CDHR Faults Buhari’s Planned Invitation of American Troops

By Peter Uzoho

The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) has berated President Muhammadu Buhari for requesting the relocation of the headquarters of the African Commission (AFRICOM) from Germany to Africa as an intervention to the nation’s current security crisis.

The group argued that such call was an invitation of American troops to Nigeria and by extension, the handing over of the country’s sovereignty to the United States.

CDHR described such request by the president as an act of desperation not properly thought out, aading that the handing over of Nigeria’s sovereignty at this stage of the country’s history was a betrayal of the labour of the country’s past heroes, who he noted fought the Anglo-Nigerian Defence Pact immediately after independence.

CDHR in a six-page statement entitled: ‘In These Critical Times in Nigeria, Sycophancy is a Disservice,’ which was signed by its National President, Dr. Osagie Obayuwana, taunted Buhari’s government for woefully failing to consolidate the unity and integration of Nigeria and Africa –the government’s historical assignment, and now believed that American soldiers will come to its rescue.

CDHR said: The request by President Buhari that the headquarters of AFRICOM be moved from Germany to Africa is nothing but an invitation of American troops to intervene in the Nigerian crisis.

“To the CDHR, this is an act of desperation that is not properly thought out. It portends the handing over of Nigeria’s sovereignty to the United States of America at this stage of our national history.

“It would be a betrayal of the labour of our heroes past who immediately after independence in 1960, successfully fought the Anglo-Nigerian Defence Pact. “General Murtala Mohammed would turn in his grave in view of his well-articulated presentation at the OAU Summit in Addis Ababa in 1976 titled: ‘Africa Has Come of Age.”

The CDHR said Buhari’s call gave an insight into how poorly he had defined the nation’s security problem, noting that it was troubling for the government to imagine that the sense of injustice felt by the people of the South-east, South-west, South-south, and Middle Belt, as well as the poor, particularly in the North, could be wiped out by American military might.

It said its greatest concern was the thinking within the president’s kitchen cabinet that he, Buhari, can do no wrong and was all knowing and that all criticisms directed at the quality of his leadership were aimed at bringing his regime to an end and denying the Northern Nigeria of its privileges.

The CDHR also lambasted the president’s chief spokesman, Mallam Gaba Shehu, saying “he has displayed a level of sycophancy that has put serious doubts on his choice of what he perceives as defending Buhari at all costs, even when that goes contrary to common sense, decency and the best interests of Nigeria.”