By SKC Ogbonnia
October 1, 2021
It was not surprising that the Nigerian Diaspora community would gather
in New York City at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly to
protest the reign of terror under President Muhammadu Buhari. What is
deeply surprising is that the agents of the Nigerian government from the
homeland would attempt to counter the truth by storming the same venue
to launder millions of dollars on foreign imposters who were recruited
to create the false impression that all is well with the African
country. This shameless approach by the emissaries of Nigerian
government only goes to show that President Muhammadu Buhari is an
irredeemable zombie.
Agreed, sense is no more common these days, but recent events ought to
have been able to alert the president that his government no longer has
credibility at the international scene. Even a dumbo could have reasoned
that the backhand banning of Buhari by Twitter has a ring to it. One
must also not be a genius to discern the timing of the recent outright
refusal by the U.S. government to sell arms to Nigeria. Follow these
facts with the freefall of naira against major world currencies. Even a
buffoon could recognize there and then that Buhari’s ongoing war
against the Nigerian people is not being decided at the Aso Rock.
The gist, if it is not already palpable, is that while the Buhari
Bribery train is designed to massage his montage of propaganda in
Nigeria, it would always crash abroad. The days are gone when the
Nigerian government can preach justice abroad, while promoting injustice
at home. The days are gone when a clique could assume power in Nigeria,
dictate as it pleases, and assume the world would follow. The days are
far gone when the world relied solely on the official mouthpiece of the
Nigerian government or the false testimonies of its corrupt agents.
While fronting Nigeria’s foreign delegations with deep cocktail of
Igbo and Yoruba colors can be superficially strategic, these government
toadies can only talk and go back home.
The inconvenient truth is that Nigeria now boasts of millions of
independent and trustworthy Nigerians in the Diaspora who function as a
Shadow Government. The members are strategically entrenched in all the
nooks and crannies of the world, and who are bound to tell it as it is.
The members are formidable and have earned the trust of foreign
governments. They are profoundly influential at every seat of world
power and every seat of state and city governments. Ironically, most of
them are the direct victims of the injustice in the homeland. They
belong to the community of highly qualified Nigerian citizens who are
deemed unworthy at home but have found grace in the foreign land. They
have become the Nigerian Biblical Josephs.
Today, these Nigerian Josephs have come to dictate the content and
character of the nation’s foreign exchange, foreign trade, foreign
investment, the media, as well as other socio-economic relationships.
Common sense dictates that the same Josephs are the leading block
contributors to the yearly amount of foreign money remitted to Nigeria,
which is interestingly more than the national budget. Common sense
dictates that as they go, so goes the national image and much more.
Nothing highlights the impact of these Nigerian Josephs more than their
role in the current wave of Nigerian secessionist movements on the
international scene. Recall that rather than exploring dialogue, as
Buhari has always advocated in the case of similar situation in
Palestine, his regime chooses brute force on the Biafran and Yoruba
Nation activists. The regime even goes further to launder millions of
dollars worldwide in a futile attempt to brand the Biafran activists as
terrorists. But the Nigerian Josephs know better. And the world knows to
follow.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the Nigerian group, besides Boko
Haram, that came to be recognised worldwide as terrorists are the
“foreign” Fulani herdsmen, the very group that President Buhari
curdles. What is more? There were more flags belonging to the Yoruba
Nation agitators and the Biafran “terrorists” than the national
flags of Nigeria at the just concluded 76th session of the UN General
Assembly. Thus, if propaganda and draconian threats—like his 2021
independence speech—must remain the solution to the Nigerian
leadership crisis, someone ought to tell General Buhari that he is
fighting a losing battle.
The true solution is common sense. Nigeria must not remain a fool at
61! There are open wounds that must be addressed and dressed. As the
Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, stated at the earlier
stage of the secessionist crisis, “A lot of things were done in the
past by some people with impunity and nothing was done.” The Sultan
appealed that statesmen across Nigeria “should help the country by
championing the dialogue.” This goes without saying that Muhammadu
Buhari should lead by example. He needs to embody what he has always
preaches at the United Nations in case of the people of Palestine. This
“is the question of justice, fairness, and equity in respect of the”
Nigerian people. Anything else is being busy doing something close to
nothing.
Dr. SKC Ogbonnia, a 2019 APC Presidential Aspirant, writes from
Houston, Texas.