Tag: Gowon

The role of the United States of America (US) in the war against Boko Haram insurgency came under serious scrutiny last week. At least, two well respected Nigerians came out publicly to deprecate the attitude of that country to the raging insurgency that has left thousands killed and maimed while property of inestimable value destroyed.

First to take on the US was Gen. Yakubu Gowon Rtd, a former head of state and one of the few of such leaders whose views are taken very seriously by many. Gowon had criticized the US for refusing to sell arms to Nigeria to fight the insurgents. For him, if the US was a truly diplomatic friend of Nigeria, it should do everything to keep its corporate existence by aiding it fight any aggression from any quarters.

He recalled the US did the same thing during the Nigerian civil war by refusing to sell fighter jets to the country even as they were shipping fighter jets and loads of ammunition to Zaire. “What sort of friends are they”, he queried.

Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka added weight to Gowon’s position when he called on the same government to stop giving baseless and flimsy excuses for its refusal to sell ammunition to Nigeria to prosecute the war. He asked the US to stop ridiculing and laughing at this country through its current posturing on the war against the insurgents.

Gowon and Soyinka’s intervention has raised the stakes on the inexplicable role of the US since the war on terrorism commenced in this country. Besides, it has elevated to the vortex of public opinion the inherent contradictions in some of the reasons that have before now, been adduced to justify the vague behavior of that country to Nigeria’s current predicament.

Hiding under the spurious allegation of human rights abuses by soldiers, the US had sought to justify its refusal and obstruction of Nigeria’s attempt to acquire Cobra helicopters and ammunition to successfully prosecute the escalating war.

Not unexpectedly, the schism within the political class on the motive and direction of the insurgency has allowed some of these curious excuses to fester. Those who want to take advantage of the war to further their political ambition have taken turns to hype the perceived excesses of the military on human rights. Curiously, a willing US government quickly bought into that idea and had since posed an obstacle to Nigeria’s attempt to acquire weapons to tame the monster. It is good a thing respected citizens are now coming to terms with the inherent contradictions in the US reasoning. Not long ago, the US ambassador to Nigeria James Entwistle amplified his country’s position on the issue when he said they would only sell or give out arms when they are sure of the purpose for which it would be used.

“Before we share equipment with any country, we look at a couple of things. Does it make sense in term of the country’s needs? The second thing we look at is the country’s human rights situation. As you all know, there have been instances, I’m not saying across the board of human rights abuses by the Nigerian military in the north-east” the ambassador said.

It can be deduced from the above that US does not see any need for Nigeria to acquire these weapons despite the admission of Entwistle in the same interview that Boko Haram has gone beyond being a small insurgent group with a couple of guns to a very effective collection of conventional force. Yet, the same government is of the view that Nigeria has no need for the ammunition it seeks to buy. Nothing can be more contradictory than this.

Soyinka captured this contradiction very succinctly when he argued that what the country asked for are little weapons to destroy the enemy; weapons for self defense since we have found ourselves in a situation of destroy the enemy or have ourselves destroyed. He could not fathom how such weapons of self defense can be denied in the face of a heartless and murderous marauding enemy.

There is much to indicate the US is not coming clean on this issue. Neither is their argument plausible. They recognize the war has assumed a dangerous dimension in the face of the sophistication of the insurgents in weaponry resulting in heavy casualties on the part of our soldiers. They are also not unaware of the murderous escapades of the insurgents: a litany of abductions, the sacking and burning down of communities and their celebrated scant regard for the sanctity of human life. Why the US chose to look the other way in the face of these human right abuses by the insurgents has remained largely cloudy. Not long ago, the world was rattled by the abduction of over 200 school girls in Chibok in very inexplicable circumstances. Since then, we have been inundated with varying chilling accounts of the mindless abuses the girls have been subjected to in captivity by the insurgents. In the same very suspicious manner, the concerns of the international community have been more on the inability of the government to rescue the girls. Not much attention is being paid to the criminals that have been holding and abusing the poor girls. Despite the offer of assistance by the international community including the US for the quick release of the girls, nothing has so far come out of that engagement. Such has been the insincerity and deceit that had surrounded the war against the sect that one begins to wonder if some people are not set to achieve set goals through it. It did not come as a surprise when Nigeria cancelled the scheduled training of its soldiers by the US on account of that country’s refusal to share their equipment for the exercise. What these series of events in respect of the US activities in this war underscore is that Nigerians are getting more suspicious of her real intentions in this fight against the insurgents. This suspicion is further amplified by earlier predictions from the same country that Nigeria is likely to self- destruct by 2015. As that year fast approaches, no body is sure events are not being activated from so many corners to bring about the doomsday. Though issues of human rights cannot be discounted, we find US position in the instant case tenuous because the insurgents have worst records of human rights abuses.

Even if we succeed freeing the Chibok girls without terminating the war, chances are that the insurgents will abduct more sets of girls given the very way the previous one was hyped. Events have since proved this right. So it is a huge contradiction to disallow Nigeria the acquisition of the needed armament to tame the insurgency and at the same time, expect the war will be over. It will rather escalate and degenerate. Our people stand the risk of being consumed. No leader worth his onions will stand by and watch that happen. The nation must do all within its powers to defend itself in the face of the onslaught of the Boko Haram insurgents? Why the US is applying double standards in its perception and treatment of the evils of religious extremism as propagated by the sect is best known to them?

It is puzzling that the same US that spent years and huge resources in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban; the same US that is currently fighting unsolicited wars in Syria and Iraq against ISIS is singing a different tune in the fight against Boko Haram. This ambivalence cannot be for nothing given that Boko Haram and ISIS are two sides of the same coin.