(Being a Public Lecture and Conversation Organized by Apostolic Roundtable Nigeria in Collaboration with MiddleBelt Voice, 4 November, 2025)
DONALD TRUMP AND WHY AMERICAN MILITARY INTERVENTION IS THE PANACEA TO GENOCIDE AGAINST CHRISTIANS IN NIGERIA
(Being a Public Lecture and Conversation Organized by Apostolic Roundtable Nigeria in Collaboration with Middle Belt Voice, 4 November, 2025)
By
Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, PhD
1. Introduction
It is spiritually desirous and honorably expedient that I begin this lecture with unbound appreciation to every one of us who has sacrificed in different manners and in different capacities in bringing us to the present door-steps of our victory. I wish to particularly congratulate and thank on behalf of every one of us present three indomitable warriors of Christ in this struggle. These three warriors of Christ standing boldly and firmly against the on-going genocide against the Christians of this nation I prefer to call the “Shadrach, Meshach and, Abednego” of our struggles.
The Bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese of Makurdi Rt. Rev Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe, the number one hero of this struggle; while some of us were in the trenches, some were standing aloof on the fence afraid to even utter a single word of condemnation to the on-going horrendous atrocities against our people, and some were brazenly betraying the cause of the persecuted Christians of our nation, scaled all gargantuan obstacles of the current evil Nigeria leadership and fearlessly presented our case before a high authority. The entire body of Christ in Nigeria celebrate you today Rt. Rev Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe.
The cries to the Heavens of Reverend Ezekiel Dachomo of Church of Christ in Nations from the depth of the grave of the martyred Christians; his weeping before the erected epitaph of hundreds of our slaughtered brethren and, his resignation to fate, boldly affirming his readiness to be martyred like our departed brethren, not only emboldened our resolve to put a final stop to this evil scheme of extermination, but equally attracted global attention. Reverend Ezekiel Dachomo, we celebrate you today in the name of the Father, the Son and, the Holy Spirit.
The first time Prophet Isa El-Buba of EL-Buba Outreach Ministries International responded to my many seemingly unnoticed posts to him by expressing appreciation for my sacrifices in the present struggles, I said to him, “I thought you’re afraid or do I say cautious to speak with me since I am in exile.” His response was sharp and direct; “You know I can never be afraid of anything or anybody.” Prophet Isa el-Buba has proven this warrior instinct in Christ through his outright condemnation without fear, of the on-going genocide against Christians in Nigeria.
Prophet Isa El-Buba reminds me of Pastor Ibrahim Mohammed from Kano, the Fulani President of Nigeria Refugees Association, Republic of Togo, where I lived for two years as a refugee. He equally reminds me of my ugly experiences in the Republic of Cameroon, where as a refugee during my 33-day protective detention by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) at the Government District Hospital, Batouri, Eastern Region, after escaping from mob attack by hired Seleke Fulani refugees from Central African Republic.
When my assailants regrouped and attempted to abduct me on several occasions right inside the Hospital ward, it was a Muslim Hausa woman from Nigeria married to a Cameroonian, who hearing that I am from Nigeria boldly risked her life to defend me, by standing between my hospital bed and my assailants and raising alarm at the same time, which forced them to beat a retreat. At that moment of life and death before me, it was not the passion of religion that guided her action, but that of our oneness as Nigerians.
Ironically, when the assailants came the second time, it was a Fulani couple from Central African Republic who were equally refugees that stood the ground for me and again forced my assailants to beat a retreat. That action by the Fulani couples was not only a lesson to me in the arduous task of avoiding generalization or open stigmatization based on ethnicity or religion, but a demonstration of what compassion in humanity should be at all times.
I had several other attempts to my life before I was transferred to the Regional Hospital Bertuoa, where officials of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees prepared a fake Central African Republic identity document with which I escaped from Republic of Cameroon. As we celebrate our beloved brother Prophet Isa El-Buba today for his unrelenting sacrifices in our present struggles, we urge moderate Fulani, Hausa and, other Muslims in Nigeria join their Christian compatriots to fight this carnage called genocide against Christians in Nigeria.
Let me state unequivocally that our fundamental reaction as Nigerian Christians, I mean truly and fateful Nigerian Christians and, not disciples of Judas Iscariot, to the indomitable President Donald Trump’s decision to declare Nigeria as, not just a country of particular concern, but to undertake a punitive military action against the present roguish Federal Islamic Government of Nigeria under Fundamentalist President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is that of total support and unrestricted willingness to assist.
