POWERFUL U.S. THINK TANK PUSHES NIGERIA CARVE-UP

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is an influential US think tank that has pushed multiple recommendations into US government policy and federal legislation. Now, it’s turned its attention to Balkanising - dividing - Africa’s most populous country. Over the past nine months, AEI’s senior policy fellow, Michael Rubin, has published a series of policy articles on the AEI website. These urge Washington to use its diplomatic and military power in favour of Biafran separatists in Nigeria’s gas-rich southeast, which would facilitate the country’s breakup, ostensibly to ‘protect oppressed Christians’ against Nigeria’s ‘hostile Islamic majority.’

There is indeed a recorded pattern of violence in Nigeria’s Northern and Middle Belt regions that disproportionately affects Christians, a problem that needs urgent resolution. However, it is also a completely different issue from Biafran separatism - a detail Rubin deliberately conceals in his articles. He omits critical information, such as the fact that Nigeria’s population is almost evenly split between Christianity and Islam. He also fails to note that the geographical areas affected by religious violence are ethnically distinct - and hundreds of kilometres away - from those linked to Biafran separatism.

Rubin forgets to mention that modern Biafran ethnic separatism is heavily influenced by and associated with Zionism, with the modern Biafran flag featuring a Star of David. The separatists themselves have never at any point characterised their struggle as Christian nationalism. Most dangerously of all, Rubin makes multiple references to violent separatist leader Simon Ekpa - currently on trial for terrorism in Finland - as a ‘persecuted African dissident.’

Why is Rubin intentionally muddying up issues and mischaracterising violent extremists as ‘dissidents’? Some suspect he is creating a fictitious premise for intervention, laying the groundwork for a destructive, US-led neo-colonial resource-exploitation war. Any such intervention would Balkanise Africa’s most populous country and create a serious setback for African unity.

Our colleague @DavidHundeyin breaks it down.