Nigerians are a very excitable people. Happenings in far away lands are lapped up with glee. But there is also a streak of contrariness in their character. They will stop at nothing to destroy themselves and their nation but an almost unanimity of opinion will greet any hint of an external act of aggression against the country. Like the present rush of anger trailing U.S. President Donald Trump’s unveiled threat to dispatch American troops to Nigeria to “protect our cherished Christians” that he said were being killed by Islamist jihadists while the Nigerian government looked away. He described it as state sanctioned genocide.
To be sure, the stage was made ready well ahead of the unconcealed threat of military intervention. Some non-state investigators came to Nigeria to inquire into reports that alleged systematic killings of Nigerian Christians. Finally, they reported before leaving Nigeria that indeed Christians in Nigeria were being killed in their numbers. Their report was released in Abuja but really it was meant for the American public – to prepare it for Trump’s planned war of pacification. On Oct. 31, he redesignated Nigeria as “Country of Particular Concern”. Mr. Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War, was breathless in articulating this Messianic mission. In his “A Message to the American People and the World” Nov. 1, he said, “There is no greater failure of leadership than knowing evil exists and choosing to look away. For years, the world has known that Christians in Nigeria are being systematically slaughtered, and the world has done nothing. That ends now… In Nigeria, we are witnessing one of the greatest crimes against humanity in modern history, and it has been deliberately hidden, minimized, and explained away by those who lack the courage to name it.”
Hegseth accused the Nigerian government of complicity in the genocidal attacks on Christians for doing nothing to stop them. His message to the government: “You have enabled this genocide through your inaction, your corruption, and your complicity. All military and financial aid to your government is suspended effective immediately. If you will not protect your Christian citizens, we will, with or without your permission.” And to Nigerian Christians: “For sixteen years, you have endured unspeakable suffering while the world looked away. You have buried your children, rebuilt your churches, and maintained your faith in the face of extermination. You are not forgotten. You are not alone. America stands with you, and America’s warriors are coming.”
But will the American military come to fight in Nigeria, a country in another hemisphere? America’s military experts don’t think it is likely, and they have their reasons. In a presentation they published shortly after Trump issued his threat, they said: “Any potential effort by Mr. Trump to direct the military to target Nigerian insurgents through his preferred method — airstrikes — would be likely to cause shock and awe but not much more.” One military officials likened it to “pounding a pillow.” They warned that any action Washington planned to take “would come with a host of issues, the thorniest being that the violence in the northern Nigerian Sahel falls along linguistic, cultural and religious lines. Much of it is based on land use and tenure and is fomented in some cases by corruption in the Nigerian government. Farmers and herders in the region have battled one another over land use for decades, and militant Islamic groups have taken advantage of the distrust to push their own agenda.”
At home, Trump’s plan already is beset by some political difficulties and a national ennui over military adventurism. Trump won’t find it easy convincing a divided Congress to endorse America going to fight in Nigeria or anywhere for that matter. The national mood may initially be for military intervention, but it is sure to change when the first body bags of American dead start arriving in American homesteads. And in Nigeria, it isn’t as though the killers are bandied at one place to be picked out and decimated. Take Benue State, for instance. Here, as the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Christopher Musa said, the killers are embedded in targeted communities. There is telling the difference between a killer and his victim. Secondly, the Nigerian Christian body isn’t one united house. There are those who may welcome outside help like the one America is imposing. But there are others who won’t because they believe that Christianity doesn’t need defenders other its founder Jesus Christ. This doctrinal difference runs deep. So, America, or its Trumpian president, had better be careful. It may have its hands terribly burnt.
