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  • Bow To God And Not To Trump!

    Bow To God And Not To Trump!

    • KEYNOTE ADDRESS DELIVERED BY CHIEF FEMI FANI-KAYODE, THE SADAUKIN SHINKAFI, AT THE AKURE NBA CONFERENCE, 11th NOVEMBER, 2025.

    R. James Barnett, a PhD candidate at Oxford University, wrote the following in an essay titled ‘Nigeria’s Crisis Runs Deeper Than Just A War On Christians’ for the Washington Post a few days ago.

    He wrote, inter alia, that, “Christians absolutely are being threatened and killed in parts of Nigeria. I can personally attest to it. But to frame Nigeria’s crisis entirely in that way badly distorts the complicated and tragic reality on the ground. Shaping U.S. policy around such distortions, especially when U.S. troops may be put in harm’s way, will not yield good outcomes. For several years, I lived and worked in Nigeria, studying its conflicts and interviewing different militant groups. I would never advise anyone to downplay the suffering of Christians who have experienced horrific attacks. I have seen and heard from many victims firsthand. But I have also seen the impact of similarly horrific violence across Muslim communities. To ignore the latter is to misunderstand what is really going on. Voices ranging from former Trump officials to the Vatican have cautioned against framing Nigeria’s complex insecurity in solely religious terms. Conflict has grown rampant in Nigeria under successive governments and the country now faces various militant groups pursuing different agendas. Lumping them all together and reducing their motives to anti-Christian animus is a mistake”.

    Barnett is absolutely right. I sincerely hope and pray, for all our sakes, that someone in the White House is listening before it is too late.

    Permit me to begin this contribution with the following basic points.

    My belief is that we must eliminate every single terrorist and those that are sponsoring them in Nigeria.

    I do not believe in dialogue with them or forgiving them. I do not believe in negotiation with them. I do not believe in pampering them or managing them. I do not believe in rehabilitating them into the Nigerian Armed Forces.

    I believe in crushing them and sending them to their maker and in doing so quickly and decisively.

    This has been my position for the last 20 years and it will always be my position.

    Demons and vampires do not have any place in the land of the living and they have no right to life.

    The Bible tells us that there can be no fellowship between light and darkness and you either choose God or Belial: I choose God.

    Every single one of them, whether they be Boko Haram, ISWAP, Ansaru, Al Qaeda, JNIR, Lakurawa, the killer herdsmen, the kidnapping bandits or any other must be despatched to hell where they came from and our country must be cleansed of their filth and verminous evil.

    They are a cancerous plague that must be eradicated with clinical precision and by brute force.

    Outside of that I believe that genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, war crimes and mass murder of the most horrendous nature HAS been carried out by each of these groups in Nigeria over the last 20 years against Christians and I have been saying so for many years perhaps more than ANYONE else but today there is a difference and a caveat that makes the problem even more horrendous than it already is and which we ignore at our own peril.

    The caveat and difference, and this has been so for the last ten years and is a fact that many, including yours truly, were totally oblivious and blind to is the fact that their villainous and callous butchery was not limited to Christians alone: they butcher the Muslims too and they do so in equal if not greater numbers.

    That is the reality and challenge that we are faced with which is lost on many whether anyone cares to believe it or not.

    We are ALL victims today and not just the Christians and this doesn’t in any way diminish the suffering that the Christian community has experienced for many years. It only means that we have not suffered it alone.

    The solution to the problem is for our political leadership and Armed Forces to muster the resolve and political will to ruthlessly wipe out the Islamist terrorists and foreign militias once and for all.

    That is an obligation that falls on the shoulders of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu alone and he must  honor it.

    From what I have seen so far it appears that he has the fortitude and courage to do that but he must go all the way and finish the job.

    The world and the Nigerian people want to see concrete action and the implementation of extraordinarily ruthless, violent and aggressive methods and not just hear long talk, promises of success or long-winded and outworne platitudes from Government officials.

    To be fair to the security apparatus and the current administration more terrorists have been killed in the past two years than the previous eight years put together.

    This is commendable but they must go further. The Nigerian people are baying for the blood of these terrorists and they must see it flow into an ocean of divine retribution.

    What certainly doesn’t help is when, instead of that, we are assaulted and provoked with pictures and video footage of Islamist terrorists having so-called “peace talks” with state Government officials in places like Katsina.

    Yet as traumatising as all this may be our greatest challenge today comes not from the Islamist terrorists in the North or even from the equally barbaric savagery of separist groups in the South East like ESN but rather from the wild, puerile and infantile tantrums, psychotic delusions and sadistic disposition of the Jekyl and Hyde character, feral psycopath and malevolent narcissist who currently presides over the affairs of the United States of America and who sits in the White House.

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    Let me make this clear: anyone that does not fully appreciate the fact that Donald Trump’s motives for threatening our nation with war are disingenuous, self-serving, baseless, unfounded and questionable and anyone that does not recognise the fact that his mental instability, thin skin, fragile ego, incendiary emotions, pernicious deceit, avaricious appetite, obessesion with money, lust for power, low intelligence quotient and volatile disposition is capable of driving him into actually dropping bombs on Nigeria and sending in American ground troops for no just cause does not know Trump. 

    Make no mistake: his intention is NOT to help us fight the terrorists or to save Christians in Nigeria but rather to drive a wedge between Christians and Muslims, ignite the fire of a brutal and never-ending religious war, establish a Sudan-like arena of butchery and carnage, send in the Marines or Derek Princes’ CIA-funded private army of Blackwater mercenaries and finally carve up and occupy our land and pillage our rare earth, gold, lithium, uranium, diamonds, gems, precious metals, crude oil, aluminium, natural gas and other mineral resources.

    His intention is NOT to help our country fight the terrorists and rid us of them but to subject her to the same thing they did to Yugoslavia in the 1990’s by bombing the entire country to smithereens, shattering our fragile unity and breaking us up into five or more smaller countries and vassal states each of which will be compelled to have U.S. military bases, each of which will take orders from Washington and each of which they will control, manipulate and dominate.

    Total and complete oppression, subjugation and re-colonisation: that is their ultimate objective and anyone that cannot see or appreciate that knows nothing about the intrigues and deadly power-play of world politics or world history and is chronically and willfully blind.

    It is true that Christians have suffered immeasurably in our country over the years and have been subjected to genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass murder, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the most vicious and pernicious forms of persecution at the hands of foreign-backed terrorists and Islamist militias but it is not true that they are the only ones that have suffered this terrible fate and horrendous ordeal. 

    Muslims have suffered the same fate and in equal measure at the hands of the same barbaric monsters and terrorists.

    As a matter of fact if you want to talk about state-sponsored persecution and genocide in the North over the last twenty years it is not the Northern Christians that were subjected to this but rather the Shia Muslims of Kaduna who had over 1000 of their members slaughtered in one afternoon in Zaria, Kaduna state in 2016 simply for blocking a road when Gen. Tukur Burutai was Chief of Army Staff, Nasir El Rufai was Governor of Kaduna state and President Muhammadu Buhari was President.

    Outside of that I am not aware that Christian communities in Northern Nigeria were targetted for elimination or mass murder by officers of the state anytime or anywhere over the last 20 years.

    They have been targetted by non-state actors and terrorist militias but certainly not officers of the Nigerian military as the Americans are trying to suggest.

    Trump claims that Nigerian Christians are facing an existential threat yet this is far from the truth.

    It is true that many Christians and Muslims are being targetted and killed by terrorists in Nigeria but it is not true to suggest that Christianity is facing an “existential threat” and if it is true then it means that Muslims are facing an existential threat as well.

    How can we be facing an existential threat when there are over 120 million Christians in our nation which represents 50% of the overall population?

    How can we be facing an existential threat when every single one of the seventeen states in Southern Nigeria and three of the 19 states in the North are headed by Christian Governors and Chief Security Officers.

    How can we be facing an existential threat when 62% of all Governnent appointments  have been given to Christians under the Tinubu administration?

    How can we be facing an existential threat when the Senate President, the Secretary to the Federal Government and the majority of Federal Ministers, including those that preside over key Ministries like the Minister of Finance and Co-Ordinating Economy, the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Minister of Works, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace, the Minister of State for Oil, the Minister of State for Gas, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and so many more are all Christians?

    How can we be facing an existential threat when the Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of Air Staff, the Chief of Defence Intelligence, the Inspector General of Police, the Director General of the DSS, the Chairman of the EFCC, the Director of Military Intelligence, the Comptroller General of Immigration, the Comptroller General of Prisons and so many more that head our nations military, para-military and security agencies are Christians?

    How can we be facing an existential threat when for the previous eight years before Tinubu came to power every single operational security chief in our nation’s seventeen security organisations was a Northen Muslim yet when he assumed office he changed all that and balanced the equation by appointing and including Christians?

    How can we be facing an existential threat when the Governor of Central Bank, the Chairman of the Tax Reform Commitee and the Chairman of the FIRS are all Christians?

    How can we be facing an existential threat when three out of the ten largest, richest and most powerful and influential Churches and Church leaders in the world who have broken enormous boundaries and spread the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in a remarkable and ground breaking way both in our nation and outside of it are Nigerians?

    How can we be facing an existential threat when the President’s wife is not only a Pentecostal Christian but also a Pastor?

    How can we be facing an existential threat when, for the first time in many years, Christians are treated with respect and accorded decorum in all spheres of human endeavour in our nation ever since Tinubu took over the reigns of power.

    We may be facing a strong challenge from Islamist terrorist organisations and there may be tensions between Christians and Muslims in some parts of our country but to say that Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria is not only absurd but also betrays a sinister and malevolent motive in the hearts and minds of those who propagate and assert it.

