THE unfolding events in Egypt should be a cause for serious concern for Nigeria. The continent’s second most populous country sits on the proverbial keg of gunpowder, and there is no predicting the outcome of its on-going turmoil.

After more than forty years under a militarised civilian autocracy, Egyptians joined the train of the 2011 “Arab Spring” wave of revolutions that swept across most of the Middle East, which ended in the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak on 11 February 2011.

The army, which assumed power, started an orderly transition that produced a constitution and culminated in the election of Mohammed Morsi, the candidate of the Freedom and Justice Party. FJP, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, as the first democratically elected president of Egypt.

Morsi’s inability to carry the mosaic of the Egyptian political interests along, as well as his increasing bent towards radical Islamic interests led to demonstrations by the alarmed opposition, thus triggering the return of the military to power. Since then, the army has cracked down on supporters of Morsi who have been staging series of unrests, wreaking a grim harvest of high death tolls.

One of the earliest reactions to the return of military rule to Egypt was the decision of the African Union, AU, to suspend her. Nigeria, which is a signatory to the AU policy of distancing itself from military regimes in Africa, has bought into the AU posture.

As a country now menaced by armed Islamic insurgents, Nigeria has a duty and an interest to watch developments in Egypt with vigilance. As much as we should toe the line of the continental body, we must place our national interests above every other consideration.

Our primary national interest is the security of lives and property of Nigerians both in Nigeria and elsewhere. Nigeria’s security will be threatened if events in Egypt are allowed to degenerate into a civil war. Our recent experiences in the relatively smaller Libya, whereby large amounts of arms mainly from the deposed Muammar Ghaddafi’s camp fuelled the wheels of terrorists in Nigeria, must be an object lesson.

We call on the Federal Government to join hands with other concerned powers to moderate events in Egypt to avoid the collapse of the state or reign of anarchy. Though we abhor military rule, we must go beyond this and play our role as a major continental power with something to lose if Egypt goes wrong. Our pragmatic approach to the Omar Al Bashir visit to Abuja recently, in which we placed our national interest above that of the International Criminal Court, is a good pointer.

Let us be constructively engaged.