By Ayo Ayodele
A former presidential candidate, Dr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has said that the responsibility for the ongoing diplomatic crisis between Nigeria and the United States over alleged Christian genocide lies squarely with the inept and corrupt administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, not with U.S. President Donald Trump, who is also facing mounting pressure from his political base.
Dr. Hashim, a veteran human rights activist and 2009 recipient of the prestigious Lord Max Beloff Prize in Global Affairs from the University of Buckingham, United Kingdom, said the diplomatic standoff reflects the Tinubu government’s “reckless and self serving foreign policy,” which prioritizes personal, political, and pecuniary interests over Nigeria’s national security and global reputation.
“It is deeply troubling that, as we speak, Nigeria does not have ambassadors in many key countries. The bi-national and bilateral commissions established to address pressing concerns on security and trade have collapsed for over a decade,” Hashim stated.
He lamented that, after paralyzing institutional mechanisms for diplomacy, the ruling APC government has resorted to using “a motley crowd of poorly informed operatives and international outlaws pushing shady interests incoherently and dangerously.”
Hashim described this as “a Janjaweed foreign policy, which is truly disgraceful and embarrassing”
Recalling Nigeria’s proud legacy as a stabilizing force in Africa, Hashim noted that the country once stood tall as a reliable partner that brought peace to West Africa through ECOMOG and played leading roles in peacekeeping operations in Congo, Darfur, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. “Our current predicament is both tragic and disgraceful,” he lamented.
Hashim faulted attempts to downplay reports of targeted killings, saying such arguments were “fundamentally faulty.”
“Which categories of Nigerians need to die in the staggering numbers we see before we acknowledge the evidence of complicity and failure to protect citizens?” he asked.
The former presidential candidate further alleged that grave human rights violations are being committed daily by supporters of the ruling APC while the administration looks away. He warned that open threats by party loyalists against groups of voters suspected of not supporting Tinubu in 2027 amount to international crimes under the Rome Statute, which Nigeria has domesticated.
“These threats are directed at an ethnic group that predominantly practices one faith,” he said. “Such acts cannot be dismissed as internal affairs when Nigeria is a signatory to many international human rights conventions.”
Dr. Hashim, once designated a Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty International in 1989, called for an urgent national dialogue to chart a new course for Nigeria’s post-Tinubu national security and foreign policy architecture.
“Genuine patriots must begin consultations to rebuild a framework that ensures peace, stability, and the preservation of Nigeria’s sovereignty,” he said. “If the American initiative has become a catalyst for this necessary national reawakening, then it is a most welcome development.”