SINCE the invasion notice by President Donald Trump to the effect that the United States was gearing up to send her military arsenal to Nigeria with a view to decisively end the activities of the terrorists responsible for the killing of Christians in Nigeria, the entire populace of Africa’s most populated nation of have been thrown into a state of apprehension.
While many citizens see the American military threat as a welcome development, others hold the view that Donald Trump’s proposed actions may not be in the overall interest of the country in the end. The argument of the people opposed to the moves by Washington is that America may be having ulterior motives that may likely leave Nigeria worse off after the military action against insurgents. They further disagree that the killings in the country are not targeted at any particular religion since both Christians and Muslims are known to have been killed in the past.
As the expression of divergent views continue, the Federal government on its part is heaping the blame over the external threat to her sovereignty on disgruntled opposition parties. These insinuations are not necessary for now. The question on the lips of everyone should be whether it is correct or otherwise to conclude that there is rising increase in the number of Nigerians killed at regular intervals without just course. Whether or not the government has acted swiftly in her resolves to end the scourge equally needs to be established.
In the absence of credible proofs that Nigeria is on the right track in the war against all forms of terrorisms, no one, including China can muster enough sincerity in blaming Donald Trump for taking the bull by the horn. Everything boils down to two areas of failure in governance. One, tried as the nation’s military appear to have done, the results on ground tend towards their inability to contend with the terrorist threats. Secondly, the Nigerian missions abroad have not lived to the professional standard expected from them in projecting the image of the country.
After all, in governance, America cannot beat her chest and conclude that there are no elements of bad governance in the nation. Though, she is the richest country in the world, only about eight percent of her population is millionaires and her GDP per capital income is about $89,000 dollars. On the contrary, Switzerland, the ‘peace capital’ of the world has about fifteen percent of her population as millionaires and has GDP per capita income of about $111,000. This is in addition to one out of every six Swiss owning properties worth $1 million and above. The straight interpretation of this is that America spends much of the peoples’ resources in prosecuting wars that are sometimes needless. This is bad governance!
Apart from ego boosting, there is yet to be seen, any significant importance of territorial wars that has no direct bearing with the existence of nations promoting them like America does.
Ever since the first wars that took place in Mesopotamia in 2700 BCE between Sumer and Elam, the world as a whole or in part have never known peace cumulatively for up to one decade. Each of these wars that followed has always been linked to one reason or the other. Some of the many reasons include territorial ambition of some overzealous leaders, struggle for independent, protest against oppressive governments, internalized national struggles for leadership, secessionist ambition of some groups of people around the world, superiority contests among nations to mention just a few.
The turning point in the globally acknowledged wars that threatened the existence of man on earth were the first and second world wars (1914 -1918) and (1939 -1945) respectively. Though they readily resonate in the minds of history enthusiasts, the only achievements if any that comes to mind is that they gave impetus to the French revolution (1789-1799) against Great Britain, leading to her (French) independent 1792 and the American war of independence (1775-1783), also resulting hers in 1776.
However, the many wars of today can be classified as wars without reasons. When Russia invaded Ukraine, the only reason that mind readers saw for it was the fact that the country allowed the United States of America to station her war implements in a certain location that threatened Russia’s military might even when America was noiseless about her actions. In the case of the present face-off between Israel and Iran, the former attacked the Arab nation merely because she perceived that Iran was nursing the ambition of launching nuclear weapons, not that that has been proved to threaten the country commonly referred to as America’s 51st state.
In the words of Alexander Hamilton, an American military officer, statesman, one of the founding fathers of USA and the country’s secretary of treasury during the administration of President George Washington between 1789 and 1795; “There can be no profit in the making or selling of things to be destroyed in war. Men may think that they have such profit, but in the end the profit will turn out to be a loss”.
Meanwhile, reports from international military note takers show that the US military invasion of countries like Libya, Sudan and others has left them in the states of hard-to-recover ruin.
Aside from the display of ‘show of force’ as used in military and police parlance, how can America justify her involvement in all these war that have prompted her to change the department of Defense to department war – an action that portrays her as a nation that is given to attacking others at the slightest opportunity, thereby destroying hard-earned facilities and lives around the world.
The wars between Nigerians and terrorists, insurgents, bandits and the unending one against corruption, religious intolerance and electoral malpractices, no doubt have escalated to the point of attracting the attention of the US. It therefore behooves the president of the country and his party, the APC to step up the game of defeating the bandits and terrorists without further delays if the country does not want her sovereignty to be tampered with by other nations.
The world is tending towards self-destruction. And only deliberate and agreed actions by the powers that be can reverse the awaiting doom.
