United States President Donald Trump has threatened military action against Nigeria over alleged ‘killing of Christians, saying that if the Federal Government fails to take necessary action to protect the Christians and stop the killing, he will be forced to attack the most populous country in Africa
Trump had, on Friday, claimed that Christians in Nigeria are facing an “existential threat,” calling on American lawmakers to investigate “mass slaughter”.
The US President also redesignated Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” – a State Department classification for nations “engaged in severe violations of religious freedom.”
But President Bola Tinubu has rejected the claim of Trump on Nigeria and dismissed the designation of Nigeria as a nation hostile to religious freedom, insisting that the country remains committed to protecting the rights of citizens of all faiths.
Tinubu said: “Religious freedom and tolerance have been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so. Nigeria opposes religious persecution and does not encourage it.”
But Trump, on Saturday, threatened to cut all aid and assistance to Nigeria if the alleged genocide continues, saying that he would send US forces into Nigeria with “guns-a-blazing” if Nigerian government does not stem what he described as the killing of Christians by Islamists.
In an explosive post on his Truth Social platform, the Republican leader – who had campaigned unsuccessfully for the Nobel Peace Prize – said he asked the Pentagon to map out a possible plan of attack, one day after warning that Christianity was “facing an existential threat in Nigeria”.
The US President said, “If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, “guns-a-blazing,” to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities. I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!”
Incidentally, Trump had on Friday posted, without evidence, that “thousands of Christians are being killed while Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter.”