    They are crying wolf where there is none and they are setting us up for the kill.

    Trump is driven by a pathological hatred for Africans, black and brown people and Muslims.

    He is also driven by an overwhelming, compulsive, all-consuming and inexplicable greed and avarice for material things.

    He has been afflicted with what the those of us in Pentecostal circles describe as a ‘Demastic annointing’ (named after the Apostle Paul’s loyal disciple called Demas who lost his way and fell in love with worldly things) which has resulted in his obsession with and addiction to the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the lust for power, the lust for treasure, the lust for land and the pride of life.

    He is also totally and completely irrational, unpredictable and unbalanced which makes him a very real danger to the entire world.

    His words must not be taken lightly and we must prepare for the very worse.

    Those that believe that he can be talked into not doing what he clearly wants to do to our nation are ignorant, undiscerning and deluded and they are oblivious of his innate and irredeemable lunacy.

    I say this because there are speculations and reports in the media that President Tinubu seeks to meet with him at the White House in an attempt to “resolve” all the issues.

    If true, such an initiative is as incredulous as it is baffling and it will come to nought.

    As a matter of fact it may make matters worse as our President may be verbally and savagely assaulted, insulted and berated right in front of the White House Press Corps.

    Surely our Jagaban is bigger and better than that and he certainly does not deserve it. And neither would he take it lying low like others have done.

    Some have also said that our President may opt to meet with Trump or his Vice, JD Vance, on the sidelines at the G20 meeting which is scheduled to hold on the 20th of November in South Africa.

    One wonders why some of our Government officials that say such things find it necessary to clutch at straws rather than to cultivate a firm resolve to stand up for the Government they serve and their country and act with a level of self-respect, decorum and dignity.

    I say this given the fact that Trump has said that no U.S. Government official will attend the G20 meeting in South Africa because the white Afrikaans people of that country are, according to him, being subjected to “genocide” whilst their farmlands are supposedly being confiscated without compensation.

    He concluded by saying that he believes that South Africa is a “disgrace” and should not even be a member of the G20.

    I ask those that are indulging in wishful thinking and  fantasy about this proposed “peace meeting” between Trump and Tinubu in South Africa at the G20 meeting who exactly our President is supposed to meet and discuss our problems with “on the sidelines” once there given the fact that the Americans have made it clear that they are not attending?

    It is important that those that are charged with the task of telling us what is going on get their facts right otherwise it complicates the issue.

    Diplomacy is one thing but shameful capitulation with our tail between our legs is quite another.

    Outside of that it is trite that the open and public display of weakness and fear attracts even more aggression.

    Surely we are bigger, better and stronger than that. We are not a nation of slaves and beggars. We are not a nation of cowards and peasants who bow and tremble before a school yard bully.

    I do not understand the logic and cannot appreciate the wisdom in seeking to sit down with a man who has contempt for you and your people, who considers you and them as being sub-human, who has referred to your country as a “disgraced” one and who has referred to your continent as a “shithole”.

    You are talking about diplomacy and a diplomatic settlement when the man and country that you are up against has thrown diplomacy out of the window, designated your country as one “of concern”, has placed your nation on a “watchlist” and has said that he intends to violate your sovereignty on a false premis, bomb your country and attack you with his military?

    His Defence Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Press Secretary and other key Government officials have reiterated the threat and you are hiding under the table and saying that it will all be resolved at the G20 meeting in South Africa when you know very well that Trump has said he has no intention of attending that meeting.

    When will those in high places in Nigeria learn that you do not kow tow to Nazis, racists, religious bigots, ethnic supremacists, ethnic cleansers, schoolyard bullies, genocide enablers, lawless brigands, treasure hunters, drunken sailors, shape-shifting reptilians, sons of perdition and those that threaten the very essence of our existence?

    When will you accept the fact that you have no choice but to stand up to them?

    When will you appreciate the fact that peace without honor, self-respect and dignity is a curse.

    When will you understand that the peace of the graveyard in which we must smile as we are being insulted, ravaged and threatened, is no peace at all but rather the most refined and supreme form of servitude, bondage and torment.

    I would rather die on my feet as a free man than live on my knees as a slave. We are a nation of 250 million people. We are not weak and we are not small. We are resilient and strong and our spirit cannot be broken. We are too big to take this nonsense from anyone.

    We liberated Sierra Leonne, we liberated Liberia, we liberated Sao Tome and Principe, we liberated South Africa, we liberated Chad, we liberated Zimbabwe, we liberated Congo, we liberated Angola, we liberated Somalia, we liberated Mozambique, we liberated Namibia, we liberated Zambia, we liberated Uganda, we liberated Kenya, we liberated Equitorial Guinea, we liberated Burma and if it comes to it and we are attacked or occupied by the Yankees, by the grace and power of God, we shall liberate ourselves.

    The Bible says “the Lord shall trouble those that trouble us” and that “He shall contend against those that contend against us”.

    Pharaoh, Herod, Nebuchadnezzar, Jezebel and Sennacherub fell and so will the bestial creature that sits in the White House who issues brazen threats against us and refuses to let my people go.

    You call my country a “disgraced country” as if yours were any better.

    You say you will come in “guns blazing” as if you are in the old “wild west” and that you are dealing with a small tribe of defenceless Native Indians and Aborigines.

    You say it will be “fast, vicious and sweet” as if you are a rapist.

    Who the hell are you and who do you think you are talking to?

    Are you God?

    Not all of us are intimidated by you in this country.

    Not all of us are cowards and cheerleaders.

    Not all of us fear death or are too timid to speak up in defence of our nation.

    Not all of us have lost our sense of self-worth, self-respect and dignity.

    Let me assure you that those turncoats and blacklegs that are on their knees begging you not to attack us and calling for dialogue and understanding are a minority.

    The majority of us cannot bear your insolence, arrogance and corrosive disposition and will stand up to you like men despite the odds.

    We reject any form of dialogue or understanding with you as long as you keep threatening us with violence and tormenting us with insults.

    How can there be dialogue and talks with a bully and a thug who believes we are sub-human and who has contempt for us?

    How can there be dialogue with a man who defies the Living God and who openly oppresses and supports the genocide of both Christians and Muslims all over the world?

    How can there be dialogue with a man who supports the barbarity of the State of Israel and the evil of Zionism and who sees Arabs, Muslims, people of colour and those that do not share his morbid world view of American supremacy and domination as nothing better than lap dogs and rodents?

    If you honsestly believe that it will be easy for you to take on a nation of 250 million people like ours then please try your luck and go ahead.

    I advise you not to be fooled by the treasonous, ignorant and cowardly malcontents, neverdowells, vultures, whores, secessionists, traitors and cheerleaders in our country who have chosen to be your accomplices and co-conspirators and that are telling you to come in to conquer and kill us all. 

    They are a misguided, confused and deluded bunch of servile minions and perfidious quislings who do not know the implications of what they are saying and who have sold their souls and lost their minds.

    Satan is using them to justify your lust for the shedding of Nigerian blood and your desire to destroy God’s plan and purpose for our great country.

    They do not represent us because the overwhelming majority of our people are loyal, united and fiercly patriotic souls who refuse to be intimidated by you and who will never accept to be your vassals.

    If you do come in “guns blazing” as you have threatened, know this: you will suffer the consequences in a dramatic way as American soldiers will be forced to pay a heavy price and many will not survive it.

    Worse of all you will ignite a war in our sub region that will result in all your strategic interests being burnt to ashes.

    You may destroy our country and spark off a religious war (which is what you want) but ultimately you will get tired, you will lose and you will run away with your tail between your legs as you have done everywhere else that you go and indulge in your vile and fruitless military adventures.

    You lost in Somalia and ran away. You lost in Afghanistan and ran away. You lost in Korea and ran away. You lost in Viet Nam and ran away. You lost in Iraq and ran away. You lost in Cuba and ran away. You lost in Nicaragua and ran away. You tested Iran and got a bloody nose.

    The only reason you won in the 1st and 2nd World War and defeated the Germans is because of the help and support you received from Russia and the Soviet Union respectively.

    Actually it was the Soviets that defeated the Germans in World War 11 and took Berlin and not you after 20 million Russians lost their lives!

    What a great and noble sacrifice that great country made to free the world and to stop the Nazis!

    The question is what was yours outside of dropping two nuclear bombs on innocent and defenceless Japanese citizens in the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima killing hundreds of thousands in a matter of seconds.

    Where is your invincibility? You have none and neither are you infallible.

    Today you threaten, intimidate and insult Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, South Africa, Brazil, Canada, Nicaragua, Greenland, Gaza, Yemen, Cuba, Syria, China, Russia, North Korea, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Denmark, Ukraine, Burkina Faso, Mali, Namibia, Niger, Chad, Sudan and much of Europe and the Middle East and you treat their respective leaders with disdain and contempt.

    Truth is you have emasculated and castrated most of them and turned them into a bunch of quivering quislings that are little better than your house help.

    Yet you will soon find out that we in Nigeria are very different to others when faced with intimidation and we do not easily bend the knee.

    Do not mistake the apparent timidity and low self-esteem of many of our leaders for weakness on the part of our people.

    We are polite, patient, humble, kind, compassionate, accomodating and long-suffering but at the same time we are strong-willed, proud, stubborn, confident, courageous, adventurous and extreemly tough.

    Our strength lies in our spiritual foundation and faith and belief in God which makes us slow to anger but irresistible in battle.

    The Lord will finally humble you if you try any nonsense with us and He will take the battle right back to your own doorsteps in America.

    Like David said to Goliath before their historic battle I say to you Donald Trump that “who is this uncircumcised Phillistine that has chosen to defy the Armies of the Living God?”.