Acts of the Apostles 16:25-26 states:
“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.”
This is way Nigerian Christians see the current decision of the United States Government through the enviable President Donald Trump to stop the on-going genocide against Nigerian Christians. I remember a popular praise song dedicated to these verses, titled: “Paul and Silas, they prayed, they sang and, the Holy Ghost came down.”
The Bible in Joshua 6:1-5, tells us how the Children of Israel marched round the walled City of Jericho for seven days and on the seventh day, after the seventh round of march, the wall collapsed with a shout and. the Israelites took the city. Today Nigerian Christians see themselves as those Children of Israel, that Joshua in President Donald Trump and, the wall of Jericho, the collapsing evil Federal Islamic Republic of Nigeria from the mere shout of Christians. A recap of these verses will suffice to proof the skeptics wrong.
“Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua: ‘See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him.”’
I also remember a popular praise song dedicated to this episode title: “The wall of Jericho fell down-down.”
2. The Enigma Called Donald Trump
Nigerian Christians and indeed the entire Christians of the world owe President Donald Trump unqualified gratitude for intervening to stop the on-going genocide against Christians in Nigeria. Nigerian Christians were once political orphans, but today, President Donald Trump has boldly stepped in as the foster-father of the persecuted Christians in Nigeria.
Like Moses addressing the Children of Israel before the mighty Red Sea as they were pursued by Pharaoh and the Egyptian army, as recorded in Exodus 14:13, President Donald Trump is saying to Nigerian Christians today, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.”
Proverbs 29:2 tells us: “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice;
But when a wicked man rules, the people groan.” Nigerian Christians have been groaning under wicked rulers; but today the righteous; the anointed, President Donald Trump, has come to the rescue Nigerian Christians. Today, the persecuted Nigerian Christians are beginning to rejoice.
Nigerian Christians, including of course those who have been selling out in faith to our Muslim murderers for a mess of portage, are not only in full appreciation of President Donald Trump’s designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern over the incontrovertible evidence of genocide against Christians, but are in full support of any punitive foreign policy action, either in the form of sanctions or, outright military intervention necessary to put a stop to the on-going genocide against Christians in Nigeria.
To those of us who believed in Donald Trump since 2015, we have never been in doubt of his formidable ability to conquer the seemingly unconquerable; we have never been in doubt of his unwavering compassion to humanity and, we have never been in doubt of his celestial zeal in advancing the cause of peace founded on true Christianity in the world.
With the pedigree of an erstwhile Reality Television Star, President Donald Trump has always proved that he has a special way of doing things in such a reality manner that not only baffles his opponents but beats the imagination of even the best political strategists in the world to their utter amazement.
A man of indefatigable political candor, President Trump is the very expression of what the Igbo call Ekwueme or, Talk na do in Pigin-English parlance (the man who does exactly what he says he will do). President Donald Trump is a man, when he says I going to pull down that wall; he goes about it without hesitation. During his first term in office, he promised to recognize Jerusalem as the eternal Capital of the State of Israel. We saw him did it by transferring the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
President Donald Trump promised in his first term that he would make peace between the State of Israel and some willing Arab countries, and he did. We saw it happen through the 2020 Abraham Accord which established diplomatic relations between The State of Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco, the Kingdom of Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Republic of Sudan. He went further to open a pre-diplomatic contact channel between the State of Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, something hitherto thought impossible.
In his current second missionary journey in the manner of Paul the Apostle, President Trump promised to create enabling environment for world peace and security. He intervened in the once impenetrable Russia-Ukraine war and subsequently created the enabling environment for peace between the two belligerents. The stopped the Israeli-Gaza war and today we see the prospect of peace based on his laudable 20-Point Peace Plan.
President Trump stopped the India-Pakistan war; stopped Israel-Iran war; and moved further to Southeast Asia to broker a peace agreement between the Kingdom of Thailand and Cambodia Republic. In Congo Democratic Republic he initiated and subsequently consummated the intractable conflict between the Government of Congo Democratic Republic and the M23 Freedom Fighters. As I speak, the State of Israel and Republic of Syria are in deep talks for peace agreement.
Nigerians could remember that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s slogan during his campaign for nomination was “Emilokan” in Yoruba language, meaning, “It’s my turn.” Now, it’s the turn of the persecuted Nigerian Christians facing existential threat to say in the same manner, “Awalokan” meaning “It’s our turn.” It is our Awalokan as Nigerian Christians to experience President Trump’s intervention for peace in our nation Nigeria.
