To Catch up on Part 2

6. GLOBAL CASE STUDIES — WHEN INTERNAL WEAKNESS INVITES EXTERNAL POWER

Across the world, some of the most devastating national breakdowns have followed the same script: internal fractures create vulnerabilities, and external forces simply walk through the cracks. Foreign powers rarely initiate collapse; they exploit openings created by domestic dysfunction — divisions, corruption, mistrust, weakened institutions, and leadership failures.

This pattern is as old as geopolitics itself.

Libya — A Nation That Fell From the Inside Before the First Bomb Dropped

Long before NATO airstrikes, Libya was already unraveling. Decades of authoritarian rule had created rival factions divided along tribal, regional, and ideological lines. The leadership hoarded power, silenced dissent, and failed to build a unifying national identity. By the time external powers intervened, Libya was structurally compromised. External actors did not create the vacuum — they simply filled it. And the result was a catastrophe that Libya still bleeds from today.

Iraq — When Authoritarianism Leaves a Nation Hollow

The 2003 invasion of Iraq did not succeed only because America was powerful; it succeeded because Iraq was internally brittle. Decades of repression, ethnic fragmentation, and deep mistrust had eroded national unity. A divided society presented multiple access points for foreign actors. When a nation lacks internal cohesion, sovereignty becomes negotiable.

Syria — Domestic Tensions Become International Battleground

Syria’s descent into war began with domestic grievances, political rigidity, and systemic repression. Foreign powers — regional and global — only amplified what had already taken root. Today, Syria stands as one of the clearest examples of how an internal crisis can attract a global cast of actors, each pursuing its own interests while the nation itself disintegrates.

Venezuela — Economic Mismanagement as a Doorway to Intervention

Venezuela’s turmoil did not begin with sanctions; it began with internal mismanagement, institutional decay, corruption, and polarization. Once the trust between government and citizens collapsed, external pressure found fertile ground. A weakened nation does not negotiate, it reacts.

Afghanistan — A Fractured Nation Becomes a Theatre for Global Rivalries

For decades, Afghanistan’s internal fragmentation, tribal divisions, competing warlords, weak governance, and shifting loyalties, created the perfect environment for external actors to shape outcomes. Afghanistan did not become a pawn in global rivalry because foreign powers were strong, but because the nation itself was deeply divided.

The Global Pattern

Across all these examples — Libya, Iraq, Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan — the same truth repeats itself: external intervention becomes most effective when internal cohesion is weakest.

Foreign powers rarely “break” nations; they exploit nations already breaking themselves. This is why Nigeria must take its internal vulnerabilities seriously, corruption, division, misinformation, weak institutions, tribal politics, and the fifth-column mentality that treats the nation as expendable. Foreign powers will always have interests. That is normal. But only Nigerians can decide whether those interests become threats.

No foreign agenda can penetrate a nation that is internally disciplined, unified, and alert. It is the internal fractures, the fifth columnists, knowingly or unknowingly, that open the door. And if Nigeria must avoid the tragedies of those nations, then Nigeria must fix the weaknesses that make foreign interference possible.

7. THE TRUMP ERA — WHEN AMERICA LOST THE MORAL HIGH GROUND

For decades, the West, and particularly the United States, styled itself as the global guardian of democracy. It lectured nations on electoral integrity, institutional strength, civil liberties and good governance. But the Trump era tore a hole straight through that moral costume, like a knife, cutting through a veil.

In January 2021, the world watched the unimaginable: American citizens storming the U.S. Capitol, attempting to overturn their own election. The same ingredients Nigeria has battled for years, misinformation, propaganda, internal sabotage, institutional weakening, were suddenly on display in Washington, not Abuja.

For once, the myth shattered.

It became clear that nations are not strong because they talk about democracy. They are strong because their internal systems hold under pressure. And even in America, those systems shook violently like a city hit by a very strong earthquake. Yet while the U.S. still struggled to address its internal fractures, we watched something even more troubling: the same Trump, who presided over that turbulence, threatening military action against Nigeria on the back of a deeply contested, politically convenient narrative of “Christian genocide.”

He spoke of sending U.S. troops.

He signaled the Pentagon to “prepare options.”

He vowed to cut aid and “go in” if Nigeria did not act the way he wanted.

All this while the African Union, Nigerian officials and multiple analysts were saying in clear terms:

“There is no Christian genocide in Nigeria. The violence is real, but it is more complex than that.”

The irony is almost painful: A country wrestling with its own internal extremism, election denial, political violence and racial tension was threatening to “fix” another nation thousands of miles away — based on a simplified story that flattens our reality and erases half the victims. It is the very contradiction Jesus warned about: “First remove the log from your own eye, then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

America’s political fractures, from the mishandling of its 2020 election aftermath to its ongoing culture wars, should have inspired humility. Instead, in this Trump era, they often amplified arrogance. And this is the hypocrisy at the heart of much Western foreign policy: the nations most eager to prescribe governance models abroad, often struggle to uphold the same standards at home.

For Nigeria, the lesson is profound:

If America, with all its wealth, sophistication, and centuries-old institutions, can be shaken by its own internal enemies, then no nation has the moral authority to treat Nigeria as a pupil in perpetual need of scolding. The lesson is simple: a fractured house cannot lecture another on stability.

And this must be stated clearly and without apology: The United States has neither a moral nor legal justification to threaten military action against Nigeria under any pretext. International law does not permit unilateral intervention based on one-sided narratives, sensational reports, or the lobbying efforts of partisan groups. Even in past controversial interventions — Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya — Washington still attempted to present some form of legal reasoning, however debated.

But Nigeria? No such justification exists.

The very idea that a foreign legislature feels entitled to deliberate on internal Nigerian affairs — as though we are a protectorate or an extension of their electoral base — is troubling. It would be unthinkable for Nigeria’s National Assembly to abandon matters of national relevance and begin conducting hearings on domestic disputes in the United States. Such an act would attract ridicule, It would be condemned as meddling, irresponsible, and absurd. Yet the same individuals who would tear our lawmakers apart for such overreach see nothing wrong with foreign politicians doing precisely that to Nigeria.

This is the hypocrisy — an old, pungent hypocrisy — that continues to stain global politics.

Nigeria must reject the idea that our legitimacy is validated abroad.

Our destiny will not be drafted in Washington, London, Paris, or Brussels.

Our democracy will not be shaped by foreign debates, foreign celebrities, foreign lobbyists, or foreign anxieties.

If this nation will rise, it will rise because we built it, deliberately, intelligently, courageously, and from within.

To be continued and have a Merry Christmas!