Chidi Amuta

Donald Trump’s gunboat foreign policy of unguarded words and unguided targeting has taken aim at a difficult target: Nigeria. Nigeria is in the gunsights. But it is a wrong choice. Nigeria is huge, complex, amorphous and a geo strategic nightmare. Though divided by diverse faiths and cultures, Nigerians have, curiously, after over six decades emerged as one people. We are united by our defects and strengths. Interestingly, the most unique uniting factor among Nigerians is the co-existence of the world’s two dominant religions as a permanent and axiomatic reality. We value our tenous reality but are forever looking out for each other especially when confronted by a common external adversary.

In the past one and half decades, violence and death have become part of our new normal. Boko Haram and allied religious groups have killed many. Free-lance criminals and casual killers have claimed many casualties.  The dead are both Christians, Muslims and innocent bystanders. Many Nigerians have died from causes other than their faith. In Nigeria’s persisting insecurity people die traveling to seek life. Others die on their way to the farm. Some also die on their way to and from work in cities.

Characterizing Nigeria’s killing industry as anti-Christian genocide is ignorant and mischievous. Nigeria has a problem of safety of life irrespective of where you face to worship. Insecurity has made the country dangerous for people irrespective of faith and affiliation. Violence and unplanned death follows people around the country. Mostly in the mid sections of the country, frictions over land resources and grazing space have degenerated into mass killings among rival communities. Settled farmers get killed defending their farmland and crops. Herders kill and get killed for grazing spaces for their cattle. Matters of faith are inextricably tied to these issues of economic survival. In a dominantly Muslim and Christian nation, it is easy to see religious dominance in nearly every crisis.

Those Nigerians excited about the prospect of a US intervention had better think again. Let us go beyond Trump’s showmanship and bluster. America has deep interests behind this threat. Direct access to Nigeria’s over 30 billion barrels of oil means something to America’s imperial mind set. Our gas supply is an attraction as well. Vast deposits of all kinds of minerals including rare earth minerals is an additional irresistible allure. Our market is vast with close to 300 million people. The competing Chinese presence in our economy is big, expanding and enviable.

For a global power with a huge appetite for spheres of influence and limitless resources, the US cannot ignore Nigeria for too long. China as a competing influence in Nigeria may have vast economic influence and interest in Nigeria. But it will not go beyond cheap loans and infrastructure contracts. Its foreign policy avoids the commitment of Chinese military forces outside China. The Chinese will sell you guns and teach you how to operate them but they will not send their soldiers to die in tropical forests and open savannahs.

America has no acumen for fixing nations. Though exceptional in self-healing, America cannot fix other lands. Even under its best leaders, America is best at ruining those nations where it intervenes abroad. Even with the best intentions, America has never been a nation builder. Vietnam, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq, Libya…Syria…have all been ruined by American military intervention. Kuwait saw the danger of prolonged American presence and opted to treat the Americans as liberation contractors. Kuwait paid them $16 billion (49 billion in today’s value) in cash to get out fast after liberating them from Saddam Hussein.

In all cases, any land visited by American intervention forces ceases to exist or is destroyed for decades. America’s embrace is a hug of death. No nation touched by it remains whole again. Even those it now claims as ‘friends’ and allies are merely convalescents from that embrace of death. Japan and South Korea are lands mortality injured by the lethal American embrace. Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two of the world’s most vast killing reminders ever are indelible. Lives damaged by the scalds of war remain as reminders of this lethal embrace. And successive American regimes still call Japan ‘friend’ of America? And they stage an annual memorial to remind the Japanese of that baptism of blood. With a friend like that, who needs an enemy?

America starts out in a foreign escapade pretending a messianic role. It takes what it wants from the invaded territory and quits later in disarray. The escape from Saigon and Kabul are instructive. Today, the trumpeted savior of nations can hardly save itself. America is today a broken giant. It is a shadow of itself, now a museum of its founders’ democratic ideals. It has murdered democracy, diversity and justice while waiting on the queue for admission into the league of Third World authoritarian nations.

The US threat to intervene militarily in Nigeria ostensibly to protect Nigerian Christians is a typical Trump fake narrative. The inventor of ‘fake news’ is wrong as usual. Nigerian Christians are not under a genocidal threat. Yes Nigerian Christian’s have fallen victim to Nigeria’s embarrassing insecurity especially in the hands of Boko Haram and allied Sahelian jihadist terrorists. So also have other innocent Nigerians who neither go to mosque or church. Churches and mosques have been bombed. Terrorists have attacked and stormed markets, places of worship and homes. The killers are fundamentalist jihadists as well as casual bandits and other criminals taking advantage of an atmosphere of lax security.

