The Reality of Religious Warfare and Ethnic Cleansing and Colonization in Nigeria by Islamic Terrorists and Fulani Imperialists and the Way Out through National Restructuring by McTuval Nwoko

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

The Reality of Religious Warfare and Ethnic Cleansing  and Colonization in Nigeria by Islamic  Terrorists and Fulani Imperialists and the Way Out through National Restructuring 

               McTuval Nwoko

We are Nigerians. We know what is happening in this country. Boko Haram and its offshoots are not fighting for economic grievances. They are prosecuting ideological and religious wars. Their primary targets are Christian communities and Muslims who do not accept their extremist interpretation of Islam. 

The Fulani herdsmen crisis is not about grazing routes either. When entire communities are wiped out, you are no longer talking about pasture, you are talking about conquest, occupation, and religious or ethnic cleansing. 

Yes, many Muslims have also suffered in this violence, but the pattern is clear, Christian communities are disproportionately targeted.

The tragedy is deepened by the fact that we now have vast ungoverned spaces where terrorists and bandits operate freely while the state is absent, indifferent, or compromised.

 In some states, governments negotiate with terrorists and pay them to suspend attacks, while allowing them maintain their weapons. 

Meanwhile, ordinary communities who are being slaughtered are not permitted to own weapons to defend themselves. That contradiction alone tells its own story.

There was the case of the farmer who was attacked on his farm, overpowered the terrorist and killed him in self-defense, yet he received a death sentence. 

Yet mobs have lynched Christians in the North for alleged blasphemy, and no single person in those mobs was ever arrested or prosecuted. 

We also have leaders of Fulani herdsmen issuing demands and conditions to the Nigerian state before they will stop killing. 

This is supposedly a sovereign nation. Something is fundamentally broken.

I am glad America and the international community are observing and speaking about this. 

But the solution is not an American invasion of Nigeria. An American invasion will not bring the relief people are desperate for. 

It will only create new layers of chaos, radicalization, occupation, and fragmentation. Just look at Iraq and Libya. These places have regressed by centuries and may never recover unless a homegrown force eventually defeats all others and rebuilds the nation from within.

Nigeria’s problem is structural. Until we fix the political and security architecture that leaves whole populations defenseless while terrorists roam with sophisticated weapons, peace will not return.

This is why I have proposed a six to eight regional system under a confederation. Each region should have a Regional Guard similar to the U.S. state guards, with army, naval, and air components.

 Each local government should have its own local police force for community level issues, and each region should have a regional police force to handle inter LGA crises. That kind of layered security architecture is how plural federations survive.

Nigeria needs structural redesign, not foreign invasion. Only a Nigerian, decentralized, regionally empowered security structure can break this cycle of violence. 

From Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BYRsmF3jR/

Title by myself 

 

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Back in the day : 

“There is nothing in our book, the Qur'an, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone lays a hand on you, send him to the cemetery. That's a good religion. In fact, that’s that old-time religion. That’s the one that Ma and Pa used to talk about. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, and a head for a head, and a life for a life: That’s a good religion. And no none resents that kind of religion being taught but a wolf, who intends to make you his meal” ( An excerpt from Malcolm X : Message to the Grassroots) 

Another good religion : Praying at all times for the sake of all beings

https://www.facebook.com/groups/528286876391833/permalink/832858325934685/

Incontrovertible : Any kind of genocide is reprehensible.

If only Edward Kissi could weigh in here. 

It should be interesting to hear how he would weigh in on the thorny issue that many  seem to be mini experts on : Christianity and the Rwandan Genocide

After Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju cautioned that “selective interpretations on USAAfrica Dialogues do not necessarily represent the facts of Nigerian history nor the trend of Nigerian public opinion”,  and, history still being made, recommended “Google searches on those subjects as well as a  robust use of Facebook and Twitter to get a clearer idea”, I’m grateful to be reading yet another specimen, obviously, singularly slanted piece scavenged from the social media and posted by him, this one, making no bones about being privy to certain kinds of information that's general knowledge and may not be readily available elsewhere. As to the sumtotal of all that's said in that article, I’m sure that I'm not the only one who has heard it all before. 

