Donald Trump threatened to stop aid to Nigeria and consider military action over alleged Christian killings. Photo / Getty Images
Nigerians describe a mixture of confusion and fear as people across the country try to decipher President Donald Trump’s threat to stop all aid to Africa’s most populous country. He threatened to go in “guns-a-blazing” after accusing Nigeria’s Government of allowing “the killing of Christians”.
Group chats and social media in the West African nation blew up after Trump’s comments on Saturday, with many Nigerians baffled by Trump’s ire. In a post on Truth Social, Trump singled out the plight of Christians targeted by violence in Nigeria, and raised the threat of direct military action.
“I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action,” he said. “If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!”
Daniel Bwala, an adviser to Nigerian President Ahmed Tinubu, disputed Trump’s characterisation that Christians specifically were being targeted, but added that he appreciated the President’s concern about the security situation.
Bwala also said that Nigeria’s Government saw Trump’s threats as a negotiating tactic, and added that Nigeria’s Government would welcome increased intelligence sharing from the US.
“The fight against terrorism is a concern for the world - that is our perspective,” he said. “We don’t expect there to be US military action in Nigeria … but we do think the two leaders could come together to reach a common understanding.”
Nigeria is a diverse, multi-ethnic country of more than 230 million with a population that is roughly split between Muslims and Christians. Analysts say violence in the country has broadly affected Nigerians, regardless of their religion.
Bouts of violence and insecurity in the country, some spanning years, differ in their specifics by location. Islamist extremist groups, including Boko Haram, compete for influence in the northernmost states. Bandits increasingly wreak havoc in the northwest. Farmer-herder conflicts affect the central states.
In recent weeks, some US politicians have called for increased attention to the killings of Christians in Nigeria. Republican Senator Ted Cruz accused officials in Nigeria last month of “ignoring and even facilitating the mass murder of Christians by Islamist Jihadists” in a post on X. He introduced a bill to “target these officials with powerful sanctions and other tools”.
On Friday, Trump announced that he would designate Nigeria a “country of particular concern”, placing the country on a watch list of states believed to systemically violate religious freedoms. The move, pushed by Cruz, opens the door to punitive sanctions, but does not necessitate their imposition.
The State Department did not respond to requests for comment Sunday.
Shehu Sani, a former Nigerian senator and human rights activist, said Nigeria’s continued insecurity must be blamed on its Government, but that the administration of Tinubu – who was elected in 2023 – has made more efforts than the previous Government to eradicate the violence. If Trump launches a military action, Sani added, “it will trigger a religious and ethnic crisis in Nigeria”.
“He will create more problems than solutions.”
Malik Samuel, a senior researcher at Good Governance Africa who has been studying Boko Haram for more than a decade, said his first response was that of disappointment. “As a researcher, I thought: US authorities should sure have more accurate information than relying on a false narrative.”
Samuel said that Christians and Muslims have been killed in the ongoing insecurity in the country, and denied that there had been a targeted campaign to kill Christians specifically. In communities in northern Nigeria most affected by violence by Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), the vast majority of victims are Muslim because most of the people living in the north are Muslim, he said. The same, Samuel added, holds true for victims of banditry in the northwest. In farmer-herder conflict in central Nigeria, there have been more Christian victims because they tend to dominate farming communities.
Ladd Serwat, senior Africa analyst for the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (Acled) project, said that claims of mass Christian fatalities are not backed up by data.
“Insurgent groups such as Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa often present their campaigns as anti-Christian, but in practice their violence is indiscriminate and devastates entire communities,” Serwat said.
Still, for some Nigerians who feel the plight of Christians has long been overlooked, Trump’s announcement brought relief. Ochole Okita, 28, standing outside a Nigerian church on Sunday holding her Bible, said she was excited when she saw Trump’s announcement, and hoped that intervention by the US might stop the violence ravaging farming communities, which are often largely Christian.
“I was excited but with mixed feelings,” Okita said. Though she was glad that someone seemed to care, “it’s still going to affect us. We’re the ones in the grassroots and are going to suffer, especially when the aid is taken.”
Atta Barkindo, a priest and executive director of the Kukah Centre, a Nigeria-based policy research institute, said that while there are no deliberate attempts to “kill Christians or deploy state actors to kill Christians”, Trump’s remarks point to a bigger issue: the Government’s inability to protect its citizens.
“I think at the end of the day, we have to ultimately engage the Americans,” Barkindo said. “For me, it’s how to defeat these terrorist activities. For 15 years, they have been wreaking havoc in this country and we just sit and watch. It can’t continue like that. And that’s the bigger issue.”
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