Project Nigeria: Beyond Alleged USAID Funding of Boko Haram Terrorists

With the last “Trump” on USAID’s funding of terrorist activities in Nigeria, we need to ask: Whose interest it is to see Nigeria destabilized and why?

This is the core question our government and its security agencies should seek to answer as a starting point to proactively unravelling the mystery of the ever-evolving sophistication of the terrorists visiting mayhem on our people including our men and women in uniforms.In my analysis as widely published in January this year: “Mass killings in Our Communities: Is Nigeria Not Being Invaded by Outside Interests,” it was said that from obvious indications, our government and even the citizenry seem to have been completely manipulated to look in the wrong direction for answers to the spate of senseless and mindless carnage being visited on our people across the country. No particular section of the country is singled out for this mayhem except that some areas especially in the north had witnessed this carnage on scales that could best be said to be devilish.

On January 20, 2025, U.S. President, Donald Trump, suspended all foreign aid for 90 days, citing concerns about global destabilisation and misalignment with American interests. This move follows growing calls for a comprehensive review of how U.S. Agency for International Development funds have been spent.

During the inaugural session of an advisory body created by Trump to cut US government spending, US Congressman, Scott Perry, reportedly claimed that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) funded terrorist organisations, including the Boko Haram.

“Who gets some of that money? Does that name ring a bell to anybody in the room? Because your money, your money, $697 million annually, plus the shipments of cash funds in Madrasas, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, ISIS Khorasan, terrorist training camps. That’s what it’s funding,” Perry had said.

But refuting Perry’s claim, the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mills Jr, said, “There is absolutely no evidence that I have seen that that has occurred, and certainly, if we ever had evidence presented to us that a programme funding was being diverted to Boko Haram we would immediately investigate along with Nigerian partners.”

“And so I just want to be clear that when it comes to Boko Haram, the United States stands with Nigeria and wanting to rid this country of the scourge that that organization represents.” Is this true? No!

The US under Barack Obama refused to sell arms to the Nigerian military during the Goodluck Jonathan administration to enable it speedily execute its fight against the Boko Haram, rampaging in the Northeast particularly Borno and Yobe. It was the refusal or rather denial of access to buy highly needed arms and equipment that forced the then NSA, Sambo Dasuki and his team to opt for a black market shopping in South Africa with raw cash and this move was also blocked by the same Obama’s US.

The incarceration of Sambo Dasuki by the Buhari administration was not because of any corrupt doings of the former NSA but because of monies given to him for the South African black market arms purchase that was thwarted by those who do not want Nigeria to deal decisively with the Boko Haram menace.

Remember, Nigeria under President Jonathan became the largest and the best performing economy in Africa and our agric sector was doing well also in food production. This was the time that the terrorist threats became menacing.

The US Congressman’s revelation was only a confirmation of what has been suspected since the Jonathan administration but the naivety of some norther political and religious leaders allowed them play into the hands of those who don’t want Nigeria to do well as a nation. Some prominent northern political and religious leaders openly accused Jonathan of using Boko Haram to destabilize their region when in essence it was the so called leaders that became willing tools in the hands of their friend Obama to destabilise their region and the entire country. And complicating the matter is the truer fact that more splinter groups are coming up.

Recently, the Chief of Defense Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, made a call in a recent interview with Al-Jazeera where he alleged that there was international flow of funding for the terrorists, and the need for the UN to come in to trace and track it.

Last year, in one of my contribution on the spate of insecurity enveloping our country, I raised an alarm that it seems Nigeria is being invaded from outside. Thank God the CDS is today raising the same issue.

The Defense Chief who questioned how the insurgents had sustained themselves for over 15 years, fingered international conspiracy in providing the terrorists with funds, training and equipment.

The CDS’ call on the international community for investigation came at the wake of a new trick by Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists who are now deploying drones for surveillance ahead of launching attacks on security operatives.

Now that we are beginning to know better, to me, the alleged secret funding and training of terrorists by a US agency which likely may not be a lone player in this matter goes beyond the activities of Boko Haram in the northeast.

The mass killings in the Southeast by the so called “unknown Gunmen,” bandits in the Northwest and North Central, and parts of Southwest should be treated as the same case with what we have in the Northeast as Boko Haram. And USAID may just be only one in the bouquet of terrorist and killers’ sponsors in our country.

What’s happening in the Northwest, North Central (Niger, Benue, and Plateau particularly) and now Southeast and Southwest all have the language and character of what we have in Bornu as Boko Haram and ISWAP activities.

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In the Southeast, we have a variant of the same brand in character just that it has been labelled “unknown gunmen”. In the southeast the act is the same! The spirit is the same just that it has become very convenient for managers of our security infrastructure to ascribe what’s happening in the region to the protest by the “Indigenous People of Biafra”, which is a big lie,

Whether anybody wants to hear this or not, the killings in the southeast by the so -called unknown gunmen does not have the character and spirit of the Igbo man. No Igbo man kills for killing sake! If they want to secede is it by killing fellow Igbo men, women, and children and destroying their own place that they will get the central government to listen to them?

The same malaise has crept into Southwest and the miscreants are digging-in deeply and save for the well-coordinated activities of the Southwest internal security outfit, Amotekun, by now they could have been doing some heinous things on a bigger scale in the region.

The managers of our security infrastructure should closely look into the activities of the fleet of armed security or rather “killing” contractors that are actively operating across the country on assignments that could best be described as blurred and at worst obscured. We need to establish how they are funded, trained and their missions.

We remember the recent exchanges between the Nigerian army and one of such contractors who was boasting of being responsible for clearing and securing the Abuja-Kaduna road (Birnigwari) that became a permanent resident for bandits and kidnappers’ attacks.

The Nigerian army came out publicly to say they don’t have any existing joint operation nor any form of contract agreement with any armed mercenary fighters (security contractors).

The question is: who is engaging or rather funding the activities of these pockets of heavily- armed and well trained private operatives acting as mercenaries? What’s really their mission and why is their activities covertly prevalent in the Southeast and parts of North Central? Why is the Nigerian army not aware of their active presence in the field?

Now that we have been told that foreign interests are working heavily to see Nigeria destabilised, the issue of the revelation of USAID funding and training of Boko Haram fighters should not be treated as an isolated case. We should look at who is funding and training even the Niger Delta militants that are still very much active. God bless Nigeria!

(IFEANYI IZEZE wrote from Port Harcourt: [email protected])