Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria.Thousands of Christians are being killed. Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a ‘country of particular concern.’
“But that is the least of it. When Christians, or any such group, are slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria something must be done! I am asking Congressman Riley Moore, together with Chairman Tom Cole and the House Appropriations Committee, to immediately look into this matter and report back to me.” – President Donald Trump in a post on his Truth Social.
Ever rambunctious and irascible, President Donald Trump of America did not just wake up, as if from a bad dream, to declare Nigeria a Country of Particular Interest(CPC).
Before he did, a slew of congressmen and other stakeholders had bombarded him with reports of the killings in Nigeria, especially in Christian communities where thousands are, of a truth, being killed, their houses and churches incinerated, those alive banished for ever from their ancestral lands on the pain of death, the names of their lands promptly changed, and Sharia declared.
All these obviously to the satisfaction of Northern Muslims, most of who are eager to see the whole of Nigeria declared a Muslim country.
Truth be told, these sundry killers – bandits, Fulani herder terrorists, Boko Haram, ISWAP etc also kill Muslims, but never as intentionally targeted as their Christians counterparts.
President Trump was moved to this action by an appeal from a U.S law maker to the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to take immediate diplomatic action against Nigeria over what he described as the systematic persecution and slaughter of Christians in Nigeria; a country he described as the deadliest place in the world for Christians”.
He called for Nigeria’s re-designation as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) and for the suspension of arms sales to it until the government demonstrates a “tangible commitment” to ending the violence. Citing figures from Open Doors, he claimed that more than 7,000 Christians had been killed in 2025 alone and that at least 19,100 churches have been destroyed since 2009″.
How did we get here?
Let me start off by saying that the U.S action is a massive stricture of the incumbent Nigerian Federal government and there is a lot President Tinubu can do to both rectify the ugly situation, and molify President Trump who has shown, severally, that he hasn’t the slightest respect for international law.
I have always believed that Nigeria was bound to suffer this embarrassment of being described by President Trump as a “disgraced country”, but to properly situate that, we would have to go far back, that is, beyond the Tinubu administration, all the way back to that of President Buhari when the entire Nigerian security apparatti was under the stranglehold of Northern Muslim generals whose primary, but undeclared, interest alongside President Buhari himself, was to see Sharia extended over all of Nigeria.
Buhari and some other significant Northern leaders are on record as saying that fighting Boko Haram is the equivalent of fighting Almighty Allah.
This reminds me of my article of 17 May, 2020 titled:”Waves and Waves of Northerners Coming South Despite Ban on Interstate Travel: What is a Presidential order now worth”, from which I shall quote at some length in this article.
I wrote: “Now with the new massive resurgence of banditry in Katsina, Kaduna and Zamfara, he (Professor Ibrahim Gambari, then newly appointed Buhari’s Chief of Staff) should be able to dig deep into both the Boko Haram and banditry conundrum with a view to reaching an agreement which would stanch the ferocious blood letting in the north and put a stop to the billions of dollars the government was wasting but which could be put to much better use, especially in the North which accounts for more than 70 percent of the country’s poverty index.
He should equally devote some time to seriously interrogate the nuisance the Fulani Nationality Movement, (FUNAM) is fast turning to.
As recent as on 2 May, 2020, that atavistic organisation issued a statement to Northerners who were then being furiously rushed southwards:
“We your leaders held meetings across the key Northern States of Sokoto, Bornu, Katsina, Kano, Yobe, Kebi, Bauchi and Kaduna. Our resolve is that Northern youths should move, enmasse, to Southern States. Relaunch the mass movement in ways they have never seen … If the towns and cities are hostile, hang out on the street corners, in uncompleted buildings, occupy the forests, pitch tents, make anywhere available as your abode, your rest places, your home.We urge you to be armed. The infidels may want to attack you”.
What was that if not a Jihad declaration, eager to dip the bible in the sea as Ahmadu Bello admonished them long time ago?
That is one of the precursors to President Trump’s threat.
Then to the issue of the day, a grievous matter of great national interest, given the way Northerners are being rushed to the South in waves, after waves, even after President Buhari had expressly banned inter-state travel.