    Like David, I say our defence lies not in sophisticated arms and nuclear weapons but rather in the power and might of the Living God who is irresistible in battle.

    I say “thy servant slew the lion and the bear and so it shall be for this uncircumcised Phillistine who has chosen to defy the Armies of the Living God”.

    We are the anointed of the Lord and He has a special purpose for our nation at this end-time: touch us and see your end.

    Strike us and know that we are not the cowardly weaklings that you perceive us to be.

    Attack us and discover that we are made of steel and that even though you may level our cities and spill our blood you will never break our firm resolve or shatter our irrepressible spirit and neither will you ever make us forget who we are and the proud and noble stock from which we come.

    Whether you like it or not Nigeria is great and Nigeria shall remain great.

    We are not a “disgraced nation” but rather a strong and proud nation that has achieved far more than you care to know and shall achieve even more well into the distant future after you are dead and buried.

    May the Lord defend our borders and seal them with His precious blood and may He deliver us from the evil hand and wicked intentions of our detractors and enemies.

    He surely will because He is faithful, just and true. He is the defender of the weak, the champion of the poor and the liberator of the oppressed.

    We shall not go the way of Sudan, Darfur, Gaza, Palestine, Congo, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Yugoslavia, Somalia, Afghanistan or any of the other nations that they have shattered, destroyed, broken, brought to ruin and blighted with their wickedness and vile intrigues and neither shall our nation be subjected to war or a violent and unconstitutional regime change.

    We are Nigerians: we serve and worship a mighty God and by His power we shall survive all these threats and intrigues and we shall overcome.

    The Lord will see to that.

    Glory be to His holy name!

    • (Chief Femi Fani-Kayode is the Sadaukin Shinkafi, the Wakilin Doka Potiskum, the Otunba Joga Orile, the Aare Ajagunla Otun Ekiti, a former Minister of Aviation, a former Minister of Culture and Tourism and a former Special Advisor on Public Affairs to President Olusegun Obasanjo)
  • Trump: If Ambassador George Obiozor were alive

    Trump: If Ambassador George Obiozor were alive

    • By Uche Obiozor

    Memories linger but there are days when a people actually wish that there departed relatives, friends or compatriots are still very much around. One of such moments in our dear country, Nigeria, is now. In the last couple of weeks that President Donald Trump issued a threat to Nigeria, there is a sudden realization that our country seems to suffer a depletion of seasoned diplomats who would helped their fatherland navigate this troubled times. Either they are no more or those still around have either lost steam or are suffering from a certain inertia that arises from the “trouble with Nigeria”. Given the consensus that what Nigeria needs now is deft diplomatic moves, one of such persons whom Nigerians would certainly wish he were still around is the late Professor (Ambassador) George Obiozor who departed three years ago.

    Ambassador Obiozor served as Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States of America between 2004 and 2008. Apart from being one of the longest serving in that mission, his appointment was unique. Obiozor had before his posting to the United States, served as Nigeria’s Ambassador to Israel between 1999 and 2003, with concurrent responsibility as High Commissioner to Cyprus. This earlier exposure  put him in a very good stead to carry out further work of diplomacy in the US especially given the relationship between the latter and Israel.

    Given that Obiozor served in those positions in the formative years of the current democratic dispensation, he helped in no small measure in shaping the relations between Nigerian and the two countries. It was no doubt a challenging period because Nigeria was just beginning to wear a new look in the eyes of the rest of the world after several years of military dictatorship, more so in the immediate five years before the transition in 1999.

    But even before going into the field of diplomacy proper, Obiozor had been involved in a deep study of international diplomacy,both bilateral and multilateral. It was in the course of that involvement that he published some of the world’s most renowned books on international relations and diplomacy. They include, Nigeria’s Participation In the UN (1985); Nigeria And the World: Managing The Politics of Diplomatic Ambivalence In A Changing World, (1986); Uneasy Friendship: Nigerian-American Relations (1992); The United States And The Nigerian Civil War (1993) and The Politics of Precarious Balancing: Analysis of Contending Issues In Nigeria’s Domestic And Foreign Policy (1994). Each of these books stood out on its own but the situation today sets Obiozor aside both as a diplomat and, indeed, a prophet especially with respect to the last two books .Details of “Uneasy Friendship …” were not available at the time of putting this write up together but its title  sounds prophetic given the circumstances of today.

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    Obiozor wrote the book when thing were good – so to speak – but the unease, he wrote about is now here. In other words, even though the circumstances then and now are not the same, I believe it is possible to glean from Obiozor’s 1992 book insights that could help navigate the current situation, at least in a broad sense. It would be proper, therefore, for those saddled with the responsibility of carrying out the current diplomatic assignment to go grab a copy of “Uneasy Friendship…”. The big question, however, is, what would have been Professor Obiozor’s response to President Trump’s threat were he to be around today?

    But first, let’s look at what those – former Nigerian Ambassador to the US – still alive have had to say on the matter. Hassan Mohammed, Nigeria’s former Ambasador to the United States in an interview with ARISE News on November 3, 2025, faulted President Trump on his threat of invasion to Nigeria. Mohammed noted that while the United States has the legal authority to pressure countries failing to uphold freedom of religion under its 1998 International Freedom of Religion Act, (IFRA), the law does not grant the US the right to declare war on carry out military action over such matters. The former envoy recalled that Nigeria had been previously listed under the Act in 2001 and 2002, but the issue was resolved amicably through dialogue.

    Another diplomat, Ambassador Danjuma Nanpon Sheni, reacting to the designation of  Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” and threat  of military action against her by President Trump ,over alleged religious persecution of Christians,had this to say: “As a Christian, I find it difficult to fully agree that Christians are being systematically persecuted in Nigeria. What I see is that human beings are being killed regardless of faith. People are being killed by insurgents and bandits across communities… but do I believe that the federal or state government are sponsoring the killings? My answer is no”. Asked how he feels the situation should be handled based on his experience, Ambassador Shani said: “Nigeria’s diplomatic enagement is poor … we should have ensured this designation never happened in the first place. We saw the warning signs …. Nigeria must put its best diplomats forward, both retired and serving, alongside respected elder statesmen, to begin a serious lobbying mission in Washington”

    Another former Nigerian Ambassador to the Philippines, Mr Yemi Farounbi, in his own reaction warned President Bola Tinubu against visiting President Trump in the US, describing such a move as “politically unnecessary”. Ambassador Farounbi said President Tinubu must avoid actions that portray Nigeria as seeking validation from leaders who have little regard for Africa’s dignity. “Nigeria’s president represents over 200 million people. He should not visit anyone who once called African nations ‘shit hole countries’. We must act like a nation that values itself, not one begging to be recognized”.

    Ambassador Farounbi, however, blamed the current development on Nigeria’s poor diplomatic response to international criticism and described the US action as a predictable outcome of silence and in action. “We cannot claim we didn’t see this coming. For years, Catholic Bishops from Benue and Plateau states have appeared before the US Congress and European Parliament presenting statistics of Christians killed by militants yet Nigeria offered no stronger counter narrative”.He added: “When you refuse to speak for yourself, others will speak for you… and when they do, they will not tell your story with fairness”.

    Now back to the question, what would have been Ambassador Obiozor’s own reaction to the current situation. First, it is important to note that Professor Obiozor was an Establishment man. In his public career that spanned over a period of forty years, there was no THINK TANK in the country Professor Obiozor was not part of, even though those who set up such bodies ended up doing without the recommendations given to them. Throughout the military era, Professor Obiozor was one of the few intellectuals the “Khaki Boys” took into confidence after they had discovered in him a man of his own. bold and with the courage to speak truth to power. Since the advent of the current democratic dispensation, administration after administration has also taken him into confidence, as illustrated by the fact that even the tough-talking and cunning President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed him to two of the world’s most strategic missions – Israel and the US.

    This, coupled with the fact that Obiozor was an African patriot, would have most probably made him to stand up against any real or potential intimidation to Nigeria. However, he would have recommended dialogue, not a “What Do You Think You Are”? posturing. As revealed by Ambassador Hassan Mohammed, Nigeria was first listed for sanction under the U.S IFRA in 2001 and 2002 but the matter was resolved amicably through dialogue. The time is significant. The listing was in 2001 and 2002 and Professor Obiozor arrived the international diplomatic turf first in Israel in 2003 and then U.S in 2004. That being the case, he must have played a key role in the dialogue that led to the delisting of Nigeria’s name as an offender on the IFRA.

    Yet, Professor Obiozor, would not have hesitated to tell the Tinubu administration where it went wrong. He wouldn’t even have waited for Trump to come up with his threats. Given that signs of an imminent global concern over Nigeria was already palpable, Professor Obiozor would have proactively galvanized other intellectuals like him, especially on the diplomatic turf , for a subtle push back over wrong perceptions and prejudices on Nigeria.               

    • Obiozor wrote from Ubachima, Awo-Ommama, Imo State.
  • More on Trump declaring Nigeria ‘Country of Particular Concern’

    More on Trump declaring Nigeria ‘Country of Particular Concern’

    As I ended this column last Sunday, I write again: “the President owes it a duty to peace – loving Nigerians, to first rein in these enemies within, no matter their status or how untouchable they consider themselves”.

    This has become of considerable importance now that he has to dispel the unverified, trending video of a Northern Lady, who claimed she refused an appointment, early in his presidency because he said he cannot fight sponsors of terrorism in the North as doing so would eventuate in his being killed.

    My instant reaction to that balderdash was that this would certainly not be the doughty Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu I have known for well over two decades.

    Today I go further into what I described as the predisposing factors for the mercurial and egocentric U.S President Donald Trump declaring Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern whereas in truth, both Christians and Muslims are being Killed in Nigeria’s orgy of unrelenting bloodletting in the North of the country where, by far, too many Christian communities had been deliberately targeted for annihilation and expulsion from their ancestral lands.

