How Nigeria’s Internal Failures, American Geopolitics, and Hidden Sponsors Brought Us to the Brink, And Why Vigilance, Strategy, and Exposure Must Be Our Next Weapons
There is a dangerous storm gathering over Nigeria. A storm fed by half a century of unresolved injustice in the East, a decade of escalating jihadist violence in the North, a political class addicted to denial, and now a resurrected U.S. posture under President Trump promising military intervention “guns-a-blazing.”
But beneath the noise lies a deeper truth, a truth Nigeria has refused to confront and America is exploiting: Nigeria’s insecurity crisis was never just about Boko Haram, or banditry, or Fulani militias, or IPOB agitations. It is about a country that has refused to expose, arrest, sanction, convict, isolate, and financially strangle the sponsors of terror. A country that has preferred propaganda to prosecution. A country whose elite class benefits from chaos and shields those who profit from bloodshed.
And the United States, whether under Trump or future administrations, knows this. They are watching. They are calculating. They are positioning themselves for influence, leverage, military footprints, or a pretext for intervention in a resource-rich region now slipping out of Western hands into BRICS, China, Russia, Iran, and new multipolar alliances.
This is the moment Nigeria cannot afford to stumble.
This is the moment Nigerians must stay vigilant, strategic, and clear-eyed.
Because both the terrorists and the foreign powers circling overhead are counting on our confusion.
THE DANGEROUS US NARRATIVE: “NIGERIA IS KILLING CHRISTIANS.”
President Donald Trump has always presented himself as a saviour of Nigerian Christians. He confronted Buhari in 2018 with the blunt question, “Why are you killing Christians?” He designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” for religious persecution in 2020. Now in 2025, he has resurrected the designation and threatened to stop all aid to Nigeria, or worse, send U.S. boots into the country.
But here lies the strategic danger:
The American narrative oversimplifies a complex Nigerian tragedy into a Christian genocide storyline, ignoring the fact that Boko Haram, ISIS-WA, and bandits have killed more Muslims than Christians. They have bombed mosques, razed Islamic villages, murdered emirs, and butchered Muslim clerics. Boko Haram’s victims are primarily the poor and vulnerable of both faiths.
Yet Trump’s framing is not accidental, it is political. It resonates with his evangelical base. It gives him moral justification for aggressive action. It allows him to paint himself as a protector of persecuted Christians abroad.
But once the U.S. military enters a sovereign African nation on religious grounds, the story stops being about Boko Haram. It becomes a war of perception, geopolitics, and American self-interest.
Nigeria must not walk blindly into that trap.
THE REALITY NIGERIA DOES NOT WANT TO ADMIT: THE SPONSORS ARE WITHIN
Nigeria has never lacked military capability. Nigeria lacks political will. The sponsors of terrorism are not hiding in the Sambisa forest. They are in boardrooms. They dine with politicians. They bankroll campaigns. They sit in government committees. They have oil blocks, hotels, mining interests, and billion-naira bank accounts. They finance bandits to secure illegal mining fields. They fund jihadists to destabilise certain regions for political advantage. They pay ransom networks. They collaborate with foreign interests. They supply arms. They launder proceeds through bureau-de-change fronts.
Nigeria prefers to mount checkpoints instead of mounting investigations.
Nigeria prefers to deploy soldiers instead of deploying intelligence.
Nigeria prefers to bomb villagers instead of following bank transactions.
Nigeria prefers propaganda to prosecution.
The U.S. knows this.
Europe knows this.
The UAE exposed some of them.
But Nigeria swept it under the carpet.
Until Nigeria is ready to name them, arrest them, seize their assets, destroy their networks, and close their loopholes, the country will keep falling deeper into insecurity, no matter how many drone strikes or military partnerships Washington offers.
THE TINUBU FACTOR: COURTING AMERICA WHILE FEARING EXPOSURE
President Tinubu plays a delicate, dangerous game. He wants U.S. support. He wants legitimacy. He wants investment. He wants the dollar pipeline. But he also knows that if the U.S. fully opens its intelligence files on Nigerian terror financing, his own allies and political associates may be implicated.
This is where things become explosive.
If Trump’s America insists on:
naming sponsors,
sanctioning governors,
targeting Northern oligarchs,
seizing assets,
blocking accounts,
arresting financiers,
publishing classified intelligence,
the Tinubu administration may not survive the fallout.
This is the real reason Abuja is panicking beneath its calm diplomatic statements.
