Lessons from the Afghan crisis

I think it is time Nigeria as a country watch the war of the world and learn that America is not the superhero of the world.

Americans will always think for Americans first and they don’t care about you or me. The Americans emboldened the Taliban and Mujaheeden to fight against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. There is a Hollywood movie that talks about the exploits of Charlie Wilson, a congressman and chief liaison officers with the Taliban. When America needed to go after Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan they clashed with the Taliban but they still maintained a strong relationship to the detriment of the Afghanistan people.

They recently negotiated the release of over 5000 Taliban fighters and left Afghanistan after they completed their mission against their adversaries. They put up a democratic structure without strong institutions and now they want the Afghans to fight the Talibans themselves.

They have enunciated the numerical advantage of 350,000 Afghanistan troops over 75,000 Afghan fighters. It is shocking a lot of people are still delusional that a power sharing government will save Afghanistan. If the Taliban can make quick gains of 10 provincial capitals they can as well take over the country. The democratic gains of America in 20 years are being wiped out in two weeks. I hope we are learning in Nigeria to build strong institutions, not strong men and stop this over dependence on others. Singapore learnt the lesson the hard way but now they have become a beacon of hope. Nigerians must build Nigeria

Rufai Oseni, rufaioseni@gmail.com