“ We are Nigerians. We know what is happening in this country.” 

Of course you are Nigerians, and of course you know what’s happening in your beloved country  even if you’re only sitting over there in relative safety in Philadelphia. ( Israelis usually say ditto about their home-land in any discussions with Diaspora besserwisser who feel that they are fully informed and updated through Aruzt Sheva and Daily Alert , the Israelis say you have to be in Israel to feel and know the real temperature. ) 

McTuval Nwoko, the writer of the article I’m responding to, could have said,  “We are Nigerians. We know what is happening in our country”, assuming, of course, that the country still belongs to Nigerians and has not yet been completely overrun by criminals, Boko Haram, armed pro-Biafra secessionists and insurgents, ransom kidnap bandits, al- Qaeda & Islamic State  affiliates, assorted gangsters, looters, 419 fraudsters, and, on the horizon, waiting for final invasion orders from Commander-in-Chief Trump , in tune with age-old US policy : Send the Marines !

He who feels it knows. He who feels the beauty of democracy also knows that the USA has the president that they deserve , New York just elected the mayor that they need, and Nigerians, likewise, have the Government of National Competence they deserve. Who can deny any of this?

No hidden agendas: The piece starts confidently, with the assumption “ We Nigerians" ( the lumpen mass) are in the know,  an implied contrast with Americans ( likeTrump and Nicki Minaj ) and other non-Nigerian actors including some of the non-resident MI6 (the Michael Crowders & Jeff Holdens) and the many CIA operatives who may be too far away from the theatre of action to catch the temperature, feel the heat and know what the hell is really going on apart from merely reading about it wherever they may be, currently, on the planet 

Well, in addressing this issue which we have all been following from some distance, I’d like to begin by asking the key question :What is terrorism ?  

If attacking civilian targets in order to win political aims is part of the big picture ,then how are Trump's invasion forces going to fare? I ask because the terrorists cannot be readily identified - they do not wear uniforms, they have no fixed garrisons, barracks, or military headquarters. One does not have to be a Nigerian to be concerned  and to wonder, is it going to be like the IDF versus Hamas -with lots of innocent civilian casualties? 

And one has the right to be gravely concerned after listening to this social media protest and others like it :  “Trump is a racist, he doesn’t care about Nigerian Christians”

The piece’s first major assertion is that “Nigeria Christian communities are disproportionately targeted.” Hoping to find a more nuanced assessment, I Googled: Nigeria :  Christian communities are disproportionately targeted.

You are also free to Google and be astounded:  

Nigeria : 200 Churches Lost, 6000 Mosques Destroyed In The North

2025 : Statistics : How many Muslims have been killed in Nigeria ?

2025 : Statistics : How many Nigerians have been killed in Nigeria ?

My hunch is that Zohran Mamdani’s victory in Trump’s hometown New York has only exacerbated Trump’s antipathy to Islam, what’s well known as Trump's antipathy towards Islam 

Concerning the thunder and hullabaloo about the alleged ongoing “Christian Genocide in Nigeria “ it goes without saying that Trump appears less concerned with saving the non-Christian victims of any other alleged on-going genocides elsewhere, and this can be partly explained by the fact that the Nigerian Christian flocks, particularly the Pentecostal and Evangelical brands are closely associated with Trump’s American right-wing Christian fundamentalists and extremists who see themselves as a very important military wing of Jesus of Nazareth’s salvation army and would like to hasten his return, never mind this kind of claptrap and irreverent speculation 

It’s a relief that the article's author is absolutely on the right side of history when he cautions that  “the solution is not an American invasion of Nigeria. An American invasion will not bring the relief people are desperate for. “ etc  

Furthermore ( and we all saw what happened  with the American invasion of Somalia) even a limited invasion of Nigeria would result in some American gi-s ( soldiers) having to be flown back in body bags and nobody in the home republic wants to see that ?  

 His proposed solution “ a six to eight regional system under a confederation” etc  could be discussed ( peacefully)