Averting US sanction in Nigeria

WHAT exactly does Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser on Media & Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, mean when he said that no one appointed America as the world police? Or what was he driving at when he warned the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union to stop interfering in Nigeria’s affairs? Adesina, while reacting to a U.S. report that included Nigeria as one of the countries with religious freedom violations, blasted the U.S. government for speaking about Nigeria. “In international relations, you respect the internal affairs of other countries. The U.S. itself has enough to chew solving its own problems not to talk of poke-nosing into that of another country. No man, no country, nobody has appointed them the policeman of the world, let them face their own issues,” Mr Adesina said.

Since Femi Adesina knows that nobody appointed the United States as the world police, he could have simply told us who the world police is, or appoint one for us. To whom much is given, much is expected. Of the truth, as the presidential adviser, you have to defend your principal at all times. But in the same vain, we need to thread with caution, especially while reacting to issues of foreign affairs. Although Femi Adesina in an interview on Channels TV “Politics Today” programme said that Nigeria is a sovereign nation and “will not be bothered about the reports from the foreign countries.”,  if reports coming from Iran are anything to go by, then Nigeria should really be bothered by what other foreign countries say.  Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. air strike in Iraq early Friday was also one of President Trump’s social media antagonists. Just like Adesina did, Soleimani had in 2018 stepped in to defend the Iranian President against Trump on social media.

The Trump administration was engaged that year in a pressure campaign against Iran, whose president Hassan Rouhani warned in July that “America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars.” But Soleimani stepped in to defend Rouhani. “It is not in our president’s dignity to respond to you,” he told Trump via Iran’s Tasnim news agency. “If you begin the war, we will end the war. You know that this war will destroy all that you possess.”, he also said. The end of Soleimani’s story is now history. But there’s also a great lesson to be learnt for  the presidential spokespersons and government officials who make utterances and issue statements against foreign officials without regard for the possible consequences.

A Yoruba proverb says “a kii fini joye awodiki a ma le gb’adiye”, meaning “You don’t bear a name the expectations of which you cannot meet.” In other words, you don’t bite more than you can chew. Nigeria is now on the United States special watchlist for severe violations of religious freedom, human rights violations amongst others. Any statement that does not diplomatically correct this impression about our country could have grave consequences. Certainly, we don’t want an air strike In Nigeria, and somebody needs to tell Femi Adesina, Lai Mohammed and other presidential advisers that.

• Aina, a writer, journalist and good governance advocate, tweets @IamAinaTolulope.