The most organized club of killers in Nigeria happens to be Boko Haram and its successor affiliates. Boko Haram is a fundamentalist religious group but its aims are beyond faith and sect. It has killed many people irrespective of faith. They are territorial and pseudo civilizational in a decadent sense. Their nuisance and disruptive impact spread throughout the Sahel: Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Niger, Chad etc. The same America set up the Africa Command of the US Central Command (AFRICOM) to help fight Jihadists in the Sahel with little result to date.

The threat of war on Nigeria over this alleged anti-Christian genocide is therefore one among Trump’s obsessions with wars and shooting. He had bombed Iran, is currently shooting randomly at boats suspected to be ferrying narcotics gangs off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia. He and his adolescent secretary of defense have renamed the Department of Defense as ‘Department of war’: how childish?. These are the actions of a president who openly hustled a few months ago for the Nobel Peace Prize.  The pursuit of global peace through sporadic and indiscriminate foolish unprovoked acts of war is the path of a deranged king!

In the unlikely event however of a US military intervention in Nigeria, the invaders will find many opponents. China has openly expressed its opposition. The EU has said it stands by Nigeria. in Nigeria itself, the following array of adversaries are waiting: the Nigerian military whose jobs would be on the line, Muslims who would find support from Middle East radical groups, ordinary Nigerians whose reality would be disrupted

The avoidable implications of a direct US intervention would therefore be immense and immediate. Nigeria as the world has come to know it will cease to exist. It would be a military catastrophe and humanitarian disaster of the greatest magnitude in history. The out flux of refugees from Nigeria will overwhelm West Africa, Western Europe and even the US. The lesson of our history is that Nigerians are best left alone in their land to sort out their problems.

Direct US military intervention will in addition neutralize Nigeria’s residual capacity for internal cohesion. The military will be destroyed along with the police, State security and other structures. Over 300 million people in more than 250 ethnic affiliations will be unleashed without order, controls and a government. A quantum of hunger, poverty and unrivaled lawlessness will create the world’s most dangerous territorial space. Sheer anarchy unleashed by the greed of an unguarded super power and the ineptitude of foolish political elite at home. Thomas Hobbes could never have imagined so hopeless a state of nature. The killings that the Americans came to end will then know no boundaries: Christians killing Muslims and Vice versa, the poor killing the rich, inter-ethnic militias clashing, lawless youth squads roaming the streets and butchering even the American messianic invaders. The messiahs will turn into evil villains and the victims of yesterday will become aggressors. An uncontrollable racketeering in black market arms will thrive. Eventually, the Americans will flee at the sight of the mess Trump will have gotten them into. Trump’s greatest legacy will be Armageddon in Africa!

The rich Nigerian Christian leaders who have funded this anti Nigerian lobby together with their Christian Evangelical right wing collaborators in America need to understand the full implications of what they are about to set off.

Similarly, the bulk of the Nigerian diaspora who are celebrating the Trump ‘support’ need to have their heads re-examined. Home would be on fire and unrecognizable. No one in their right mind will look forward to home when it is a ruin of war. Only insane people openly call for their homestead t be turned into a theatre of war.

There is a diplomatic way out. Tinubu should speak with Trump the way Zelensky has been doing. Humor the tyrant and his huge ego. Quickly appoint a diplomatic liaison to engage with Washington on this misperception.

For the Nigerian political class, the hour calls for greater seriousness. Running from pillar to post in search of excuses among themselves will not help the politicians. In not guaranteeing security, the government has failed. The most elementary responsibility of a state is to guarantee the security 0f all who live within of life and property of all in its sovereign space. The concept of territorial integrity of the state makes no room for the existence of ‘ungoverned spaces’. A nation that allows for ungovernable spaces to the extent of negotiating boundaries of sovereignty with criminal contestants of power has lost it all. The most fundamental definition of sovereignty is total unconditional command and control of the entire national territory and all that goes on within it.

The National Assembly needs to quit being a conclave of overpaid entertainers. It needs to stiffen the penalties for terrorism, crimes in religious locations, crimes motivated by faith. Existing inter faith bodies need to be reinforced and strengthened. Governors of states with inter religious clashes need to legislate boundaries which should be temporarily manned by national security personnel 24/7.

