The Governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Soludo, has reacted to United States President Donald Trump’s threat to carry out military action in Nigeria following claims of a Christian genocide.
Soludo said the security challenges in Nigeria go beyond a conflict between Muslims and Christians.
Speaking during a media chat on Sunday, the governor stated that Trump’s threat of military intervention to “protect Christians in Nigeria” distorts the actual issues on the ground.
He emphasized the need for the Nigerian government to engage in a more substantive dialogue to address the concerns raised, noting that all relevant facts should be accurately presented.
Soludo added that if Nigeria were to seek foreign assistance, it should be through formal requests for military support, technology, or equipment, not through external threats.
He rejected any notion of an invasion, arguing that it would be equally absurd for African nations to threaten to invade the United States over incidents of racial violence.
“I am not quite sure if you have policemen killing some blacks. I remember the #BlackLivesMatter protest, and somebody would say maybe Africa should go and invade America because blacks are being killed? I’m not quite sure,” he said.
He added that fostering a national dialogue remains the most effective path toward lasting solutions.
“I think there is a need for deeper conversation,” he said.
“It must end in conversation, and I am sure the government of Nigeria will respond very robustly. Nigeria is such a big country, and the government is doing a whole lot to safeguard it.”
He noted that the U.S. may have opinions on global matters, but any intervention must respect Nigeria’s sovereignty and international law.
“As a country, America has its own rights to have its own views about what is going on elsewhere,” he said.
“But when it comes to what it does, I am sure it must also act within the realm of international law.”
Military intervention threat
In a post on his Truth Social on Saturday, Trump threatened to carry out attacks in Nigeria in response to purported anti-Christian violence, saying he instructed the recently renamed Department of War to “prepare for possible action”.
The American president said the United States would immediately cut off all assistance to the African country “if the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians”.
The US “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”, Trump added, without specifying which groups or alleged “atrocities” he was referring to.
“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!” he wrote.
Trump had earlier announced that Nigeria would be added to the Department of State’s list of “Countries of Particular Concern”, which is set up to monitor religious persecution around the world.
Tinubu, Trump could meet
Meanwhile, President Tinubu’s spokesperson, Daniel Bwala, in reaction to Trump’s threat, on Sunday suggested in a post on X that the two leaders could meet soon.
“As for the differences as to whether terrorists in Nigeria target only Christians or in fact all faiths and no faiths, the differences if they exist, would be discussed and resolved by the two leaders when they meet in the coming days, either in State House or White House.”
Trump posted on Friday that “thousands of Christians are being killed (and) Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter.”
Nigeria has denied that Christians have been targeted by jihadist attacks more than other faiths.
“The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality,” Tinubu said on social media Saturday.
Source Channels Television
