Over the last few days, Prof. Anthony Kila has been talking about Pres. Donald Trump’s recent threat to Nigeria. A few days ago Trump threatened to invade Nigeria to stop what he calls Christian Genocide. Prof. Kila is a foreign policy analyst who has studied Trump closely over time. And below, he reveals what Pres. Tinubu should tell Pres. Trump to douse the ongoing tension.
What do you think is the reason behind President Trump’s assertion?
We don’t know. Historically, he has put Nigeria on that list before, when he was president the first time. So he’s just come back and he is doing that again.
I think he has a worldview that is affected by 2 things. The People around him, and his own personality. The people around him, like Ted Cruz and some evangelistic people, who say the world is black and white. And Nigeria belongs to the dark side for them, for various reasons. So I think he’s afraid of that. Trump is also a very personal person.
He’s the kind of person who, if you tell him something, he believes immediately. As long as it’s not against him.
And he likes to fight. He likes to have an enemy to fight. He fits into a scenario of tough America outside there.
That’s why he said, We’re going there. That’s the kind of plan. He’s a typical person who has never been to war before who likes war.
Generals who have gone to war usually think twice before they talk about going to war. People who have not gone to war don’t say it that way. If you look at people who were part of the NADECO struggle, or people who were part of the Biafran war, they usually think it twice before they say, Let’s blow up the place.
But people who have not experienced it, jump at it. So it’s typical. So let me talk about the reason.
I think there’s a problem in our foreign policy. And here I go back to the Government. Somehow, we have not been able to conceptualise and articulate the strategic relationship with Trump’s America.
We should have forecasted that. How do you see the future? I mean, the Government should have thought: Who is Trump? What should we expect from him? We didn’t think about all these at all.
I think on that trip he made to America, unless they didn’t accept the Nigerian president’s request, he should have visited Trump, Asiwaju should have become his best friend in Africa. That’s who Trump is. He’s a very personal, very human kind of person.
If your country is a moderate country, if he likes you, he’s friends with you. And if your country is the same, he doesn’t like you, you’re in trouble. The British Prime Minister understands that. And he has developed that kind of relationship with him.
He’s gone to the US twice, I think. He invited him to see the King of England. You know, that’s thinking ahead.
We need to. Maybe we don’t have the clout of the British Prime Minister, but in our own world, we need to think a lot of ways out. And here, the lack of an Ambassador in the US is an issue as well. Those are little, little things that I don’t get.
Honestly, I don’t understand why we don’t have an Ambassador in the US. I say I don’t understand, instead of saying I’m against us having him, because I think the error is too clear. They shouldn’t be making such an error. So I think we have to look at it that way.
Some people have come up with the fact that Nigeria no longer has strong economic relations with the US, like it had before, like the way it does with France, China and other countries now. Can that also be part of the problems we have with Trump? What’s your take on this?
Well, in terms of economic relationships, we don’t have a lot to offer the US. We have to be very clear about it.
We have to tell ourselves the truth. We have People, but we don’t have Products. What is it that we’re giving America at the moment? Oil. They have oil.
They can get oil from elsewhere. Of course, they get some Oil, but we haven’t got anything. When Trump lifted the Tariffs, guess who was hit hard? Guess who became known? A small country called Lesotho.
Because they were doing Jeans. We don’t have anything to say. This is one thing that America relies on. We have our media, we have what they call the singers, but it’s not something that is so big.
And that’s what we need to start thinking about. People we have. We need products, we need services, we need some unique things. The African Americans that live in America they go to Ghana and Nigeria, Ghana and Nigeria, the people are there.
We have not, for example, created a programme to make Nigeria the place to be for African – Americans. Unfortunately in life, good things do not just happen accidentally. You have to be deliberate and intentional about this.
You have to target what you want to do, you have to have a plan, you have to go for it.
You have to think. That’s the only way it goes, we’re not doing that. And it’s not organic, if you use your language, that’s going to be boosted.
So your opinion is that we didn’t come up with a proper policy on Trump’s administration, at inception?
Yes. I think so. Because if we did, we wouldn’t be where we are today. But I also think, as a Strategist, I think if we did, there’s something that we should have done that we’ve not done.
It is true that it’s difficult to predict Trump, but if you look at him predictably like this, once you know his interests, you can deal with it. You can deal with it. That’s the whole point.
I believe we didn’t have to turn down the Venezuelan people. We could talk and engage with them. The thing that we’re not bearing in mind is who we’re dealing with.
This is not Clinton. This is not Bush, this is Trump.
So moving forward, what do you advise?
What I think we just need to do is to go back inside and realise that we’re not taking the right steps, as we planned. We need to be calm, we need to be wise, and we need to be strategic. We need to know our strengths, but not our limits.
Know our limits, but also our strengths. We need to be very careful that this is who we are, this is what we lack, and this is what we need. I think what we should be seeking from Trump now is, look, don’t blacklist us.
Let’s work together against Terrorism. We should have that conversation. We should show that, no, it’s not true.
We as a Government, as a People, are not Terrorists. We’re suffering from terrorism as well. Let’s work together to fight on it.
That’s what we should do. Partnership, not Blacklisting.
For those who are calling for President Trump’s military invasion in the northern part of Nigeria, what are the implications?
If he’s going to do a military invasion, let him do it along with our Government.
If they can prove that terrorists are there, they know where they are, then let’s work in partnership and go and do it along with them. You can help me do what you cannot do by yourself. If we have a problem like that, I believe we can come in, but in partnership with our people, of course, not publicly declared. But, you know, with the right intention, with our own group as well, they can work together and deal with the problem.
I think if we cannot solve our problem, let’s accept help, intelligently, but let’s accept help.
Patriotism is not blindness; it’s passion.
