By M.O. Ene

“When America sneezes, the world catches a cold.” The Trump tariff tussle is an authentication of the cliché. We must now add, “When Trump tweets, Nigerian politicians panic.” Ordinary Nigerians are undaunted. Many want Trump to send the Marines soonest and see a street carnival-like reception! Nothing could be worse than the status quo, or so they think.

We are inundated with stories of kidnappings and killings in Nigeria as if Trump’s tweet just woke up the green giant. The world watched as Igbo Pogrom unfolded; 50,000 killed between May 29 and September 29, 1966. Many countries now grasp that silence in the face of genocides is complicity. 

The Eastern Region licked the wounds and settled for a peaceful resolution. The 1967 Aburi Accord sufficed. General Yakubu Gowon, a Christian of Middle Belt extraction, conceived and waged a 30-month war to “go on with one Nigeria.” An unholy Anglo-Soviet alliance supported him. An estimated three million lives were wasted. 

The genocides under Gowon make him one of the top ten mass murderers in human history. He has not been held accountable for waging a wasteful war, using hunger as a weapon of war, cold killing of civilians, bombing refugee camps and churches, etc. 

Sixty years later, Middle Belt is subjected to similar killings that Gowon oversaw. A Christian cleric, Gowon has never condemned the erasure of Christian communities in his region. His silence is not statesmanship. He made a mess. There is no neutrality in genocides: He is complicit. 

“One Nigeria” is great, but it is not working. 'Ala dị mma, ọ bata ọnyeọbụla ọfụma': When the land is level, it accommodates everyone comfortably. The land is not level, and the leadership is lame. That is the meat of the matter. 

The Nigeria-Biafra War Memorial Lecture series was instituted to understand what really happened. Many submissions still make little sense. Gowon, the genocide general, attributed the abortion of Aburi Accord to an attack of malaria! Some say it was crude oil. Add yours and take the best lie.

Nigeria’s problem is physical and spiritual, ethical and intellectual. History repeats because we fail to learn the lessons. Killings have been normalized. Atrocities are swept under the carpet of climate change, constant crises, coups, and countercoups. Now, it is America! 

Nigeria must be restructured. A true federation of cohesive components will reduce ethnic enmity and religious rivalry. We must face the truth: This polity is porous.

@OkaaMoe

Friday, November 7, 2025