In 2015, Sudan’s then-president Omar al-Bashir made a shocking claim, that the CIA and Mossad were behind ISIS and Boko Haram. The Western press dismissed it as delusional rambling from a man accused of war crimes. Yet, nearly a decade later, pieces of that puzzle are fitting disturbingly well.
What if Nigeria’s endless insecurity is not merely a byproduct of bad governance, but a deliberate geopolitical chess move? What if the same playbook used in Iraq, Libya, and Venezuela is being quietly applied here under the guise of “fighting terrorism” or “protecting Christians”?
The 2014 Wikileaks cables exposed something Nigerians barely paid attention to, the US embassy in Abuja had been described as a forward-operating base for subversion, intelligence gathering, and resource-mapping operations across West Africa. Around the same time, AFRICOM, America’s Africa Command, was setting up shop under the pretext of “fighting terror.”
It has been widely alleged that AFRICOM’s mission was never about people, it was about resources and geography. Nigeria’s strategic importance, from its oil and gas to its newly discovered lithium deposits, makes it a prime target. With the largest economy and youngest population in Africa, Nigeria is not just a nation, it is a prize.
Since 2013, China has allegedly poured over 1.3 billion dollars into Nigeria’s lithium industry, a metal now called “white gold” for its critical role in electric vehicle and renewable energy batteries. Nigeria’s lithium reserves are estimated at 74 billion dollars.
Add to that China’s 20 billion dollar investment commitments across agriculture, mining, steel, and energy, and it becomes clear why Washington is nervous. Beijing’s rising influence in Nigeria threatens America’s post–World War II economic domination.
The US, it is alleged, fears that China’s growing presence could lead to a Chinese military base on the Atlantic. Translation, America’s unchallenged access to African resources is now at risk.
While the media sells ECOWAS as a “regional integration body,” its track record betrays a different reality. Let us call it what it is, a Western proxy vehicle to stamp out any anti-colonial or multipolar initiatives in West Africa.
Yet, within this system, Nigeria stands at a crossroads. Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar has repeatedly emphasized the synergy between Africa’s AfCFTA vision and China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a massive infrastructure plan spanning 65 countries and 60 percent of the world’s population.
The BRI threatens US hegemony. Hence, the Trump administration’s counter move, the Blue Dot Network, designed to “checkmate” China. The US wants to “reverse all of that.”
Fast forward to today, suddenly Nigeria is portrayed as a land where Christians are “facing extinction.” Trump-led American evangelicals amplify this narrative, pushing sanctions and isolation measures.
But scratch beneath the surface and the motive becomes clear. It is not about faith, it is about resources and influence. It is the same strategy used in Venezuela, where “narcoterrorism” was the excuse for attempted regime change.
Not all Nigerians are buying into the Western-scripted narrative that paints the country’s violence as purely religious. The discerning among us dismiss the US designation as grossly misinformed, despite the yearnings of hopeless Nigerians caught in the crossfire. Trump had been “misled by anarchists, lackeys, and apprentices of neocolonialism,” individuals and organizations that profit from Nigeria’s chaos, not from its peace.
The killings and kidnappings ravaging Nigeria have never been about religion. They are political, economic, and territorial, cleverly disguised under the convenient cloak of faith-based conflict to justify foreign interference and military interest.
Between October 1, 2019, and September 30, 2023, according to reliable estimates, Nigeria recorded 55,910 deaths linked to religious or communal violence. These arose from 9,970 attacks, including clashes between civilians, armed groups, and state forces.
Out of these casualties, 30,880 were civilians, while 16,769 were Christians, 6,235 Muslims, and 154 adherents of traditional African religions. The identities of 7,722 victims remain unverified.
These figures reveal what Western narratives deliberately misrepresent, both Christians and Muslims are victims of the same machinery of chaos. Nigeria’s conflict is less about religion and more about control, control of territory, resources, and political influence.
In short, while the media frames it as “Christian persecution,” the evidence exposes something far more complex, and far more orchestrated.
Nigeria must act decisively to diversify its trade partnerships. Strengthening relations with China and other potential partners in progress presents tremendous opportunities for growth. Show me a school, a hospital, a road, a power plant, a refinery, or a railroad built by the US or the UK since independence, and I will rethink my stance.
Nigeria’s real crime is its tilt toward China. That is what Washington cannot tolerate. Religion is merely a tool of emotional manipulation.
When Donald Trump and the US say “we will take their oil,” it is not a metaphor. They said it in Iraq. They tried it in Syria. They even boasted about planning to “take over Venezuela and get all that oil.”
Now, Trump’s Pentagon is reportedly drawing up plans for military action in Nigeria, under the same tired pretext of humanitarian concern. But make no mistake, this is about keeping Nigeria within the crumbling Bretton Woods system that feeds Western economies.
Just as in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq, the objective is simple, deny rivals access, control extraction points, and reassert global dominance.
Nigeria Must Wake Up
The war for Nigeria’s soul is not fought with bombs, it is fought with narratives, NGOs, sanctions, and covert destabilization. If we continue to see our crises only through the lens of religion or ethnicity, we will never grasp the bigger picture.
The stakes are high. The next frontier of global economic power, lithium, rare earth minerals, and clean energy, runs through Africa’s veins. And Nigeria is the crown jewel.
The question is, will we guard it or give it away again, this time not to colonial masters with ships and flags, but to modern imperialists with drones and dollars?
By Duruebube Hon.”Oblong” Chima Nnadi-Oforgu
Oblong Media Unlimited – Always connecting the dots
🌍 http://www.oblongmedia.net
OBLONG MEDIA UNLIMITED 
Leave a comment