Nigeria proposed a meeting between its president and US President Donald Trump on Sunday, following Trump’s threat of military action about what he characterized as a threat to Nigerian Christians posed by jihadists.
In a provocative social media statement on Saturday, Trump stated that he requested the Pentagon to devise a potential military strategy for Nigeria, one day after cautioning that Christianity was “confronting an existential threat” in Africa’s most populous nation.
Nigeria, nearly evenly split between a Muslim-majority north and a predominantly Christian south, is engulfed in several wars that experts assert have resulted in fatalities among both Christians and Muslims indiscriminately.
In his statement, Trump asserted that if Nigeria fails to halt the deaths, the United States will respond with a swift, brutal, and gratifying attack, similar to the assaults perpetrated by terrorist factions on our revered Christians.
Daniel Bwala, spokesperson for Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, informed AFP on Sunday that “Nigeria is a partner of the United States in the global struggle against terrorism.” When leaders convene, outcomes are likely to improve.
“Nigeria appreciates US assistance in combating terrorism, provided it honors our territorial integrity,” he stated.
“We do not interpret Trump’s social media post literally,” he stated.
He remarked that Donald Trump possesses a distinctive communication style, implying that the post served as a means to “facilitate a meeting between the two leaders to establish a unified approach to address their insecurities.”
Bwala had indicated in a post on X that the two leaders might convene shortly.
“The distinctions regarding whether terrorists in Nigeria exclusively target Christians or encompass all faiths and non-faiths will be addressed and resolved by the two leaders during their forthcoming meeting, either at the State House or the White House.”
Bwala, speaking via telephone from Washington, refused to reveal any details about a prospective meeting.
On Friday, Trump asserted, without substantiation, that “thousands of Christians are being killed and that Radical Islamists are accountable for this mass slaughter.”
Nigeria has refuted claims that Islamist assaults have disproportionately targeted Christians compared to other religions.
“Tinubu stated on social media Saturday that the characterization of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not accurately represent our national reality.”
