Boko Haram and Why Nigeria is concerned about the Trump presidency. By Chido Nwangwu

Boko Haram and Why Nigeria is concerned about the Trump presidency.

By Chido Nwangwu, Founder of USAfrica (Houston) & USAfricaonline.com Follow @Chido247

Amidst concerns of many governments over the pre-election hardline statements of the U.S President-elect Donald J. Trump, the Nigerian government is taking a cautious stance ahead of any possible showdown. According to the new Permanent Secretary in the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Sola Enikanolaiye on Sunday November 27, 2016, the Ministry will begin in a few hours today Monday, November 28, begin a special retreat in Abuja, to discuss aspects of the billionaire’s views.

“This retreat would give major foreign policy stakeholders the opportunity to deliberate on what Trump has said and advise government on how best to respond to this.’’

The Permanent Secretary noted that “Given the President-elect’s rhetorics during his campaigns and election, we would be naive not to prepare for these eventualities. We have, therefore, decided to organise a special retreat on Monday, Nov. 28, in Abuja.”

He added that he remains hopeful that things will be normal. “We do not think that Donald Trump’s presidency would lead to a disruption in the relations between Nigeria and the United States”,

“The United States and Nigeria have had excellent relations since the attainment of Nigeria’s Independence. And under every government in the U. S, whether Republican or Democrat, we have always had cordial relations. So, we do not think that this already existing relations between Nigeria and the U. S. would necessarily be altered under the U. S. President-Elect Donald Trump,’’ he said.

The U.S has business, security and demographics interests across Nigeria. But for Nigeria, THINGS ARE FALLING APART! For Nigeria, corruption things, fuzzy balance sheet, bombing of oil facilities/pipelines by militants of the Niger Delta, sorely inadequate foreign exchange, incompetence and nepotism have combined to leave the collective destiny of the country fluttering furiously like a candle in the wind!

Significantly, there has been major and substantial reduction in the transactional volume and value of the “black gold” [oil] that what was a factor of leverage for Nigeria has become, at frank discussions, increasingly, an issue couched and spoken about in past tense….

I know that a key point why the Nigerian diplomatic and presidential teams are “concerned” about Mr. Trump is the issue of Boko Haram. Trump, born 70 years ago, has at the top of his agenda a commitment to destroy ISIS. Nigeria’s Boko Haram, the radical Islamists, have since pledged allegiance to ISIS. Necessarily, to blunt Boko Haram’s role as a proxy terror group which has actually killed more persons than its murderous partner, ISIS.