Where was this outrage when innocent Muslims were also being slaughtered?
Uncomfortable questions remain. Why do extremist movements across Africa and beyond so frequently emerge from within Muslim-majority communities? And why do many Christian communities in Nigeria appear resigned to perpetual victimhood, seeking international rescue rather than asserting collective self-defense? Must faith always equate to fragility? Where did Christ teach us to surrender and lay down our lives to be slaughtered by demented bloodsuckers?
In truth, neither Washington nor the Arab world is motivated by altruism. Both have unspoken strategic interests in Nigeria — from energy resources to regional influence. With such “friends,” Nigeria scarcely needs enemies.
As a Nigerian Christian, I affirm that there is indeed a Christian genocide in my country. I also acknowledge that Muslims and persons of other faiths have been victims of the same tragic cycle of violence. Yet I reject any notion of U.S. military intervention. We do not wish to exchange a corrupt and incompetent domestic oligarchy for a plundering, unaccountable foreign occupation.
The Tinubu Administration should consider this a wake up call to change course and be a true servant of the Nigerian people – not their overlords. If it goes down today, no real Nigerian will shed a tear or drop a withered flower on their graves. That’s how badly they have squandered the people’s goodwill.
If Washington insists, it should at least drop the moral pretence. The rhetoric of “Christian protection” is but a veil for geopolitical ambition — for energy access, rare-earth control, and global dominance. Yet as history demonstrates — from Vietnam to Afghanistan — even superpowers eventually retreat from wars they cannot truly win.
Nigeria does not need foreign military intervention to end her chronic insecurity. What she needs is sincere and professional partnership with the international community — not pity or paternalism. She needs honest and courageous leadership willing to expose and uproot the collaborators and enablers of terrorism hiding within the system, sabotaging the sacrifices of our gallant soldiers.
Nigeria needs to rebuild her entire security architecture — to prevent, detect, apprehend, and neutralize anyone who takes up arms against fellow citizens, whatever the excuse. Not to wield guns only in defense of those in power.
Above all, she needs leaders who see the safety and welfare of citizens not as an afterthought, but as the very reason government exists.
Nigeria’s leaders bear the greatest blame for our current humiliation. Their incompetence and corruption have eroded the moral and institutional foundations of the state. Their policies alienate, impoverish, and divide the very citizens they swore to serve, creating a pool of discontent which feeds violent and genocidal ideologies. To that extent we must be grateful to President Trump for calling out their ineptitude, if not complicity.
Unless Nigerians — and Africans more broadly — learn to resolve their internal crises with justice, equity, and wisdom, external powers will always find moral pretexts to intervene, dismantle, and plunder.
The core problem is neither America nor Arabia, neither Christianity nor Islam. It is us — Nigerians. Until we rise above manipulation and assume full responsibility for our collective destiny, we will remain both victims and spectators in our own tragedy. “A man that brings home ant-infested faggots should not grumble when lizards begin to pay him a visit.”
