Donald Trump An Unwelcome Thug - The Real American Agenda in Nigeria

ABUJA: The ghost of colonialism, it seems, refuses to die. It merely changes its clothes. This time, it has donned a red cap and speaks in a brash, unpolished American accent. The recent threat from U.S. President Donald Trump to invade Nigeria under the fraudulent pretext of protecting Christians is not just a lie; it is a grotesque pantomime, a tired rerun of a script the West has used for centuries to pillage our continent.

Let us be unequivocal: this threat is an insult to our intelligence and a profound disrespect to African sovereignty.

The premise is a sham. To claim a crusade against the persecution of Christians in Nigeria is to reveal a staggering ignorance, or more likely, a calculated disregard for the truth. Boko Haram is a monstrous plague that has slaughtered both Christians and Muslims with indiscriminate fury. In fact, the majority of its victims have been our Muslim brothers and sisters. Mosques, markets, and schools have been reduced to rubble, with faith being no shield from their terror. To frame this complex, homegrown insurgency as a simple religious war is a cynical ploy designed to manipulate a certain voter base in America and provide a moral veneer for a deeply immoral objective.

So, what is the real reason for this sabre-rattling? Look no further than the shifting political landscape of the Sahel.

Niger, alongside its neighbours like Burkina Faso and Mali, has been part of a courageous and long-overdue African awakening. We have seen nation after nation finally stand up to demand respect, kicking out the occupying troops of the United States and France. They have taken the sovereign decision to nationalise their God-given resources: their uranium, their gold, their oil, so that the wealth of their land might finally benefit their people, not foreign corporations.

This act of self-determination has sent shockwaves through Washington and Paris. The era of writing cheques and getting political obedience in return is over. The threat of invasion is not about saving souls; it is about reclaiming access. It is the desperate cry of a waning empire watching its stranglehold on our resources and our foreign policy slip away.

One must ask: who anointed the United States the policeman of the world? This is a nation that provides the bombs, the funding, and the diplomatic cover for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. It is a nation that imposes crippling sanctions on Venezuela for daring to chart its own course. It is a nation that has left a trail of destruction from Iraq to Libya, creating failed states in its wake. This is not a global guardian; it is a global menace. Is it any wonder that the Global South now looks with greater hope to partnerships with China and Russia, nations that, for all their own complexities, at least approach us as partners, not as prefects?

Africa is no longer the property of the West. We are not a backyard to be managed, a people to be patronised, or a treasure chest to be looted. We are a continent of sovereign nations, free and determined to make our own alliances to protect our national interests.

To the United States, we say this: Nigeria does not need your hypocritical help. We do not need your aid, which has too often been a tool for control and a pittance compared to the wealth extracted from our soil. We urge the Nigerian government to preemptively cut it off. Pack your bags, recall your troops, and leave our continent.

Africa has survived slavery, colonialism, and neocolonialism. Africa will survive the bluster of a fading super power and a desperate politician. The future of Africa will be written by Africans, for Africans. You are no longer welcome to hold the pen.