    To do this, as is fast becoming my wont, I re- publish below, an article that was first published here in 2021 titled:

    Insecurity In Nigeria Can Become History If The Buhari Government Is Sincere In Fighting It

    Happy reading.

    The chicken has, indeed, come home to roost. I have always known that the predominantly, mono – thought process underpinning the Buhari administration, majorly a result of his North- centric appointments into critical areas of government, was bound, sooner or later, to impact Nigeria negatively. The evidence is all over the place:  that the monopoly a  particular culture – one that believes that an elder cannot / should not, be controverted on any issue, was going to have its consequences. This is the same culture that made the North an arid zone for newspapering for a very long time in the region. Other than the New Nigerian, Newspapers die off as soon as they were established because there were simply too many cultural taboos.

    This situation worsened by the coming to power, of the awe- inspiring persona of President Muhammadu Buhari. All over Nigeria, at least  until he became president and began to show a seemingly unquenchable love of the North over the others, he was massively loved and respected.

    Indeed, more than being respected, he was lionised as a highly principled military General who, unlike many of his compeers, was not tainted with corruption.

    When the highly respected Tai Solarin came up with the allegation of some  stolen oil money, Nigerians so disbelieved it had anything to do with Buhari until Pa Solarin confessed that it was a mere molue (public transport) gossip.

    Such was General Buhari’s incandescent honesty and widespread respect then. Indeed, both when Boko Haram named him one of its representatives at negotiations with the federal  governmenr and  when he led a Miyetti Allah delegation to the Oyo state governor, Lam Adesina, to protest on behalf of Fulani herdsmen,  most Nigerians believed  that it was  those groups – Boko Haram and Miyetti Allah – which wanted  to profit from his huge profile; a profile that was fast approaching that of a god, nationwide.

    Unfortunately, these past six years have so reduced this halo to only within his government circle where happenings in the country suggest that people closest to him are too respectful of him, if not overwhelmed by his persona, to offer him any good advice.

    Nothing affirms the truism of the diminution of how the president was held, pre office, more than bandits going to    his home state of Katsina to kidnap school children who would not be freed from the kidnappers’ embrace until two weeks later, and after hundreds of millions of naira must have been paid in ransom.

    And to resolve the problem, President Buhari must have assembled an entirely Northern group, probably all Muslims, military and civilian.

    Even if he has been magnanimous enough to involve  his entire security council, the group would have been more than 80 per cent Northern – that same group that not only think alike  but are culturally forbidden to oppose their elders.

    According to the Report of  The Chinua Achebe Foundation Research Project on Fulani Herdsmen, “Most Nigerian Fulanis are no longer migratory herdsmen. They are either Emirs, Sultans, heads of parastatals, oil barons, Imams, Christian Pastors, Governors, Federal Reps and Senators. However, they all maintain their cultural ownership of cattle. These wealthy Nigerians increase their wealth astronomically through cattle rearing by using their not well off brothers, impoorted from outside Nigeria, to rear these cattle. Instead of investing in ranches or buying of grasses from the South, they chose the cheaper alternative of having their kinsmen, imported from outside the country, arm them with AK 47’s, and order them to take these cattles from the north to the south seasonally. For these people, the entire Nigerian space is their “grass kingdom”.These cattle, in turn, destroy farms on their path, rendering farmers economically bankrupt to further enrich the wealthy Fulani “remote herders”.

    All these, under the Buhari administration, and probably now, under President Tinubu, with no security agent – military or police – bold enough to question them.

    What the above shows is that non – Fulani Nigerians are wrongly accusing poor Fulani herders of all the criminalities they commit whereas the various cattle owners mentioned above are the real troublers of Nigeria, the reason the President simply has no interest in solving  the  massive insecurity problem caused by these people.

    This is why they attack in hundreds on motor cycles, kill in scores but with a single one of these terrorists, never arrested nor tried.

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    Indeed, in the one case tried, the victim, who barely escaped before he eliminated the Fulani herdsman terrorist, was sentenced to death in a case that went up to the Supreme court.

    I was not surprised when I heard Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), say that security agencies were informed of the killings in Igangan, Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State, over a week before the attack but that nothing was done by the Nigerian security.

    I was not surprised, thanks to the same research of the Chinua Achebe Foundation which took the team to the

    “Ama Hausa and Garki” camps in both Enugu and Abia States where they  interviewed neighbors from the local communities living within and around the Hausa communities in both states. They affirmed that  both the Northerners and the local community were very open and volunteered valuable information to their team.

    Below is how the report captured a typical Fulani herdsmen attack:

    “Fulani Herdsmen Attack”:.

    We learned from the surrounding communities and from some of the Hausa elders about what constitutes a Fulani herdsmen attack. According to information we received, when there is a disagreement between host communities, or between herdsmen and farmers, the Fulani herdsmen who accompany the cattle will locate the nearest Fulani settlement and if there is none, they will locate the nearest Garki or Ama Hausa. When they arrive, they will narrate their story. The Fulani (Nigerian middlemen) cattle managers will notify their top Fulani Herdsmen which in this case, include governors and other top Fulani top officers who own the cattle. 

    A decision will be made about whether there should be an attack or not on the said village or host community. If an attack is sanctioned, then modalities will be mapped out and a date will be chosen for the attack. Most times, Fulani herdsmen in the military and police are notified and everyone sends a representative. Neighboring settlements sends out representatives and arms cache are opened and arms are distributed to the participants. The major participants are the 20 to 40 Fulani herdsmen who reside in the Garkis and Ama Hausas. These are the Fulani warriors whose job is to kill.

    During an attack, every Fulani person in the area knows there will be an attack and all will contribute to make sure it goes on successfully. Fulanis in the higher levels of the military will ensure all commands under them stand down, and the top Fulani police officers will do the same. The road is then clear for the Fulani herdsmen to carry out their attacks.,

    Based on the findings from which they understood that the attacks are never carried out by the herdsmen we see escorting cattle on the roads and bushes, but are well coordinated and  most times sanctioned by very influential Northerners,  nearly  all of  them, herd owners.

    The Foundation proposed the following solution:

    “Many of those who interacted with us suggested solutions that are very interesting. Most of the northern Hausas and the local communities suggested a ban on grazing in the affected states. A total ban would be the only way to solve this problem. Some argued that with the Fulanis’ nature of encroaching on other people’s land and territories, any attempt to give them land would aggravate the problem and not solve it.

    Most villagers from Abia State suggested that these cattle be penned in the north while government releases money for people in the South to cut grasses, process the grass, and send to the north. This is the practice all over the world. They indicated that any attempt to take their lands and give to the Fulani would definitely result to a civil war.

    We agree, the solution is very simple; ban grazing, establish ranches for the cattle in the north, pay the southerners to harvest grass and send to the north. With this, everyone would be pleased with the outcome. This solution is expected to generate 1 million jobs in the South and about 500,000 jobs in the North. Also Fulani herdsmen terror will be totally eliminated”.

    The correlation between this 2021 article and President Trump’s threat of an attack on Nigerian killers, not Nigerians, is that nothing has changed between then and now, whether they were protecting their herd or killing and running Christians away from their ancestral homes.

    Otherwise the likes of Sheik Gumi, who is in and out of these killers’ lairs would long have been run out of town, and our prisons would, by now, be crawling with concicted terrorists as well as their sponsors, at least those ones criminally  protected from trial by President Buhari and his attorney – General after they had been convicted and sent to Nigeria by the UAE.

    The lesson of all these is that to solve the menace of insecurity and  avoid constant external embarrassment, the Nigeran government must put its house in order.

  • Issues in the Trump threat (2)

    Issues in the Trump threat (2)

    No less hypocritical and predicated on utter falsehood than the petition of the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, to President Donald Trump, claiming to be the victim of Christian genocide in Nigeria and being illegally detained by the Nigerian authorities, was a protest letter submitted to the Embassy of the United States in Abuja, the European Union (EU) Mission and the Ministry of Justice by a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Acting under the aegis of the PDP Like-Mind Group, the protesting opposition party members appealed to the international community to help safeguard democracy in Nigeria and prevent the country from descending into a one-party state.

    According to a news report in The Independent Newspaper, “Led by Mr Moses Aliu, the protesters carried placards urging global partners and the Ministry of Justice to act swiftly to protect Nigeria’s democracy and uphold the independence of the judiciary. They accused the ruling party of orchestrating a drift towards a one-party regime through intimidation of opposition figures. The protesters said their demonstration aimed to draw attention to rising corruption, political persecution and what they described as the capture of key state institutions. The protest also called on the judiciary and law enforcement agencies to stand firm in defending democratic rights and the rule of law.”

    Coming shortly after the US President, Donald Trump, had threatened sanctions and possible military intervention in Nigeria to check what he described as ‘Christian genocide’, the factional PDP protest was a subtle support for external forcible intrusion in the country’s internal political structures and processes. The protracted factional crises that have hobbled the former self-proclaimed largest party in Africa, purportedly destined to rule for 60 years, are attributed to deliberate machinations of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the President Bola Tinubu administration to annihilate opposition parties and impose a one-party dictatorship in Nigeria.

    Unfortunately, this kind of deliberately misleading rhetoric may give opportunity to foreign elements bent on destabilising Nigeria for ulterior motives and hidden agendas to intervene directly or indirectly in our internal affairs, citing support for such disruptive intrusions within the country. If the government of a country with perhaps the most extensive and sophisticated intelligence network on earth could be misled into perceiving Nigeria’s multi-dimensional crises encompassing political, ethnic, religious, economic, climatic and environmental factors as a unidirectional Islamic terrorism against Christians, it is not impossible that misrepresentations of the country’s challenges could lure outsiders into misguided adventurism in Nigeria.