On the general governance front, there is work to be urgently done. The Defense establishment response should now be more specialized and time bound with performance deadlines and targets. Tenure of commanders and service chiefs should be tied to performance. The military option open to both Nigeria and the US is not invasion or senseless air strikes. It is collaboration in training and intelligence gathering. Nigeria needs US assistance to overcome its insecurity. The US needs a safe, fair and stable Nigeria to better understand the emerging Africa.

Dr Chidi Amuta, a leading Nigerian intellectual and public affairs commentator, writes from Lagos.

Chidi Amuta

Drought of inspiration and content is the occasional affliction of every writer. Every newspaper columnist, creative writer or content provider experiences that moment of drought when you can think of nothing in particular to dwell on. You do not feel like writing or creating anything. It is either that the reality around you has become so overwhelming that you feel a powerlessness in words or ideas. It might be that the reality of the society unfolding before your eyes is so commonplace that you risk repeating yourself on issues of common concern. At such moments, the creative energy of those who have gone before evaporates into the futility of words when only transformative action will do. Why waste our time with words? Maybe, the recourse to words is the fall back of the weak, those who have surrendered to the crushing weight of a reality they cannot change.  Talkatives are perhaps the most despicable of cowards.

In times of emptiness and creative drought, the reality of experience evaporates into a nagging anger with the self. Yet there are many out there who derive daily energy and awakening from the few words that we string together once a week. Our power derives from that sporadic inspiration which we lend to the many who have come to see us as spokespersons of history in motion.  Over time, people crown us in inflated titles: ‘renowned writer’, ‘leading columnist’. And we begin to see ourselves as bearers of power and partakers in a realm of power. In reality, we do little for anyone other than our ego. We may even be deceiving ourselves with the illusion that anyone out there is listening to us. In reality, we may be a squad of nattering nuisance. Ayi Kwei Armah calls us “communicators doomed to silence”.

Nigeria can kill creativity. It can drain life out of creative energy. Our land can drain the spirit of even the most fecund imagination. Nigeria can also be fertilizer for arid minds. Its negativity can feed you content. The same things keep happening over and over. People assume high office with Oluwole certificates. Empty people assume positions of incredible power and authority and dress themselves in fancy titles and accolades. A less than mediocre person who insists on being called “Your Excellency”! They actually get sworn in by a judge with either a Bible or a Koran. They invite guests including officiating clergy to eulogize them and say flowery prayers about their ascendancy to Mount Zion. ‘And the ubiquitous traditional rulers are in attendance always. They invoke the spirit of illustrious ancestors to bear witness to a drama of emptiness, fraud and falsehood. No one knows exactly how much their royal eminences are paid as consultancy fees. But believe me, they are paid transport fare, return business class air ticket, two nights’ accommodation in a five star hotel, and rented limousine for ground transportation. No one knows what else accompanies the generosity of such ancestral hospitality. Those who act on behalf of ancestors must speak in whispers.

This is not exactly about traditional rulers and ambassadors of our ancestors. It is about a nation consumed by the fetish of power and superstition. It is also about a writer lost in the maze of finding meaning in a wilderness when the days are empty when the muse takes flight and you feel like phoning the Editor to fill the page with something else. I call them hungry days.

On such days, I have devised two means of filling my column and finding readers who, like me, are thinking of nothing in particular. It is either I reflect on the state of the nation in my periodic “How Country?” pieces or I head for the Barber’s shop at the street junction in Ikeja. In the Barber’s shop, you never run out of content. Forget the anachronism of a seventy something year old man without much hair left heading into the Barber’s shop all the time. He is either out to mock himself or the Barber! Either way, the Barber gets paid for his “services”. The Barber’s shop down the road is strategically located at the junction that leads nowhere and everywhere. You get your direction to wherever you want from the shop. It leads to the market, the garage, the airport, the jail house, the police station, the army cantonment from where they used to truck innocent men to the Bar Beach to be executed for doing exactly what they cannot remember.

Most importantly, the Barbershop is everything. It is a parliament of the unelected, a library of illiterate walking encyclopedia, a Wikipedia with 24-hour on duty staffers, human mines of extant information. Most times, a good half of the occupants do not need a barber. I understand they pay for their “seats” to spend the day as information warehouses. Some of these men have travelled all over the world in pursuit of careers as diverse as you know what: stewards on ships from Burma to Gold Coast, soldiers in the West African Frontier force, ex cooks for colonial officers, valets for politicians, laundry men for the underpants of politicians’ whores. There were men here who had worked on boats that travelled regularly from Liverpool to Bombay. There were soldiers and sea farers, policemen retired because they had become useless at the checkpoint because the tolls they collected were no longer enough to make returns to their bosses. Just people. One man used to be armed with a week old newspaper under his armpit from which he reeled off stories that mixed fiction with rumor and speculation.