In my view, this indicates that torrid days are ahead with regard to insecurity in the country as these people could very well be killer herdsmen, elements of Boko Haram/ISWAP soldiers or outright bandits. They are being moved like consignments of commodities, hidden behind cows or cement, and covered with very heavy tapaulen.
All these in a country where even the President is preaching social distancing as a means of checking the spread of covid-19.
That is the way some evil-minded characters are being transported from the extremities of Northern Nigeria, in blazing sun and inclement weather, over hundreds of kilometers to forment trouble in the Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria.
The hurried manner in which they are being moved point to the fact that the people behind this scheme are up to no good. They are either preparing for a massive uprising in the South or, alternatively, trying to plant an advance party for RUGA which the South rejected, to the last man, and will continue to reject even with the last drop of their blood. Initially coyly presented by the Federal Government as a silver bullet for herders/farmers clashes, RUGA was to have seen Fulani herdsmen as well as elements of Boko Haram, respledently settled in well – provisioned new towns, carved out from other peoples’ ancestral lands, while the owners of the land would have been left to eke out life in their old, decrepit ways.
“That this exodus of biblical proportions are being presented to vigilante groups in the South as commodity consignments, is certainly ill- intentioned and the fact that the Inspector General of Police has not deemed it fit to say anything about it, says a lot”.
God bless the eagle- eyed vigilantes who were not deceived as many of these un-invited guests were immediately turned back where they came from, even though it is certain many of our forests down South may by now be crawling with thousands of killer herdsmen, elements of Boko Haram etc”.
That last bit, that is, their being in our forests, though conjectural, is a very reasonable supposition, given their battle order from FUNAM, and whoever wants to dispute it must first explain to Nigerians how, with the President’s express ban on interstate travel still subsisting , these people are able to come down, all the way, from the furtherest corners of the North, without being stopped by security agents who ought to have felt duty bound to, at least, respect the President’s directive on interstate travels. Of course, Nigerians are no longer deceived.
A study by the Chinua Achebe Foundation has long shown that when Fulani herdsmen/ terrorists are to attack in a given area, directives are usually given from the top, to security agents, military or whatever, around the target area not to intervene in any manner. They only show up long after the killings.
It is obvious that this exodus, hidden under the covid-19 lockdown, must be a much bigger project than the well known Fulani herdsmen’s/ terrorists murdering escapades, but whatever the motive or motives, those behind this project should know that things have since changed in the South.
The people have taken their security into their own hands and would respect no orders not to respond in kind if attacked or
if their ancestral lands come under any threat. They should know that in no way would they overrun the South like they did Benue, Plateau, Borno and some other Northern states.
Nobody in these parts would live to see total strangers take an inch of their ancestral lands.
God bless Dr Junaid Mohammed who has honestly called on his Northern brethren who might be behind all these shenanigans to think again . He has suggested that security operatives who collude in this matter should be investigated and those found guilty be brought to book; but we know that is where it ends because those behind the macabre dance are executing an ethnic and religious agenda to make Nigeria the Fulani homeland as FUNAM has severally asserted, and Nigeria proclaimed a Muslim country.
FUNAM is never tired of saying Nigeria is the only country Allah gave Fulanis as their homeland.To justify that joke , a people who arrived Nigeria for the first time ever in the 1800’s, and as tenants of the Hausas, are now claiming a one thousand year ownership of Nigeria.
Prof Gambari should be able to let them know their history, in case they have forgotten it.
One other thing they should know though, is that recent experiences in Africa, and the world at large, have shown that nobody is too big, important, or powerful, that cannot find him or herself in a REFUGE CAMP, ESPECIALLY IN A FOREIGN LAND.
That is where the Trump threat becomes very resonant.
A stitch in time can still save nine if those behind the spoilation, and ruination, of Christian communities, especially in Northern Nigeria will not desist.
As to the U.S attacking Nigeria, I trust President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be able to diplomatically, and meaningfully engage President Trump, to see why the U. S and Nigeria deserve nothing but healthy and cordial relationship.
But he 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.
