By Hassan Gimba
“You have to be very careful introducing the truth to the Black man, who has never previously heard the truth about himself.” – Brother Malcolm X
Whenever America wants to invade, it invades. They concoct reasons from the air that make them look like angels out to save humanity. However, by the end of their invasions, after wreaking havoc on stable nations, the world always realises their deceit.
On December 20, 1989, in an operation code-named “Operation Just Cause”, the US invaded Panama to overthrow the country’s leader, Manuel Noriega, because, according to them, he had become “a brutal dictator and a liability for the US government.”
They also accused him of involvement in illicit drug trafficking activities. Do you read Venezuela here? But America’s primary interest was securing the Panama Canal, a strategic asset for global trade.
Despite the international community broadly condemning the action, with the UN General Assembly passing a resolution deploring the invasion, Noriega, a leader of a sovereign nation, was transported to the US and jailed.
Mu’ammar Gaddafi was not that lucky; in his own case, he was brutally – and disgracefully – murdered. The US, in collaboration with NATO, said Gaddafi wanted to “massacre” civilians in Benghazi and quoted one “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) norm, which makes states forfeit their right to sovereignty “when they abuse their people.”
Their reasons, craftily couched around humanitarian action and international mandate, were hinged on a UN Security Council Resolution 1973, which authorised member states to take “all necessary measures” to protect Libyan civilians, including establishing “no-fly zones”, which was effectively used to cripple Gaddafi’s ability to protect Libya from insurgents.
But – as you may be aware – the US and NATO have never implemented any UN Security Council UNSC resolution against Israel. And there are dozens of such resolutions against Israel, with many of them containing strong criticisms or condemnations.
Since 1948, the UN Security Council has adopted over 79 resolutions, with the US vetoing at least 53 since 1972. No wonder the UN shares the most unenviable and hypocritical record of the most democracy-promoting global body and the most undemocratic as well.
Well, they went in to ‘save’ the people of Libya, or so they said, from Gaddafi. Now there is no Gaddafi, and 145 tonnes of gold worth 7 billion dollars, which has been stolen by the invading forces and taken to their countries. But then, there is also no Libya. And fourteen years later, the people are looking for someone to save them from the calamity the US has brought upon them. They want their country to return to the Gaddafi era, when it was the most prosperous nation in Africa. When there were homeless people in America, with hundreds of thousands queuing up for free soup, everyone in Libya had a house, a salary, and food in abundance.
Saddam Hussein was another victim. He, too, was hunted down like game and killed in 2003. George W. Bush claimed Saddam Hussein’s regime possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) – nuclear, chemical, and biological – and that he posed an immediate “clear and present danger” to the region and the US.
Bush even alleged that Iraq was buying yellowcake uranium from the Niger Republic to make a nuclear bomb. But all these were later found to be untrue, as Iraq’s WMD programmes had been destroyed after the 1991 Gulf War. To pile up more excuses, they accused him of a relationship with Al-Qaeda. They also said they wanted a regime change to promote democracy so that “Iraq could serve as a model for the rest of the Middle East”.
The attack on Iraq started way back, though. There were attacks and sanctions on the country by the US in 1996 that caused massive deaths. When CBS’s Leslie Stahl asked the then Jewish Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, “Half a million children have died, and that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?” She bluntly said, “Yes, we think the price is worth it.”
Well, Saddam is long gone, and so are Iraq’s 96 metric tonnes of gold coins and bullion, including historical jewellery and sovereign coins, as a result of that incursion of the marauding forces led by the USA. And the beleaguered nation is yet to see stability.
If anything, the aforementioned should tell us that America can conjure up any excuse to attack any country it wants to, and Nigeria is no exception. By the time everyone realises the attack was not based on any truth or good intentions, the damage has been done.
Nigerians are right to feel worried by a loose-cannon-type regime in the US that will shoot first and rationalise later. That is, unless our case falls into the TACO arena – Trump Always Chickens Out. But will he? Especially as Nigeria and South Africa, two African pillars, seem to be on his radar?
But the question is, why are some Nigerians supporting Trump’s threat, a move that could dismember the country? I understand some are parroting the lies of the Christian genocide for the greenbacks. In contrast, others see it as an opportunity to have their own “nation”. But Nigeria cannot survive any anarchy resulting from war, nor anything that could dismember it.
Our only way out is to unite as a people. In my article, “Why should Nigeria not break up?”, I made it clear that even if Nigeria were to balkanise, now is the wrong time, for all our sakes. I have written many times that the best time would have been 1966, and, perhaps by now, we would all have been independent nationalities, each with its peculiar problems and prospects. But now, maybe none of the six geopolitical zones, save for the South West, can survive outside of Nigeria. Bandits, insurgents, militants and all manner of non-state actors would overwhelm us.
The North East will be an easy pick for Boko Haram, and the North West an easy meal for bandits. For the North Central, they will be a good ‘brunch’ for the kidnappers and killer-herdsmen militia. We all know militants will hold sway over the South East and South South. The security forces will, in the event of a national breakdown, all be concerned with protecting themselves and their families, for there will be no country to live in or a nation to die for.
Under the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo, the South West has consolidated itself as a democracy and economic powerhouse. Please compare Lagos and the North’s economic hub, Kano, in just one area – transportation. Can you see the modern intra-city train services in Lagos and how Keke NAPEP (commercial tricycles) has become the symbol of Kano? Can you see the industries in the South West employing tens of thousands, while in Kaduna, billions were collected as a loan to build roads that cannot bring revenue in any way, while moribund industries were overlooked?
What made the North so pathetic was its lack of a genuine leader to provide and drive the necessary vision and focus. Do you know that most of the Fulani terrorising Nigeria now could have long been engineers, medical doctors, professors, big dairy and meat factory owners, etc? The regime of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida started what it christened nomadic education. It was meant to change the way the Fulani live. But because most of our leaders were, and are, short-sighted and prioritise lining their pockets, they never took that programme seriously.
The much-maligned President Jonathan revived the programme and pumped billions into it. Still, it was treated with the same neglect by a political elite that was intent on keeping a captive, illiterate youth they could weaponise at elections to maintain themselves in power. Now, with all the money they have sliced for themselves, those who should have been empowered with skills and knowledge yesterday will not allow them – and the rest of us – to sleep with both eyes closed today.
The way out is numerous, but all are workable. To begin with….
To be continued.
Gimba is an Abuja-based journalist, publisher
