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By Kennedy Emetulu

Dear Mr President,
I’m struggling to write this open letter to you. In what mode should I convey what I want to say to you? I want to be blunt and straight to the point because I know that those around you are simply not telling you the truth, they aren’t giving you the advice that you need right now. You are like the elephant in our folktale who was serenaded with songs and led on to sit on a throne prepared over a huge pit where he fell into and met his end. May you not fall into the pit they’re leading you. Amen!

Mr President, your task right now is the most important task any leader has faced since the founding of this nation. No leader in our history has faced the danger you face now. The danger is both national and personal. Your task right now is to prevent the fall of Nigeria and the house of Tinubu. You are one minute away from being the last President of a country known as the Federal Republic of Nigeria and if this happens, you and yours won’t be spared. It will be that tragic. Yet, you have the cards to play, but how you do it matters.

When I heard President Donald Trump crow his indignation about what he called the killing of Christians in Nigeria complete with a threat of military action, I was deeply hurt in my soul. No true patriot should accept the insults President Trump heaped on our nation in the name of trying to save Christians. I was angry, not with Trump but with every charlatan that has sat at the top of political leadership in Nigeria. I’m talking about Presidents like you, Vice Presidents, Senators, Ministers, members of the House of Representatives, Judges of the appellate courts, military heads of state and their gangs in power, top civil servants and so on. I was angry because a Trump couldn’t have opened his mouth to threaten Nigeria if our national leaders have done what they ought to have been doing over the years, which is to be truly patriotic and invest in Nigeria and its people.

Mr President, you are not running a good government. To be honest, you are a disappointment. You have turned corruption into an art. It is now so openly laundered as statecraft that people like us who used to perorate about corruption are now tongue-tied. We have been defeated by you, the master strategist who has bought the national elite as a shortcut to haul the whole of Nigeria into your giant bag. You call it politics, but it’s actually state capture of the crudest kind. Okay, sorry, I won’t go there for now. This piece is not to criticize you; it’s to advise you on how to avert the clear and present danger posed by an agenda-driven Mr Trump.

Listen, Mr Trump does not care about Christians in Nigeria. What he really wants is to get his paws on our country’s resources. This is another Scramble for Africa, but this time, specifically Nigeria. Do not assume you have friends in the “international community” because right now, they’re all drawing out their long knives, forks and spoons and licking their lips, lining up behind Trump for a piece of the Nigerian pie. Trump has since destroyed the rules-based international system and with his friend, Vladimir Putin, has restored the vile policy of ‘might is right’ in international relations and the big powers are all loving it because they’re back at the butchers’ table. Trump wants to make a steak of Nigeria at that table.

So, the whole talk about the killing of Christians is an excuse to ‘intervene’ in Nigeria and once that happens on their terms, as he has stated, kiss Nigeria as we know it goodbye. With that will come regime change and you will be the sacrifice. There are many populist things they can do to you and all those in your circle that will look like just comeuppance, but really that will just be Trump and his friends cutting up the country and carting it away in pieces. Those who are out there saying we should welcome America’s “help” should tell us where America has militarily intervened and things end up well for that country. Are they recommending the American intervention paradises of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya?

Home and abroad, we are all talking the politics of genocide against Christians when the fact is that the real issue is genocide against Nigerians by Islamist criminals. You are not helping perception in America and the West with you saying you did not travel out of the country because you want to stay behind “to coordinate the security efforts at home.” Of course, it also does not help that just as Trump was threatening to come in “guns-a-blazing” to save Christians, the murderous criminals chose two Christian targets, a church in Kwara and a Catholic school in Niger State to harvest their latest Christian victims. Maybe you think the Americans are impressed that all those abducted at the church in Eruku, Kwara, are back to their loved ones and that 51 of those abducted in Papiri, Niger State are back as well. They are not. The reason is simple. To them, it all looks like an arranged show. It strengthens the claim that your government is hand in glove with the terrorists because it beggars belief that these people were rescued without one terrorist arrested or eliminated. Obviously, ransoms were paid, which makes the claim of collaboration even more compelling.

Mr President, I’m not saying the claim is true or false, I’m just telling you how it’s being perceived right now in Western capitals. You want the world to see that you are taking measures to get those Christians abducted back quickly to their families, but what they see is a weak government that has no solution to the insecurity because they’re in cahoots with the terrorists. They look at all this as stage-managed. Yeah, they’re that cynical and skeptical and they have reasons to be.

Note also that the view is out there that you really do not have the political will to deal with the problem. You are aware of the news making the rounds that you told Hajiya Nàja’atu Mohammed that you are not handling insecurity because to do so, you will step on too many toes and they might even kill you. She had said this on live television for a while now and you’ve never denied it. It’s too late to deny it now; what you must now do is to show you’re not afraid. You need to show courage, show political will to deal with these murderers ruthlessly.

We are told that diplomatic engagements are ongoing and we know Alhaji Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser (NSA) led a delegation to Washington. In truth, all this will not move the needle one bit. Trump and his circle have already made up their minds that they are going to intervene militarily in Nigeria. The spoils of war are too tempting to forego. They are planning and they are coming and they are not coming to collaborate with your government to get the terrorists; they are coming to get you out in the name of getting the terrorists out. They need you out to take over the country, which is their simple objective.

