A former governorship candidate of Labour Party in Lagos, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, has slammed the Nigerian president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, over impending military action against Niger Republic.
Recall that President Tinubu has written to the Senate seeking its support for military intervention against the military junta in Niger Republic. He also sought the backing of the legislature on cutting off electricity to the country.
Rhodes-Vivour claimed that he had sworn allegiance to only Nigeria and that the president was interfering in what didn’t concern him.
He wrote:
Unlike some, i have only one passport and have sworn no allegiance to any other state. Nigeria is all I have.
A war with a people who appear to be uniting around a common interest, seeking economic freedom and a departure from over bearing western influence will have very dire consequences for our image as a regional power and could pose much graver security threats. Their alliance in the footprint of the ancient songhai empire is not by accident, their fight is also ideological with the memory of Thomas Sankara being evoked.
For several years in recent times, we have seen both political and military leaders send patriotic soldiers to war illequiped and with very little remuneration while they reward themselves with vanities.We are still grappling with major insecurity as a result of the destabilization of Libya by France and its Allies, and because Africa did not present a United front, west africa is paying the price for that destabilization.
Forget the fact that we have serious internal security challenges that is stretching our military, or the fact that our economy is in a parlous state, how does it make sense that Nigeria wants to lead an effort to spill the blood of people who are seeking emancipation?
We must focus on a diplomatic solution. Nigeria cannot afford to be enmeshed in a war and we must stand against international destabilization of the region, if we don’t, it will be a mess we will eventually clean up and pay dearly for, ask Libya.
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