Tinubu well ahead of orchestrated game unfolding in US, says Onanuga

Bayo Onanuga, special adviser on information and strategy to President Bola Tinubu, says the Nigerian leader is “well ahead of the orchestrated game unfolding in America”.

BACKGROUND

On Friday, US President Donald Trump redesignated Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” over claims of Christian genocide in the country.

Hours later, Trump threatened that the “USA 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 killing Christians”.

A handful of right-wing US lawmakers, led by Ted Cruz, the senator from Texas, have repeatedly stated that Christians are facing persecution in Nigeria.

In October, Cruz proposed the ‘Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025’, a legislation which seeks to hold Nigerian government officials accountable for “facilitating the mass murder of Christians”.

The proposed bill also calls for “targeted sanctions against Nigerian officials who enforce Sharia and blasphemy laws”; requires the “US secretary of state to designate Nigeria as a country of particular concern”; and requires that “Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa remain designated as entities of particular concern”.

Cruz introduced the bill in early September, just weeks before Trump signed a memo labelling views leaning towards anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity as domestic terrorism.

‘AHEAD OF THE GAME’

In a post on X, Onanuga said Tinubu had taken decisive steps by implementing sweeping changes in the nation’s military leadership and setting clear expectations for them.

“President Bola Tinubu was well ahead of the orchestrated game unfolding in America as he told the new service chiefs on Thursday what Nigerians expect of them. No more excuses, he said. Nigerians want results,” Onanuga wrote.

The president had charged the security chiefs to carry out their duties with “patriotic zeal” and to be “innovative, pre-emptive, and courageous”.

Tinubu also emphasised the need to deploy technology where necessary and vowed to provide full support to the armed forces.

“Security threats are constantly evolving, constantly mutating. Of grave concern to our administration is the recent emergence of new armed groups in the North-Central, North-West, and parts of the South,” the president had said.

“We must not allow these new threats to fester. We must be decisive and proactive. Let us smash the new snakes right in the head.”