It is increasingly becoming difficult to know who among us is a Nigerian. It is also becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between the enemy of the President or the enemies of Nigeria or both. This is probably the only country in the world where citizens care less for the well-being and good name of their fatherland. Many Nigerians suffer from incurable oikophobia while some are simply misopatrid.

Many are indeed bundle of disappointments as their utterances and negative disposition to the fatherland is disgusting and unspeakable. One way of knowing a child is illegitimate is in the repulsive attitude to parents.

There are many examples of Nigerians who will willingly without blinking sell their country for a pittance with the disreputable conclusion that every country is better than their own. We are all witnesses to the tantrum of a female Nigerian Born British leader who is so self-loathing that she would say and print anything against Nigeria when indeed her parents are both Nigerians.

Unfortunately, most negative utterances and perception about Nigeria by Nigerians themselves are based on utter greed and sheer misgiving that are the byproduct of profound ignorance that have piled up for years from infancy when an uninformed teacher would tell the children under tutelage that other countries in the world are simply better than Nigeria.

Right from that age, the school teacher gives the impression to the children that the white man does things better. These are poor indoctrination that have been transferred from generation to generation to the extent that when they grow old, education, age, position on the social ladder of the society, cannot play effective moderating role in the thoughts and beliefs already implanted in them by their ignorant teacher during childhood. Imagine a newly elected National Chairman of a party calling on Trump to assist in rescuing his party. This is a joke taken too far.

This is a conjecture that is subject to acceptance or rejection by those in charge. Herders kill everybody not only in the North but also in the South, Kidnappers and Ritualists ravage everywhere from North to South. Boko Haram may harass Christians more but they have demonstrated enough that church is not the only target.

The recent threat to attack Nigeria exposed the foolishness of some individuals in the society. Teachers, Clergies, politicians and many from whose cups the lowly in the society should have the opportunity of drinking the water of knowledge threw caution to the wind talking as if there is no government at home.

It became so clear at a point that some of them are either not legitimately Nigerians or they are undeserved of their positions in the society. Many of them beckoned on America to attack the country as if their brain cord did not tell them that America will not waste her taxpayers’ monies and put the life of her marines in jeopardy just to protect us and our Christian siblings without a cost. A Yoruba adage captures this succinctly when it says “Eniti o mo ero kii ta efolo” literally meaning ‘A seller of fish fries should be conversant with profit and loss account.”

It is this naive belief that the big nations of the world are “Father Christmas” that led to the black man’s enslavement for centuries with devastating psychological trauma and other consequences that make the generations of black men yet unborn look like second class citizens of the world today.

It is well recorded in history that even during the slave trade, the white man’s representatives sit in the comfort of their offices as administrators while our kings and powerful community leaders kidnap and sell their kinsmen as slaves to strangers.

In fact, when the white man abolished slave trade, they had to force, through wars and bombardment, some of our leaders to stop the business.

Therefore, it seems true-to-type when in 2025, politicians, pastoral leaders, community elders and those who should, by virtue of their placement in the society know better call on America to bomb our land.

One is not saying that the Nigerian society should unjustly do a cover up for the activities of evil-doers in the country. No, obviously no. But let us ascertain the empirical facts before we invite outsiders to assist in cleaning the inner recess of the bedroom because the aftermath of the assistance may have disastrous outcome. Terrorism, Ritual killing, Religious attack of any form, Herders attack on communities, Banditry and many other social vices that are crippling our nation must be halted.

But the successes of obliterating these senseless and unwarranted societal ills need unity of purpose, collective responsibilities and meaningful understanding of the cause- effect relationship not guess work, anger, prejudices and cheap blackmail that are based on blind sentiment, ethnic and religions jingoism rather than realism and facts.

By ignoring the aforementioned, we inadvertently strengthen the hands of our common adversaries. Afterall daily media reports show that some of our leaders sponsor these people to unleash terror on our land. Our focus should be directed towards collectively fighting those who do not mean well for our nation.

The bandits, the terrorists and the religious bigots all have different missions with a single outcome which is to maim and kill our people. Working at cross purposes have strengthen them. Anytime they show up anywhere, they do not have the luxury of time to find out the religion and ethnic affiliation of their victims, they just leave losses in the trail .

We should credit ourselves with some intelligence. How do you promote and prosecute allegation of government support for genocide against Christians successfully in a country where until recently the Chief of Defense Staff General Christopher Musa was himself a Christian. He is now the Minister for Defense.

The Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun is a Christian, The Director of the Directorate of State Security, is also a Christian. There is no time in the history of Nigeria that her entire defense team tilts eavily to a particular religion.

The real problem is that Nigerians themselves rarely understand the topography of Nigeria. Many northerners who occupy these positions who are Christians are usually assumed by Southerners to be Muslims because of their names.

For instance, many people didn’t know that General Musa is a Christian for instance, it took several years to know that General Yakubu Gowon is a Christian. In fact the propaganda during the Nigerian Civil war was that the Muslim North was trying to wipe out the Christian dominated East. Whereas, the truth is that the two warring leaders Ojukwu and Gowon are Christians.

We should realise that if people are killed in Plateau or Benue or in Taraba, it is very possible that many of them will be Christians, not necessarily because they are Christians but because majority of the people in that state are Christians.

The same situation is true of Maiduguri where most people killed would be Muslims not because they are murdered for religious purposes but because majority of those in the state are Muslims. Therefore, the signal will be different if, Trump, the “self appointed redeemer” is joining our government to deal with the ugly situation. The problem is that a unilateral action by a foreign government that ignores the presence of our government would almost certainly be a “Greek Gift”.

To avoid constant bashing of the nation by those who do not know enough to appreciate that Nigeria is not necessarily in the bracket of the worst nations in the world, the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should as a matter of urgency focus on strengthening the Ministry that is responsible for National Orientation. This unit of the executive seems to have been in slumber for too long. There was a little bite during the time of Professor Jerry Ghana when the “Andrew “jingle jolted the psyche of the nation. Many Nigerians don’t know what Nigeria means and their reason for being a Nigerian. How many of us can answer the following question successfully. That is, “What is the national goal of Nigeria?”

Patriotism is not instinctive. Nations expend resources to infuse discipline, love of country and other virtues that are expected of their average citizens.With proper budgetary provision and strong human resources, the office responsible for National Orientation can deliver the much desired education and awareness to our people. There are too many ignoramus in Nigeria, this is exhibited so much in the social media by our youths and we would ignore them and their naivety to the detriment of the well-being of our country.

The Yoruba says “Omo ti a ko ko ni yio gbe ile ti a ko ta” literally meaning that “It is the child that we refuse to build that will eventually sell the house we built”
This article will rest on Proverb 14: 3 that says “Righteousness exalts a nation….”

Ojikutu is a Professor of Statistics (retired), University of Lagos.