By Okoi Obono-Obla
How some of us behave or think startles me endlessly and ceaselessly. How can a political party in Nigeria, or a politician, spend a humongous amount of $1.2 million—which, if converted to Naira under the current exchange rate, is probably in the region of about N3 billion—to retain a United States lobbying firm Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C. to lobby the U.S. government and Congress over an issue with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), or even an internal party crisis that splintered into two irreconcilable factions? These factions often emerge from desperate attempts by some individuals to hijack party leadership, supplant it, and use the party as a special purpose vehicle.
Rather than employing consensus building or dialogue to placate aggrieved members, or engaging them through concessions, compromise, and equitable sharing of party resources, some believe the best solution is to run to the United States—a country grappling with homelessness, domestic terrorism, grinding poverty, high food prices, astronomical energy costs, unemployment, inflation, NATO crises, and wars in the Middle East that threaten to engulf the region in unprecedented conflagration.
I shudder and wonder why some of our people think the United States cares a whit about our domestic squabbles. Have they not seen what is unfolding in the Middle East and Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Iraq? Despite America’s boasts of being a strategic partner and its heavy investment in military bases, it has proven unable to shield these nations from Iran’s ferocious onslaught since the war began on 28 February 2026.
Have they forgotten how the United States failed the people of Rwanda in 1994, when inaction and reluctance to intervene allowed a genocide to be unleashed by militant Hutus on the Tutsi and moderate Hutus? Have they forgotten America’s history of double standards in foreign policy? How the U.S. abruptly abandoned Afghanistan in 2021 after spending two decades and trillions of dollars fighting the Taliban, only to watch them retake Kabul within days? Have they forgotten the CIA‑backed coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran in 1953, or the overthrow of President Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973? Have they forgotten the devastation of the Korean War in the 1950s and the quagmire of the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 70s, both of which exposed America’s duplicity and limits of power?
Conclusion: The reliance on foreign lobbying firms to resolve internal party crises reflects a troubling misplacement of priorities. Nigeria’s politicians must recognize that America’s track record shows inconsistency, self‑interest, and abandonment when convenient. Dialogue, compromise, and consensus remain the only sustainable path to political stability in Nigeria. Outsourcing our problems to foreign powers is not only futile but also a glaring abdication of responsibility.
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