Legal luminary and human rights campaigner, Chief Femi Falana (SAN), has warned the federal government that reliance on foreign powers such as the United States will not guarantee law and order in Nigeria.
He said the federal government must learn from the ongoing war in Iran and the role the US is playing in it, by urgently reorganizing the country and equip its armed forces and police.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) made the call when he fielded questions during Politics Today programme Channels Television aired on Thursday.
Chief Falana urged Nigeria to take a cue from Iran’s approach to national sovereignty.
“We must learn from Iran that unless you reorganise your own country, unless you equip your armed forces, unless you equip your police force, there is no way an imperialist country like America will guarantee law and order in your country,” he said.
He made reference to the 2025 Christmas Day incident when Trump publicly announced that he had launched air strike in Nigerian territory and killed terrorists.
The senior lawyer said the US bombings coincided with a surge in terrorist activities across the country.
He said, “And that has happened since December, when this man on Christmas Day told the whole world, ‘I have struck a Nigerian, and I’ve killed terrorists,’ since then, terrorism has been on the increase in our country,” he stated.
Chief Falana said the federal government must immediately return to the drawing board to strengthen Nigeria’s security institutions.
“That is why the government in Nigeria must go to the drawing table: how do we equip our armed forces, patriotic forces that have earned medals in the United Nations peacekeeping force, I mean operations, in ECOMOG and the rest of them,” he said.
Drawing a parallel with Cuba, he suggested that policies of the United States government under President Donald Trump have triggered a humanitarian crisis, including severe fuel shortages.
“He (Trump) has imposed humanitarian crisis in Cuba. No fuel goes to Cuba, and you know what that means in the case of Nigeria. And that is why Nigeria must wake up,” the senior lawyer, said.
Mr Falana also urged the Nigerian government to work with other countries to ensure adherence to international law and encourage the likes of Russia and China to wade into the war that was escalating.
He accused President Donald Trump, of the U.S. of undermining international law and United Nations resolutions.
“President Trump has no regard and shows contempt for international law. Hence, he has pulled the United States out of about 66 resolutions of the United Nations,” he said.
“Our duty as a country, as we used to do in the past, is to collaborate with other countries. When you talk of the days of non-alignment, we must now move very speedily to collaborate with other countries to mount pressure on Mr Trump,” he said.
Falana said there was the need getting Russia and China to intervene diplomatically, adding that they wield considerable influence over Iran.
US under President Trump and Israel launched coordinated airstrikes across Iran on February 28, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, other top officials, 165 schoolgirls, and over 2,000 civilians since the attacks started.
