There is something we must all realise, no matter the punitive measures introduced by President Donald Trump and the United States government. Things cannot be worse than the situation that we have found ourselves these past ten years. Indeed, as one of my Warri brothers told me: “the colonisation has eaten far deep into us that we have totally lost our sense of reasoning.” The brainwashing is total.
Maybe this will help reset our mindset. In the long run, it will be good for all of us. We cannot continue to deep our heads in the sand like the ostrich and pretend that nothing is happening. We must accept the fact that we have challenges, and these challenges are not beyond the competencies of the various institutions set up to contain them. We must accept the fact that successive leaderships have failed in their commitments to the citizens, playing the religious and ethnic cards when they have totally reneged on their duties.
What does it take to contain the different insurgent groups in the country? Have we not heard of internal sabotages and deliberate manipulations in the manner we are prosecuting these wars? We saw hundreds buried in mass graves in Benue, Plateau and Kaduna states. What were the reactions of our top echelons? Empty promises.
What did Trump call us? “A now disgraced country.” We are all now running helter-skelter from the top to bottom, even to the extent of finding solutions to pacifying Trump, instead of looking inward to dig up solutions to solve our problems. Trump will now claim the credit and be using it as a basis for another Nobel Prize award.
Anytime we are faced with situations such as this, I remember the words of the late Maitama Sule, who was told that the West will never allow Nigeria to settle, it must be from one trouble to the other. If Nigeria is allowed peace, just for five years, the world will marvel at our transformation. Is it not happening? Sule’s words. Who is sponsoring these bandits, Boko Haram and other insurgents? Who is making unlimited amounts of ammunition available to them? Are our government and security agents not aware of these foreign components of our insecurity? What about the fight for mining sites and the accompanying killings? What about the introductions of extra judicial laws by overzealous faith leaders? Has government done anything about these? Why are we operating different standards to different citizens of this country?
Senator Adams Oshiomhole made this point in a Senate committee meeting. Did anyone take heed of his advice? Now we are all shedding crocodile tears, and we want the whole world to sympathise with us. It is a known fact that the day Nigeria liberates itself, the black man in the whole world will be liberated, not only in Africa. If this is the case, why are our leaders treating the matter of foreign intervention and sabotage with kid gloves? Why are they allowing different forms of itinerant preachers to infuse citizens with dangerous ideologies and do nothing? Why are we encouraging foreign aids of all sorts instead of concentrating on people’s empowerment through enterprise, improved education curricula, agriculture, and other resources waiting to be tapped. Why have we encouraged the culture of citizens deliberately destroying state infrastructure, such as railway line slippers, bolts and nuts, manhole covers, and the rest.
Again, the Warri-Itakpe train line has been suspended after a train derailing incident. It only resumed operations this week. Why will someone not call us a “disgraced country” with this mindset of ours? We can change this characterisation by boldly tackling this challenge. We do not need any foreign superpower to tell us what to do. Tinubu should call an emergency meeting of all state and local government leadership, including the security apparatus, and give them the marching orders. Those who invited foreigners into our forests should call them now that the game is up. They must vacate our lands. Suspend all foreign aid organisations; if not for them gathering information for the super powers, how would the American soldiers know where to bomb.
We must confront the enemies within, those being used by foreign interests to sabotage our land. We must have the mindset that the solutions are in our hands. It is time for the government to place religious interests where they truly belong. Anyone going beyond the boundaries should be decisively dealt with. Nigerians can be easily manipulated to instigate crises in their own country, and most of these come through religious aids. The intelligence services must be put to full alert. The service chiefs have just been replaced, let the change and seriousness begin with this new order. There should be no sacred cows. If the killings stop, we would need no foreign superpower to tell us how to run our country. Our governments have failed the people, and that is why the defenceless and forgotten people have cried to the international community for help, and Trump and his American evangelicals are obliging them. Let us restate here that it is not in the interest of the superpowers to have an independent and strong Nigerian state.
Already, conspiracy theories have started flying around about the US interests and interference in the affairs of a sovereign state like Nigeria, when worse things are happening elsewhere and they have kept mute. Some have said Dangote Refinery is the game changer, that many Western businesses are beginning to feel the impact of losing revenue from the Nigerian oil sector. In the short period that the Dangote Refinery has come into full production, the importation of petroleum refined products has drastically come down, leading to the stability of our currency and gradual appreciation of the naira. The various local and international gang up against the Dangote Refinery is to halt this trend.
Some have also said that it is because of Nigeria’s refusal to accept the deportation of foreign immigrants from the USA. Whatever it is, we must all unite to support the Dangote Refinery. Nothing must happen to its progress. Apart from a favourable government policy, we should give support through local intelligence and flushing out the saboteurs. On its part, the Dangote Refinery must not disappoint Nigerians who have decided to give their full support. There must be stable supplies at good and reasonable prices.
By SUNNY IKHIOYA
