Nigeria’s presidency has hit back at the U.S. President Donald Trump over his controversial warning about alleged “Christian genocide” in Nigeria, accusing him of acting on fake reports sponsored by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Daniel Bwala, a senior aide to President Bola Tinubu, made the fiery response while speaking on Russia National TV on Tuesday, insisting that Trump’s threat to deploy American troops to Nigeria was both baseless and disrespectful to the nation’s sovereignty.
Bwala dismissed the genocide claim as part of a propaganda war aimed at smearing the Tinubu administration, describing IPOB as the source of “false reports” used to deceive some U.S. lawmakers.
He said: “We try our best to downplay the rhetoric because we know for sure that that can be the reflection of the realities on ground.”
Bwala went further to name U.S. senators such as Ted Cruz among those allegedly misled by IPOB sympathisers.
He continued: “The decision of President Trump is anchored on the various tweets and pushes by congressmen. And the congressmen rely on a data and report that were submitted by a separatist group in Nigeria called the IPOB, that there’s a genocide of Christians in Nigeria, which is false because all intelligence and non-governmental organisations that carry out research and data about killings in Nigeria, none but these two that have affiliation with IPOB that indicated that there is a Christian genocide. In fact, even the content of the data contradict that.
“For example, the inter-society, the inter-society civil liberties and human rights that produce that report tried to allege that the killings of IPOB separatist group in the southeastern Nigeria were conducted by the Nigerian forces and that the killing of even the citizens of the southeast were conducted by the Nigerian forces under the pretext that because the people in the southeast have Jewish history and tradition.
“And it is very unfortunate. The second report, which is by Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa, in their own report (they admitted that there have been more killings of people who have not identified as Christians or Muslims. They are followed by the killings of Christians and thirdly by the killings of the Muslims. But they concluded that these killings were conducted by Fulani militia, meaning that they kill Christians, they kill Muslims and they kill non-Christians and non-Muslims. How can you write a report like that and also conclude that there is a genocide of one of them?
“I quite agree and let me tell you further. In fact, there is this investigative report that was conducted two weeks ago in Nigeria that suggested that that hoax, that narrative was amplified by the separatist group called the IPOB. Since 2016 that there is a Christian genocide and that the genocide is against them because they have a Jewish tradition. But the amplification now affected the people of the right wing of the Republican Party in the United States, which was pushed by Senator Ted Cruz and followed by Riley. These are senators who have lost the favour with the Baga base because they were considered, are still considered as people that have pandered so much to the AIPAC and the AIPAC agenda.
“So they are trying to reinvent themselves. That is why they now found a good distraction in Nigeria. That’s what the reports are saying.
“But we as a country, we try to be responsible enough to focus on the solution and not the problem. And our point is this, there have been killings in Nigeria because of the exceptional situation that we found ourselves. Our government has made massive progress in the fight against insecurity.
“And we’re calling on Donald Trump to assist us with military apparatus that is requisite for us to fight insecurity. We do not need the boots of the American soldiers in our soil. There has to be a respect of our territorial integrity.”
Bwala’s remarks come amid rising diplomatic heat between Abuja and Washington following Trump’s post on Truth Social, where he accused Nigeria’s government of allowing “Christian genocide” and threatened that the U.S. would “act fast and viciously” if the killings continued.
