NIGERIA ON THE CENTRE STAGE AS A USEFUL DEFLECTION: THREATS OF INVASION AND THE NARRATIVE OF A CHRISTIAN GENOCIDE

[Orobola Ayobami Olofinko]

NIGERIA ON THE CENTRE STAGE AS A USEFUL DEFLECTION: THREATS OF INVASION AND THE NARRATIVE OF A CHRISTIAN GENOCIDE

By Orobola Ayobami Olofinko

Oga Police of the World,

We have heard and our ears are full of your chest-beating threats to invade Nigeria and rescue its Christian populace from the jaws of death. What a loving busybody you are! But have you not read the part of your Bible that says you should first remove the beam from your eyes before considering taking out the mote in your brother's eyes? As a Christian who you professed to be and one who cares for the welfare of Christians all over the world so much that you are willing to invade a sovereign territory to protect your religious kindred, I believe you ought to know, except if you are not a good Christian or one who reads his Bible. Because right there under your nose, hate and division are tearing your country apart. If it's not gun violence today, it is Police brutality or deadly attacks tomorrow. Yet, we see how well you handle these horrific situations by instructing your decorated senior military men to turn your cities into tested battlegrounds. So, how can one who is crippled help another cripple to stand? Someone who will bless one with clothing must first be thoroughly examined of the garb he puts on, goes the wise Yorùbá saying.

We know you as the master invader of foreign territories, you and your ilk. You never stop sniffing around for spoils for your own benefit, all the while leaving a flood of blood and a cacophony of unrest on your trail. We are most aware of the history of your campaigns around the world, how you have relentlessly pursued the gospel of demo-crazy and peace with a litter of human corpses, which you insouciantly consider as the necessary sacrifices for the actualisation of your aggrandisement. Your footprints smear the world like rancid butter on a loaf of sliced bread, causing dysentery rather than relish. Your devoted work of genocide-enabling in Gaza and the consequent sham peace plan are the latest proof of your greatness in destruction and oppression that blaze like the mid-day sun on a blistering day. We also know of your big, beautiful plans for Venezuela — to attack the military units that protect the President, eventually topple the government and move to seize control of the country’s oil fields, all under the guise of a war on drug trade. But, why isn't that surprising? Isn't that what you know best how to do, and the latter your most inspired motivation for the well-being of the Venezuelan people? You love and care for them so much that you want to take control of their country's mineral resources, just so you and your allies can continue to grow fat while Venezuela goes up in flames. How predictable you are! Spinning false tales to advance your greedy agendas has been your most commonly employed gambit. Well, isn't it the goal of every rapacious autocrat to control, to dominate, and to take for themselves what belongs to others? How can you be any different, now?

It is then not a coincidence that Nigeria's Northern region, sizzling with mineral resources, the sweetest of all, Uranium, one of the world's most useful mineral resources, is where you have your covetous eyes set on. The same region, steeped in an unending instability, where local witnesses have reported sighting planes with foreign nationals coming to drop relief materials for stone-hearted terrorists whilst displaced victims wallow in sorrow, tears and blood. But, you no longer want your sinister acts done in stealth or under the cover of night; it will be in full glare of day under the pretence of mediation and protection. You activate the Libya playbook whilst our Uranium finds its way across your borders. Uranium of the same people you snobbishly deride and keep out of your borders, not even our most revered and internationally celebrated Nobel Laureate was spared from your shove. Our mineral resources are exempt; they get free entry without needing a visa. After all, you must keep the wheel of your crumbling empire running, and to do that, you need to steal the resources of other nations.

Therefore, Oga Police, spare us the whining about genocide against a select group in Nigeria. It's all a part of your game plan to use our devastating situation at this time, which we are not proud of and which didn't begin yesterday, as a deflection from your evil atrocities elsewhere and to paint yourself the rescuer with goodwill which you are not. We have irresponsible, shameless and un-leaderlike leaders we languish under their yoke, but that doesn't grant you the right to add insult to our injury by abusing our collective sensibility as a people. You, who pride yourself on putting your country first and not being a babysitter to any country, have all of a sudden found love for ours—but it has to be a country rich in resources that you can loot. Your use of selective narrative and bullshit, affront-laden, out-of-the-blue solicitude doesn't pull the wool over all of our eyes. Some of us are not simple-minded and can read between the lines. We know what you have up your sleeves and we see you for what you have always been: A bloody, monstrous, bullying hypocrite who doesn't do anything that doesn't serve its interest, not even a true genocide.