Buhari’s singular act of dragging Nigeria into the military alliance on March 5, 2015 has raised different eyebrows, opinions and agitation from various quarters, with some claiming that the president is perfecting his primary plan of islamizing the country.

But while all the conspiracy theorists run wild with theories, ask yourselves, what exactly is this military coalition and its functions?

The Islamic coalition against terrorism is an intergovernmental military alliance comprising of 34 countries in the Muslim world united around counter-terrorist activities. It was founded by Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud of Saudi-Arabia on December, 15 2015.

The primary objective of the alliance is to protect the Muslim countries from all terrorist groups and terrorist organizations irrespective of their sect and name, predominantly aiming to fight terrorist in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan.

It presently comprises of about 20 countries including Nigeria.

While there have been various articles on the whether or not Nigeria has the religious stance to belong to this group, this piece would solely take an inspection tour on some pivotal issues linked with the coalition.

Persuasive as Saudi Arabia’s claim of global interest may be, Nigerians and the Nigerian government should not be cajoled into buying this narrative the Saudis.

It is widely known that both European and Middle-Eastern countries attach less importance to issues that concerns Africa, except when there is a low hanging fruit hidden somewhere.

First of all, the coalition can be described as Saudi-Arabia’s way of challenging Iran’s growing influence in global Islamic affairs. As Saudi-Arabia is home to mainly Sunni Muslims worldwide. Majority of Muslims in Nigeria are Sunnis as against a minor shia population. It could hence be observed that the middle-Eastern Nations are primarily concerned with turning Nigeria into a “Middle-Eastern buffer zone”, one in which would become a display of religious artillery.

Hence, the “global interest” narrative is only but a selfish ambition, which may eventually spell doom for the Nation if bought. The inclusion of Nigeria in the coalition is more of political importance to the Middle-Eastern Nations than the security and military aspect.

Also, another area of attention is the fact that the Saudi led coalition has specifically spelt it out to mobilize it forces to fight the insurgency in Syria and surrounding middle-Eastern nations alone, which is then a reflection that Africa, Nigeria particularly is but a secondary choice whose basic use would only be for manpower mobilization alone and nothing more.

What then are the precautions and lessons to be taken/learnt by Nigeria? A pertinent and vital question the Nigerian government should ask herself is this; why is America, France or even Britain not part of the coalition? Are these world powers not major victims of terrorism, especially of ISIL? Or are these countries not the largest contributors of Men, ammunitions and finance to fight against ISIL?

These are vital questions that should be asked and diligently answered. Every attempt should be made at avoiding been dragged into this “middle-Eastern supremacy battle”, there are domestic issues of ethnic fabric that requires urgent attention and help.

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Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Joshua Akintayo, a postgraduate student of international relations in a Nigerian University, can be reached via @d_special_josh