Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Author and Public Commentator, Reno Omokri, has argued that if Nigeria wants to defend her territorial integrity and ensure internal security, the National Assembly must without delay, pass a law that all Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Nigeria that receive funding from foreign governments, agencies and individuals must declare such monies.

This followed the recent revelations that the Barack Obama and Joe Biden administrations allegedly funded Boko Haram in Nigeria through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
If they do not declare such funds, Omokri argued that their registrations should be reversed and their licenses revoked. Any such funds traced to them will be forfeited to the federal government, he maintained in a statement yesterday.

“If we do not do this, Nigeria will continue to be vulnerable to external forces who use money to induce unpatriotic citizens to wreak social havoc and undermine our government through activities that weaken the moral fabric of our society, unnaturally change our culture, and create divisions and mutual suspicions amongst the various ethnic nationalities that make up Nigeria.

“#EndSARS was funded from abroad. Look at the damage it did to Nigeria. According to the private ratings firm, Financial Derivatives Company, the infrastructural damage to Lagos State alone was N1.5 trillion.

“The Lagos State Government built the best forensic laboratory in Africa, and that facility was burnt to the ground after Nnamdi Kanu’s broadcast to his supporters where he instructed them to “burn Lagos to the ground”, Omokri alleged.
That forensic investment, along with other multi-billion Naira public infrastructure, including 80 BRT buses and several courthouses and police stations, he said, were razed during the #EndSARS protests, stressing that it was why MohBad’s autopsy had to be done in America rather than Nigeria.

“And then last year’s Days of Rage protest inflicted damage worth N200 billion on Northern Nigeria, and almost destabilised Nigeria to the point where Russian flags were being paraded to instigate a Burkina Faso/Mali/Niger type regime change in Nigeria.

“Many foreign intelligence services are using religious cults and NGOs to further their devices in Nigeria, and we must lift the veil on them by making the funding of these groups transparent.
“We saw the nationwide damage done in Kenya during last year’s protests, which, according to President William Ruto, were funded by the Ford Foundation, based in the US.  If we do not learn from Congressman Scott Perry’s revelations on USAID’s funding of Boko Haram, we may end up being the next Kenya. Or even worse, the next Somalia!” he pointed out.

If the National Assembly does not act or is dragging its feet on this matter, Omokri said that President Bola Tinubu may want to borrow a leaf from President Donald Trump, and use executive orders to achieve this in the short to medium term.
“Let it be known that in the United States, Russia, and China, you cannot receive foreign donor funds as an NGO without first registering with the government for that purpose. Therefore, those nations and others ought not to do in Nigeria what they will not tolerate in their homeland.

“The national mood is right and ripe for such an intervention. Nigerians would be united behind the President if he took such action. But if it is not taken now, our people are notorious for their short memories.
“We will move on to the next beef between Wizkid and his lesser-status Afrobeats wannabe rivals, who have repeatedly suffered frustration in their quest to be Grammy-rated like the 001 of music in Africa,” Omokri said.