    Now, what are the roots of the current crisis plaguing the PDP and which unfortunately continues to fester by the day? Can the internal ruptures and ripples within the former ruling party, which was in power at the centre for 16 years, be credibly and plausibly blamed on the Tinubu administration? The remote cause of the PDP imbroglio was the attempt under the presidency of General Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007) to destabilise and absorb opposition parties into the PDP and impose an essentially one-party-dominant system on the country. This was a period when elected office holders of the major opposition parties, the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), routinely defected to the PDP in a bid to partake of ‘mainstream’ resource sharing at the centre.

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    The Chairman of the second largest opposition party in the country at the commencement of the fourth Republic in 1999, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), the late Alhaji Mahmud Waziri, from Adamawa State, was subsequently appointed as Special Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo on inter-party relations. This was part of a process of systematic bleeding of the ANPP by the then-ruling PDP that rendered the former a shadow of itself before the 2003 elections. The defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) was in control of the six states of the Southwest between 1999 and 2003. In the 2003 elections, the rampaging PDP Tsunami swept five of the Southwest states into the ruling party’s orbit with then-governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State as the only one reelected on the platform of the AD in the region.

    Even as the leadership and members of the AD were in a virtual state of mourning after the party’s questionable routing by the PDP in 2003, its national chairman, Alhaji Ahmed Abdulkadir, congratulated the ruling party on its electoral victory and was later appointed as Special Adviser to the President on Manufacturing and Private Sector in the Obasanjo administration. In an article in this space on August 1, 2009, titled ‘PDP as Noah’s Ark’, this column commented on the intensifying gale of defections to the PDP at that time.

    As I put it in that piece, “As the rampaging elements of vengeful nature assail Nigerians on all sides, devaluing the quality of their lives, it is not surprising that more and more political office holders are dumping the political party platforms on which they rose to power and migrating to the safety of the Noah’s Ark that they perceive the PDP to be. Just as the biblical Ark protected Noah and his family from the fury of the flood that devastated sinful creation, the PDP is seen by the growing army of executive defectors as their eternal refuge and stronghold against political calamity. At least with the irascible Professor of travesty, Maurice Iwu, still inexplicably calling the shots at INEC, they can be guaranteed life tenures in the Ark of power irrespective of the will of the people.”

    The piece continued, “Following in the footsteps of Governors Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State and Mahmud Shinkafi of Sokoto State, who had earlier shamelessly dumped their original party platforms, the ANPP, for the PDP, Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State is the latest governor to jettison moral principles and dive headlong into the contemporary PDP Noah’s Ark built on deceit and fraud. Governor Ohakim demonstrated a stunning lack of grace and civility in so callously ditching the PPA that offered him a platform to contest the 2007 elections; an opportunity he was denied with arrogant impunity in the PDP. Today, Ohakim has opted to stab the PPA in the back by going back to his vomit”.

    At the reception ceremony to welcome Ohakim to the PDP in Owerri, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua had declared exultantly, “Today is a great day for us in PDP. All the leadership of the party is here today to receive Governor Ohakim in our fold. You are welcome back to the PDP. Today is a day for prayers; today is a day to celebrate, and today is a day for songs”.

    After the 2007 general elections, the PDP was in control of 31 of the 36 states in the country. Before the polls, President Obasanjo had described the elections as a ‘do or die’ affair for the then ruling party. Yet, no one accused the PDP of trying to foist a one-party system on the country despite President Yar’Adua’s admission after his controversial electoral triumph that the election which ushered him to power was deeply flawed.

    After the 2003 elections, President Tinubu remained the only governor in the country on the platform of the AD. He was the butt of jokes by fellow governors and PDP leaders, especially that he would ultimately have no choice but to join the ruling party. Rather than being an attempt to convert Nigeria’s multi-party democracy into a one-party system, the pattern of opposition party leaders defecting to the ruling party, as currently happening, is an unfortunate, ingrained feature of Nigeria’s political culture, which has been prevalent ever before the emergence of the APC. To his credit, Tinubu did not join the bandwagon of defectors to the ruling party. Rather, he worked assiduously with other like-minded leaders to retrieve his party’s stolen electoral mandates through the judicial process and ultimately to form political parties that worked in coalition with other parties and forces to win political parties at the centre in 2015.

    What is dispiriting about the letter of the IPOB leader to President Trump or the PDP’s petition to the US and the European Union seeking external intervention in our internal political and Judicial processes for reasons that lack logical or empirical validity is that it portrays our political class as being incapable of solving domestic challenges and in the process strengthening our socio-political institutions. Again, it legitimises the attempt by external powers to dictate how we run our affairs, thus engendering a feeling of psychological inadequacy and inferiority among Nigerians. This also obscures the fact that those we seek to be our redemptive political Messiahs also have their own structural, behavioural and institutional challenges despite having a headstart of hundreds of years over us in the practice of democracy.

    Following the refusal of losers in the 2023 presidential elections to accept the outcome of the polls, for instance, the cerebral thinker and novelist, Chimamanda Adichie, wrote an open letter to former President Joe Biden not to recognise the outcome of the election. Actuated largely by ethnic considerations because of her support for Mr Peter Obi, an Igbo who came third in the polls, she conveniently forgot that Donald Trump had vehemently questioned the legitimacy of the election that produced Biden, claiming that it was brazenly rigged! It is the same mentality that informs calls by members of the political class who lose elections and their supporters for military intervention because they disagree with the outcome of polls and dislike the government in power. They forget that soldiers plan and execute coups essentially for their self-interest and will hardly stake their lives to hijack power unconstitutionally only to donate such power to a group of disgruntled opposition politicians. It is in the interest of mutinous soldiers to discredit the political class as a whole and democracy as a system of government.

    When Alhaji Atiku Abubakar emerged as PDP presidential candidate for the 2023 elections, key stakeholders within the party, including the Group of five governors led by Barrister Nyesom Wike, urged him to allow the Chairmanship of the party to shift to the South for regional and zonal balance. He was adamant and arrogant in his refusal, thus laying the foundation for the defeat of the PDP in that election. Atiku did not win in any of the PDP states controlled by the PDP G5 governors. The opposition is going into the 2027 elections even more divided than they were in 2023. With the economic reforms of the Tinubu administration gradually beginning to yield fruit with bright prospects of impacting lives positively in the near future, it is tempting for many of them to long for foreign military intervention or a military coup to torpedo the entire political process out of loathing for the Tinubu administration.

    If so, they will only shoot themselves in the foot. The only way to organise effectively to confront the APC in the next electoral cycle is for the opposition to get its act together, forge a more cohesive front and present the electorate with a credible alternative economic pathway, which they are yet to do up till now. As the notable journalist and lawyer, Seun Okinbaloye, of Channels Television (by no means a supporter of the Tinubu administration), so aptly put it, “This is the time for every Nigerian to come together and leave every kind of politics to stand together for Nigeria…An invasion of Nigeria is not in the favour of any Nigerian. If you look at Somalia, Egypt, Libya, and other nations invaded in the past by foreign forces, those countries are destabilised”.

  • Nigerian professionals in Europe urge EU to restrain Trump, call for strategic security support

    Nigerian professionals in Europe urge EU to restrain Trump, call for strategic security support

    The Association of Nigerian Professionals in Europe (ANPE) has appealed to leaders of the European Union (EU) to restrain US President Donald Trump following his recent threats of military action against Nigeria and his decision to redesignate the country as a “country of particular concern” over alleged religious persecution.

    In an electronic statement issued from Paris on Thursday, the association urged the EU to adopt a balanced diplomatic posture and to strengthen its partnership with Nigeria through strategic support in the fight against terrorism, banditry, and other forms of insecurity.

    The group described Trump’s remarks as “provocative and dangerous,” warning that such rhetoric could inflame tensions, embolden extremist groups, and undermine the steady progress Nigeria has made in counterterrorism and economic reform.

    A statement signed by Dr. Livinus Chukwuemeka Nwosu, ANPE President, and Mrs Aisha M. Bello, a security expert and secretary of the group, urged European leaders to “act with wisdom and restraint” by discouraging any unilateral US action that could destabilise the West African region.

    “We call on the European Union, as a global voice of balance and diplomacy, to restrain President Trump from any hostile action or policy escalation against Nigeria. Our country needs constructive engagement, not coercion. The international community should be supporting Nigeria’s security and democratic consolidation, not threatening it,” the statement reads.

    The association emphasised that Nigeria’s religious diversity has long been a source of cultural richness, not division, and that framing the country’s security challenges as religious persecution was both misleading and counterproductive.

    According to ANPE, terrorism, insurgency, and banditry in Nigeria have affected Muslims and Christians alike, particularly in the country’s northern and central regions. 

    “The lives of every Nigerian, regardless of faith or ethnicity, are sacred. We reject any narrative that weaponises religion to justify foreign hostility or intervention,” the statement added.

    The group urged the EU to back Nigeria’s ongoing counterterrorism campaign through arms supply, intelligence sharing, and joint training programmes that would help strengthen local security institutions. 

    ANPE said such cooperation should be guided by mutual respect and a shared commitment to peace, while avoiding any direct interference in Nigeria’s domestic affairs.

    The statement also highlighted positive developments in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, which the group said reflected the country’s resilience and reform-driven progress. 

    ANPE assured European investors that their interests remain secure, pointing to increased transparency in the regulatory environment and renewed investor confidence under the current administration.

    “European partners investing in Nigeria’s energy sector should have no fear. The government is consolidating reforms to enhance accountability, strengthen local content, and attract long-term investment. Nigeria’s economic revival depends on stable global partnerships, not geopolitical tension,” the association said.

