'What does America want with Nigeria?' - Max Nashion

When the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), announced the shift in the 2015 general elections, many people, individuals, organisations and even some countries, were utterly disappointed with INEC, even though the electoral body swiftly cleared itself on the reason the election was shifted.

Security concerns were cited as the main reason for the postponement. I happened to be the only person that was not surprise with the change of the election date. As political animals that are directly or indirectly involved in political process, we ought to know that politics, like any other game, has a change of pattern, when the initial one is not yielding the desired results.

You may call it strategy, but it remains part and parcel of politics. However, one show of concern that was not appealing to me was that of the US.

Come on! Why is America so desperate about Nigeria's' election? Where was America when we needed them most? When our brothers and sisters were being killed on a daily basis in their thousands, they did not bother to come to our aid!

I can still remember how we expected America to act when the parcel of Ebola was delivered to Nigerians. America was so reluctant, even went ahead to stigmatise Nigeria, nay, the whole of West Africa, but all of sudden, the almighty America wants Nigeria to hurriedly conduct its election because they have predicted Nigeria's break-up in 2015.

And they want it to happen so fast so that CNN would have a bold headline. The Charlie Hebdo crisis has given more media coverage by the western media than the Boko Haram crisis, just because it's happening in Africa and Nigeria is becoming irrelevant to the western world due to the fact that a substitute has been found for the product (oil) that has given Nigeria a name in the comity of nations.

As a person who has lived through the tumultuous times in Adamawa State, have had my community pummeled by the Boko Haram insurgents without America as much as raising a finger to help, I find their interest in Nigeria's election preposterous.

You only need to be in places like Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Taraba and some parts of the North East to feel what we feel and know that America's sudden interest in our politics is all about what they can get from Nigeria.

Nigerians should realise that not all who they called allies mean well for them. This is enough to ginger unity among us, so as to prove to those waiting for our downfall that we are bound to live together till the end of time!