Buhari; Obama
The
United States government helped Boko Haram immensely by refusing to
classify them as a terrorist organisation until 2014 and by refusing to
sell us arms to fight them. Worst still, they imposed an international
arms embargo on us so that we could not buy arms from anyone else in the
international community. When asked why they are doing this to us they
tell us that it is because of the Leahy Act which prohibits them from
selling arms to governments that violate the human rights of their own
citizens.
They forget that we are in the middle of a
bitter war and that our enemies are being sponsored and supported by
both ISIL and Al Qaeda. They forget that over 50,000 innocent Nigerians
have been slaughtered in cold blood and thousands more raped and
abducted during the course of that war over the last five years. They
disregard the fact that every day Nigerians are bleeding more and more
and that our gallant Armed Forces, through no fault of their own, have
not been able to get the necessary weapons to fight back effectively.
Some
things are above partisan politics and this is one of them. Regardless
of whichever political party we belong to we must all join forces and
support the fight against Boko Haram. We must do this regardless of
party affiliation because if we don’t, Boko Haram will consume us all,
whether we are of the Peoples Democratic Party, the All Progressives
Congress or anything else.
We love and admire the Americans and we
regard their country as a bastion of good governance, justice, equity
and decency. We also recognise the fact that they have brought an
immense amount of good into the world over the last 100 years and that
they continue to do so.
However in this matter of arms supply to
our country it appears to me that a double standard is being applied. It
is almost as if they want Nigeria to be brought to her knees and that
they want us to be humiliated and destroyed. All the territory that was
recovered from Boko Haram by the Goodluck Jonathan administration is now
being threatened again or has been retaken by Boko Haram in the last
few weeks.
This comes as a direct consequence of the
fact that the Americans have refused to sell us arms and the new allies
and friends that the Jonathan administration reached out to in their
stead just a few months before leaving power together with the military
assistance contracts that they entered into at the time for help in the
war against Boko Haram have been terminated.
This is very sad because the immediate
consequence of it is the fact that over 1000 Nigerians have been killed
by Boko Haram in the last two months alone. That means over 100 people
per week have been murdered by the terrorists since May 29. This must
stop and something has to give. We must support the new government in
their efforts to stem the tide and to fight terror.
This is all the more important when one
considers the fact that there seems to be some hidden agenda on the part
of the western powers, led by America, to ensure that we do not acquire
the necessary weapons to take on Boko Haram effectively.
When one considers the position of the
American government one is forced to ask this question: Why did they not
invoke the Leahy Act against Israel, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan,
Somalia, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, Ukraine, Pakistan, Yemen, Kenya and Iraq
for human rights violations? Why do they continue to supply arms to the
governments of all those countries despite what they have done to many
of their own citizens and those that they oppose just outside their
borders?
Why is it only Nigeria that they have
refused to sell arms to and that they have imposed an international arms
embargo on even though we are fighting a civil war against a barbaric,
relentless and evil enemy that is being sponsored by ISIL and Al Qaeda?
Given all this, I believe that it is time for us as a country to begin
to reconsider who our friends really are? They say that a friend in need
is a friend indeed. You cannot say that you are our friends whilst you
sit by idly and watch the blood of our people being shed on a daily
basis yet you refuse to do anything about it.
We are not asking you to send troops to
fight for us or to give us free arms. We are not cowards or beggars. We
are simply asking to buy sophisticated arms and modern weapons from you
so that we can defend our people yet you keep saying no and you are
urging others not to sell to us either. This is not the act of a friend.
It is unacceptable, it is unfair and, if
sustained, it will prove to be counter-productive to the interests of
the Americans in our country and in the West African sub-region. The
truth is that given the attitude of the United States government I
believe that it is time for us to rely far more on our Chinese and
Russian friends in our collective war against terror.
I say this because it appears that the
western powers and our traditional allies like the United Kingdom,
France and America have left us in the lurch. Whichever way, we can be
rest assured of one thing: Nigeria will never be brought to her knees
and ultimately we will win this war because God is with us.
On a final note permit me to take this
opportunity to respond to the words of U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, the
convener and author of the Leahy Act, who has said that our Armed Forces
are nothing but ‘’rapists and murderers’’. He also said that we should
‘’clean up our military’’ if we want the arms embargo lifted.
This type of condescending,
colonial-overlord, slave-master and gung-ho language and contribution
from this foreigner is most unhelpful and it is totally unacceptable.
This is all the more so because his words are simply not true.
Whether the Leahy’s of this world wish to
accept it or not, the truth is that the Nigerian Armed Forces, despite
their limitations and constraints, remain one of the most outstanding,
successful, courageous, battle-ready and disciplined fighting forces on
the African continent. History can attest to that and the sacrifice that
those gallant young men and women in uniform make on a daily basis on
the battle field in the fight against Boko Haram and in the war against
terror over the last five years is a reflection of their deep patriotism
and noble calling.
Referring to them as nothing but “rapists
and murderers” is not only a sweeping statement and an absurd
generalisation but it is also a deep insult to the Nigerian people and a
denigration of the memory of all those courageous young men and women
that fought and died on the war-front defending our country.
- Fani-Kayode is a former Minister of Aviation
