Since the United States of America’s President Donald Trump tweeted about what some people describe as false claims on the killings of Christians in Nigeria, several social media platforms have become a battlefield of a sort, with discordant voices turning national discourse into a landmine of emotional explosion. The poor knowledge demonstrated by some ill-informed social media analysts, with the politicisation of the issue, has obfuscated genuine attempts at putting the matter on the right perspective.
Those who want to deny President Bola Ahmed Tinubu a comeback bid in 2027 would rather promote the outrage ahead of the 2027 polls in an effort to portray the government as incompetent and non-performing. In the face of a diminished opposition that has accused the government of carrying out subtle measures to weaken the opposition, it seems that the hope of the opposition wrestling power from the Tinubu government is now as bleak as seeking for a lake in a desert.
Senseless Noise
The current outrage over Trump’s tweet has been seized by social media demagogues from both sides of the dispute. When people try to shoot down arguments on specific targets in these attacks, they miss the point, as the activities of Boko Haram and other allied groups have declared that their mission is to create an Islamic State based on the teachings of Islam. So, when they hear fellow Muslims who are opposed to their bloodbath, they are convinced of the worthiness of their cause in eliminating those who oppose the exercise of a divine mandate.
The energy deployed in denying genocide or no genocide is unreasonable. How many people would have to be killed before we can qualify these killings as genocide? Before the advent of the Tinubu-led government, Nigeria had been turned into a global cynosure of mass killings, especially in the North. These killings that had gradually upgraded the country into a killing field led some clerics, in company with governors, to work against President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. The eight years of the Muhammadu Buhari-led presidency turned out to be a colossal disaster in combating these terror elements.
Under President Tinubu, Nigeria is carrying out renewed efforts to curb insurgency and bloodbaths in some areas where these terror groups once turned them into ungoverned spaces. In the face of hues and cries that are trailing Trump’s tweet, the minister of information and national orientation, Hon Mohammed Idris, this week told the world that the government was doing everything to completely rout out insecurity, including assuring citizens that the administration was leaving no stone unturned to turn the tide against insecurity in areas where they still operate.
To state that the government had not done anything amounts to turning truth on its head. Recent figures released by the Global Terror Watch group said that in last two years of the decade, Nigeria experienced less terror attacks. Unveiling the milestone achieved by the current government in wrecking the capacity of terror groups to unleash destruction, the minister said: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is more than determined to confront and end these security challenges. Since May 2023, when he assumed office, Nigeria’s security agencies have neutralized more than 13,500 terrorists through sustained operations and arrested over 17,000 suspects, who are now undergoing interrogation or prosecution for various offences. Also, more than 9,800 victims abducted by terrorist elements, including women and children, have been rescued and reintegrated”.
The last two years have seen the current administration doing more than the previous government to rein in the activities of criminal elements, but these measures have turned out inadequate as the roots to address the menace of insecurity. The volatility of the security situation in Nigeria is compounded by what is happening in the Sahel region that has seen non-state actors acquiring weapons to unleash destruction on communities.
Still On Semantics
Beyond being enmeshed in justifying or denying the existence or absence of genocide, what is most relevant is collaborating with partners, both local and foreign, to rid the nation of attacks. The tweet by the US president offers an opportunity for Nigerians to seek means of building synergy with others to tackle insecurity. Against this backdrop of the need to build partnership in fighting insecurity that has become a global phenomenon, the Nigerian government should walk its talk in reaching out to the US to take out terror elements threatening our nation.
We have in the, past weeks seen many Christian clerics coming out with various positions. Those who deny the existence of genocide are carpeted and labelled pro-government. Others who accept and wear the genocide badge are hailed as Men and Women of God who are defenders of the Christian faith. We should not be moved by what is happening on the outside. What should make Nigerians worry is what the government is doing behind the scenes to ensure the safety of all. We cannot allow the narrative that because Muslims are killed; it puts false claims to the facts that Christians are being killed. If both adherents of the two religions collaborate to expose these killers, we won’t need Trump to draw the world’s attention to killings in our lands.
What is happening now offers fresh hope for both government and citizens to be united across ethnic and religious divides to take the battle to the terrorists’ camps. We must see the current battle against terror groups as a collective exercise that must be carried out without any form of let or hindrance. The Trump tweet has opened up Nigeria for the world to see the level of killings. It’s time for the government to take advantage of the moment and seek a partnership with the US to end the killings.
