On January 2nd, 2020 after permitting us literally two days of peace in the new year, the US killed Iranian leader and commander – Qassim Soleimani in an airstrike.
His killing occurred in Iran. All the way over there, 5,297km away from Nigeria, so for the most part, we in West Africa felt safe. Trump isn’t giving us visas to his country anyways, we good.
So Nigerians as per usual, laughed at the Twitter memes, dropped a few of our own and said a collective, half-hearted ‘eiyahh’ at the talk of reprisal attacks by the Iranians against Americans. Until this happened:
Girl what?
If like me, you were wondering, why in the world anyone would Nigeria and Nigerian armed forces, you know – these guys
…involved in a matter surrounding the very sophisticated armed forces of the US and Iran.
So here’s the quick tea.
The FCT protesters were part of the Shiite sect. Iran is an overwhelmingly Shiia country.
The protesters were showing solidarity with their Iranian counterparts and also used the opportunity to speak out for the release of their leader – Ibrahim El Zakzaky who has been in the custody of the Nigerian government, together with his wife, since 2015.
We understand your grouse, and we’ll let you finish, but the relative peace we’re enjoying in Nigeria would be the best thing of all time in 2020.