At the Barber’s shop, you listen with your ears to the ground. The current stories are mixed with anecdotes from long ago. One minister has just been asked to resign his lucrative post for presenting the President with university degree certificates that he bought at Oluwole in Lagos and paid with counterfeit dollars! Someone interjected that the matter of bad certificates is not strange in these parts and times. Someone once showed up here to ask if the Big Man himself has shown us his certificates. No one even knows the schools he attended. All the schools he is said to have attended have all denied him. He even flew in a ‘former class mate whom he introduced with fanfare. One crackhead proved with figures that the classmate was a fraud. No one knows how the man left town and never showed up again.

 Another minister was sacked for not even having the decency of dignifying the government with any credentials. When the time comes, we shall all line up for a certificate pageant! After all, one big man swore to an affidavit that his old NEPA bill was a school certificate issued by a Sunday school even though the big man himself was a devout Muslim. What fake certificates will do in Nigeria is wearing a fez cap!

Once upon a time, one fine woman became a minister in this land. No certificate. No referrals. No work experience. She was escorted into the Senate chambers for hearings. “What is the first line of the National Anthem?”: ‘Arise O Computerite; Nigeria we hail thee…” They asked her to take a bow and be seated! She was “Minister for End of Poverty.” Three months later, news broke that the poverty she alleviated was only hers! She paid all the money meant for the poor into her friend’s private account. They asked her to go quietly after a courtesy call at the EFCC!

We live in exciting times. It is the age of anonymity. The President is a ghost. No one knows or has seen a photograph of his father. The woman he calls ‘mother’ is not around to tell her own story. No one knows his school mates, class mates, university mates…

In this age, ignorance is bliss and peace of mind. If you seek knowledge, go to court!

                                                  **********

When I arrived the Barber’s shop, there was excitement. Some new gist must follow. In times of excitement, the Barber’s shop graduated into an emergency beer parlour. Booze for all!!! Was my way of announcing my return after a long absence!

Dr Chidi Amuta, is a renowned Nigerian intellectual and a public affairs commentator. He writes from Lagos, Nigeria  

Baba Yunus Muhammad

As global wealth, technology, and trade shift eastward, the balance of the world economy is being rewritten. Can this transformation lead to a fairer, more cooperative global order — or will it reproduce the old inequalities in a new direction?

For more than a century, global economic power has been firmly anchored in the West. From Wall Street to the City of London, Western economies dictated the terms of trade, finance, and industrial progress. But in the past twenty years, that dominance has eroded. The gravitational center of the world economy is quietly — and now unmistakably — moving eastward. Across Asia, new centers of production, innovation, and consumption are rising, redrawing the economic map and redefining the balance of global influence.

The numbers tell the story plainly. The group of emerging economies known as BRICS — driven largely by China and India — has overtaken the advanced industrial nations of the G7 in their share of global GDP. Two decades ago, the G7 produced nearly half of global output; today, its share has fallen below 30 percent. BRICS+, now enlarged with new members, contributes over 35 percent and continues to grow. This marks more than a statistical milestone — it represents a fundamental rebalancing of power, as the long-standing Western dominance of capital and influence gives way to an increasingly multipolar economic order.

The same pattern appears in trade flows. The G7’s share of global merchandise exports has dropped from nearly 45 percent in 2000 to below 30 percent today. Meanwhile, the BRICS+ nations have more than doubled their share. China and India, once seen primarily as low-cost manufacturing hubs, are now central players in high-value industries, digital innovation, and services. Their economies are not merely expanding in scale; they are evolving in sophistication, integrating deeply into global supply chains and improving productivity across sectors.

Asia’s financial power underscores this shift even more clearly. The region now holds more than two-thirds of the world’s foreign exchange reserves — a striking indicator of self-sufficiency and resilience. China’s holdings alone exceed three trillion dollars, and other major Asian economies such as Japan, India, and South Korea maintain formidable reserves. These surpluses are not idle; they fund global infrastructure through initiatives like the Belt and Road, which spans more than 150 countries. This has made China the largest single source of outbound foreign direct investment, a position the West held unchallenged for much of the past century.