It is not about “Christian killings.”
It is about political survival.
Tinubu knows one uncomfortable truth:
If the U.S. exposes the sponsors of terror, Aso Rock will shake.
THE IGBO LESSON: HOW FAILING TO ADDRESS ROOT CAUSES CAN IGNITE CHAOS
To understand the danger of ignoring sponsors, Nigeria only needs to look at how it mishandled IPOB.
What began as a peaceful agitation was met with:
military invasions,
Python Dance operations,
mass shootings,
proscription without evidence,
extrajudicial killings,
political betrayal by Southeast governors.
When the state refused to listen, the movement splintered. When it attacked peaceful protesters, it pushed activists underground. When it abducted Nnamdi Kanu illegally, it created a vacuum that criminals, political militias, and foreign agents rushed to fill.
Today the Southeast suffers from a cocktail of:
rogue ESN cells,
Ekpa-inspired enforcers,
criminal kidnappers,
bandits disguising as freedom fighters,
state false-flag operations,
political assassins,
foreign infiltration.
Nigeria created its own monster by refusing to address grievances early.
The same thing is happening with Boko Haram.
WHY AMERICA IS BACK WITH “HELP”, AND WHY WE MUST BE CAREFUL
America sees:
China deepening African infrastructure dominance,
Russia expanding Wagner influence in the Sahel,
Iran courting African governments,
BRICS offering alternatives to Western control,
Nigeria drifting away from Western hegemony.
Trump’s sudden interest in Nigeria is not religious compassion, it is geopolitics.
He sees:
a weakened Nigeria,
a divided elite,
a frightened government,
escalating terror,
rich mineral fields in the North,
strategic ports in the South,
a vacuum in West Africa after Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger expelled Western troops.
Nigeria is the crown jewel of West Africa.
America wants it back in its orbit.
If Nigeria is not vigilant, “assistance” will become:
leverage,
conditionality,
military bases,
intelligence penetration,
economic dependency,
diplomatic subordination.
We need partnership, not puppet strings.
THE PATH FORWARD: STRATEGY, VIGILANCE, AND INTERNAL CLEANUP
Nigeria must confront its reality with honesty and courage.
First, expose the sponsors.
Name them. Publish the files. Shine the light. Stop protecting criminals in high office.
Second, arrest and prosecute them.
Whether they are politicians, governors, generals, billionaires, sheikhs, foreign collaborators, no one must be spared.
Third, seize their direct and indirect assets.
Hotels, farms, houses, accounts, businesses, mining sites, choke the financial arteries that feed terror.
Fourth, cut off supply lines.
Block arms routes, ransom networks, BDC channels, political slush funds, foreign backers.
Fifth, monitor every inch of U.S. involvement.
Partnership is welcome.
Domination is not.
Nigeria must never allow “help” to become a Trojan horse.
Sixth, rebuild trust with citizens.
Governments cannot defeat terror when the people no longer trust them.
Seventh, stop the hypocrisy.
Nigeria cannot fight Boko Haram while ignoring bandits.
Cannot defend religious freedom while allowing blasphemy killings.
Cannot preach unity while marginalizing the East.
Cannot ask for American help while shielding domestic sponsors.
Eighth, learn from the IPOB saga.
Repression does not solve political grievances. It multiplies them.
THE FINAL WARNING: NIGERIA MUST FIX NIGERIA, BEFORE OTHERS DO IT FOR US
If Nigeria does not clean its house, someone else will attempt to do it,
and they will do it on their own terms, not ours.
The danger is not American intervention.
The danger is Nigeria’s refusal to confront the truth.
Expose the sponsors.
Cut their funding.
Arrest them.
Sanction them.
Cripple them.
Break their networks.
Monitor every foreign motive.
Rebuild national unity.
Remove political protection from criminals.
Tell the international community the full story, not the oversimplified one.
Nigeria stands at a crossroads.
And history has shown us, brutally, what happens when this country ignores the warning signs.
Boko Haram did not start overnight.
IPOB did not radicalise overnight.
The Sahel did not collapse overnight.
And nations do not fall overnight,
they fall through years of denial.
This is our last chance to prevent Nigeria from becoming the next Afghanistan, the next Libya, the next Mali.
Because when a nation refuses to confront its demons,
those demons return wearing foreign uniforms.
By Hon. Chima Nnadi-Oforgu
Duruebube Ihiagwa ófó asato
OBLONG MEDIA UNLIMITED 
Leave a comment