By Emeka Omeihe
It would appear US president, Donald Trump’s threat of unilateral military action against Nigeria for alleged Christian persecution and genocide is gradually giving way to diplomatic engagement. That much could be discerned from meetings between officials of the Nigerian government and the US, hallmarked by last week’s visit of a fact-finding team to Nigeria.The evidence is also perceptible in statements emanating from both sides of the discussions. The National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu had taken to his X handle to announce that he hosted a delegation of US congressmen as part of ongoing consultations between both countries. The meeting according to him, followed earlier talks in Washington DC.Ribadu disclosed that discussions centred around counter terrorism cooperation, regional stability and ways to “strengthen the strategic security partnership between Nigeria and the United States” But the meeting with the Nigerian government team was not the end of the assignment of the US fact-finding team.Straight from Abuja, the delegation made for Benue state where discussions were held separately with the Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia followed by another with religious and traditional leaders to get their own side of the story. It is not clear whether the visit was arranged by the Nigerian Government. But it appears the US team had their itinerary even before they left their country. US Congressman, Riley Moore posted in his X handle after one of the meetings, “It was an honour and deeply moving to meet with His Excellency, Bishop Wilfred Anagbe, Bishop Isaac Dogu and His Royal Highness, James Ioruza, the traditional Ruler of the Tiv people to discuss the ongoing genocidal campaign by the Fulani in Benue state” Moore said the US will not ignore the suffering reported by local leaders. “The US has heard your cries and we are working diligently towards solution” he said. The delegation also visited the camps of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) where they heard first-hand, gory details of the killings from victims. Moore shared some of these chilling and heart-rending killing details which he said, will remain with him all his lifeBut he admitted that US concerns were positively received even as he hinted on the establishment of a joint task force between Nigeria and the US to “tackle these critical issues”. So, guns-a-blazing may no longer happen in the form threatened. If it will come, that will be through mutual understanding and agreement. That appears the reading from statements by the US delegation and their Nigerian counterparts. But all will depend on how Trump receives the report of the delegation. Going by Moore’s statements during and after the visit, the report is not going to favour Nigeria.Beyond this, there are arisings from the visit that should not be allowed to peter out. And they relate to claims and statements that suffused the social space in reaction to Trump’s threat. Of particular concern was the insinuation that self-determination campaigns by the IPOB were responsible for Trump’s action. Those who canvassed this odious view, feign ignorance of the obvious infractions that influenced US action. It served their narrow interests to shift the blame to IPOB knowing the mortal harm it will inflict on the region where their activities are most felt.But when the US delegation came, they neither visited the south east nor IPOB leader, Nnamdi kanu. They did not visit Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra state to show evidence of Christians killing Christians which many writers have been referencing upon. He could not have shown them the Christians that populate the Ebubeagu security outfit or its variant called Agunaechemba that has been fingered in alleged extrajudicial killings. In one of those incidents, construction workers including a man from Isuofia, Soludo’s community were murdered on allegations of being IPOB hitmen. Neither could he have shown the US team evidence of the sins of his kinsmen severally killed in the north during religion-induced riots. Yet, he found comfort to say that Christians are killing Christians in the south east in the circumstance he did. What could be the motive other than rope in the Igbo, majority of whom he admitted are Christians, in the US allegations of Christian persecution and genocide in Nigeria. But who said Christians or adherent of other religions do not commit crimes for it to be an issue?The US authorities had their lead and knew precisely where to get instant corroborative evidence-the Middle Belt. So, they wasted no time to arrive Benue state where they conferred with Bishops Anagbe and Dogu among other Christian leaders. They met with the Tor Tiv, Professor James Ayatse. Anagbe had twice prior to the US visit, made presentations to the US congress on the killings in Benue. So, there was no limit to the weight of evidence the delegation could garner from Benue state. That fact is evident from Moore’s posts detailing chilling accounts of the killings through his interaction with victims in the IDP camps.The views of Tor Tiv are also not hidden. He had openly told President Tinubu at a stakeholders’ meeting last June that the killings and displacements in Benue state were a” calculated, well planned, full-scale genocidal invasion and land grabbing campaign” by herder terrorists and bandits and not mere herder-farmer clashes or communal disputes. He had then also insisted the violence is a war and a systematic effort at ethnic cleansing while its characterisation as herder-farmer conflict obfuscates its true nature and deeply offends the victims’ realities. He is likely to show evidence of this claim to the US fact-finding team.The findings of the US team are likely to puncture claims by governor Alia in the wake of the controversy that: “in my state Benue, we don’t have any religious, any ethnic, any racial, any national or state genocide” He had also claimed there is no jihad going on in any part of the country.Alia must have been cornered by the dialectics of St, Augustine’s allegory of two Cities-the City of God and the City of Man when he said, “I’m speaking to you as a reverend father in the church. I’m speaking to you as a governor of a state” It is difficult to operate from the two contrasting realms without running into serious contradictions. Ironically, his claims mock the distinction by medieval philosophers between the ecclesiastical and corporeal realms; between the purview of state and religion. It was not for nothing that his Bishops opted to meet separately with the US delegation.It is not clear why the US team did not visit Plateau state, another key Middle Belt state faced with the same pattern of killings as Benue. Jonathan Ishaku, a top Journalist and author from Plateau state shared frustrations in his Facebook for inability to hand over three of his books to Moore. He named them as: The Road to Mogadishu, Janjaweed in the Middle Belt, The Butcher of Kaduna and the Rise of state-backed violence. Their titles speak for the contents and add to extant evidence available to the fact-finding team. Do we still have to worry about how Trump reached his conclusions?
