We are Nigerians. Everywhere in the world we go, we rise to the top — and we do it right. Six out of ten of us who go to America earn a college degree. Three out of ten Americans do. Nobody handed us anything. We earned it.
But at home, our country keeps sinking. Poverty. Corruption. Persecution. Terrorism. Some 190,150 of our brothers and sisters killed since 2009 — Christians, and Muslims who refused the jihad. More than 20,000 of our churches burned. Ten to twelve million of us driven from our homes into camps.
None of this is our fault. Nigeria has been hijacked and held hostage by corrupt tyrants for too long. They steal our oil money. They steal our elections. They let the killers run loose and call it a farmer-herder dispute. Nobody with the power to stop them ever bothered.
Until now.
For the first time, an American president is paying attention. President Trump called out the killing of our people when nobody else would. He put Nigeria back on the Country of Particular Concern list — the last president took us off it. He threatened the aid that props up the men who rob us. He sent airstrikes against the terrorists who murder us.
He can make sure this election is honest, and he does not need to send a single soldier to do it. He needs to say one thing: the United States will not recognize a Nigerian election that cannot be independently verified. Say that, and the men planning to steal our vote have a problem they have never had before.
Give us a chance and we will surprise the world. All we ask is the chance to prove it.