- How Do We Define the Crime of Genocide in Respect of the Nigerian Case?
It is important that we should be properly guided by first acknowledging that the crime of genocide against Nigerian Christians has never been strange to President Donald Trump before now. It should be recalled that during his first term as President of the United States of America, President Donald Trump on July 4, 2017, hosted two Chibok girls— Joy Bishara and Lydia Pogu at the White in the company of his daughter Ivanka and Doug Wead, President of Canyonville Christian Academy, Oregon where both girls graduated.
Recall also that during President Muhammadu Buhari’s official visit to Donald Trump at the White House on April 30, 2018, President Trump pointedly addressed President Buhari on the issue of genocide against Nigerian Christians in the following words: “Also, we’ve had very serious problems with Christians who have been murdered, killed in Nigeria. We’re going to be working on that problem, and working on that problem very, very hard, because we can’t allow that to happen.”
It is important to note that the present designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern is not the first by President Donald Trump. On December 11, 2020, the White House Press Secretary released a press statement announcing the designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern, a status that was quickly reversed by President Joe Biden as soon as he took office. The statement read:
“This week, the United States designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern for severe violations of religious freedom. As President Donald J. Trump said to President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria when they met in 2018, the United States is deeply concerned by religion-based violence in Nigeria, particularly the killing and persecution of Christians. Tragically, since that meeting, millions of Nigerians have continued to live in fear for their lives, and several thousand have been brutally murdered because of their faith. Since taking office, President Trump has made it clear that his Administration will fight to defend and to advance the inalienable right to worship freely and to live in accordance with one’s faith, whether here in the United States or beyond America’s borders. Governments whose leaders have allowed perpetrators of vicious religious persecution to act with impunity pose a national security threat to the United States and the world. This week’s designation rightfully calls out the Nigerian government’s inexcusable lack of action to end faith-based violence.”
That was five years ago and, today President Donald Trump stands vindicated by both his designation of Nigeria as a country of particular Concern and the threat of military action against the present roguish Islamic Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is instructive to assert that mere denial of Genocide by the perpetrators and their collaborators does not translate to its non-existence.
Where there is conflict or disagreement over the definition of a criminal act, recourse is often taken to the acceptable standard definition. In this case, we have two major sources of definition of the term “Genocide.” The first is Article II of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide as ratified by UN General Assembly resolution 260 A (III) of 9 December 1948; and the second, Part 2, Article 6 of the 17 July 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Article II of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide states inter alia:
“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
Part 2, Article 6 of the 17 July 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines the crime of Genocide as follows:
“For the purpose of this Statute, “genocide” means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
Article 7 (1) of the same Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court goes further to define “Crimes against humanity” in the following words:
- For the purpose of this Statute, “crime against humanity” means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack: (a) Murder; (b) Extermination; (c) Enslavement; (d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population; mprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law; (f) Torture; (g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity; (h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court; (i) Enforced disappearance of persons; (j) The crime of apartheid; (k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.”
So we can see that within the context of the Nigerian situation, we are not only talking of the Genocide, but equally the Crime against humanity. If some Muslim elements were killed in the course of genocide against Christians, it does not in any manner invalidate the case of genocide.
It should be recalled that following the June 2022 massacre of over 40 Christians during mass at Saint Xavia Catholic Church, Owo, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, then APC Presidential aspirant, donated the sum of 75 million naira to the Church and victims of the terrorist attack. If to President Tinubu the targeting of a Church by Muslim terrorists is not genocide, what then do we call; Crime against humanity? That’s equally acceptable.
If the Muslim victims feel that their own case is equally the crime of genocide, the onus is on them to prove it, as the Christians are doing and have done; and not to assume that their inability to prove the case of genocide on their part will invalidate the case of the Christians.
We should therefore accept the fact there are two international crimes facing Nigeria currently—Genocide and Crime against humanity. The challenge before us presently therefore, is how do we define those responsible for these crimes for possible prosecution? This is because Article IV of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide expressly states: “Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.” In this case, Article III states as follows: “The following acts shall be punishable: (a) Genocide; (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;(d) Attempt to commit genocide; (e) Complicity in genocide.”
The next question is how would these provisions be enforced? In other words, how can the culprits be arrested and brought to trial? The first act in this regard is for either the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague to take up the jurisdiction and subsequently issue arrest warrant against the criminals, whether President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shetima, Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III or Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi. But can these men who are obvious culprits to above crimes be easily arrested and brought to justice? This where there question of American military intervention arises.
