In the shadow of Northern Nigeria’s relentless sun, where the cries of the innocent echo across blood-soaked savannas, President Donald Trump’s thunderous rebuke has pierced the veil of complacency.
On November 1, 2025, Trump, with his characteristic unfiltered resolve, took to Truth Social to condemn Nigeria’s failure to curb the “mass slaughter” of Christians by “Islamic terrorists.” “If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians,” he declared, “the USA will immediately stop all aid… 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.” Instructing the Pentagon — rechristened the “Department of War” under Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth — to “prepare for possible action,” Trump vowed an assault that would be “fast, vicious, and sweet.”
This is no mere bluster from a man who has long championed the persecuted; it is a clarion call for justice, amplified by his swift reinstatement of Nigeria on the U.S. State Department’s “Countries of Particular Concern” (CPC) list — a badge of infamy Nigeria now shares with North Korea, China and Iran.
Trump’s CPC designation merits unreserved praise. Removed under President Joe Biden despite the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s repeated pleas, Nigeria’s delisting was a diplomatic sop that ignored the slaughterhouse reality in Northern Nigeria. According to some sources, over 7,000 Christians perished in 2025 alone — an average of 35 souls snuffed out daily —amid razed churches, kidnapped clergy, and massacred villages. By restoring this label, Trump has not only spotlighted a genocide in slow motion but also empowered sanctions under the International Religious Freedom Act, pressuring Abuja to act or face isolation.
Thirty-one U.S. lawmakers, from Ted Cruz to Chris Smith, hailed the move as a “moral outrage” rectified, urging “every diplomatic and strategic tool” to shield Nigerian faithful. This is statesmanship at its rawest: America, under Trump, refusing to avert its gaze from atrocity.
Equally commendable are America’s efforts to bolster Nigeria’s anti-terror fight. Over about two decades, the U.S. has funnelled over $2 billion in security assistance — warplanes, weapons, and training sessions — to dismantle Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa Province. The Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership (TSCTP) alone delivered $8 million in equipment and advisory support from 2019-2023, enhancing border security and intelligence sharing. Foreign Military Financing tallied $1.8 million from 2016-2020 for maritime patrols and professionalisation. Even as human rights lapses tempered some sales — like the delayed $1 billion helicopter deal — the U.S. persisted, partnering via the Multinational Joint Task Force and Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.These investments have reclaimed territories and saved lives, yet the hydra regenerates, underscoring not American shortfall but Nigerian resolve’s frailty.
Enter President Bola Tinubu’s administration: a fortress of denial, where decisive strikes yield to semantic sleight-of-hand. Rather than eradicate the scourge, officials rebrand jihadists as “bandits” — a politically expedient euphemism, which started under late President Muhammadu Buhari, that dilutes terror’s sting and shields complicit patrons. This linguistic laundering implicates the state in the bloodshed, as thousands — Muslim, Christian, traditionalists — have been killed since Tinubu’s 2023 ascension, according to Amnesty International. There’s no denying it: Christians bear the brunt in the North: Fulani militants torching Plateau farms, Boko Haram razing Adamawa churches, ISIS-WA abducting Yobe schoolgirls.
Tinubu’s retort? A polished speech decrying “religious intolerance” as a misrepresentation, touting “constitutional guarantees” and “sincere efforts.” Information Minister Mohammed Idris, Foreign Affairs’ Yusuf Tuggar, and spokesmen like Bayo Onanuga and Daniel Bwala fiddle with facts and figures, claiming “complex conflicts” and denying genocide. They tout “global engagement,” yet no financiers arrested, no borders sealed, etc. Recent military reshuffles — a Christian defence chief amid optics — reek of theater, not transformation. This evasion is no accident; it traces to Northern elites’ cradle-to-grave coddling of terror. From Boko Haram’s 2009 birth, these power brokers — political dynasts and religious titans — nurtured the beast for leverage. Recall Muhammadu Buhari’s 2013 incendiary claim: “An attack on Boko Haram is an attack on the North,” framing then President Goodluck Jonathan’s crackdown as southern aggression. The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, urged “total amnesty” for insurgents, decrying the military’s response as excessive. These weren’t slips; they were sabotage, undermining President Jonathan’s offensive when Boko Haram controlled swaths of Borno. Elites weaponised ethno-religious fissures, portraying anti-terror operations as anti-Northern jihad.
