By Prince Ejeh Josh.
There must be an urgent retaliatory measure taken against these little, weak and disastrous countries called South Africa and Ghana now.
They must be taught lessons they would never forget. If the government is not doing anything to deter and flush out these assaults and unnecessary insults, Nigerians must rise up and reciprocate, either in equal proportions or measures that would outweigh these unprovoked acts of aggression against them.
Nigerians must launch an onslaught against the nationals and the businesses of those countries attacking them. Nobody and no country has a monopoly of violence. Nigerians must fight back!
The Nigerian State cannot keep on playing the role of the big brother in Africa while her nationals carrying on their normal and lawful businesses in other countries are continually hounded, harassed, maimed, and slaughtered by their host countries. This will no longer be acceptable. That nonsensical nomenclature and fake sense of “big brothership” must abate with immediate effect.
If Nigeria must play the role of the big brother in Africa, then it must replicate America’s ‘policemanship’ of the world. It must brace up, and decisively deter any act of belligerence from any State or its nationals.
The title of the big brother is not meant for the weak but for the valiant. It is not meant for the sleeping giant, or the dormant Goliath, or for the “big for nothing”.
In his, “The Animals Farm”, George Orwell portrayed the role played by animals in their kingdom which is likened to international relations. The animals had their rules. They played by it, and it worked for them.
However, such rules did not only work because of the character of obedience established by the behavioural pattern of the animals but because the rules did not apply equally to all of them.
One of the rules read: “All animals are equal but some are more equal than the others”. Those above equals were the big brothers who quell acts of bellicosity with undesirable and unbearable deterrence! In every action, there are ruthless and detrimental consequences.
These big brothers in international politics could be said to be the United States, Russia, France, China, Britain, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Narrowed down to Africa, Nigeria, due to the failed regime of President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress party, is now being treated like a barking bubble defective from all sides.
Our country is today, living on its past glory, fantasizing, and in its wishful imagination, still sees itself as a giant of Africa. Indeed, Nigeria is giant in poverty. Giant in dystopia. Giant in noise-making. Giant of failure. This government is clueless. Issueless. Baseless.
This accounts for why other countries can easily kill Nigerians and destroy their hard earned businesses and go scot-free. Sadly, the Nigerian government would do as if nothing had happened.
Vividly, George Orwell wrote in his “Nineteen Eighty Four” how the big brothers’ eyes were fixed everywhere. “The Big Brother is Watching”. They were watching everything, including you. Nobody dared tried nonsense with their interests.
However, the only self-acclaimed big brother in Africa is being derided as only good at making a noise and nothing else. Or how would one explain these frequent attacks by these little, weak and inconsequential countries on Nigerians and nothing had ever happened, and seems not to happen in the near future. There must be an effective retaliation.
Nigerians abroad are not just frequently being killed, their means of livelihoods are also getting looted by one little country with lazy people called South Africa. A country dying of apartheid, untold hardship and oppression, and out of Nigeria’s magnanimity, got rescued from their oppressors and settled with supplies, is now ranting and barking at us? What an insult!
When a chick grows teeth, it goes rampage. As if that was not enough, Ghana, a country that Nigeria fed for years, also joined in the madness. How many Nigerians would be killed by South Africa before President Muhammadu Buhari would wake up and wield the big stick on that country?
Regrettably, this is what happens when a government lacks vision, mission and focus. The Buhari government has no policies and agenda for Nigerian citizens in diaspora. That’s why other countries are killing us like fowls and slaughtering us like cows without eyebrows from the Nigerian government.
I’ve not seen any foreign policy under this administration let alone a policy that is dynamic and robust. This is saddening. Illiterates all over the system. When offices are manned by goons and hooligans, what do you expect? Anything goes.
Recently, in a live coverage, I watched in dismay the acts of brutality unleashed on Nigerians living in Ghana and their life-investment by some Ghanaian trade unionists on the pretext that the law forbade them from operating certain reserved businesses, and that their government had deliberately refused to implement the law. Nigerians’ shops were looted, shut and many of them subjected to inhuman treatments. Shockingly, Buhari and his ministers kept mum. They were not aware that their citizens were under heavy attacks to say the least.
In international politics and international law, one of the primary functions of every State is how to protect its citizens and their investments abroad. Any threat to their citizens will be reciprocated decisively in the heat of the moment. This would serve as a preemptive deterrence against carrying out the major attacks. But in Nigeria, the reverse is the case. No diplomatic action, no restraint, no warning.
It is time to walk the miles. It is time this government stops hobnobbing with these cantankerous States and immediately quell the stupid acts of aggression.
Nigerians want to see President Buhari act! Nigerians want to see Buhari fight for them. Nigerians will fight back if government refuses to do something that will assuage their battered image, dignity and livelihoods.
We can no longer condone the excesses from these diminutive countries. It is a slap! It is time we fought back. It is time we in Nigeria stand up in solidarity with our brothers and sisters abroad. It is time we send message back to the South Africans, Ghanaians and the world that we are up to the task! Play the American big brother role now, or allow us to play it as citizens.
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DISCLAIMER: All views expressed on our opinion page are those of the writer and do not represent the position of INSIDER or any of its reporters/editors.