Donald Trump’s threats, Tinubu’s dilemma

On January 29, 2014, Bola Ahmed Tinubu sent out a tweet that read: “The slaughtering of Christian Worshippers is strongly condemnable. It calls to question the competence of Jonathan to protect Nigerians.” Tinubu was then a leading opposition figure and leader of the newly formed party, APC, while Goodluck Jonathan was president and a member of the PDP and Barack Obama was in the White House. Eleven years after – on November 1, 2025 – President Donald Trump sent out a post on Truth Social, his social media platform, that reads: ‘’If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the USA will immediately stop all aids 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 MUST MOVE FAST.”

This is not the first time President Trump would talk about the killing of Christians in Nigeria. In fact, the issue has been a major concern to many US leaders, including Senator Ted Cruz and other Republicans for many years now. On April 30, 2018, during the visit of then-President Muhammadu Buhari to the White House, both the Nigerian leader and President Trump addressed a press conference in which the US President complained about the same mass killings of Christians in Nigeria and pledged to offer assistance to the Buhari administration to fight the terrorists.

Buhari responded by thanking Trump for the invitation and the assistance to fight terrorism. It is important to note that President Trump did not use the word ‘’genocide’’ in his Saturday post to describe the killings of Christians in Nigeria. The word has become too controversial and subject to many interpretations and denials since Senator Cruz used it last week to describe what’s going on in our country. By avoiding the controversial word, President Trump wants to stay focused on his main agenda: the atrocities of terrorists and the fate of Christians in Nigeria. He has the right to choose where he stands.

Right from the bombing of St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madella, Niger State on December 25, 2011, in which 44 people were murdered in cold blood; the attack on another church in Suleja on July 10, 2011 by Boko Haram terrorists and the attack on St. Xavier Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State on June 5, 2022, killing over 40 worshippers and injuring more than 100, the Christian community has lost thousands of members.

But it was Bola Tinubu, as opposition leader in 2014, that first drew the world’s attention to the fact that there were mass killings of Christians in the country. He is therefore morally bound to accept to work with the US government to expedite the elimination of the terrorists. As an opposition leader, Tinubu did everything to undermine the Jonathan presidency, including mobilising nationwide protests against the removal of fuel subsidy in January of that year. His accusation of Jonathan of incompetence in protecting Christians was part of the plans to intimidate and weaken him, and in order to defeat him in the general election of the following year.

Indeed, Jonathan lost the presidency and was succeeded by Buhari of APC. But for all of the eight years of the Buhari administration, the killings continued and Tinubu did not utter a word of condemnation for the mass slaughter of Christians in the Middle Belt. President Tinubu has been in office for over two years now, the killings have not abated. Would the President therefore accept that he too has been too incompetent to protect Christians or Nigerians as a whole?

Let me be clear, both Christians and Muslims have been slaughtered by terrorists in Nigeria for varied and many reasons. In some areas, the terrorists are focusing on the farming communities in the central parts of the country, which are mostly inhabited by Christians whose main occupation is farming. Here, the killers, mostly foreign nationals, invade the communities in the dead of the night and attack the people, mostly Christians, to dispose them of their land and take over the areas. In other parts of the country, like the north-west and north-east, the terrorists attack both Christians and Muslims to rob, kill and abduct for ransom.

I have written no fewer than three essays on the killings in the Middle Belt, wondering why it’s been so difficult for the government to check these murderers, and why none of them has ever been arrested and put on trial. Many writers and commentators have also drawn the connection between the attacks on our farming communities and the rising food inflation. This is therefore an opportune moment to grab the bull by the horn.

President Trump is not the only world leader that has shown concern about the Nigerian crisis. The late Pope Francis is hereby remembered for the many statements he issued condemning terrorist attacks in Nigeria and praying for our nation. I am therefore in support of President Trump’s offer to assist us to wipe away the terrorists. I believe that the US has better intelligence, weapons and manpower to assist us, just as they assisted Israel to deal with Hamas in Gaza; Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen and Iran. We should be humble enough to accept the offer.

Many Nigerians admire President Tinubu for being a great political strategist. He is credited with being instrumental in creating the APC from the union of several parties and political groups, with which an incumbent president was dislodged from office. But in this matter, Tinubu is in a kind of dilemma. He can’t deny that a large number of Christians (and Muslims, actually) have been killed in his country. He can’t even deny that the Nigerian government, including his, has been quite negligent, tacky and weak in dealing with these attackers in the last several years. But if the USA sends troops to invade the country to wipe out the terrorist camps as President Trump threatens, Tinubu may suffer severe political backlash in some parts of the country, and nobody knows how far this may impact on the outcomes of the elections of 2027.