War on Terrorism: Unpatriotic Elements Within

By Elempe Dele

When the loud-mouthed, appalling, insensitive, derogatory, obnoxious, boastful, offensive, braggart, gasbag and felon said he was going to attack Nigeria without considering its sovereignty and or international law because Christians were being killed, the opposition hailed the move without any thought of the long-term effects. They even wished he took over power and removed the president the way he did in Venezuela. Their expectations were high. The narrative of Christian killings were splashed on every single tabloid available, not the fact that people of all religions suffered the same fate from these criminals, terrorists, bandits, extortionists, cattle rustlers, land grabbers, killer herdsmen and kidnappers. All manner of news were being peddled – both truth and transparent untruth. No one, not even the government, could deny the killings of Christians, no one can also deny the killings of citizens of other faiths. The crimes were against humanity here and responsible citizens urged the government through the military to do more in defending the vulnerable citizens who live in areas that were hugely unmanned by security agents. To some of us language and intention matter.

In recent times, through shared effective cooperation, the Nigerian and the United States, US, governments are both hands on deck to facilitate the fight against terrorism and other crimes in the country through conscientious and diplomatic efforts. The results have been overwhelming tactically With the military daily eliminating the terrorists in all fronts like they have never done since 2009 when this insurgency became full-blown. One of the most notorious enclaves of the terrorists, the famed Sambisa Forest, was recently cleared totally by the military, and the remnants of the criminals are being sent to their homes in paradise to meet their seventy two virgins while sipping sweet mints and getting high on left over illicit substances and drugs.

All of a sudden, the Executive Chairmen, the Screwdriver sellers, the Demarketers Association and Committee members of the Opposition have gone cold. They cannot even find their voices to hail the sacrifices of the military that has stepped up the fight in recent times with the supply of arms and shared intelligence from our reasonable partners within the United States government that has allowed the National Security Adviser, NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, to visit the US to explain the complicity of the war, the efforts, the limitations, challenges and the need for cooperation and coordination. The US has also sent fact-finding teams to the country since late last year when what was supposed to be a diplomatic row was channeled to a diplomatic friendliness and cooperation.

Days ago, Mission Nigeria led by the NSA, Ribadu, thanked the US Under Secretary, Allison Hooker, for her visit to Abuja, where she joined Nigerian officials, religious leaders, and U.S. business leaders to strengthen cooperation on security, religious freedom, and economic growth. The United States said they remain committed to supporting Nigeria’s efforts to protect Christians and advance shared priorities.

Before the recent visitation, the US supplied Nigeria unspecified military equipments after series of diplomatic discussions and fact-finding missions. While the news of the supply was on every newspaper, the Executive Chairmen of the Unpatriotic elements called for general silence because their expectations were not met. “Why supply arms when you could have removed the president and install us in power like you did in Venezuela?”

There have been several other fantastic news for Nigeria’s ongoing fight against terrorism. On January 23, 2026, following high-level talks in Abuja between U.S. officials and Nigeria’s National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, Nigeria’s government announced that the U.S. has committed to delivering long-overdue military equipment purchased over the past five years. This includes drones, helicopters, spare parts, and support systems—items that have been stuck in bureaucratic or logistical delays. It’s the third such meeting since November 2025, signaling a warming in U.S.-Nigeria defense ties after some past tensions over human rights concerns.

Some of the expected weapons is the GBU-12 Paveway II (a 500-lb laser-guided bomb), which was part of a $346 million U.S. Foreign Military Sales package approved by the State Department back in August 2025. That deal included 1,002 MK-82 bombs, 1,002 MXU-650 airfoil kits (to convert them into GBU-12s), and related precision rocket systems like APKWS II—all tailored for Nigeria’s fleet of Embraer A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft. These have been in the pipeline, and the new pledge likely encompasses accelerating their handover, especially as Nigeria ramps up operations in the northeast and Lake Chad region.

The Nigeria’s air force has been hamstrung by equipment shortages, making it tough to hit mobile insurgent targets effectively. The Super Tucanos, already in service since 2021, are proven against the terrorists (they’ve racked up hundreds of strikes), but they’ve been limited by ammunition availability. Just last month (December 2025), AFRICOM coordinated airstrikes in Nigeria using similar GBU-12s against IS sites, showing the tech’s value in the region.

All these news of cooperation, coordination, support, supplies, and efforts by the government and military are pains to the opposition hence their desire to be totally silent. Their wish was an illegal takeover of the Nigerian government by the US knowing the state of mind of its president, Donald Trump. Since that earlier tension has fizzled out into cooperation, the opposition led by the usual suspects who are fond of talking down the country in all hypocritical fronts without any sense of responsibility, patriotism, optimism, research and fact-finding, have since been put to shame and are now gravely silent. They hate the government so much that they even hate the sacrificial military forgetting governments normally last for only four years. Even when soldiers are killed and the nation mourns, they make gravels of politics out of it. Whenever communities are attacked, citizens are kidnapped or killed, they excavate political gravestones from these unfortunate incidents just to score woeful political scores.

Yes, it is a choice thing to hate or like the party or government in power, but it is concerning if the opposition extend such hatred to the nation to which one ought to swear undying loyalty to.

May the nation win the widespread wars against these criminal elements and put the vexatious opposition to shame.

Elempe Dele is a journalist, he wrote from Okpe, Akoko-Edo, Edo State.