Former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode has fired a bombastic response to President Donald Trump’s threat to “prepare for possible action” in Nigeria, warning that Nigerians would stand and fight rather than flee if the United States moved to intervene.
Fani-Kayode’s forceful reaction on X (formerly Twitter) came after Trump posted that he had instructed the U.S. Department of War to prepare for a possible strike, accusing the Nigerian government of allowing a “genocide of Christians” and threatening to halt all aid and even carry out military action.
In a post on X on Sunday, Fani-Kayode described Trump in scathing terms and accused him of brazenly threatening Nigeria with violence and invasion.
“Imagine a deranged & sociopathic meglomaniac & tyrant, a recalcitrant and unrepentant schoolyard and dockside bully and a cheap and shameless godless scumbag like @realDonaldTrump threatening our country with violence, military action and invasion. What a nerve!”
The former minister said a friend had alerted him to Trump’s comments and warned that Nigeria must not be treated like a subordinate nation. Responding to that friend, he left no doubt about how he believes Nigerians would respond.
“My response to her was as follows. ‘You are right. They are evil and, if he carries out his abominable threat, there will be a war. We shall not leave the country but we will fight it out with them. We behaved like cowards and allowed them to demonise us with no response. I do not know what is wrong with Nigerians but this will be the greatest challenge they have ever faced and maybe after it is all over they will appreciate the importance of having bold, articulate and courageous leaders & disavow themselves of their accursed cowardice, ignorance, pettiness, weakness, envy & complacency.’”
Fani-Kayode also accused Trump of hypocrisy over international atrocities and of cosy relations with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he compared to a modern-day tyrant while blasting Trump for ignoring other mass crimes.
“Trump, a fascist & an associate of the globally recognized Hitler of the 21st century, @netanyahu, has refused to call the Israeli Zionist Nazis and the UAE-backed RSF butchers of Darfur, Sudan mass murderers and genocidal maniacs but he is calling our people the “killers of Christians” and is desperately trying to label our nation with the genocide tag and create a crisis in Nigeria.”
Trump’s original posts, shared on his Truth Social account over the weekend, left little ambiguity about his warning to Abuja. He accused the Nigerian government of turning a blind eye to attacks on Christians and signalled that the U.S. could cut aid or take military action.
“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,” Trump wrote.
He then added a menacing directive and rallying cry: “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 BETTER MOVE FAST!”
The explosive exchange has ratcheted up tensions between outspoken critics at home and hawkish voices abroad, with Fani-Kayode’s message tapping into fears of foreign intervention and urging Nigerians to steel themselves for what he called an existential test. As both sides trade barbs online, the prospect of diplomatic fallout — and the question of how Abuja will respond — remains unresolved.
