₦airaland Forum

WHO IS AFRAID OF TRUMP’S ACTIONS: THE TERRORISTS OR THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT?

In recent weeks, international attention has shifted to renewed United States interest in the activities of terrorist networks operating across the Sahel and West Africa, including Nigeria. The U.S. President Donald J. Trump, known globally for his strongman rhetoric and nationalist temperament, has revived his aggressive counter-terrorism posture, signaling the pursuit of extremist networks affiliated with ISIS, Al-Qaeda and their local franchises. Ordinarily, this should be welcomed by any government truly committed to eradicating terrorism. Yet, the response from the Nigerian government has been one of unease, hesitation, and subtle diplomatic discomfort. This raises a critical question: Who is truly afraid of Trump’s actions—the terrorists themselves or those entrusted to protect the Nigerian people?

I AM NOT A TRUMP APOLOGIST, BUT TRUTH MUST BE TOLD

I do not stand as an apologist for Donald Trump's evangelical nationalism, ideological extremism, and polarizing political legacy as widely documented. His mantra of “Make America Great Again” was often a cloak for inward-looking protectionism and divisive domestic rhetoric. Yet, politics requires fairness where due. For the first time in many years, Trump has done something that resonates with the conscience of ordinary Nigerians, he has displayed seriousness in confronting terrorism in West Africa, a problem that has destroyed thousands of lives and continues to displace millions. It is not admiration for Trump that motivates my position, but rather the painful reality that Nigerians have been abandoned by their own leaders, sacrificed on the altar of political convenience and elite protection.

BILLIONS FOR WAR, BUT PEACE FOR TERRORISTS

For more than a decade, the Nigerian government has received billions of dollars in foreign military assistance, grants, surveillance drones, warplanes, armored vehicles, communication equipment, training, and logistics support, all supposedly dedicated to fighting Boko Haram, ISWAP, Ansaru, and bandit networks in the North.Yet, despite these massive investments, the countryside remains a killing field. Villages are burned, farmers are displaced, women are raped, children are abducted and communities live in perpetual fear.

Shockingly, instead of defeating terrorists, the Nigerian state chose to negotiate with them. Even worse, it rehabilitates, reintegrates, and sometimes recruits so-called “repentant terrorists” back into the security services, while victims of terror remain, homeless, traumatized, unprotected, unhealed, and forgotten. It is a tragic reversal of justice, the offenders are forgiven while the victims are abandoned.

WHO EXACTLY IS THE GOVERNMENT PROTECTING?

If Trump is pursuing terrorist networks, why should Nigeria, a sovereign state claiming to be fighting terrorism, be afraid? A government that genuinely protects its people would welcome international cooperation. But a government that is: rehabilitating, terrorists, releasing terror commanders in secret deals, protecting financiers under political shields and negotiating for “peaceful coexistence with bandits,” cannot be enthusiastic about external scrutiny.The fear exposes a disturbing truth: Some hands benefitting from terrorism are not clean.This is not an accusation against the Nigerian military rank-and-file who have sacrificed their lives bravely. The problem is: the politicians who profit, the security contractors who benefit, the middlemen who negotiate ransom, and the officials who supply weapons to both government and insurgents alike.

THE STATE THAT FIGHTS CITIZENS BUT EMBRACES TERRORISTS

While the government massages terrorists, it brutalizes citizens. When civil society groups protested economic hardship, corruption, and bad governance, security agencies responded with live bullets, mass arrests, detention of children, torture, starvation in cells, media intimidation, and weaponization of state propaganda to brand peaceful protesters as “terrorists.” Yet, Bello Turji and other terror warlords roam, negotiate, command territories, impose taxes, abduct school children, and massacre villagers with impunity. This contradiction reveals the moral collapse of state legitimacy. It is easier to be a terrorist in Nigeria than to be a citizen demanding good governance.

THE INTERNATIONAL LAW DIMENSION: THE “UNWILLING OR UNABLE” DOCTRINE

When Boko Haram, in 2015, pledged allegiance to ISIS in Iraq and Syria, it ceased to be a local insurgency. It became part of a global jihadist network, which directly threatens U.S. national security interests. Under international law, particularly the Doctrine of “Unwilling or Unable”, the United States is permitted to take direct action against terrorist groups in foreign states if that state is unwilling or unable to suppress them. Nigeria has, failed to effectively combat terrorism, negotiate openly with terrorists, released detained terror commanders, integrated ex-fighters into society without accountability. Therefore, under this doctrine, the U.S. now has grounds for direct counter-terrorism engagement. The Nigerian government’s current anxiety is therefore political but not legal. But why is the government scared? Because Trump’s move threatens to expose hidden financiers, politicians who negotiated illegal peace deals, government officials who diverted anti-terror funds, and security officers who sold weapons to insurgents. The fear is not about sovereignty. It is about secrets.

LET THE POOR BREATHE: THE ONLY JUST PATH FORWARD

Nigerians are suffocating from terrorism, hunger, economic oppression, debt servicing that benefits only the elite and taxation that crushes the poor while protecting the wealthy. The people need relief. The people need justice. The people need protection. If Trump’s intervention will dismantle terror networks, expose sponsors, collapse criminal syndicates masquerading as peace deals and restore security to the Nigerian people, then let the intervention come.Terrorism must end. The victims must be remembered. Peace must be restored. Justice must prevail. The question is no longer “Who is afraid of Trump?” The real question is, Who fears accountability for terrorism? The terrorists? Or the government that negotiated with them? History will record the answer. For now, Nigerians continue to demand only one thing, Let the poor breathe.

Solomon Dalung LLM, LLB, LB
Igbarman Otarok & Garkuwan Arewa
igbarman@gmail.com

The Nigerian government and its citizens will respond appropriately to any foreign threat. We are not interested in any self-serving intervention that will only further enslave us.

HgAkpobomeEr:
The Nigerian government and its citizens will respond appropriately to any foreign threat. We are not interested in any self-serving intervention that will only further enslave us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-fPEHUqhyA?si=-E-Dt5-0B9grubb5

The terrorists and the Nigeria government refer to the same set of people. Try ask Shetima