In this talk, Shahid Bolsen breaks down why Trump’s fiery threats against Nigeria are theatre, not strategy, and why reacting in fear to every statement out of Washington is a trap.

He explains how Trump is juggling two power blocs inside global capital:

a nationalistic faction still welded to the US state, the Neocons, the military-industrial complex, and Christian Right crusader fantasies;

and an a-national faction that uses America as just one disposable instrument in a wider, multipolar financial empire.

From this angle, Trump’s loud promises to “defend Christians” in Nigeria are less about Nigeria and more about American domestic politics and a managed, controlled dismantling of US global leadership. The real purpose of this spectacle is to push countries like Nigeria to lose trust in the US, accelerate de-dollarisation, and nudge the Global South towards BRICS, China, and GCC capital.

Shahid then turns to Nigeria’s internal crossroads. On one side lies a real sovereignty project:

food security and agro-processing inside Nigeria,

metallurgy and industrial capacity,

local defence production,

“Nigeria First” in practical economic terms.

On the other side, he outlines the familiar IMF-style “reform” script—fuel subsidy removal, currency “liberalisation”, high interest rates, fiscal tightening—describing it as a neocolonial maintenance manual that keeps Nigeria creditworthy and exploitable rather than independent.

He shows how Trump’s threats simultaneously:

discipline Abuja by raising perceived risk and reminding them who still controls key financial levers;

and at the same time advertise to Nigeria and the wider Global South that no one should build their future on American reliability.

For Middle Nation, the key question is not whether Nigeria distances itself from the US; that shift is already underway. The question is how it does so, and on whose terms. Does Nigeria merely swap Western patrons for Eastern and Gulf patrons, or does it use this moment to build genuine economic sovereignty and a third path—engaging with all blocs while remaining captured by none?

This talk is a guide for policymakers, activists, and young Nigerians who sense that history is turning, and want to make sure Nigeria steps off the road of subordination and onto the road of real independence before the turn is missed permanently