Nigeria must follow up SCOTU
ruling on Iran
By- Dr Kolawole
Editor’s note: A lecturer at the Nasarawa State
University, Dr Anthony Kolawole, warns
Nigerian authorities to be wary of its relations
with Iran and keep tabs of their activities in
Nigeria especially as it relates to the Shittes in
Nigeria. Kolawole’s warning is coming on the
heels of the ruling by the Supreme Court of
the United States that Iran is a sponsor of
terrorism, radicalization, extremism and other
traits that undermine the safety of other
nations.
President Muhammadu Buhari and his
Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani
The Supreme Court of the United States
(SCOTU) ruling this week confirmed what
some of us have always known and insisted
on. Iran is a sponsor of terrorism,
radicalization, extremism and other traits
that undermine the safety of other nations.
The US Supreme Court ruled that Iran must
lose nearly $2 billion in frozen assets to
survivors and relatives of those killed in the
1983 US Marine barracks bombing in Beirut,
the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing that killed
19 Americans in Saudi Arabia, and other
attacks linked to the Islamic Republic of
It took 33 years in the case of the first
bombing for victims and relatives of the
dead to get closure. That is a luxury Nigeria
cannot afford. The US is well established.
Iran could not attack on its home soil so its
proxies hit offshore targets. The approach is
different in Nigeria. Iranian proxies live right
among us. Their attack, if allowed to
happen, would be catastrophic. Iran changed
tactics to start attacking minds of youths in
Nigeria with extremism and radicalization.
Hundreds of thousands of youths are already
so poisoned.
Iran implemented the poisoning in Nigeria
through the Islamic Movement in Nigeria
(IMN). The group already attacked the
Nigerian Army. The Zaria attempt on the life
of Chief of Army Staff could be a flag
operation to test the waters. They did not
expect the firm response from the Army.
The resulting disarray forced their master
Iran, to directly intervene through its envoy
in Nigeria, Ambassador Saeed Kozechi.
A notable professor, Abdullahi Mahdi already
issued dire warning. IMN is a threat to
Nigeria’s safety and sovereignty. It operates
a parallel government with cells across
Nigeria. Its members do not believe in
Nigeria’s statehood. They have their own
parallel ministries and officials. They
adopted insidious strategy of gradually
infiltrating the system. They now hold key
positions that mean they can tele-guide
government policies.
Their predisposition to violence is well
known. It tallies with the Iranian model. It is
the means they had applied to subjugate
residents of Zaria for over four decades.
They unleashed the intellectual equivalent of
this violence on the media landscape after
the Zaria incident. They blackmail objective
analysts of the incidents under the guise of
pursuing human rights. It is clear even IMN
media wars are directed from abroad
through Islamic Human Rights Commission
(IHRC). It forwards propaganda materials
that are unleashed on the nation to make
adherents of other faiths look bad.
Nigeria’s options are glaring: it could play
political correctness and allow IMN to gain
grounds for Iran on its soils; it could contain
the spread of the Iranian contamination. The
first option may appear easier and popular
but will compromise future peace, destroy
territorial integrity and evaporate the
nation’s sovereignty. Option two looks ugly
but guarantees the future of Nigeria as a
country.
Option two will have huge costs. IMN acting
for Iran will scale up confrontation with the
state. Other Iranian proxies will bomb
Nigeria’s offshore assets. But it is still not a
bad option.
Implementation must be immediate. Nigeria
must follow the US example by freezing
Iranian assets that are linked to extremism
on our soil. It must scrutinize funding and
foreign donations to sectarian and religious
groups. Questionable transactions must be
stopped and investigated. Nigerian youths
must be stopped from schooling in Iran; they
always come back radicalized and ready to
wreck havoc.
Further steps are needed. Nigeria must get
an equivalent of the US Supreme Court
ruling. Iranian assets must be frozen to
compensate families that are victims of IMN
extremism. Iran directs IMN and should bear
the final responsibility for its actions. Frozen