4. “The Responsibility to Protect” and Why American Military Intervention in Nigeria is Expedient and Protected under International Humanitarian Law
The dilemma which has taken the center-stage of apprehension presently in Nigeria is not just the designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern, but the threat of military action by President Donald Trump. So the question is does America has the legitimacy to undertake military action against Nigeria? The answer is yes; which can be justified by different international laws, conventions and acceptable acts.
First, to refresh our memories, in 1990 Nigeria hid under the cover of ECOMOG and invaded the Republic of Liberia and successfully removed President Samuel Doe. In February 1998, Nigeria invaded the Republic of Sierra Leone and re-imposed President Ahmed Tejan-Kabba; and on July 30, 2023, the same Nigeria under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu threatened to invade Niger Republic.
It is therefore appropriate to say that based on the same circumstances that led Nigeria to invade Liberia and Sierra Leone and, equally threatened to invade Niger Republic, the United States equally possesses the legitimacy to intervene in Nigeria. So Nigerian Government has no moral locus under international doctrine of reciprocity of action to question President Trump’s threat to invade Nigeria.
Second, Article I of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide states: “The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.”
By this provision, it means that the responsibility to prevent and stop the crime of genocide anywhere is delegated to all the contracting parties; and not to the leaders of the affected country who might be the culprits. In this instance the United States of America has the obligation to intervene in Nigeria under the conventional cover of Humanitarian Intervention. And what is Humanitarian Intervention in international law? According to J. L. Holzgrefe, Humanitarian Intervention is:
“The threat or use of force across state borders by a state (or a group of states) aimed at preventing or ending widespread and grave violations of the fundamental human rights of individuals other than its own citizens, without the permission of the state within whose territory force is applied.”
This often takes place when the agents of State are either accomplices in the crime or, incapable of ending the violations. This is clearly the case of Nigeria presently. So under this clause, the United States does not need permission from the Federal Government to deploy their military forces to Nigeria to secure the safety of Nigerian Christians facing extermination. All the Nigerian armed forces could do in this instance is to cooperate with the invading army and join them to bring Nigeria back to sanity.
Responding to those who opposed the doctrine of Humanitarian Intervention, the former Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Anan stated emphatically:
“…if humanitarian intervention is, indeed, an unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should we respond to a Rwanda, to a Srebrenica – to gross and systematic violations of human rights that affect every precept of our common humanity?”
We witnessed in what became known as Darfur Genocide, how the non-intervention of foreign powers under the cover of respect of sovereignty resulted in the death of over 200,000 ethnic Fur, Zaghawa and, Masalit of Republic of Sudan between 2002 and 2005 in the hands of the Sudanese Government-sponsored Janjaweed militia, which is today represented by armed Fulani herdsmen, Muslim bandits and Boko Haram and their associated insurgents. Regrettably, the same genocide is still on-going in the same Darfur Region of the Republic of Sudan as I am speaking.
Coming to Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi by the Hutu majority, the world stood by while close to one million defenseless Tutsi and moderate Hutu were massacred with reckless abandon from April 6, 1994 and July 4, 1994, when the forces of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took control of the whole country and eventually put a stop to the orgy of killings. Here, because few Hutu were killed alongside Tutsi, does not invalidate the fact that it was essentially genocide against the Tutsi by the Hutu.
I was in Republic of Rwanda as an asylum-seeker for one year and four months, before the Nigerian Government instructed the Rwandan Government to throw me out of the country and, I was subsequently given 30 days to leave the country. Apart from the horrendous sight of the Genocide Memorial, the underlying effects of the Rwandan Genocide are noticeable at every Government office, notable points at many streets where the names of the victims are posted on epitaphs; just in the same manner Reverend Ezekiel Dachomo displayed their victims.
Today, more than three-quarter of Rwandan Youth had their parents slaughtered; and this explains why the Government encouraged adoption of all the orphans of the Genocide. These happened because neither America nor any European power intervened to stop the Genocide. Now that the same Genocide is taking place in Nigeria and the United States has opted to intervene; shall we not applaud President Donald Trump? So as far as the doctrine of Humanitarian Intervention in international politics is concerned, the United States has the moral responsibility as a foremost Christian nation of the world to intervene in Nigeria to put a stop to the on-going genocide against their brother-Christians.
Third, the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty 2001, through its doctrine of “The Responsibility to Protect”, which is sanctioned by the United Nations, empowers the United States in intervene militarily in Nigeria to save persecuted Christians from extermination by Federal Government-sponsored jihadists.
