The invasion of Iraq in 2003 could have been avoided if not for false propaganda by both Iraq and the United States of America. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks of 2001 by Al-Qaed , America set out to punish any country suspected of ties to the terrorist group or any “hostile” nation with any iota of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The U.S. under President George W. Bush fingered Iraq and sought for inspection of the Arab nation by a team from the United Nations.
Instead of allowing the inspection to take place, which would have ultimately revealed no connection to Al-Qaeda or WMD, Iraq barked back with a primitive avalanche of propaganda, claiming military invincibility and wizardry, as well as a barrage of mockery and insults. The symbol of this propaganda was Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf.
Nicknamed “Baghdad Bob” by the Western press during the conflict, al-Sahhaf was the loquacious rabble rouser who doubled as the Iraqi Information Minister under Saddam Hussein. Despite the reality and the magnitude of an unfolding war, which was clear to all and sundry, his daily press briefings painted a totally different picture. The deception was ridiculously intense, blatant, defiant, and so hilarious to the point that people in the United Kingdom further nicknamed him “Comical Ali”.
The deluge of deception quickly swayed the world opinion against Iraq. People then began to believe that the Arab country might have been hiding something after all. And America struck.
History may never repeat itself in a precise sense, but it can show similar patterns that provide useful lessons for the future.
The Federal Government of Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari at various times admitted the presence of coordinated killings in the country that fit the definitions of Christian genocide. In one instance, February 2020 to be specific, its official spokesperson, Lai Mohammed stated as follows:
“The insurgents have apparently changed their strategy. They have started targeting Christians and Christian villages for a specific reason, which is to trigger a religious war and throw the nation into chaos.”
The Buhari regime did not suggest that Muslim extremists were not killing Muslims nor Christians not killing Christians in the Nigerian society. But the government was able to crystallize the aspect of the mass killings that were targeted against the Christian faith.
Such official statements of fact are available in virtually every intel literature on Christian genocide. The killings by Islamic extremists remain a daily phenomenon. The world is awash with the gory images. Sadly, the carnage has continued to escalate under President Bola Tinubu.
This common knowledge informed the decision of the United States of America under President Donald J. Trump to label Nigeria once again a Country of Particular Concern.
Emboldened by his winning campaign promise to protect Christians everywhere, Trump challenged the African nation to decimate the terrorists or expect the American military to come in and do so. The U.S. President has also heightened the warning amidst daily incidents of abductions of Catholic school children this last week of November.
Yes, the Trump threat is generally controversial. Yet, like the Iraqi pattern before the American invasion in 2003, instead of a clear agenda on how to tackle the menace or simply embrace the American military alternative, the Nigerian regime quickly produced an Iraqi-style propaganda that suggests gross duplicity.
But, unlike the case of Iraq, where Sadam Hussein was content with one Bagdad Bob for disinformation, President Tinubu is confronting America with an army of his own “Baghdad Bob” who are solely motivated by either pecuniary purposes or sheer political expediency. These Nigerian Baghdad Bobs are many, dubious, and purposely selected–from the East, North, South, and West. But none is more barefaced than these:
Charles Chukwuma Soludo (TBKA: the Anuofia of Osuofia): The current governor of Anambra State is an egocentric intellectual cum pathological false peddler with a blazing megaphone. Faced with a constant fear for the possibility of the state re-opening a case of massive corruption against him while at the Central Bank, Soludo is known to say anything or do anything, no matter how mindless, just to appease any ruling party of the day. It is not surprising, therefore, that he would downplay the Christian persecution by comparing the killings in the predominantly Christian region of Southeast Nigeria to the killings in the Middle Belt. The Middle Belt region, by the way, is the very epicenter, where every credible research has shown that over 10,000 Christians were slaughtered from the time Tinubu took office in 2023 to date.
Dele Alake is another high-ranking Baghdad Bob. A career journalist and very close confidant of President Tinubu, Alake is an agent-provocateur and politicaster, who doubles as the spiritual poster boy for the ruling party’s systemic cronyism that has deepened corruption and administrative failures. It is of a particular interest that the newsman is the current Minister of Solid Minerals. This ministry oversees the mining sites of Northwest Nigeria where the Chinese and their local collaborators are openly using a combination of bandits and helicopters to facilitate the stealing of national minerals. The very nature and style of the operation provoked the intel chief in the Senate, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, to not only suggest state complicity but he also slammed the Tinubu regime for missing in action.
Clearly, any foreign intervention must beam powerful lights to the insurgency in the mining localities of the Northwest. Therefore, Mr. Alake is bound to divert attention by peddling what has become the most coveted narrative of the regime, which is to blame the “opposition”, loop in the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) as the sole voice behind the American ultimatum, and stretch it to a plot for secession. The politics is to bank on an expired perception that any nuanced opposition to any IPOB activity would earn a resounding support from the Muslim North.
There are other notable members of the Tinubu army of Baghdad Bob, some of whom helped to register the notion of Christian persecution to the ears of the outside world but who are today double speaking. This includes his street echo-chambers, particularly Daniel Bwala, Femi Fani Kayode, and Reno Omokri. Lest we forget, Omokri is the same character that had nicknamed the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) as “anti-Christ”.
Tinubu’s outright mockery of common sense is tempting the threshold of the Iraqi pattern of mass deception. Billions are being wasted to deploy foreign lobbyists and a galaxy of Nigerian officials on propaganda campaigns to America. The optics is that Bola Ahmed Tinubu is attempting to defeat Donald Trump in the United States by proving him wrong with fake news. INSANITY is an English word!
In short, it is foolhardy to ever imagine that Trump America will trust any information provided by a delegation from a country her termed “disgraced nation”. As expected, the outcome of the so-called high-powered delegation is an embarrassing failure. It has done nothing but expose Tinubu’s ignorance on the world stage and has further provoked Trump.
Nigeria must not be another Iraq. The insecurity is worsening day by day. Instead of squandering scarce resources on politics and propaganda, now is time for action. President Tinubu should forget 2027–for now and focus on the job at hand. Devise and publish a clear and serious plan of action. Demonstrate that you can truly decimate the terrorists without foreign intervention–or resign quietly.
*SKC Ogbonnia writes from Houston, Texas, U.S.A