    ANPE described Trump’s recent designation and threats as an “unhelpful distraction” that risks reversing hard-won gains in regional peacebuilding and counterinsurgency. 

    It noted that Nigeria has been working closely with its neighbours, including Chad, Niger, and Cameroon, to suppress terrorism across the Lake Chad Basin, while maintaining robust diplomatic relations with Western allies.

    The association commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration for maintaining focus on national security, infrastructure, and energy development despite global pressures, urging Nigerians not to be swayed by external provocations.

    “We have a duty to defend our sovereignty and dignity. President Tinubu’s government is building institutions that can protect citizens and restore lasting peace,” the group added.

    The statement concluded with a call for the EU to engage both Washington and Abuja in sustained dialogue to prevent escalation and to channel global cooperation toward stabilising West Africa.

    “Europe has always been a trusted partner to Nigeria. We are confident that the EU’s leadership will help ensure that diplomacy, not division, guides the global response to Nigeria’s internal challenges. Together, we can defeat terrorism and preserve peace — but only through respect, dialogue, and partnership,” the association said.

  • Trump’s ineptitudes and panic in Nigeria

    Trump’s ineptitudes and panic in Nigeria

    By Olawale Lawal (PhD)

    For some of us, it’s always a delight when we have rumbles in international relations, especially when Nigeria becomes a centerpiece of global racketing and whispering. For experts and pseudo experts of international relations and foreign policy, the burning issue is Donald Trump’s threat of invasion of Nigeria.

    By the way, it was so pleasing for me to see Professor Akin Oyebode come out to speak after almost a decade since we heard from this academic elite and a true expert of international law and jurisprudence. And I have been talking too. My intervention holds apologia to those who are adept at quipping at conclusion of all arguments without knowing their destination – this is a purely academic and diplomatic view.

    I will attempt here to clarify some issues as I see them. My first tier of concern is the panic in Nigeria over Trump’s designating Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern – a CPC state. This is often mistaken with Country of Particular Interest (CPI). The latter, CPI, is an international instrument used broadly by international actors to cover violations of various levels of human rights and it gives both credence and competence to international legal system. The CPC, on the other hand, is specific and primarily about violation of religious freedom and it is a United States’ interventionist policy under the International Religion Freedom Act (IRFA). So, is it a US Act, strictly speaking, and by the way, the US has designated a number of countries using this act. China, North Korea, Iran Russia, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Pakistan etc. are few examples of some of the states already designated.

    What is intriguing here is that the CPC targets governments who have policies that have made the practicing of certain religions unbearable or impracticable. The US has often looked the other way, despite designating a country a CPC, if greater economic or political gains are to be achieved. For example, check US/Saudi Arabia relation as a guide.

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    The CPC is a US foreign policy apparatus and therefore is not part of international law, whether as customary or in wider usage. Nations sometimes may ape the foreign policy of a super power; they do so largely because of the universal long range capability of such super powers; therefore, that the US designates Nigeria a CPC does not put Nigeria at a risk of international excommunication.

    However, while CPC is still largely a municipal instrument, the issue of genocide is considered very serious in international relations, a la international law. It was the Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin who coined the word “ genocide” in 1944 to refer to intentionality to kill a tribe or race (geno) and cide – killing. Earlier intentional exterminations of a race were termed in different crucibles, e.g., the killing of the Jews was termed “holocaust” because it predated the arrival of “genocide” to international relations lexicon. Genocide is a crime against humanity and, if established, any state or person adjudged to have committed it faces international opprobrium. To the extent that it is a frontline human rights violation, speaks to its relevance in international jurisprudence. And for whatever it is worth, the establishment of genocide blurs the line between what is a domestic affair and issues of international interests. The claim that a nation’s sovereignty is a protection against interference is a misread of the workings of international relations. States’ membership of international organizations is a partial submission of sovereign status to a supra national entity. Always, states are required to ensconce in their obligations under international conventions which regulate states affairs. This highlights the point that every international law does not have a close end. In other words, genocide opens a state’s action to international interrogations.

    Now, to the claim that genocide is going on in Nigeria, according to President Donald Trump, needs some solemn analysis. By the way, all sectarian basis of establishing genocide are usually hampered by emotional interjections amidst claims and counterclaims. And one needs to exercise serious restraint in denial or acceptance that genocide is taking place in Nigeria, if the meaning of the word still retains intentional killing of a people, and now of Christians. In the last ten years or so, Nigeria has seen killings of innocent Nigerians in churches, mosques, villages, city centers, international relief organizations, security bases and farmlands. These ructions are perpetrated by groups of internecine interests, insurgents and terror organizations with their international affiliates.

    While the frustration of President Trump may partly be understood, his threat of a possible military invasion of Nigeria is largely counterpointed to the established scheme of engagement in international intervention. Capability/Capacity to deal with an issue is often separated with refusal to deal with an issue in international relations. And depending on what the facts present, international actors determine some compact responses, either in form of intervention, assistance, cooperation, collaboration, attack or even alliance formations.

    Agreed, there is a crisis in Nigeria; there is no evidence that the Nigerian government has refused to act or even complicit in the attacks. If this is the case, then we come to the issue of whether Nigeria has capacity and capability to deal with this issue.
    It is commonplace that there is very deep security cooperation between the US and Nigeria. The United States has worked closely with Nigeria, both bilaterally and through regional and multilateral frameworks like the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh/ISIS, and the African Union. The Department of State also provides Nigeria with one of the highest International Military Education and Training (IMET) allocations in sub-Saharan Africa. All of these in addition to the sales of weapons like attack helicopters and Super Tucano aircraft. All of these must be viewed strictly from the context of capacity building and not capability.

    So, rather than talking about invasion, the discussion should be around intervention. And I want to believe that there is a difference between cooperation and collaboration, while both means working together, collaboration is broader and more intense; the edge which collaboration has over cooperation is its integrative techniques and infusing of diverse elements to create a unified whole. When Nigeria and the US cooperate, they share ideas, data and equipment, but when they collaborate, they work together.

    President Donald Trump is speaking as Donald Trump and whatever he said could only mean intervention and not invasion in the manner that he said it. An Obama or Joe Biden would have said the same thing differently. We should not also forget that Trump used the phrase “disgraced country” to describe Nigeria and that means he was speaking from position of anger or frustration and the direction where that is coming is not easily placed. Could he be reacting to the fact that Nigeria produced a Nobel laureate in Literature who tore his green card as a stake in the unlikelihood of Trump emergence as president of the United States in 2016? But already there is a consular riposte which resulted in the revocation of the permanent visa of the citizen of the cosmopolis. Or does the phrase simply show that Trump was confounded by Nigeria’s security challenges?

    Whichever way, Nigeria has a very good opportunity to exert credible collaboration from the United States. The advantage which Nigeria has is still her military which has local understanding of the operations of the insurgents. When the two collaborate, they will succeed.

    ▪︎ Prof. Lawal teaches at the Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos State. He can be reached on lawal@lasu.edu.ng

  • Do Nigerians need Trump’s help?

    Do Nigerians need Trump’s help?

    • By Ogungbile Emmanuel Oludotun                  

    We are all aware that the US President, Donald Trump, recently posted on Truth Social that he had designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” for religious-freedom violations, accused the country of allowing the “mass slaughter” of Christians, threatened to stop all US aid, and said he had instructed the Pentagon to prepare for possible military action if Nigeria did not act.

    The statement was unusually blunt: Any US operation would be “fast, vicious, and sweet,” and he invoked a duty to protect “our CHERISHED Christians.”

    The announcement immediately provoked a diplomatic storm and a simple but urgent question for Nigerians and Nigeria’s leaders: Do Nigerians actually want this kind of US intervention, and is it likely to help?

    To answer that, we must separate what can be verified from what is rhetoric, review the scale and nature of violence in Nigeria, understand how Americans and Washington actors came to focus on it, and weigh the practical, legal, and political implications of US action including what ordinary Nigerians, on social media and in affected communities, appear to be saying and what both governments might do next.

    Trump’s public claim is twofold: that “thousands of Christians are being killed” and that the Nigerian state is failing to protect them enough to justify re-listing Nigeria as a US “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) and threatening aid cuts or military steps. The CPC designation is a formal U.S. foreign-policy tool used to signal particularly severe violations of religious freedom and can lead to sanctions and other diplomatic pressure; re-listing reverses a 2023 delisting and carries real policy consequences.

    At the same time, the rhetoric, the talk of “guns-a-blazing,” the tone of vengeance is exceptional. Most Western responses to mass atrocities begin with diplomatic pressure, targeted sanctions, or international criminal investigations. The leap to unilateral military strikes against a country with a functioning (if overstretched) army is rare and would be unprecedented in modern US –Nigeria relations. Reporting shows that the language of imminent military action came largely from the president’s own post and his aides’ briefings; but public evidence, such as definitive proof of a government-enabled, faith-targeted genocide, was not published alongside the threat.

    However, beneath the noise of morality and “Christian protection,” is a growing school of thought that sees Trump’s outburst as part of a deeper power struggle, one that goes beyond religion and straight into economics, oil, and control. Across Africa and the global South, many now interpret Washington’s renewed fixation on Nigeria not as an act of compassion but as an act of preservation, a move to reclaim leverage in a region that is learning to stand on its own.

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    The argument goes that the United States has a long habit of turning every place it “helps” into ruins. Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan were countries left fractured after being “rescued.” The pattern, as people often describe it, is disturbingly familiar. The West arrives under the banner of liberation, but leaves behind dependency, disunity, and dust.