The rise of Asia is also social and technological. More than half of the world’s middle class now lives in Asia, driving a surge in consumer spending that shapes global demand. From mobile technology and artificial intelligence to renewable energy and fintech, Asian nations are setting the pace of innovation. China alone files more international patents annually than the United States and the European Union combined. The technological rivalry between the U.S. and China symbolizes this broader realignment: the struggle for digital dominance reflects a deeper contest over who will define the future of the global economy.

“The world does not need a different hegemony; it needs a different ethic — one rooted in shared prosperity, stewardship, and justice.”

This transformation presents both opportunity and uncertainty. A world with multiple centers of economic power could be more inclusive and resilient — but only if cooperation replaces confrontation. The growing interdependence of economies means that sustainable progress now depends on deliberate collaboration between East and West. Such cooperation must go beyond traditional trade and investment pacts. It should aim to reduce inequality, strengthen global resilience, and embed sustainability at every level of economic policy.

Global tax coordination could prevent the erosion of public revenues, while harmonized labor and environmental standards could make trade fairer. Integrating the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris climate commitments into trade and finance frameworks would align growth with human welfare and environmental balance. These are not only moral imperatives; they are economic necessities for a planet under strain.

Inclusive growth must become the new paradigm. Fair trade agreements should open markets not just for multinationals but also for small producers, women entrepreneurs, and marginalized communities. Access to technology and innovation should be democratized through affordable digital and green technology transfers. Financing models such as green bonds, climate funds, and Islamic sukuk instruments can channel capital toward ethical, inclusive development. Islamic finance, rooted in justice and partnership, offers a model that reconciles profitability with purpose — an approach the broader global economy can learn from.

Building capacity and sharing knowledge are equally crucial. Collaborative research on climate adaptation, food security, and digital transformation can help developing nations chart their own path to sustainable growth. Expanding South-South cooperation and managed labor mobility would enable both sending and receiving nations to benefit from global migration and skills exchange. Such mutual cooperation reflects the Qur’anic principle of ta‘awun — working together in righteousness and shared benefit — which is as relevant to modern economics as it is to faith.

Yet, true inclusivity also requires reforming global governance. Institutions like the IMF, World Bank, and WTO must evolve to reflect today’s economic realities, giving developing countries greater voice and agency. A fairer system of representation and decision-making would restore confidence in multilateralism and prevent the fragmentation of global trade into competing blocs. In Islamic economic thought, governance is an amanah — a sacred trust. That trust demands equity, transparency, and justice at all levels of global interaction.

Africa stands at the crossroads of this new economic geography. Positioned between East and West, it has the potential to shape — not just follow — the trajectory of global development. But to do so, the continent must invest boldly in its digital and technological future. Without digital infrastructure, data capabilities, and skilled human capital, Africa risks being left behind as the next industrial revolution unfolds. National strategies for broadband, data centers, artificial intelligence, and STEM education are essential foundations for competitiveness.

At the same time, African nations must ensure that economic growth remains broad-based and inclusive. Investment in education, healthcare, and skills training must be viewed as productive capital — not social expenditure. True development must serve the common good, or maslahah, ensuring that wealth uplifts communities and reinforces social justice.

Geopolitically, Africa’s strategic position makes it a key player in the emerging world order. It can use its membership in BRICS+ and other multilateral frameworks to advocate for fairer trade, technology transfer, and infrastructure investment. The continent should pursue balanced engagement with both East and West — welcoming investment from all partners while maintaining autonomy over its developmental vision. Chinese financing through the Belt and Road Initiative and Western capital in green energy and manufacturing should be leveraged with transparency, mutual benefit, and sustainability in mind.

The shift from West to East, then, is not merely a redistribution of wealth or production. It signals a profound transformation in how global power and values interact. For the Muslim world — stretching from North Africa to Southeast Asia — this moment carries special significance. The principles of Islamic economics, long neglected in mainstream policy, offer a moral and practical compass for the emerging order: an economy based on justice, moderation, cooperation, and shared prosperity.

If guided wisely, the rise of the East can herald not another cycle of dominance, but a rebalancing of ethics and purpose in global economics. The challenge before us is not to celebrate the end of Western supremacy, but to ensure that what replaces it is more humane, inclusive, and just. The new global economy must reflect the values of stewardship and fairness that Islam envisions — where prosperity is a collective good, not a zero-sum prize.

“As global power tilts eastward, the measure of progress will not be who leads, but how that leadership serves humanity.”

Author Bio

Baba Yunus Muhammad is the President of the Africa Islamic Economic Forum and a political and economic analyst with a focus on sustainable development, global trade, and Islamic economics. He writes regularly on issues of economic justice, governance, and the intersection of faith and finance.