Addressing Omoyele Sowore’s Statements on Nigeria’s Sovereignty, By Bemigho Reno Omokri

I am afraid I will have to disagree with Mr Omoyele Sowore, and others like him, who are misinforming the Nigerian public that the recent actions against terrorists are proof that Nigeria lacks sovereignty.

Such views are indicative of a lack of awareness of international relations.

Please fact-check me: Larger and older nations than Nigeria, which I would not want to mention out of respect for these countries and their governments, have asked for and received direct international and foreign military assistance/intervention, specifically from the United States, and other countries, when dealing with terrorists operating within their borders, especially when those belligerents are mobile and have embedded themselves so close to innocent civilian populations that it would be difficult to use conventional means against them without harming law-abiding citizens.

While I would not want to identify these nations, journalists and interested members of the public can use Google or other AI tools to help reveal them.

It is also wrong for Mr Sowore to call our government and military weak.

For his education, Mr Sowore may want to know that Nigeria has a better military record than most nations, and has decisively brought peace and stabilised several countries, beginning from the Congo in 1960, to Tanzania in 1964, to Lebanon in 1978, and then via ECOMOG in the Mano River region (Liberia, Sierra Leone, etc.) between 1991 and 2006.

Our military has also helped restore democratically elected governments in places like São Tomé and Príncipe and others.

When Nigeria’s armed forces intervened in those nations, they did not tamper with or in any way weaken the sovereignty of those countries or their governments. In fact, we were invited either by the countries themselves, the United Nations, or regional bodies.

The Nigerian Armed Forces have a sterling military record as a dependable fighting unit.

In fact, due to their superior training, Nigerian military personnel have served as Chiefs of Army Staff in other nations.

However, when you are fighting cowardly terrorists that weave in and out of civilian populations, you need the help of those with precision targeting capabilities.

What Mr Sowore and others like him may not be aware of is that no single nation has ever defeated terror on its own. It takes international effort.

Mr Sowore has himself admitted receiving funding from multiple US funding agencies. Based on his admission, should that mean he is a foreign puppet, unfit to aspire to leadership in Nigeria?

Of course not!

If Omoyele Sowore and others like him have anger over what has happened, please let it be directed at the terrorists and their sponsors, who have killed many Nigerians of all faiths and ethnicities and disrupted communities, while preventing honest and hardworking Nigerians from going about their lawful activities.

Projecting anger at anything that will bring relief and succour to those Nigerians most affected by terror is not patriotic, no matter how much some try to cloak it in such terms.

Advertisements

The priority is to protect the lives and properties of Nigerians by any legal and moral means necessary and possible.

If, indeed, people have any influence at all, that sway should not be used to cause dissension and turn some Nigerians against their leaders. Rather, it should be used to get those terrorists to turn a new leaf, drop their weapons, embrace peace, and show fidelity to the Nigerian flag and Constitution.

May God bless Nigeria.