Nigeria, Feb. 16 -- Something looks curious about the ongoing overt intervention of the United States in the internal affairs of Nigeria. Those who know or should know are sitting askance. They are not talking to us about the impropriety or otherwise of the American mission in Nigeria.

Before now, we used to be told by experts in international relations that the internal affairs of a country, any country, is sacrosanct. They rely on what they call doctrine of non-interference to tell us this. Non-interference formed the kernel of the argument of the federalists when Nigeria's federal and semi federal elements converged on Aburi, Ghana, in 1967 to negotiate the best arrangement that would serve the general interest of its constituent gro...