Nigerian Senator Orji Uzor Kalu of the ruling All Progressives Party (APC) conceded in remarks on Tuesday that President Donald Trump “told the truth” when he denounced a genocide of Christians in the country, asking those outraged by the American’s remarks to channel that anger into fixing the problem.
Kalu agreed with comments by President Bola Tinubu and others that Christians were not the only victims of massacres and displacement in the country, but identified the assailants as “jihadists” seeking to “destroy Nigeria,” contrary to claims by the Tinubu government that general “instability” driven by “climate change” is to blame for the killing.
The senator’s comments are notable as Trump’s condemnation, and his announcement that he would blacklist Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) for religious persecution, unleashed a torrent of denial that systematic violence to displace Christians and impose Islam in the country was happening. Tinubu himself flatly denied that any “religious intolerance,” much less a genocide, existed in his country last week, while Nigeria’s most prominent Muslim organization denied that any Muslims in the country were engaging in violence against Christians.
“If it’s a lie, then the answer is that it’s not a lie because he said the truth,” Kalu said, according to the Nigerian newspaper Vanguard, referring to Trump’s comments. “Nigerians are being killed, whether they are Christians or Muslims.”
“There are jihadists who just want to destroy Nigeria. We should blacklist them without pity so that they will be smoked out,” he urged.
Kalu described himself as “pro-America” and signaled that the United States had been helping identify and counter jihadism in the country before President Trump’s CPC designation.
“Before President Trump says a word, the American intelligence community must have found out where these terrorists are located,” he told reporters. “You can see that the Nigerian Air Force is already acting, possibly using information shared by the U.S. to bomb terrorist hideouts. That’s how it should be.”
“Nigerians are clapping hands and political opponents are thinking the U.S. is after Tinubu’s government. No! They are going after the jihadists,” he emphasized.
Similarly, the response to Trump’s designation from Rev. John Joseph Hayab, Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), was to call for Nigerians to address the problem at hand rather than rage at Trump.
“Donald Trump’s statement should be seen as an opportunity for constructive dialogue, not an outburst of anger,” Hayab said on Monday. “I am glad to say that many of those who started viewing it with anger are now seeing opportunities.”
On October 31, President Trump announced that he would return Nigeria to the CPC list due to the Christian genocide in the country at the hand of organized Fulani jihadist gangs in the Middle Belt and the terrorist organization Boko Haram in the northeast.
“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,” Trump wrote in an announcement on this website, Truth Social. “The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!”
The next day, Trump warned he may send the U.S. military “guns-a-blazing” into Nigeria if Tinubu did not act to protect Christians.
Tinubu’s initial response the next day was to deny that any such persecution existed in his country.
“The characterization of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality,” Tinubu said in a statement last week, “nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians.”
Tinubu officials claimed that the president would describe the situation in an in-person meeting with Trump “soon,” but the White House has not acknowledged any plans to meet with Tinubu at press time.
The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), the top organization of its kind in the country, claimed that any evidence of slaughter of Christians was “fake” and manufactured by Israel in a bizarre statement on Sunday.
“The so-called genocide narrative is being driven by far-right and pro-Israeli actors. Their aim is to distract global attention from the real genocide in Gaza and to punish Nigeria for standing with justice and international law,” the head of the NSCIA claimed. “These lobbyists flood Washington with doctored videos and fake statistics.”
In reality, Christian persecution experts all over the world have documented extensively the existence of a coordinated campaign to erase the majority-Christian, tribal communities in the center of Nigeria, the Middle Belt.
“The evidence of targeted violence against Christians in Nigeria is well documented,” Ryan Brown, the CEO of the Christian human rights organization Open Doors, told Breitbart News in remarks published on Monday. “In October, the Islamist group connected with ISIS sent a clear message about their intention to target Christians in Africa declaring they must convert or die. Last year alone, 3,100 of the 4,476 Christians killed worldwide for their faith were in Nigeria. Nigeria also leads globally in Christians abducted for faith reasons.”
“Across Nigeria in recent years, on average there have been 8 violent attacks per day. The Middle Belt, particularly Benue and Plateau state, continues to experience frequent deadly attacks,” Brown noted.
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