The doctrine of “The Responsibility to Protect” is anchored on “the idea that sovereign states have a responsibility to protect their own citizens from avoidable catastrophe— from mass murder and rape, from starvation— but that when they are unwilling or unable to do so, that responsibility must be borne by the broader community of states.”
Section 1(A and B) of the core principles of the responsibility to protect defined in the principles for military intervention explicitly states:
“Military intervention for human protection purposes is an exceptional and extraordinary measure. To be warranted, there must be serious and irreparable harm occurring to human beings, or imminently likely to occur, of the following kind: A. large scale loss of life, actual or apprehended, with genocidal intent or not, which is the product either of deliberate state action, or state neglect or inability to act, or a failed state situation; or B. large scale ‘ethnic cleansing’, actual or apprehended, whether carried out by killing, forced expulsion, acts of terror or rape.”
Section 3 (F) on the right authority to initiate military intervention states: “The Security Council should take into account in all its deliberations that, if it fails to discharge its responsibility to protect in conscience-shocking situations crying out for action, concerned states may not rule out other her means to meet the gravity and urgency of that situation – and that the stature and credibility of the United Nations may suffer thereby.”
This is where American military intervention in Nigeria becomes most expedient, especially when considered in the context of the shortcomings of Article VIII of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide whichstates:
“Any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III.”
And who are in charge of that competent organ of the United Nations? They are the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who is a known supporter of Hamas and, the UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed, who is a Fulani from Borno State and a patroness of Boko Haram.
From 3rd to 4th May 2022, the U.N Antonio Guterres who is supposed to be a professed Roman Catholic visited Borno State where he interacted with the so-called repentant Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists at their well-funded camp in Maiduguri, where he requested the Federal Government to speed up their so-called integration in the society.
There was no attempt to visit hundreds of IDPs housing displaced Christians but, what mattered to Antonio Geterres was not the trial of terrorists but their rehabilitation without justice. So the question is why shouldn’t Muslim terrorists be encouraged to kill Christians when they know that whenever they submit themselves to the authorities, they would be rehabilitated without facing justice?
This brings us to the fifth and final reason why any military intervention against Nigeria by President Donald Trump is morally justified in international law. And this is anchored on Nigeria’s Failure to comply with the provisions of the 28 September 2001 United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 on Combating Terrorism.
- Nigeria’s Failure to Comply with the Provisions of the 28 September 2001 United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 on Combating Terrorism
Among other relevant sections of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 of 2001, section 2 (e) expressly states:
“Ensure that any person who participates in the financing, planning, preparation or perpetration of terrorist acts or in supporting terrorist acts is brought to justice and ensure that, in addition to any other measures against them, such terrorist acts are established as serious criminal offences in domestic laws and regulations and that the punishment duly reflects the seriousness of such terrorist acts.”
The question arising from the above UN Security Council Resolution is how many Fulani herdsmen, Islamic bandits, Boko Haram and allied terrorists have been brought before the law for their atrocities against Christians in Nigeria? The answer is none.
In June 2018 after the massacre of over one hundred and twenty Christians by Fulani terrorists masquerading as herdsmen in eleven communities of Barkin-Ladi, Riyom and, Jos South Local Government Areas of Plateau State, the Fulani ethnic terrorist group named Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) claimed responsibility as for the false claims of cattle rustling by the indigenous Berom ethnic group in their home-State of Plateau State.
So, for stealing cattle more than 120 human lives were wasted; and the Federal Government of Nigeria considered such heinous crime against humanity as appropriate revenge without any arrest of the culprits. If indeed it was true the local Berom rustled Fulani cattle, where would they keep it in the same community where they face daily danger of extermination? Yet people are saying there is no Genocide against Christians in Nigeria.
One of the patrons of terrorists in Nigeria Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has been acting as the chief negotiator between Islamic terrorists and their kidnapped victims with impunity under the protection of the Federal Government. The former Governor of Kaduna State and an ace sponsor of terrorists, who ordered the killing of thousands of Christians in Southern Kaduna during his 8-year tenure, affirmed recently that the Federal Government pays terrorists through the National Security Adviser Alhaji Nuhu Ribadu who is equally a Fulani. Not only that, El-Rufai affirmed on national television that there was nothing wrong paying Muslim terrorist with Government money to stop killing Christians.