    And just as the smoke clears, another truth comes to light, Africa drills the oil, the West refines it, and Africa buys it back at triple the price, often with gratitude. Imagine that.

    Then came Dangote, with his 650,000-barrel-per-day plot twist, a refinery large enough to threaten the global energy hierarchy. The first migraine, as some economists jokingly put it, hit when US fuel export numbers began twitching. West Africa, that once-loyal customer, suddenly said, “No thanks, we’ll refine it at home.”

    The second headache was monetary. If Nigeria begins trading refined products in naira, yuan, or any regional currency, it pokes directly at the US dollar’s dominance, the global ATM that underwrites American influence.

    The third pain was geopolitical. Africa’s largest refinery means fewer oil tankers from Texas, and more from Lagos to Lomé under African control. That isn’t just energy trade; that’s energy independence, and independence is rarely good for business in Washington’s playbook.

    The fourth sting is symbolic. Dangote didn’t just build a refinery; he built a mirror, showing Africa what it could have been decades ago if it had stopped outsourcing its future. The West is uneasy watching Nigeria shake hands with China and India over refinery technology, two relationships that dilute American monopoly.

    For many in this theory, this backdrop makes Trump’s renewed “concern” for Nigeria look less like divine duty and more like a defensive manoeuvre. A continent daring to refine its own oil, trade in its own currency, and build its own alliances threatens the global balance of power. In that sense, Trump’s Nigeria outburst fits an old pattern: when Africa begins to rise, the world remembers it needs saving.

    The security picture in Nigeria, however, is more complex than either Washington’s rhetoric or social media’s outrage allows. Over the last decade, the country has battled multiple overlapping forms of violence, jihadist insurgency in the northeast, banditry in the northwest, and farmer-herder clashes in the Middle Belt driven by land, resources, and ethnicity. Human-rights monitors document widespread killings, but victims include both Christians and Muslims, and motives often intertwine economics, ethnicity, and crime. Simplifying these conflicts into a single “Christian genocide” narrative obscures their reality and risks inflaming communal tensions.

    Reliable data confirms that Nigeria remains one of the most violent countries in Africa. The 2025 Global Terrorism Index ranked Nigeria among the world’s hardest-hit by terrorism, reporting 565 terrorism-related deaths in 2024, while ACLED data showed thousands of conflict incidents and several thousand fatalities annually from political, communal, and criminal violence. These figures reveal a grave security crisis but not one that neatly fits the binary genocide Trump describes. The human cost is real, yet the causes are plural.

    Now can the US legally or practically intervene? International law recognises state sovereignty and allows the use of force abroad only in self-defence, by UN Security Council approval, or with the host state’s consent. A US strike inside Nigeria without Abuja’s invitation would violate the UN Charter and likely spark diplomatic outrage. Even practically, Nigeria’s vast population, complex terrain, and active military would make intervention both costly and chaotic.

    Again, the question: Do Nigerians want US help? It’s so sad that reactions within Nigeria are divided. President Bola Tinubu and the Foreign Ministry rejected the “genocide” framing and affirmed that Nigeria protects citizens of all faiths while defending its sovereignty; it later added that the federal government is working on meeting with the US president. Meanwhile, on social media, Christian advocacy groups and diaspora voices hailed Trump’s stance as overdue, while others condemned it as reckless, arrogant, and politically motivated. Civil-society organisations and editors warned that the rhetoric risks inflaming sectarian divisions and could drag Nigeria into unnecessary turmoil.

    Some community leaders in affected regions, when interviewed by rights groups, tend to ask for one thing above all: security and justice at home, not foreign bombs. They demand better policing, early-warning systems, and accountability for perpetrators. In short, they want protection, not intervention.

    What can help?

    If the goal is to protect civilians and end violence, the solution lies in cooperation, not confrontation. Nigeria must strengthen prosecutions for attacks, reform its policing architecture, and address land and resource conflicts. The US can apply targeted sanctions on individual perpetrators, share intelligence, and fund humanitarian recovery not unilateral strikes.

    Trump’s administration should publish evidence behind its claims, channel energy into multilateral pressure through ECOWAS, AU, and the UN, and avoid rhetoric that legitimises chaos. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s government must go beyond denial and deliver results, transparent investigations, community-based peacebuilding, and visible progress in protecting all citizens.

    So, do Nigerians want Trump’s help? Not in the way he imagines. What they want is justice, protection, and peace, not a “fast, vicious, and sweet” war on their soil. The country’s sovereignty, however imperfectly guarded, still matters. If Trump’s aim is truly to protect lives, he must trade bluster for balance, convert threats into transparency, and turn sermons into strategy. Nigeria remains the largest nation in Africa, and if Nigeria fails, the entire continent fails and may never rise again.

    •Oludotun is a public affairs analyst.       

  • Trump: Diplomatic channels are working effectively – Information Minister

    Trump: Diplomatic channels are working effectively – Information Minister

    The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, revealed that diplomatic channels are proving effective towards rapprochement in the tense relationship between the government of the U.S. and Nigeria.

    Idris, stated this in an interview with the UK-based Sky News programme, “The World With Yalda Hakim”.

    This was contained in a statement issued by Idris’s Special Assistant on Media,  Malam Rabiu Ibrahim on Tuesday in Abuja.

    Idris said channels of communication have been opened with talks going on for better understanding of the situation.

    “We believe that most of the information is a result of a lack of a proper understanding of the diversity and complexity of the problem we have at hand,” Idris said.

    The Minister also spoke of a direct connection between a proscribed separatist group and U.S. lobby groups aimed at misinforming U.S. authorities.

    “Let me also put it out there that we are seeing a direct connection between U.S. lobbyists and the proscribed terrorist organisation in Nigeria.

    “And we have seen how they have set up this lobby in the U.S. contacting high-up people in the U.S. to help them to lobby,” he said.

    The Minister affirmed that the U.S. government has always supported Nigeria in the fight against terror, adding that, this time around, Nigeria is still in need of collaboration to stamp out terrorism.

    “What we are saying is that, yes, indeed, the situation is there, we have conflict in Nigeria, we have a security situation in Nigeria, but in the past the U.S. government has helped Nigerian authorities to deal with this situation.

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    “So, we are calling on them to partner with us once again, to help push this, and then we have peace once and for all in our country.”

    According to him, Nigeria is surprised by some of the numbers coming from the U.S. and its stance on the issue.

    He called on the international community to understand the peculiarities of the Nigerian situation.

    “We want to tell the world that this is not the case, and to appeal to them, that we share the concern of people from our country, and that of the international community, including the U.S., about some of these killings going on.

    “But what we want at this point is an understanding of the diversity and the complexity of the situation.

    “Some of the assumptions are based on data that largely cannot stand any scientific scrutiny,” Idris said.

    He also maintained that the Nigerian constitution enshrines religious freedom, adding that the country remains a multi-faith nation, despite the conflict, which he said was not based on religious persecution.

    (NAN)

  • Trump’s warning shots and international public law

    Trump’s warning shots and international public law

    • By Sebastine T. Hon

    Drawing from the benumbing aloofness of the international community to the atrocious genocide, ethnic cleansing and sundry other war crimes that took place in Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s, the United Nations World Summit unanimously voted, on October 24, 2005, for and signed what was termed the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) Document. 

    Paragraph 138 of this Document stipulated that each individual State had responsibility to protect its populations from these heinous crimes, while Paragraph 139 mandated the international community, through the UN, to use appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other “peaceful means,” in accordance with Articles VI and VIII of the UN Charter, to help protect such endangered populations.

    To underscore the importance of R2P, the UN Security Council, on August 21, 2014, passed Resolution 2171, which reaffirmed “the responsibility of each individual State to protect its populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.”

    The Resolution further called upon States “to recommit to prevent and fight against genocide, and other serious crimes under international law,” and reaffirmed its commitment to “paragraphs 138 and 139 of the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document (A/60/L.1) on the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.”

    From the above, no individual country, no matter how strong militarily or economically, has right to intervene in the affairs of a country, even in the face of brutal genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity – save through the UN Security Council. That is the status of the extant international legal framework for taming the monster called genocide.

    The practical application of this, however, remains a mirage. Examples abound; but I shall limit myself to the USA. Prior to Ward War I, the USA was involved in dozens of direct military incursions into autonomous and semi-autonomous entities, including but not limited to South Dakota and Argentina (1890); Chile and Haiti (1891) and Korea (1894).

    The USA, initially not involved in World War I, voluntarily entered the war in 1917 and became a major participant in World War II. It voluntarily joined the Korean War of 1950-1953, to assist South Korea, and it plunged fully into the Vietnam War of 1955-1975. In 1961, it invaded Cuba in what was termed the “Bay of Pigs Invasion.”

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    This century-long superpower launched a similar military assault on Panama in 1989 – to remove the then-strong man of that country, Manuel Noreiga. The involvement of the US in the Gulf War between 1990-1991 is another incident within living memory. It also launched a prolonged military campaign in Afghanistan from 2001, until 2021 when President Joe Biden hurriedly ordered US troops to withdraw, in what observers have labelled a major disastrous outing for the country.

    In 2003, the USA invaded Iraq in what is known as the Iraqi War, which lasted for eight (8) years, culminating in the killing of Saddam Hussein. Also, from 2011 till date, the USA is directly involved, militarily, in Syria, where it operates under the cover of counter-terrorism operations. Similar involvement by the USA in Niger since 2017 was cut short in 2023 due to the military coup in that country.

    It must also be remembered that the invasion of Libya by US forces led not only to the ouster of Muammar Ghadafi, but also his killing on October 20, 2011, by local rival militias who captured him.

