Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, the first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.
Chima Nnadi-Oforgu, contributing analyst to USAfricaLive.com, is the Editor of Oblongmedia in Owerri, Nigeria.
Nigeria cannot be great while standing on a cracked moral foundation. You cannot preach prosperity in Abuja while millions rot in forgotten IDP camps in Benue, Borno, Plateau and Zamfara. You cannot sell democracy to the world while entire regions feel permanently excluded from power, security architecture, federal infrastructure and economic opportunity. You cannot shout unity while mothers bury children in silence and the state debates semantics instead of confronting slaughter.
A nation built on injustice does not collapse in one dramatic moment. It erodes. Slowly. Institution by institution. Trust by trust. Election by election. And Nigeria is eroding.
For decades we have perfected the art of cosmetic nation-building. New airports without functional runways of inclusion. New highways without roads to justice. New political slogans without structural reform. We patch the roof while the foundation cracks beneath us.
History is ruthless to countries that ignore foundational injustice.
Look at the ghosts of the Rwandan Genocide.
Look at the unhealed scars of the Nigerian Civil War.
Look at Srebrenica after the Bosnian War.
Genocide does not begin with machetes. It begins with indifference. With denial. With bureaucratic language that replaces human grief with committee reports.
You cannot build a peaceful Nigeria while evidence of mass killings, forced displacement and systematic marginalization is treated as political inconvenience.
The real crisis in Nigeria is not just poverty. It is selective empathy.
Some deaths trend. Others are explained away. Some regions receive federal urgency. Others receive silence.
That is not governance. That is hierarchy of human value.
And here is the uncomfortable truth: Washington does not respect beggars. It respects actors.
For years, Nigerian elites have believed that proximity to America equals legitimacy. They lobby. They pose. They seek photo ops. They whisper in embassies.
But power does not flow to those who beg for endorsement. It flows to those who build undeniable leverage.
Look at the pattern in global politics. Leaders who act, who change realities on the ground, attract alignment. They are not discovered while pleading. They are noticed while leading.
The lesson is simple.
Stop lobbying Washington. Start leading Nigeria.
Secure your villages. Reform your policing architecture. Restructure fiscal federalism. Fix the power grid. Industrialize the regions. Protect farmers. End the weaponization of hunger. Open the political space genuinely. Heal old wounds honestly.
When you create visible justice, investment follows. When you create security, capital follows. When you create inclusion, legitimacy follows.
And when Nigeria becomes stable on its own terms, Washington will not need persuasion. It will come, not as a patron, but as a partner.
Because America, like every great power, ultimately aligns with strength.
Not military theatrics. Not empty rhetoric. Structural strength. Economic strength. Institutional strength. Moral strength.
Nigeria’s greatness will not be negotiated in foreign capitals. It will be forged in Owerri, Jos, Enugu, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt, Sokoto and Lagos. It will be forged when the blood of the forgotten is acknowledged, when injustice is confronted, when no Nigerian feels disposable.
A country built on injustice cannot stand.
A country rebuilt on justice cannot be ignored.
The leader who understands those and acts, will not need to chase global relevance.Global relevance will chase Nigeria.
