Christmas Day, the Return of the Justification Machine, and the Long War on African Solvency
By InnerKwest Editorial | December 26, 2025
On Christmas Day, as much of the world marked a religious holiday associated with peace, restraint, and reflection, U.S. military force ordered by Trump was deployed on Nigerian soil. Airstrikes — publicly framed as counter-terror operations and morally couched in the language of protection — landed not as an isolated tactical event, but as a signal.
Signals matter.
They establish precedent.
They normalize escalation.
They condition the narrative space for what follows.
What occurred on Christmas Day was not merely a military action. It was the ceremonial reopening of a very old playbook — one that Africa has seen, endured, and paid for repeatedly over the last four centuries.
The country named was Nigeria.
The subject, however, was much larger.
Christmas Day as Narrative Deployment
The timing was not incidental.
When force is applied on a day loaded with Christian symbolism, it is almost never accidental — especially when the justification is framed around moral urgency, religious protection, or civilizational defense. Christmas Day becomes a rhetorical amplifier, not because of faith itself, but because of what faith can be made to authorize.
This is how interventions are softened before they are expanded.
First comes the strike.
Then the explanation.
Then the repetition.
And once repetition sets in, what was once “exceptional” becomes policy.
The Justification Machine Never Sleeps
Western intervention in Africa has never required proof — only a story.
Four hundred years ago, the story was salvation. Later it was order. Then modernization. Then development. Now it is security, extremism, humanitarian rescue, or supply-chain resilience.
Each era produces its own vocabulary, but the mechanism is unchanged:
- Define instability (often selectively)
- Attribute incapacity to local governance
- Insert external authority — military, financial, or regulatory
- Extract value while underwriting dependency
- Blame outcomes on African mismanagement
Christmas Day’s bombing was step three — not the beginning, and certainly not the end.
Solvency Is the Battlefield
What is under assault is not simply territory or leadership — it is solvency.
Solvency determines whether a nation can:
- Finance its own development
- Industrialize on its own terms
- Control its resources without coercion
- Absorb shocks without external permission
From the late colonial era onward, Africa’s solvency has been systematically externalized. Where empires once extracted labor and raw materials directly, the modern system extracts balance-sheet control.
The tools have evolved.
The intent has not.
Why Nigeria Matters So Much
Nigeria is not only Africa’s most populous country. It is one of its most symbolically dangerous.
A solvent, industrializing Nigeria would represent:
- A non-Western center of financial gravity
- An independent manufacturing and energy hub
- A continental bargaining anchor
- Proof that Africa can escape perpetual dependency
That possibility destabilizes existing hierarchies — not in Abuja, but in global capitals accustomed to African fragility as a constant.
Thus Nigeria is persistently framed as:
- Too unstable to industrialize freely
- Too corrupt to manage resources independently
- Too divided to be trusted with scale
Each framing invites assistance.
Each assistance arrives with conditions.
Minerals, Potential, and the New Scramble
The conversation around rare earths and critical minerals is less about present fact than future control.
Nigeria does not need to dominate global reserves to become strategically inconvenient. It only needs potential.
Potential is enough to trigger:
- “Security partnerships”
- Investment conditionalities
- Regulatory harmonization pressures
- Militarized protection of “critical infrastructure”
This is how a resource narrative quietly becomes a sovereignty narrative.
Africa has seen this cycle before — gold, rubber, oil, diamonds.
The mineral changes.
The logic does not.
Security Language as Economic Solvent
Security rhetoric is uniquely effective because it neutralizes resistance.
Once a region is coded as a security concern:
- Economic decisions become securitized
- Industrial policy becomes suspect
- Financial autonomy becomes “destabilizing”
- Resistance becomes extremism-adjacent
Under this framework:
- Bombing is never called bombing
- Sanctions are never sanctions
- Economic suffocation is renamed stabilization
This is not conspiracy.
It is narrative governance.
The Moral Authority Paradox
What deepens the rupture is who is invoking moral justification.
The Christmas Day action was authorized under Donald Trump, a president who has never governed as a confessional Christian and whose relationship to Christian symbolism has consistently appeared transactional rather than devotional.
This is not a theological critique.
It is a credibility one.
Trump has repeatedly demonstrated that religion functions for him as political utility, not personal submission. Public controversies surrounding inauguration rituals, religious posture, and ethical consistency are relevant not because of ceremony, but because of authority.
A leader who does not submit himself to Christian ethics cannot credibly deploy Christianity as a warrant for foreign force — particularly on African soil, where the faith has historically been used as a colonial access key rather than a covenant of liberation.
That is not faith.
It is moral arbitrage.
Christianity as Cover, Not Compass
Africa has lived this contradiction before.
Christianity arrived as salvation —
then justified enslavement,
then rationalized empire,
then was sidelined once extraction was secured.
When Western leaders rediscover Christian concern only at moments of geopolitical convenience, Africans are right to ask:
- Why now?
- Why here?
- And under whose authority?
Religion invoked without accountability becomes the most dangerous language of all — because it cannot be audited, sanctioned, or restrained.
Four Centuries, One Through-line
Western engagement with Africa has been structurally hostile to African independence for more than four centuries — even when cloaked in benevolence.
From transatlantic extraction, to colonial partition, to debt regimes, to structural adjustment, to modern “partnerships,” the pattern holds:
Africa may participate — but not compete.
Africa may export — but not control value chains.
Africa may grow — but not self-finance power.
Whenever Africa approaches solvency, the rules shift.
Why This Moment Is Different — and Dangerous
Africa today is:
- Young
- Urbanizing
- Digitizing
- Resource-rich
- Increasingly multi-polar in its alliances
The West, meanwhile, faces:
- Supply-chain fragility
- Energy transitions
- Industrial re-shoring pressure
- Strategic rivalry with non-Western blocs
These trajectories collide at Nigeria.
Christmas Day was not a conclusion.
It was an opening move.
Conclusion
Nigeria is not being pressured because it is weak.
It is being pressured because it might not remain so.
Africa’s solvency — real, durable, internally financed solvency — remains the outcome Western power has most consistently moved to delay, regardless of century, party, or rhetoric.
When force is applied on holy days,
when faith is invoked by those who do not kneel to it,
and when morality becomes a cover for strategy —
history tells us exactly what follows.
Africa has learned to distinguish faith from force.
And this time, the signal was unmistakable.
Support InnerKwest: Powering Truth & Excellence with Bitcoin
At InnerKwest.com, we are committed to delivering impactful journalism, deep insights, and fearless social commentary. Your Bitcoin contributions help us execute with excellence, ensuring we remain independent and continue to amplify voices that matter.
Support our mission—send BTC today!
🔗 Bitcoin Address: 3NM7AAdxxaJ7jUhZ2nyfgcheWkrquvCzRm© 2026 InnerKwest®. All Rights Reserved | Haki zote zimehifadhiwa | 版权所有.
InnerKwest® is a registered trademark of Performance Platforms Global Inc.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
Thank you for standing with us in pursuit of truth and progress!