But Mr President, you can stop Trump from sending in his soldiers. In fact, you have to stop Trump from sending his soldiers to our soil. The only way you can do this is to mobilize the Nigerian people behind you and you must do this actively. You must change your soporific leadership style and engineer a revolution in governance in a way to get the people behind you.

Start by getting Alhaji Kashim Shettima out as Vice President. This is important. Now, let me say this: I have no problem with Alhaji Shettima. I am not one of those who believe the allegations of his ties with terrorists and even though I believe that one of the triggers of Trump’s hostility towards Nigeria was Shettima’s recent speech against Israel at the United Nations, Shettima spoke the truth and he spoke on behalf of the Nigerian government. These weren’t his personal views. So, my advice that he should be replaced as Vice President has nothing to do with him or his conduct, but it’s simply what the nation needs now. You need to get a credible Christian man or woman from the North as your Vice President now. If Shettima is a patriot, he would be happy to be ‘sacrificed’ now to save the country. Trump’s base in America is making a song and dance about the Muslim-Muslim ticket and they are saying it is part of the governance architecture in support of the Christian genocide. Act quickly, choose a credible Christian statesman or woman from the North and do all you have to do politically to get him or her in as Vice President. You will get extra marks if you choose a Christian woman.

Immediately upon the new Vice President taking office, sit with him or her in a live national broadcast where you will address the nation on the reason for the change of Vice President. Tell Nigerians it is to reiterate the value of inclusiveness in government, something we have enshrined in our Constitution. Tell them that we are in a state of emergency because we are being attacked by dangerous criminal forces that want to use our faultlines of religion and ethnicity to divide us. Tell them we have heard from our international partners who are not happy with the way things are going in Nigeria and for that reason, we have to call on our strength and that strength is in unity. Tell Nigerians that even though political campaigns have not been declared open for 2027, you have noted that the politicking is overpowering governance at all levels and distracting us from the things we need to do. Say you are calling on Nigerians, including your supporters, to tone down the political rhetoric and campaign. 2027 should not be a do or die affair. There will be elections in 2027 and there will be a government after that election and that government will serve the interest of the Nigerian people.

Declare a national state of emergency on insecurity and organize a National Conference on Security where you invite military and police leaders, the leaders of our security and intelligence services, the political opposition, traditional rulers and all strata of society and the media to come talk about the insecurity in the nation and proffer solutions. It would be a way of giving all citizens ownership of the problem, a way to make Nigerians feel they’re being heard. Let that National Security Conference be a celebration of our ingenuities and capacities. People will leave there and go back to take charge of security in their communities with your government and the security and intelligence services providing the necessary support. A new national awakening to tackle insecurity must be the outcome of that Conference.

Next, let your new Vice President lead a powerful delegation of Christian leaders to the United States to see President Trump. Let Mr Massad Boulos join the delegation. The man is a Christian and he’s Nigerian and Trump’s in-law and confidante. The delegation must not go empty-handed. They should go with a fine gift for the American people. Make a fine bust of Donald Trump in pure gold, give it to them to take to Washington and present it to him as a gift from the Nigerian people to the American people, not a gift to Donald Trump, but a gift to Americans. Yeah, a gift of Donald Trump in pure gold! He’d love it! You need to understand the psychology of Donald Trump. He has to be praised and worshipped and be told he’s the best thing since the pyramids. Get on with it, Mr President! It’s a charm offensive! Take a leaf from Mr Zohran Mamdani who walked into the Oval Office and charmed Trump who just a few weeks before was threatening him with Armageddon.

Now, when you’re sending the delegation off to America, send them with only one message to President Trump. He loves deals, he loves to rave about the deals he’s bringing to America. Order arms! Tell Trump that you are recruiting 150,000 active personnel into the Nigerian Armed Forces and you’re giving the Americans the privilege of training them. It makes sense that if we are buying weapons from them, they train our men and women in how to use these weapons for counter-terrorism operations. Tell him you welcome American military advisers. Basically, you will tell him your government needs help to flush out the Islamist militants because they’re all offshoots of ISIS. Trump will be happy that you trust him and America that much, but really what you are doing is inviting the Americans in on your own terms.

Yes, all this may sound a little crude and direct, but trust me that is how to deal with Trump. He’s no intellectual or thinker. He is not the type that sits with the experts to hear long briefings about this or that. He goes with his guts. If you charm him, you do no wrong thereafter. That’s what this is about. Throw all diplomatese out the window and go charm Trump. It works every time, ask Mamdani.

While at it, find a political solution to free Nnamdi Kanu. His nuisance value behind bars isn’t helping Nigeria’s image. If you’ve been following, the Americans are already framing his conviction as an anti-Christian bias, even when the man says he’s a Jew. Obviously, that’s because they think he’s a representative of the largely Christian Igbo. Of course, he does not represent them, but the more he’s behind bars, the more that narrative gains ground, the more he’s a symbol of selective justice. Find a way to free him because that will stop the whole insecurity in the South-East and bring his whole secessionist campaign to a screeching halt. We should stop making Nnamdi Kanu into a Nigerian problem because he isn’t. Free him, let him go out there and face the Igbo people and explain his actions and those of his followers. He has enough to answer for in freedom and in a free society. Don’t make him a martyr, don’t make him a freedom fighter.

Mr President, don’t let Nigeria become a bully’s playground in the name of America saving Christians. Act now.

Kennedy Emetulu

Citizen of Nigeria