Campbell as the new face of anti-Nigeria agenda

By Idoko Ainoko

In the last couple of years, it is conspicuously glaring to every Nigerian that external forces, which hates unity, togetherness and peace in Nigeria are seriously struggling to destabilize and break up the country. What is however unknown to many is the actual faces and identities of the foreign agents driving the anti-Nigeria agenda through unbearable violence or bloodshed.

And these forces have co-conspirators and collaborators within the country who are clandestinely sponsored to pursue the anti-people’s agenda. They are mostly disgruntled politicians and some thieving political elites who have lost a foothold on the levers of power today. They are angry for no justifiable reasons other than that their perpetual craft of milking Nigeria has been frustrated by President Muhammadu Buhari. So, they have vowed that Nigeria will never have peace.

Therefore, in active connivance with external agents, the internal agents are collectively pulling strings of destabilization and widespread anarchy in the country. They are sponsoring all manner of internal crises in Nigeria. Never in the history of Nigeria has any Government found it expedient to deploy soldiers to virtually every street in the country to assist the overpowered civil security in maintaining peace and security as it is obtainable now.

This is peace time and not wartimes in Nigeria. Ostensibly, Nigeria is not at war with any external aggressor. But unfortunately, soldiers of the Nigerian Army are currently deployed on Internal Security (IS) operations in at least 34 states in the country. Nigeria is nation of 36 states in addition to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

It’s incredible; but that’s the reality today. The situation is warranted by the lethal internal security challenges, which intensifies every day, in spite Government efforts to halt the drift. There are Boko Haram insurgents, armed bandits, armed militants, ethnic militias/warlords, armed robbers and kidnappers. There is also the security challenge of herdsmen/farmers conflagrations, ethnic genocide campaigners and the hordes of other such senseless violence in Nigeria.

There is no nation facing this magnitude of internal and violent expression of grievances would have peace. And those sponsoring the crises are Nigerians who have acquired illicit wealth over the years and now nurse indefinable grudges against the incumbent administration led by President Buhari.

Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello made a striking observation in the heat of the abduction of the Kankara schoolboys in Katsina state. The Governor canvassed the view that opposition politicians in Nigeria are responsible for the consuming violence in Nigeria. He advised Mr. President to direct heads of security agencies to now concentrate on identifying and prosecuting the wealthy Nigerians responsible ceaseless violence in the country. There is a deep sense in his statement.

The internal crisis entrepreneurs are proving strong and irrepressible because they have external backers. The external influencers of the trouble with Nigeria have tried over the years to shield themselves from public detection. But time resolves all mysteries.

Consequently, the external collaborators are beginning to unwittingly expose themselves in words or utterances. An American diplomat and the country’s former Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. John Campbell has boldly stepped out as the new face of the anti-Nigeria agenda. Campbell is a member of the think-tank of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and a Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa policy studies.

Campbell and his team in the CFR have been propagating very unsavoury lies and falsehoods on Nigeria. The tempo has apparently accentuated in the year 2020, which would roll to an end in the next few days. John Campbell has become a reckless pen activist on Nigeria.

He is an American elder statesman and supposedly, a global citizen. But his outing on Nigeria has always been steeped in controversies. In 2012, John Campbell was credited with statements predicting the break-up of Nigeria in 2015. When Nigerians challenged his position, he later profusely recanted his words. But it has not obviated the fact that it is his mindset and agenda manifest in consistent utterances canvassing this agenda.

In his latest story on the CFR blog, captioned “Darkness in Northern Nigeria,” John Campbell indulged in his favourite game of mouthing meaningless insinuations and insanities on the insecurities in Nigeria. Acting like a spy on Nigeria, Campbell accused the COAS and leader of the counter-insurgency operations in the country, Lt. Gen. TY Buratai of directing soldiers to treat every person in the dominant Boko Haran enclaves as a suspect until he identifies himself properly.

For a leader of John Campbell’s status, he resorted to unconfirmed sources to mouth the inanity on Nigeria and the Army Chief. His words that “An internal army communication obtained by the media exhorted Nigerian soldiers to treat all individuals in the region where Boko Haram is active as suspected jihadis until they are “properly identified,” pulsates with street reasoning.

Campbell cannot expect Nigeria to treat her internal security threats with the template of America or any other nation. All over the world, countries have peculiar ways or methods of treating their problems. But assuming what Campbell and his colleagues’ in CFR are vomiting is indeed, Gen. Buratai’s directive, what in their estimation is wrong with the statement?

Did the Army Chief give an untoward instruction? Did he say, anyone in the predominant Boko Haram areas should become a suspect and be extra-judicially executed by soldiers? His statement amounts to defending the jihadists against Nigeria. He has lived with this dream of the break-up of Nigeria and has now staged out openly to agitate for it.

John Campbell and his cahoots at the CFR must strive to understand the local realities in Nigeria, especially about communities embroiled in Boko Haram terrorism before making such thoughtless public comments. Everyone in Nigeria knows, an incredible number of persons in Boko Haram enclaves support the armed criminal gangs to commit the atrocities. They shield, shelter, and protect insurgents from the searchlight of security agents. Some community members are merchants of weapons, food and logistics suppliers to Boko Haram terrorists.

Therefore, if the Army decides to expand the web of identifying Boko Haram suspects, it surprising why it should become the nightmare of John Campbell and his partners in CFR. It is apparent that Campbell is deifying Boko Haram insurgents to embolden them to continue to hold Nigeria captive.

The plot is to allow these armed gangs and their agents free reign in Nigeria to the extent of provoking public revolt to cause Nigeria’s disintegration. John Campbell is the real darkness in Nigeria. That’s why himself and his job men are unleashing the darkness on Nigerians.

Ainoko is a public affairs analyst based in Kaduna.