By Abiola Olawale
Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State has dropped a bombshell, saying that Africans should have invaded the United States during the #BlackLivesMatter protests going by the logic of US President Donald Trump on the alleged Christian genocide in Nigeria.
Soludo stated this after Trump threatened military action in Nigeria over the alleged persecution of Christians.
Speaking during a media chat, Soludo said Trump’s threat to “protect Christians in Nigeria” oversimplifies the issues.
He said while the US has the right to hold opinions on global matters, any form of intervention must respect international law and Nigeria’s sovereignty.
He said: “As a country, America has the right to have its own views about what is going on elsewhere.
“But when it comes to what it does, I am sure it must also act within the realm of international law.
“People are killing themselves — Christians killing Christians.
“The people in the bushes are Emmanuel, Peter, John — all Christian names — and they have maimed and killed thousands of our youths. It has nothing to do with religion.”
He said if Nigeria were to seek foreign assistance, it should be through formal requests for military support, technology, or hardware, not external threats.
Soludo dismissed any talk of invasion, saying the same logic would be absurd if African nations threatened to invade the US over racial violence.
“You had 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.
“I think there is a need for deeper conversation.
“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.”
Soludo, who is seeking re-election next Saturday, noted that the south-east is predominantly Christian and that the crisis in the region should not be mischaracterised.
“In this part of the country, we are 95 percent Christian,” he said.
“The people in the bushes killing others bear Christian names; it is wider than the categorisation of Christians and Muslims. Nigeria will overcome, and it will end in conversation.”
The New Diplomat reports that Trump, on Friday redesignated Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” over claims of Christian genocide in the country.
On Saturday Trump threatened that the “USA 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 killing Christians”.
