Dear President Bola Ahmad Tinubu,

I write as a patriotic Nigerian and advocate for justice, fairness, and peaceful coexistence. Your “Renewed Hope” agenda inspires optimism, but its legacy will be further judged by posterity. For the renewed hope to be sustainable, it must reflect not only Nigeria’s domestic aspirations but also our position in the comity of nations. Today, the world is witnessing grave atrocities in Gaza. The carnage, widely condemned as genocide, has provoked global outrage and mass protests. Nations and peoples everywhere have risen in defense of humanity. In this context, Nigeria’s decision to enter into a security pact with Israel is deeply troubling. It risks undermining our credibility, betraying our long-standing foreign policy principles, and placing us on the wrong side of history.

Nigeria’s Legacy of Leadership in Africa

Nigeria has historically stood tall as the voice of Africa. We were central in opposing apartheid in South Africa, in restoring peace to Liberia and Sierra Leone, and in safeguarding democracy in The Gambia. Our sacrifices earned us respect as a nation that defends the oppressed. To now align with Israel, a state repeatedly accused of apartheid, aggression, and crimes against humanity, undermines that legacy and contradicts our role as a moral compass for the continent.

Binding Commitments Under International Law

Both Nigeria and Israel are parties to critical international instruments: the 1948 Genocide Convention, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Geneva Conventions. Nigeria ratified the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 2001, binding us to act against such crimes. Israel, though a signatory, has consistently acted in flagrant violation of these obligations.

On 26 January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) held Israel accountable for genocide in Gaza and ordered it to permit humanitarian aid. Israel defied the ruling. In November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Yet Israel has intensified its bombardment, killing over 64,656 civilians since October, 2023, including children, women, journalists, and health workers. For Nigeria to now embrace security cooperation with Israel is not diplomacy — it is complicity. It contradicts our treaty obligations and erodes our standing as a defender of the Rule of Law.

Lessons From Our Own History

Your Excellency, our fragile security situation cannot be taken lightly. Nigerians still remember the horrors of the Civil War (1967–1970), in which over two million lives were lost. Declassified records reveal that Israel provided clandestine arms and funding to the Biafran secessionists, prompting General Yakubu Gowon to sever diplomatic ties in 1973. Those ties were only restored nearly two decades later. To now entrust Israel with sensitive aspects of our national security disregards that painful history. Security is not a game of chance. Aligning with a state that once destabilized our sovereignty is both risky and ethically indefensible.

Troubling Developments at Home.

Even more worrying are recent developments that expose a dangerous continuity between the past and the present. Having established that Israel provided arms and financial support to Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu and the Biafran secessionists during the Nigerian Civil War — an action that made General Gowon’s government to sever ties with Israel for destabilizing our sovereignty, it will be suicidal and disastrous for Nigeria, a country renowned for its anti-Apartheid stance to fraternise and share intelligence with a nation notable for crimes against humanity and whose leaders are wanted by ICC for genocide and other war crimes.

Interestingly, decades later, recently, on 11 August, 2025, the widow of Colonel Ojukwu, Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu, who serves as Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs officially received Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister in Abuja, where security cooperation and intelligence sharing were discussed. Barely eleven days later, Mr. Ramzi Abu Ibrahim, a Palestinian-Nigerian who has lived peacefully in our country for 35 years, was arrested and taken to an undisclosed location.

The sequence is too striking to dismiss. The same state that once armed a rebellion through Ojukwu is now rekindling security cooperation through Ojukwu’s widow, and almost immediately, a Palestinian voice is silenced on our soil. This reveals a troubling pattern: Israel’s involvement in Nigeria’s affairs has historically brought destabilization, and its renewed engagement now threatens our sovereignty once again.

A Call to Conscience Mr. President, Nigeria has always stood on the side of justice. Our foreign policy has consistently favored the liberation of oppressed peoples. To align with a state condemned for genocide is to betray this proud tradition. A state with no regard for other sovereignty state; recently exterminated the whole cabinet in Yemen and bombed away a peaceful and mediating capital of Qatar-Doha, is never a state we can pitch out tent with.

I therefore respectfully urge Your Excellency to:
1. Review and reverse the proposed security pact with Israel.
2. Order the immediate release of Mr. Ramzi Abu Ibrahim and any others detained for political reasons, including those falsely accused of terrorism activity or affiliation.
3. Reaffirm Nigeria’s foreign policy tradition of supporting oppressed peoples (including Palestine) while promoting justice and adhering to international law.

Your Excellency, history will not forget the choices made under your leadership. Nigeria must not be remembered as a nation that chose expediency over conscience. To side with Israel today, a state that has no regard for our shared humanity let alone a mere agreement, is to stand on the wrong side of history.

Thank you, Sir.

Long live Nigeria.
Long live Palestine.
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Atta Rasheed K. Esq.,
Legal Practitioner & Human Rights Advocate
LLM Student, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, (UDUS) Sokoto