Worse is the banditry’s facade masks advance through elite avarice. Northern potentates orchestrate displacements of their own people to plunder gold and rare earths — lithium, tantalum, coltan — vital for illicit global trade. In Zamfara and Katsina, ‘bandits’ evict farmers, yielding sites to illicit pits where elites pocket billions via smuggling abroad. We see them all now flying in private jets while the masses of Northern Nigeria wallow in poverty and neglect. Minerals Resources Minister Dele Alake, has fingered “powerful individuals” funding chaos for mining access; Senator Adams Oshiomhole alleged that retired officers are coordinating the racket. President Tinubu does nothing to address these revelations from his close political allies. Traditional rulers who are allegedly on the game too shield these syndicates, turning ancestral lands into export veins for personal vaults. This is not insurgency; it’s elite predation, with ordinary Nigerians — Hausa Muslims, Berom Christians, etc — as collateral. President Tinubu’s propaganda parade —denials, ‘engagements,’ fact-checked falsehoods, etc — squanders this crossroads.
Instead of grandstanding, President Tinubu must pivot: Dispatch envoys to Washington, not for photo-ops but blueprints. Propose joint operations — U.S. drones, intel, Special Forces — integrated with Nigerian troops to minimise collateral, targeting terror’s redoubts in Sambisa, terrorist enclaves in Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Nassarawa, Plateau, Kogi, Benue, Adamawa, etc. Leverage Trump’s evangelical base for aid infusions, not cuts; secure debt relief tied to verifiable wins.
Sovereignty thrives in partnership, not isolation.To forge this path, President Tinubu must transcend 2027 ambitions. Convene the Council of State; heed former President Obasanjo’s realpolitik, President Jonathan’s insurgency scars, Ex-Head of State Abdulsalami Abubakar’s transition wisdom, Gen. Yakubu Gowon’s united Nigeria accomplishments. Delegate them — Obasanjo’s gravitas, President Jonathan’s Boko Haram dossier — to Trump summits, bypassing cabinet bluster. Eminent Nigerians, not spokesmen, can bridge divides: “Mr. President, we’re in the foxhole together — arm us to win.”
Ignore the above suggestions, and peril looms. Unilateral U.S. strikes — drones over Northern Nigeria — could spark exodus: millions fleeing North to South, swelling Lagos and the whole of Yorubaland as they seek safety from American bomb-laden drones that could rain on Northern Nigeria any moment from now if President Trump does not change his mind, igniting Yoruba-first backlash from conservatives like Sunday Igboho’s heirs. Resource wars, secessionist howls from IPOB, ethnic purges: Nigeria fractures under Tinubu’s watch, a Gorbachev gambit where reformist zeal births dissolution. Social media erupts with warnings: “Hands off Nigeria!” from patriots, but Southern whispers of “let the North burn” portend balkanisation.
President Tinubu stands at Frost’s diverging road: Statesman or short-termist? This newspaper advises: Stop the fiddle of falsified statistics, sovereignty sermons. Seize the olive branch. Pull every lever: Nigeria’s Military embeds in U.S. operations, launch elite probes into gold rackets, Canvass Northern ulama fatwas against financiers of terrorism, instead of current collaboration with terrorists as ‘North’s freedom fighters’. Engage President Trump not as foe, but ally in the war against terror.
President Tinubu should know that Nigeria’s unity hangs by his resolve. He should R’onu – like his late, illustrious kinsman, Hubert Ogunde, conscientised the Yoruba Race way back when they found themselves at a similar crossroads, beleaguered by internal hegemons from other parts of First Republic Nigeria who sought to divide and conquer the Yoruba Race from within. Choose wisely, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, lest the flames you deny consume the Federal Republic of Nigeria on your watch. History beckons.
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