The Federal Government’s dismissive response to international criticism over Nigeria’s insecurity and spate of killings shows a government more obsessed with pride and propaganda than with protecting its people.
President Bola Tinubu’s defensive reaction to Donald Trump’s “Country of Particular Concern” remark misses the point entirely.
The U.S. warning shouldn’t have angered the government.
Rather, it should have awakened it to a crisis Nigerians have endured for too long.
Despite the mischiefs attributed to the labelling, it is at best a wake-up call, not an insult.
Operators of our federal government appears dangerously out of touch with the brutal reality Nigerians face daily.
President Tinubu is surrounded by aides and allies who feed him empty praise rather than truth.
He seems unaware that the “Renewed Hope” slogan has long turned into renewed hopelessness for most citizens—an endless grind of fear, hunger, and despair and death.
It is shameful and deeply embarrassing that it took a remark from a foreign leader to momentarily focus our government’s attention on Nigeria’s security collapse.
As one commentator aptly put it: “If it takes Donald Trump to rattle Tinubu and his government into securing lives, I don’t care if it’s Christian lives, Muslim lives, or traditionalists’ lives.
“What matters is that the killings and kidnappings must stop.”
Trump’s threat — a reflection
Whether the administration wants to hear it or not, Trump’s comments reflect the frustration and despair millions of Nigerians feel today.
When the noise and the chest-thumping from “food-is-ready” loyalists fade, they will hopefully realize that the U.S. President’s warning is not an insult but a wake-up call.
It’s a demand that the Nigerian government finally confront the unchecked violence, mass kidnappings, and senseless killings ravaging the nation.
Nigeria is bleeding.
From Plateau to Zamfara, Benue to Borno, Kaduna to Kebbi etc. the nation has become a graveyard of innocent men, women, and children.
Like it or not, Trump’s remarks reflect the frustration, pain, and despair of millions of Nigerians who feel abandoned by a government that seems to exist only for itself.
For many Nigerians, survival now matters more than politics.
Any pressure, domestic or foreign, that forces the government to protect lives and restore hope should be embraced, not condemned.
In truth, many citizens are silently praying that God might even use outsiders to push their leaders to act.
President Tinubu and his team should not see Trump’s statement as an attack, but as a reminder to do what they were elected to do: secure the nation and protect its people.
Nigerians are desperate for peace, safety, and dignity.
It’s time for the government to move beyond promises and photo ops to real, measurable action.
Sovereignty not empty pride
The official line that “Nigeria is a sovereign nation and cannot be threatened” is as hollow as it is misguided.
Sovereignty is not about empty pride — it is about the government’s capacity to protect its citizens and uphold justice.
Sovereignty means nothing when citizens live like captives in their own country.
As Emmanuel Omoko aptly observed: “A sovereign state is not one where a president suspends elected officers at will.
“It is not a country that borrows endlessly to fund political comfort. Nor is it one where non-state actors kill and kidnap with impunity.”
A truly sovereign state does not let entire communities pay levies to foreign bandits before they can farm, trade, or live in peace.
Nor does it use its police and the military primarily to guard politicians and oil pipelines while ordinary citizens die in the streets and forests.
Don’t let anybody use sovereignty to gaslight you.
Sovereign nations don’t hold peace talks with terrorists/bandits who occupy territories in the said sovereignty nation.
A sovereign nation doesn’t reward criminals/terrorists with appointments and overseas scholarships.
In saner countries, Trump’s statement might have provoked outrage on patriotic grounds.
But in Nigeria, only political jobseekers and data boys are protesting.
Is foreign intervention necessary?
Ordinary Nigerians, exhausted by years of slaughter, quietly agree with Trump—because they are desperate for anything that might finally hold their leaders accountable.
That’s the tragedy: Nigerians have been so battered that many would even welcome foreign intervention if it meant an end to the killings.
That alone tells you how far we’ve fallen from the true meaning of sovereignty.
With Trump in the White House, Tinubu should brace for intense diplomatic scrutiny.
The United States will press harder on human rights and security.
International media will revive the same haunting narratives that the APC used to dogged Goodluck Jonathan’s government.
And the opposition will seize every chance to brand Tinubu as complicit in the violence he once promised to end.
The government people should know this and know peace!
The world is no longer moved by propaganda or media spins. The first duty of any government is to protect its people.
If Tinubu cannot secure lives and restore peace, what else does anybody expect him to achieve.
Nigeria’s insecurity is not a regional or partisan problem anymore; it is a national shame.
The blood of the innocent—Christians and Muslims alike—cries out louder than any political slogan or media spins.
And for anyone still doubting the scale of this tragedy, one can only pray they experience even a glimpse of the fear and trauma millions of Nigerians live with daily.
“We earned it… we deserve it”
The truth is that it is not Donald Trump or the US Government that tagged or designated Nigeria as a “country of particular concern.”
It is the incompetent or rather dubious APC leadership of Presidents Muhammadu Buhari and Tinubu’s administrations that earned Nigeria this inglorious tag.
We earned it and we deserve it, period!
History has a cruel memory. In 2015, the APC exploited national tragedy to seize power.
In 2025, that same tragedy has returned in multiple folds, this time as a mirror reflecting its failures.
If President Tinubu refuses to wake up and act, the chaos he ignored will consume the legacy he hopes to build. Mark my word!
My honest counsel to the President is that Nigeria and the United States, as fellow democracies and long-standing strategic partners, cannot afford to let their alliance waver at a time like this.
What’s needed now is not finger-pointing or diplomatic grandstanding but urgent, constructive engagement to tackle the deepening security crises.
Both nations must act swiftly and in concert to restore peace and stability—before the situation slips further out of control. God bless Nigeria!
(IFEANYI IZEZE writes from Abuja. Contact: iizeze@yahoo.com; 234-8033043009)