On the air strikes in Sokoto

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By TUNDE ASAJU

The ‘strike’ has happened. Nothing we say or do can change that.

Our ruiners were caught napping. Bayo Onanuga’s statement admitted that much. Mr. Tuggar’s adumberations confirmed that.

The strike happened in Sakwato, not Sambisa from where the pre-Christmas eve mosque explosion appeared to have been coordinated. Not in the jungles of Benue or Plateau which is predominantly ‘Christian’ and has suffered tremendously from targeted attacks. It didn’t hit Niger whose area is shared between legitimate government and terrorists. Not in Kogi/Kwara axis from where the insurgency is gradually seeping towards the ‘secured’ West.

In my view, things get curiouser and curiouser. The America I know is not a ‘Christian’ state although Trump’s divisive politics and Kirk’s ‘murder’ may be portraying otherwise. That’s neither here nor there.

So, let’s go down memory lane. Nigeria virtually begged for the ammunition it needed to fight this insurgents from America and hit a brick wall. A substantial part of that pleading happened under Trump’s first calling. Most will remember the words he used to describe Mr Buhari after the latter visited and signed off multi-million dollar arms deal that took ages to materialize.

Suddenly, Trump, a non-practicing ‘Christian’ talks about ‘our dear Nigerian Christians’ even after exposing his disdain for people of colour at home and abroad. What changed?

Then, to help the ‘persecuted Christians’ in Nigeria, Trump imposed a blanket visa ban on Nigerians including those who are currently inches towards their American citizenship who must now face ICE raids, uncertainty and deportation. No Entry to Nigerians, including the ‘persecuted Christians’. They are sentenced to stay home and die from the strikes of their persecutors – what a way to show Christ-like love to these ‘dear Nigerian Christians’.

Even more curious is the ‘intervention’ of genocidal Binyamin Netanyahu a man whose hatred for anything non-Israeli is as widely known and widely condemned as King Leopold’s persecution of Congolese and the harrowing deeds of Adolf Hitler. Apartheid Israel suddenly loves Nigerian Christians more than the Holy See loves Catholicism. Make it make sense, please.

I know that the captive ‘Christian’ audience in Nigeria have been hoodwinked into believing that Israel is a Christian nation, a sort of promised land for them whereas the reality on ground is that the average Netanyahu-loving Israeli spits on Christians in Israeli streets, physically assaults the ‘pilgrims’ to their so-called holy land oozing with the blood of Palestinians.

So, Netanyahu suddenly remembers his ‘dear, persecuted Nigerian Christians’ and vows to do something to help them stay more secure – bomb Sòkòtò, the seat of the Caliphate.

Netanyahu has not stopped bombing in Palestine in spite of a so-called American ceasefire. During this year’s Christmas, Istaeli security forces were recorded attacking Christians openly worshipping in Israel.

With these precedents and the fact that America has always wanted to establish a military base in Nigeria, a move that has hit the rocks from the times of Olusegun Obasanjo, it now so love Nigerian Christians? Who does not know that when a cat performs ablution, it is aiming at attacking a rat!

When Trump falsely accused South Africa of targeted pogrom against white South Africans, he paved the way for hordes of them to move to America and join the Ku Klux Klan, why isn’t this same logic applied to the beloved Nigerian Christians?

Honestly, anyone with a head and anything better than coconut water in it would smell a he-goat? Is either Trump or Netanyahu truly concerned about ‘persecuted Christians’ or is the black gold, the real gold or the other solid minerals behind this new love of Nigerian Christians?

There are minority Christians in the Sudan, yet, America has shown zero interest in their plight. The Congo basin is predominantly Christian in turmoil, yet America does not make ending the war there a priority. Even in our West African corridor, there are minority Christians in areas being controlled by ISIS/ISIL terrorists from Ouaga to Maradi and beyond but Trump has zero love for those ones.

As a Nigerian, I will never stand for any nation, no matter how powerful to use divisive rhetoric to attempt to burn down my country. This is why, even in my mourning period, I have chosen to come out and say – no, to 21st Century American imperialism. America has no love for black people at home, and can never love Christians in Nigeria or anywhere else than it loves its black Christians at home.

When things are as transparently confusing as they are, there are questions that I ask – where was the Nigerian military that stopped the war in Liberia and Sierra Leone? Where is the dynamism of the military that recently put down a coup in Benin Republic?

Why is that military force suddenly impotent in dealing with the bloody insurgency from rag-tag army of marauders within its own borders that it needed American military might to unleash havoc on poor onion farmers in Sokoto with its government support? Tinubu is enjoying Christmas in Lagos even as most parts of the country he rules burn.

If he gave the command where needed, Nigeria can deal with its own daemons without sewing the seeds of religious discord among his citizens. If Nigeria has leaders, it can solve its own problems – my rambling thoughts.