Nigeria will join the Saudi Arabia led
coalition of Muslim countries against
terrorism, President Muhammadu Buhari
has said.
Mr. Buhari stated this in an interview
with Al Jazeera Television.
“We are part of it because we have got
terrorists in Nigeria that everybody
knows which claims that they are
Islamic,” the Nigerian president said in
reference to Boko Haram, the group
whose activities has caused the death of
about 20,000 people since 2009.
Mr. Buhari’s decision to push Nigeria
into the coalition announced by Saudi
Arabia last December appears to have
been taken after a meeting with Saudi
King, Salman Bin Abdul-Aziz.
According to a statement by his
spokesperson on February 23, the
Nigerian leader had expressed
reluctance to join the coalition when he
met the Saudi king.
“Even if we are not a part of it, we
support you,” he was quoted to have
said at the meeting held in Saudi Arabia
in February.
The Aljazeera interview is believed to
have been held in Qatar, where Mr.
Buhari visited after his trip to Saudi
Arabia.
Many analysts have described the
coalition as Saudi Arabia’s way of
challenging Iran’s growing influence in
global Islamic affairs.
Saudi Arabia is home to mainly Sunni
Muslims while Iran is the base of Shia
Muslims worldwide.
Most Muslims in Nigeria are Sunni and
the country’s military recently attacked
a Shia procession, killing hundreds,
according to Human Rights Watch, after
the military claimed they planned to
assassinate Army chief, Tukur Buratai.
“We must not let Sunni and Shiite states
furtively and covertly turn Nigeria into
another Middle East battleground,”
Adeolu Ademoyo, a Nigerian lecturer at
Cornell University said, in opposition to
the coalition.
The decision to join the Islamic coalition
also goes against the calls by many
Nigerians who asked that the country
not join the coalition.
The Christian Association of Nigeria had
in December cautioned against joining
the 34-member coalition, called ISMAT.
“This singular gesture of the Buhari
government betrays so much, and tends
to confirm our fears that underneath
everything this government is doing,
there is an agenda with strong Islamic
undertones, aimed at undermining
Nigeria’s pluralistic character and
neutrality regarding government’s
affiliation to any one religion,” Vanguard
Newspapers quoted the coalition of
Nigerian Churches as saying in a
statement by its General Secretary,
Musa Asake.
PREMIUM TIMES had also warned
against joining the coalition. In an
editorial published in January, this
newspaper stated that “Nigeria should
not join ISMAT, created specifically
under pressure to fight ISIS.”
“The national interests of Saudi Arabia
are not Nigeria’s national interests. On
the sound and legitimate issue of
fighting terrorism locally, regionally and
globally, Saudi Arabia has shown that
her interests come first before any
commitment to fight terrorism.”
However, defending his decision, Mr.
Buhari told his interviewer that, “If there
is an Islamic coalition to fight terrorism,
Nigeria will be part of it because we are
casualties of Islamic terrorism.”
When asked how the coalition would
work in Nigeria’s interest, the president
said it would be within the framework of
Lake Chad basin coalition against Boko
Haram which comprises of Nigeria,
Niger, Chad, Cameroon, and Benin.
“I don’t think we need to tell the press
the details of that,” he said, in relation
to the number of troops to be deployed
by the Lake Chad coalition that would
be part of the Saudi-led coalition.
When asked whether or not his decision
would go well with Nigerian Christians
who make up about half of the country’s
population, Mr. Buhari said, “I have just
told you it is the Boko Haram itself that
declared loyalty to ISIS. Now, ISIS is
basically based in Islamic countries. If
there is a coalition to fight terrorism,
why can’t Nigeria be part of it.”
“Why can’t those Christians that
complain go and fight terrorism in
Nigeria or fight the militants in the
South. It is Nigeria that matters, not the
opinions of some religious bigots,” he
added.
The Nigerian leader denied seeking to
change Nigeria’s multi-religious nature
by his actions, saying, “How can I
change the religious identity of Nigeria?”

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