    Some other international interventions by the US, even after R2P and UN Security Council Resolution 2171, include the use of US Special Forces in 2006, in collaboration with local military forces, to topple the Islamist government in Somalia, in an open battle with Al Shabab. In 2014, the same US Forces and the US Air Force jointly attacked Iraq, killing eight (8) civilians. In the period 2019-2020, the US deployed ground troops to Saudi Arabia to assist that country’s armed forces in its war of attrition with Iran. From 2023 till recently ,when President Trump ordered a temporary halt, the US had been bombing Houthi Rebels in Yemen and also raiding them with drones and missiles.

    The US has also recently supported Israel militarily in the wake of the rain of drones and missiles by Iran – by the USA deploying patriot missiles to obliterate, where possible, those fired by Iran. The mother of it all was the recent bombing, using the highest and most deadly military technologies, the B-2 spirit stealth bombers and the Tomahawk missiles fired from a submarine, of nuclear sites in Iran by the USA Government under President Trump.

    In all of these, the UN; and in particular, the UN Security Council, keeps mute or offers defeatist responses. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should kindly take note of this.

    Sino-USA Armed Conflicts: A short historical analysis

    Chinese (Sino)-American armed conflicts date back to 1894-1895, when the USA sent marines to the Sino-Japanese War. In the period 1898-1900, US Marines were also deployed to fight in the “Boxer Rebellion” in China.

    Between 1911-1941, the USA continued to build up its military presence in China, by increasing the number of marines there, leading to countless flare-ups with the local Chinese military. More troops were deployed by the US to that country in the 1922-1927 period, during the “nationalist revolt.”

    Following the victory at the polls of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the USA was forced to evacuate its citizens, with the use of the marines it had stationed in that country, and the others that had been brought in for that purpose. This was in1949.

    There have been periods of conciliation and cooperation in Sino-American relations, starting with the establishment of diplomatic relations on January 1, 1979, but these have always been punctuated by diplomatic rows over the role of Beijing in Hongkong and Taiwan, respectively.

    Upon President Donald Trump assuming office early 2025, his major policy of increasing tariffs on goods from other countries escalated strong rhetoric between the two countries that in March 2025, Beijing announced that it was ready to embark on “any war” with the USA. Pundits have been positing that “any war” includes a full-blown military war. Thankfully, however, these two most powerful economic nations have ‘settled’ this issue, with details being expected any moment from now. It is important for President Tinubu to appreciate, however, the popular aphorism that ‘when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.’ Nigeria cannot, with respect, afford to be the battleground, physical or intellectually cold, for any open conflagration between these two superpowers.

    The Trump Bombastic Shots and antagonism from World Powers and local comprador ‘powers’

    Writing sternly but vividly on his personal social media handle, President Donald stirred the hornet’s nest recently when he warned the Government of Nigeria of consequences of not halting the genocide against Christians in Nigeria. US military reprisals were promised in the event of failure by the Nigerian government on this mandate. Shortly before then, President Trump had signed an Executive Order designating Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC).

    Apart from prominent members of the US Congress and high-ranking officials of the Trump administration still echoing this threat and supporting their President, Canada has also voiced its support.

    On the other hand, China, the European Union and the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) have all expressed support for Nigeria, stressing that this is an internal affair of Nigeria. Also, some vested local interests, who have kept mute for the decades that the terrorists have been embarking on killing sprees in Nigeria, have suddenly found their voice: the US should not dare intervene in Nigeria.  What direction should Mr. President then go?

    Ignoring the US is way too much of a gamble

    This brief interrogation of the situation on ground in Nigeria must catalogue, brevi manu, Beijing’s serial ‘warnings’ to America under similar circumstances and the outcomes of ‘breaches’ thereof by Washington.

    On January 16, 2024, Beijing warned USA against escalating strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. Neither President Joe Biden nor President Trump ‘heeded’ such ‘warning.’ Beijing buried its head, muttering incoherent words, after USA’s ‘intransigence.’

    On March 14, 2025, Beijing and Moscow jointly supported Iran’s nuclear talks and warned the West against any military strike on Tehran. Also, on June 19, 2025, Beijing warned that any US arrack on Iran could spark global conflict. It also hinged its resistance to the US planned attack on the same “sovereign nation” arguments it is currently advancing with respect to the ongoing debacle in Nigeria. The US refused to ‘respect’ that ‘warning;’ and China did not reprise against the brief but elaborate aerial pummeling of nuclear sites in Iran by the USA. Rather, Beijing issued a statement that the said attack had damaged Washington’s global credibility. That was the best Beijing offered!

    Away from Washington, China warned Israel of “serious consequences” if the latter attacked Iran. This came and went, without Beijing taking any counter-step against the Jewish State.

    This analysis could go on and on; but one fact stands out: Nigeria will not be protected by China if the USA decides to strike terrorist cells today! There is no need to mention the warning by the EU, which is still at wits’ end on how to face the Russia-Ukraine war – upon Trump pulling out USA resources. Besides, the economy of the EU countries is plummeting fast, no thanks to the tariffs’ policy of the Trump administration. In other words, the EU, apart from tough rhetorics, will be the first to take diplomatic cover, once precision bombs from American jets start dropping on terrorist hideouts in Nigeria. What about ECOWAS and loquacious local commentators? I won’t even comment on them.

    Solution? President Tinubu should not ignore the Trump warnings! Mr. President should not listen to some persons and other authorities goading him to square up to the USA, citing the “sovereignty” provisions in the UN Charter and other international legal instruments. He has no choice than to face the terrorists squarely and decisively, with visible results. Trump’s jets and special forces may be on their way already! Indeed, Trump’s body language and actions, as far as everyone knows, do not show that he backs out of issues like this one easily; neither does he chicken out at the mere ‘warning’ of Beijing or any other world power. Most USA Presidents have been like that. The examples cited above and many others are enough testament to this! Act fast, Mr. President!

    •Prof Hon (SAN) is a constitutional lawyer and author.

  • Trump’s crusade to save “Nigerian Christians”

    Trump’s crusade to save “Nigerian Christians”

    Sir: When President Donald J. Trump thundered recently that he might send American troops to Nigeria to “rescue persecuted Christians,” one could almost hear the angels clearing their throats for the opening hymn of a new Made-in-America Crusade. Only that this time, the Saviour is not nailed to a cross—he tweets from a golden throne and preaches deliverance through drone strikes.

    Trump’s sudden compassion for Nigerian Christians would have been heart-warming if not for the lingering smell of hypocrisy wafting all the way from Washington to the savannahs of northern Nigeria. The world has seen this script before. America creates chaos, arms fall into the wrong hands, terrorists multiply like weeds after rain—and then the same America returns, halo polished, claiming to be the redeemer.

    Let’s rewind to 2011. The “moral” United States, under President Barack Obama, turned Libya from one of Africa’s most stable nations into a sprawling marketplace of mercenaries and misery. The fall of Muammar Gaddafi sent truckloads of weapons cascading southward—through Mali, Niger, and Chad—until Boko Haram found itself awash with ammunition and ambition.

    When Nigeria sought U.S. help to fight the very monsters that America’s Libyan adventure helped spawn, the Obama administration withheld critical military equipment—because Nigeria had passed an anti-LGBT law. Apparently, America’s moral compass points toward whichever direction its sexual politics lean, not toward genuine peace.

    And yet, the same Bible that America loves to quote during campaign season already criminalizes homosexual acts. So one must ask: What “Christian values” can a morally bankrupt America export to a country whose real struggle is survival, not pronouns?

    Now enters Trump, the self-anointed Defender of the Faith, claiming he will “save Nigerian Christians.” One might think the man had discovered the Book of Acts last week. But beneath the pious growl of his rhetoric lies a more familiar melody: political opportunism dressed in religious robes.

    He speaks of “radical Islamists” not out of compassion, but calculation. His base—American evangelicals—love such talk. It feeds their apocalyptic imagination while securing their votes. It’s the same logic that turned “Make America Great Again” into a creed and Trump into its reluctant messiah.

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    But how exactly does he plan to “save” these Christians? Will his Marines parachute into Nigerian villages and ask for baptism certificates before opening fire? Or will the Pentagon distribute Bibles with infrared chips that glow red only in Christian hands? Because in Nigeria, Christians and Muslims live side by side, shop at the same markets, and even intermarry. There are no “Christian neighbourhoods” to rescue. A Trump raid would be an equal-opportunity slaughter.

    Let us be honest: Trump’s concern for Nigeria is not about religion—it’s about regaining America’s shrinking influence in Africa. China is building railways; Russia is signing defence pacts; and the U.S., late to the feast, now arrives waving a blood-stained Bible. Nigeria, rich in oil, gas, and critical minerals like lithium, suddenly looks “spiritually” interesting.

    When empires dress greed in the garb of faith, the sermon always ends in ashes.

    If the United States truly wished to help Nigeria curb terrorism, it would not send sermons wrapped in missiles. It would share real-time intelligence on terrorist movements; provide advanced surveillance equipment to locate camps in forests; offer targeted training to Nigerian Special Forces, and, help rebuild the communities that terrorism has wrecked.

    But those steps do not generate dramatic headlines—or evangelical applause. So, Trump prefers a more cinematic script: “Send the troops, save the Christians, and Make America Feel Righteous Again.”

    Trump’s proposed “sweet and fast” raid on Nigeria is not about rescuing anyone. It is about resurrecting himself—a theatrical crusade staged for applause at home, not compassion abroad. The tragedy is that behind his vanity parade lie real human lives: Nigerians of every faith struggling to live beyond the reach of both terrorists and foreign saviours.

    So when Trump preaches salvation for Nigerian Christians, let the world remember:

    This gospel is not according to Christ—it is according to Trump, chapter Ego, verse Empire.

    •Leonard Karshima Shilgba, <shilgba@gmail.com>