The former Governor of Bauchi State Alhaji Isa Yuguda was reported on the Tribune issue of March 5, 2023 justifying Islamic terrorism by his Fulani ethnic kinsmen in the following words:
“As a Fulani man, we went to Zamfara up to the kidnappers den in the bush seeking to know why they are in to banditry, kidnappings and other criminal activities, and we understood that they took up Arms to revenge, because their parents were killed, maimed and raped, and their cattle were rustled , even their grazing reserves were seized.”
They question is how can such wobbling reasons be justified against the background of Fulani dominance of political and economic powers in Nigeria since independence in 1960? Of course, these are issues which only external intervention can resolve.
We live in a country, where terrorists in their full military gears and weapons attend social events under the sponsorship the Governors of Niger, Katsina, Borno, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Kaduna and, Yobe States while members of the Nigeria armed forces and Police stand aloof and watch, yet the Federal Government tells us that they are fighting the same terrorists.
We are in a country where Federal and State Governments pay terrorists ransom for kidnapped victims; and those who openly associate with the same terrorists like Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi are treated with red-carpet respect by the same Governments. This is a country where the current Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Kashim Shetima boasted in a video clip that they must impose a Muslim President and a Muslim Vice President on Nigerian Christians in spite of their majority population and nothing will happen.
Today they have it and something is happening now and they are denying their genocide against Christians. This is a country where after Fulani terrorists had slaughtered over 30 Nigerian soldiers, blew up a rescue military helicopter displaying its wreckage with the victims, and the Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago came on national television telling the Nigerian military not to attack the terrorists because they are his kinsmen.
In 2019, the Miyetti Allah—the Fulani terrorist patron organization demanded the sum of 160 Billion naira as a condition to stop killing Christians. Both later agreed 100 billion naira. Was that not terrorist financing? But even after the said payment, the genocide increased three-folds.
It should be recalled that between 2015 and 2024, that is a period of 10 years, the United States Government provided the Federal Government of Nigeria over 7.38 Billion US Dollars in aid to fight terrorism in Nigeria. The breakdown is as follows:
2015 – $446 million
2016 – $543 million
2017 – $643 million
2018 – $877 million
2019 – $761 million
2020 – $880 million
2021 – $922 million
2022 – $974 million
2023 – $1 billion
2024 – $783 million
How did the Federal Government use the above staggering sum of money to fight terrorism in Nigeria in the face of the never-ending genocide against Christians in Nigeria and obvious geometric multiplication of terrorist activities in Nigeria? Is it not an irony that money given by a Christian country is used by Muslims to slaughter Christians? I believe that our enviable President Donald Trump will not leave this uninvestigated.
- Conclusion
Let me conclude by stating that Nigerian citizens holding dual United States’ citizenship constitute more than three-quarter population of immigrants from modern African nations. Not only that, they are notable for making significant contributions to the overall development of the United States. In other words, Nigeria could be classed an extension of the United States in Africa. This explains why what takes place in Nigeria should matter much for the United States.
It is in the light of this strategic connection that President Donald Trump’s intervention in the on-going Genocide against Christians in Nigeria is not only most appropriate, most desirous and, most expedient, but in line with international humanitarian law as anchored on the doctrine of humanitarian intervention.
In fact, as it stands presently, the highest expectation of every Nigerian Christian from President Donald Trump under the present circumstances is to send American boots into Nigeria. The Nigeria military who have been objects of sacrifice in the scam called fight against terrorism in Nigeria will welcome it; even pretending to opposite current action by President Donald Trump will support it.
The enormity of the genocide against Nigeria Christians appears to go beyond the scope of The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) can handle. So the veritable option should be the constitution by UN Security Council of an International Criminal Court on Nigerian Genocide under Chapter VII, Articles 39-51 of UN Charter.
But one thing is clear; this objective can never be achieved with this roguish Government in power. So the best option should the resignation of the present Government and the subsequent constitution of an Interim Government to oversee the gradual return to normalcy in Nigeria in every facet of the society.
The writer Dr. Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe is the Odogwu (Traditional Generalissimo) of Ibusa, Delta State & President, International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria (ICAC-GEN). He was formerly Director, Centre for Igbo Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He lives in exile in Manila, Republic of the Philippines. Email: Nwaezeigwe.Genocideafrica@gmail.com Visit our: https://icac-gen.org to understand the core reason of my struggles and exile in Republic of the Philippines. He is the author of: THE AFRICAN THEATER OF THE MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT: Studies in Arab Neo-Colonialism in Black Africa Washington DC: Academica Press Inc., 2019 & Over ten other books.