Without consulting widely, President Muhammadu Buhari has committed Nigeria to the Saudi Arabia-promoted military alliance against terrorism. It is a move fraught with danger and reflects the President’s unfamiliarity with consensus-building and nuances of a democratic and diverse polity. It is an unholy coalition with a noxious motive. He should quickly pull Nigeria back from this dangerous alliance. We must not be part of it.
The President jolted the public by his declaration that Nigeria had joined the controversial Islamic Military Coalition Against Terrorism in an interview with Aljazeera. Earlier, he had tacitly dissociated Nigeria from the alliance when he told his hosts in Riyadh, “Even if we are not a part of it, we support you.” Now he says, “We are part of it because we’ve got terrorists in Nigeria that everybody knows, which claim that they are Islamic. So, if there’s an Islamic coalition to fight terrorism, Nigeria will be part of it because we’re casualties of Islamic terrorism.” This is alluring but is plain wrong-headed. A major foreign policy move ought to be debated and a decision taken only after consensus building.
Our first objection to this is his frequent choice of foreign soil to make major policy announcements. Why should Nigerians, including members of the National Assembly, have to tune to a foreign TV station to learn of such a strategic decision about their own country? This attitude is a dispiriting reminder of Nigerian rulers’ contemptuous and arrogant approach to governance. His justification for the move is equally obtuse. His dismissal of the concerns of non-Muslims is insensitive, too.
Let’s get specific. The alliance promoters, according to Saudi’s Deputy Crown Prince and Defence Minister, Mohammed bin Salman, said it was informed by the “keenness of the Muslim world to fight this disease (terrorism), which affected the Islamic world first, before the international community as a whole.” But Nigeria is neither a Muslim country nor a Christian state. Indeed, the whole world knows that the Saudis are involved in a high-powered battle for influence and supremacy with the Iranians. ISMAT is only the latest foreign policy tool deployed in the contest for supremacy between Sunni Islam and Shia Islam that has been raging since the seventh century.
If Saudi Arabia’s motive is sincere, why are Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Indonesia, which are Muslim countries, not part of the alliance? Iran and Iraq have majority Shia populations and Syria is led by the minority Alawite sect that is aligned to Shia Iran, underlining the sectarian rivalry at play. If, as Buhari said, Nigeria is joining because the coalition aims to fight ISIS and Boko Haram, the terrorist group operating in the North-East has pledged allegiance to ISIS, then Iraq and Syria should be the pivots since ISIS has carved out the “Islamic State” from the two countries who are the Saudis’ neighbours.
Saudi Arabia’s role in the sponsorship of terrorism is also unsettling many countries across the globe. And here are the facts. Wahhabism, a fundamentalist sect of Sunni Islam that inspired both the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and al-Qaeda, is also the official form of the religion in Saudi Arabia. A bipartisan commission on terrorism during the George Bush administration reported: “For years, individuals and charities based in Saudi Arabia have been the most important source of funds for al-Qaeda. And for years, Saudi officials have turned a blind eye to this problem.” Riyadh has also taken pleasure in recent ISIS-led Sunni advances against Iraq’s Shiite government, and in jihadist gains in Syria at Bashar al-Assad’s expense, according to United States-based think tank, the Washington Institute. Will Nigerian soldiers be deployed to fight Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen?
Not done, enraged Germany has publicly accused Saudi Arabia of financing Islamic extremism in the West and warned that it must stop. “Wahhabi mosques all over the world are financed by Saudi Arabia. Many Islamists who are a threat to public safety come from these communities in Germany,” a German spokesman said. German intelligence had once issued a rare public warning that Saudi Arabia is at risk of becoming a major destabilising force in the Arab world.
It is a grave mistake, therefore, for Buhari to conclude that Saudi Arabia is our ally in the war on Boko Haram terrorism. Nigeria is a secular state, a multi-religious polity where tensions and frequent bloody clashes have defined sectarian relationships, especially since 1986 when another insensitive administration smuggled the country into the Organisation of Islamic Conference. Rather than blame the mass media as the Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, sought to do, he must admit that his ministry has not sufficiently briefed the President about the complexity of global jihadist terrorism. His defence that the coalition seeks to prove that terrorism “has nothing to do with Islam” is equally bizarre.
Buhari should not allow the impression to gain ground that he allows his personal preferences to dictate national policy. A nation’s foreign policy should reflect its national aspirations, promote its security, economy and prestige and safeguard its strategic interests. Countries rely on expert advice in the bureaucracy and on think tanks. A president who goes it alone, as Buhari appears to be doing, could cause long term problems for his country. Experience should have tutored our leaders to steer clear of Saudi Arabia and Iran, two countries the International Institute of Strategic Studies and sundry think tanks have identified as major inspirations for terrorism. According to secret US diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks, “Saudi Arabia remains a critical support base for al-Qaeda, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups.” As America’s Secretary of State in 2009, Hillary Clinton said Saudi donors were the largest source of funding for terrorist groups worldwide.
Significantly, Saudi Arabia did not offer Nigeria significant assistance at the height of the Boko Haram insurgency. It was Western countries that offered to help. Indonesia, the world’s largest (Sunni) Islamic nation, has not joined as many of its nationals have in the past been executed by the Saudis who have beheaded 70 persons so far this year. The Saudi-Iran rivalry has exploded in Yemen and is unfolding in Syria.
We acknowledge that Buhari has been very effective in combating the Boko Haram menace and this move could be part of his determination to exterminate terrorists. However, geo-political reality dictates some caution. We expect our distracted parliament to stand up to the executive on this misadventure. A country’s foreign policy is not dictated by a kick-and-start reaction. Our national interests have always been Africa-centered and foreign policy decisions should always take our national and sectarian diversity into consideration. This government’s lack of clearly defined policy direction is becoming more troubling by the day. A vehicle of 170 million persons should have a destination and a road map.
We had a robust foreign policy in the past; from non-alignment, anti-colonialism to regional cooperation, medium powers and African development. We should sustain that legacy. The National Assembly, especially, should wake up from its slumber and responsibly engage the executive in promoting national interest.
Buhari should have a rethink and avoid the Saudis’ poisoned chalice.
