United States President Donald Trump has asked the Defence Department to prepare for possible “fast” military action in Nigeria if President Bola Tinubu’s government fails to crack down on the killing of Christians.
He also threatened to immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria.
He made the threats in a post he shared late on his Truth Social handle on Saturday, November 1.
“If the Nigerian government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. 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 who are committing these horrible atrocities.
READ ALSO: PDP Crisis Deepens as NWC Suspends Anyanwu, Others
“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 had better move fast! Trump stated.
The Nigerian government has yet to respond to the military threat, even as Trump did not hint at the timing of the military action.
While the U.S. Department of Defence has yet to comment on the threat, the country’s Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, had posted on social media that “the Department of War is preparing for action.”
“Either the Nigerian government protects Christians, or we will kill the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Hegseth added.
Trump’s post came a day after his administration added Nigeria back to a “Countries of Particular Concern” list of nations that the U.S. says have violated religious freedom.
Other nations on the list include China, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia and Pakistan.
READ ALSO: Investors Gain over N7trn in One Month as Market Cap Nears N100trn Mark
Earlier on Saturday, President Tinubu had pushed back against the claims of religious intolerance and defended Nigeria’s efforts to protect religious freedom.
“The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, 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 said.
In a separate statement, Nigeria’s Foreign Ministry has vowed to keep fighting violent extremism with the hope that the US would remain a close ally.
It added that it “will continue to defend all citizens, irrespective of race, creed, or religion. Like America, Nigeria has no option but to celebrate the diversity that is our greatest strength.”
Pinnacle Daily can report that, during his first term in the White House, Trump designated Nigeria a country of concern.
His Democratic successor, Joe Biden, removed Nigeria from the US State Department list in 2021.
READ ALSO: Genocide Claim: CAN Accuses FG of Twisting Facts, Insists Christians Are Targeted
On Friday, Trump said “thousands of Christians” were being killed in Nigeria by radical Islamists but offered no details.
Nigeria, which has 200 ethnic groups practising Christianity, Islam and traditional religions, has a long history of peaceful coexistence, but it has also seen flare-ups of violence among groups, often exacerbated by ethnic divisions or conflict over scarce resources.
The extremist Islamist armed group Boko Haram has terrorised the northeast of Nigeria, an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people over the past 15 years. Human rights experts have said most Boko Haram victims have been Muslims.
U.S. lawmakers such as Representative Tom Cole, a Republican who chairs the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, hailed Trump’s move on Friday, citing what they called “the alarming and ongoing persecution of Christians across the country.”
The committee’s fiscal 2026 national security appropriations bill included increased funding for international religious freedom programmes and support for programmes supporting communities in Nigeria targeted by extremist violence.
Trump’s redesignation of Nigeria as a country of concern opens the door to a range of policy responses, such as sanctions or waivers, but they are not automatic.
Some religious groups pressed Trump for the redesignation in a letter last month, according to a copy on the Hudson Institute think tank’s website.
“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,” Trump wrote without offering any specifics.
He had earlier called on the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee to investigate.
Alex is a business journalist cum data enthusiast with the Pinnacle Daily. He can be reached via ealex@thepinnacleng.com, @ehime_alex on X
