By Obinna Uballa
Anambra State governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, has faulted United States President Donald Trump’s recent threat to launch a military strike on Nigeria over alleged killings of Christians, describing the statement as a dangerous oversimplification of a complex national problem.
Speaking during a media chat on Sunday, Soludo said Nigeria’s security challenges cannot be reduced to a Christian-versus-Muslim conflict, stressing that many of the violent incidents across the country, especially in the South East, have nothing to do with religion.
“Most of the killings in the South-East are not about Christianity or Islam. People are killing themselves – Christians killing Christians,” Soludo said. “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.”
The governor said while the US is entitled to express opinions on global issues, any form of intervention must comply with international law and respect Nigeria’s sovereignty.
“As a country, America has the right to have its own views about what is going on elsewhere,” he said. “But when it comes to what it does, I am sure it must also act within the realm of international law.”
Soludo criticised Trump’s “guns-a-blazing” threat, likening it to suggesting that African countries should have invaded the US during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests when African Americans were being killed by the police.
“You had policemen killing blacks, and I remember the #BlackLivesMatter protests,” Soludo said. “Would anyone have said Africa should go and invade America because blacks were being killed? That logic is absurd.”
He urged the Nigerian government to respond to Trump’s comments through diplomatic and intellectual engagement rather than confrontation, noting that constructive dialogue remains the best path forward.
“I think there is a need for a deeper conversation,” Soludo said. “It must end in conversation, and I am sure the government of Nigeria will respond robustly. Nigeria is such a big country, and the government is doing a lot to safeguard it.”
The governor, who is seeking re-election on Saturday, also pointed out that the South-East, being over 95 percent Christian, should not be mischaracterised as part of a religious war.
“In this part of the country, we are 95 percent Christian. The people in the bushes killing others bear Christian names; this crisis goes far beyond the categorisation of Christians and Muslims. Nigeria will overcome, and it will end in conversation,” he said.
Trump, in a post on Truth Social last Friday, had redesignated Nigeria as a “country of particular concern,” claiming there was a Christian genocide in the country. He warned that the United States “may very well go into that now disgraced country guns-a-blazing, to completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists killing Christians.”
His comments were followed by statements from US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who said his department was preparing for possible action if the Nigerian government failed to halt the alleged persecution of Christians.
Right-wing US lawmakers, including Senator Ted Cruz, have amplified Trump’s narrative, with Cruz recently proposing the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 – a bill that seeks sanctions against Nigerian officials accused of enabling religious violence.
Observers, however, have condemned the rhetoric as politically motivated and based on distorted narratives about Nigeria’s internal security situation.
