Habits that disgrace us are not Trump-made, by Azu Ishiekwene

There’s no need to obsess over what US President Donald Trump said about Nigeria being disgraced or his threat to attack fast, viciously, and sweetly with blazing guns. He has perfected the art of blowing hot and cold, perhaps more hot than cold. Yet, his unstable nature is rarely foolish; he’s a controlled bully, driven by flattery.

It’s not Trump’s fault that Nigeria is where it is. Three recent incidents demonstrate the significant work required to fix this country, if we’re serious about being respected. 

The first was how the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, responded to the presidential directive to go to Kebbi State after the tragic abduction of 25 schoolgirls from Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, on November 17. 

I didn’t expect the minister to go into the bush to look for the girls. His record as a bandit appeaser as Zamfara State governor doesn’t suggest he’s even remotely cut out for that kind of radical adventure. If he has since seen the light, the least I expected was that he would take his business with the urgency and seriousness it deserved. 

That Guard of Honour

To my utmost shock and surprise, however, as soon as he landed at the airstrip in Kebbi, he began his assignment by inspecting a military guard of honour with TV cameras following him. After that, he mounted the platform to receive a salute – the sort of luxury reserved for someone on a celebratory mission. 

While this nonsense was going on, the 25 abducted schoolgirls and their distraught families were sinking deeper and deeper into misery, and the world, remembering Chibok and other cases of serial mass kidnaps of schoolchildren, was asking what kind of people we are. 

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If this was Matawalle’s idea of soft power, or the new meaning of non-kinetic engagement, then he should return to his farm in Bakura. 

His performance was deserving of nothing less than a caning on the rostrum where he was receiving that salute. 

If his daughter were among those taken by the bandits, would he be throwing his agbada left, right, left, and be pretending to inspect a guard of honour while the fate of the abducted children hung by a thread? 

Just Like Buhari’s Red Carpet

It reminded me again of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s aides decking the streets with the red carpet when the former president visited Dapchi, Yobe State, in 2018, after 110 girls were kidnapped from their dormitory in Government Girls Science College. This vanity leaves your heart with more broken pieces than Humpty Dumpty suffered from a fall. That’s if you’re not Mattawale.

Ribadu’s Sneaking Out

The second embarrassment was the departure of the NSA Malam Nuhu Ribadu-led reconciliation team to the US, leaving Nigeria like thieves in the night. Was it a precondition of the visit to Washington that Nigerians should be left in the dark about the delegation or its composition? 

To make matters worse, days after the delegation left, no one knew what was happening, who they were meeting, or what they were discussing. Nothing. It was the readout from the office of the US Secretary of War, Pete Hegeseth, that hinted at what was going on. It was a disgrace that the Nigerian public had to rely on the man who had received President Trump’s orders to prepare to attack Nigeria for crumbs of what was going on in the White House!

A self-respecting country on such a critical mission will tell its own story and keep its citizens informed of what they need to know on an ongoing basis.  

Wonder, wonder, wonder…

And then came the news that all 38 worshipers at the Christ Apostolic Church in Eruku, Kwara State, had been freed unharmed on Sunday, after three days in captivity. That was good news and a source of respite not only for the affected families and their communities, but also for a traumatised country. 

There was also good news from Kebbi, where all 25 schoolchildren abducted on November 17 were freed one week later.

Matters arising from these incidents have, sadly, left more questions than answers. And the world, particularly those who have Trump’s ear, must be amused by what appears to be a roulette game of abductions and dramatic escapes.

I do not expect the details of the rescue to be widely shared, perhaps for security reasons. And I also understand the sentiment of affected families, which is similar to the Mao Zedongian phrase ‘white cat, black cat, let our loved one return safely.’ But there’s something untidy and deeply worrying about this drama.

‘90 Minutes at Entebbe’

As a nation, it makes us appear utterly unserious, somewhat like characters from Trump’s disgraceful caricature, to report that days after widespread abductions, the victims – 38 in Kwara, 25 in Kebbi – were freed, as if by magic! No payments, arrests or sketch of the encounter. It’s the kind of thing that can only happen in “spiritual warfare” or in fairy tales – hardly ever in real life. 

In decades, the only thing close to this was “90 Minutes at Entebbe,” one of the most audacious hostage rescue operations by Israeli forces in 1976, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s elder brother, Yonathan “Yoni” Netanyahu, who sadly lost his life in the otherwise near-perfect operation.

Suppose, however, there is no backstory to the “miraculous” escapes in Kwara and Kebbi, then we must package the lessons for export and perhaps curate a lore from it for Nollywood, for which I’ll suggest the title, “Triumph of non-Kinetic Theory of Combat.” And this is no laughing matter. For others to take us seriously, we must first take ourselves seriously by shedding habits that put us in a bad light.

Where the Buck Stops

Trump did not ask Matawalle to convert a critical emergency task into an Oscars moment, nor did he ask the Sergeant Major on duty at the girls’ school in Kebbi to leave 45 minutes before the abductions. It was not Trump who told President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s team to sneak into the White House as if they were going to ask for political asylum. 

In a poorly policed country such as ours, it was not Trump who assigned over 100,000 police officers – nearly one quarter of the entire force – to guard big men, leaving swathes of the population vulnerable. The misuse and abuse of the Force dates back to the First Republic, following the military coup, and deteriorated under subsequent military rule, reaching disgraceful proportions in the Second Republic. 

Since 2012, when retired Major General Mohammed Shuwa was killed by individuals suspected to be Boko Haram, at least three army generals (the most recent being Brigadier Musa Uba) have died in combat, in addition to hundreds of soldiers who have also lost their lives, in a conflict that has become more prolonged and complicated than Nigeria’s three-year civil war. 

US complicity in Libya and its lukewarmness about support for Nigeria under President Barack Obama put the country in a tight spot. Still, it was not Trump who infiltrated the political and military ranks or indulged a security system that neither prioritises accountability nor takes consequences seriously. This, sadly, is the hand that poor governance and bad choices have dealt President Tinubu. 

He must deal with it. 

. Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the new book: “A Midlifer’s Guide to Content Creation and Profit.”

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