Be Careful Nigerians: Learn to Read Between the Lines

It is time Nigerians stopped taking every foreign pronouncement as gospel truth and began to read between the lines. Too many times, we have watched the same script play out, only the stage changes. The same voices that now pretend to be saviours were the ones who once stood aside while our people bled.

In recent weeks, the United States, has been painting Nigeria as a land where Christians face extermination. Trump has accused our government of complicity, placed us on a so-called “watch list,” suspended aid, and even instructed the Pentagon to prepare for possible “military action.”

At first glance, some desperate Nigerians, disillusioned and tired of our government’s failures, may welcome such talk, thinking divine justice is finally on their side. But pause a moment and look deeper. When did America ever intervene selflessly? When did they ever bomb or occupy a country and leave it better?

Dont get me wrong, the US and Donald Trump aren’t totally wrong. Christian persecution in Nigeria is real.

Some argue that Donald Trump is a different kind of American president, that he’s not part of the establishment and therefore deserves the benefit of the doubt. But when it comes to U.S. foreign policy, the song hasn’t changed; only the lead singer has.

Yes, Trump may genuinely be disturbed by reports of Christian persecution in Nigeria, but we all know this is not the real issue. America has tolerated and even sponsored worse atrocities elsewhere when it suited its interests. So why should we now believe this sudden compassion? Why play along with yet another moral disguise for strategic control?

There is, of course, a growing school of thought in Nigeria that welcomes anything that can shatter the current corrupt and hopeless order. Some even whisper that a foreign invasion might trigger a long-overdue restructuring or an overdue breakup of the country, that somehow, external pressure could bring cleansing or rebirth.

But this thinking is born not out of reason, it is born out of hopelessness. Years of corruption, failed leadership, and suffocating poverty have driven many Nigerians to a point where anything other than the status quo feels acceptable.

That despair is dangerous, because it makes a people easy to deceive. It opens the door for outsiders to use our frustration against us, to offer destruction disguised as deliverance.

The bitter truth is this: nobody will save Nigeria but Nigerians. And until we fix our own rot from within, every so-called saviour from abroad will only come to rearrange our chains.

Read Between the Lines: The facts and figures Behind America’s “Humanitarian” Wars

Vietnam (1964): the Gulf of Tonkin that wasn’t.
The Johnson administration sold open war on the claim that North Vietnam twice attacked U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. Decades later, the U.S. National Security Agency declassified records showing the second attack (Aug 4) did not occur and intelligence was distorted for policymakers. The Tonkin Resolution unlocked a full-scale war that killed ~58,220 Americans and hundreds of thousands to millions of Vietnamese (civilian and military), with estimates ranging from 791,000 to 3.8 million war-related deaths.

Iraq (2003): Weapons of Mass Distraction.
The invasion was justified on stockpiles of WMD and an imminent threat. The U.S. government’s own Iraq Survey Group (Duelfer Report, 2004) concluded no stockpiles existed and Iraq’s capability had diminished after 1991, flatly contradicting pre-war claims. The UK’s Chilcot Inquiry later found the case for war was presented with unwarranted certainty and intelligence was not properly challenged. Civilian death estimates vary, but Iraq Body Count documents ~187,000–211,000 civilian violent deaths, while broader studies estimate hundreds of thousands more.

Sudan (1998): the factory that made “nerve agent”, or antibiotics.
After the East Africa embassy bombings, the U.S. destroyed Al-Shifa Pharmaceutical Factory in Khartoum, claiming a VX nerve-agent link. Subsequent reviews (including internal U.S. doubts) showed the case leaned on a single soil sample and was “not as solid as first portrayed,” with no proof the plant produced or stored nerve gas. The UN record and independent analyses note the plant supplied a large share of Sudan’s medicines; its destruction likely caused severe knock-on harm during health crises.

Libya (2011): “imminent genocide” and the regime-change slide.
Intervention was sold as preventing a massacre in Benghazi. Later, the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee concluded the government “failed to verify the threat to civilians,” overstated Gaddafi’s rhetoric, and misread the rebellion’s Islamist elements, “erroneous assumptions” underpinned the case. Scholarly reviews (e.g., Kuperman/Belfer) also warn against inflated genocide claims and note how R2P morphed into regime change—with state collapse and prolonged warfare as the outcome.

What this history teaches Nigerians

1. Moral pretexts are often marketing. From Tonkin to WMDs to “imminent genocide,” emotive claims created political cover for force, facts caught up later. Don’t let today’s “protect the Christians in Nigeria” slogan short-circuit your judgment; our conflict patterns show criminal economies, land/mineral grabs, and corrupt patronage are the main drivers, with both Christians and Muslims victimized.
2. Costs land on civilians. When narratives fail, civilians pay, in Iraq alone, documented civilian violent deaths exceed ~187k–211k (and likely more). In Vietnam, the misrepresented Tonkin incident helped unlock catastrophic mass casualties.
3. “Limited strikes” rarely stay limited. Libya began as no-fly/“protect civilians” and slid into regime change, a cautionary tale for anyone welcoming foreign jets over our skies based on unverified atrocity claims.

Bottom line (My view, the Oblong angle)

They told the world Tonkin happened, it didn’t as sold.
They told the world Iraq had WMD stockpiles, it didn’t.
They told the world a Sudanese plant made nerve agent, evidence collapsed.
They told the world Libya faced imminent genocide, key governments later admitted the threat was overstated.

What makes you think Nigeria is different? Be discerning. Demand evidence, not slogans. Address our criminal and economic roots of violence at home and refuse to outsource our sovereignty to foreign narratives that have repeatedly proven fatal elsewhere.

The truth is that Nigeria’s violence is not mainly religious. It is rooted in criminality, corruption, greed, and the unholy marriage between politics and profit. Both Christians and Muslims have been victims; villages have been wiped out not for religion, but for control of land, gold, lithium, Californium, oil, and political influence.

When foreign powers start chanting “Christian persecution,” it is rarely about faith, it is about framing a justification. They weaponize sympathy to open the door for interference, to move troops, to sell weapons, to gain influence over policy and resources.

But Nigerians, beaten and weary, often mistake such external interest for salvation. That hopelessness becomes a tool of control. We begin to accept deceptive outcomes because we are desperate for any change, even if it comes wrapped in a lie.

Be careful, Nigerians.
No nation ever won freedom by outsourcing its soul. We must confront our demons, corruption, misrule, and criminal impunity, ourselves. The day we allow foreign powers to “save” us under false pretenses, that is the day we hand over not just our land, but our destiny.

Wake up. Read between the lines. The enemy is not religion, it is deception. And the cure is awareness.

By Duruebube Chima “Oblong” Nnadi-Oforgu