Lagos, Nigeria – For the previous few weeks, Nigerian airwaves have been fixated on United States President Donald Trump’s menace to invade the nation “guns-a-blazing” over allegations of a “Christian genocide”.
Nigerian Minister of Information and National Orientation Mohammed Idris Malagi has refuted Trump, telling Al Jazeera that whereas the nation is certainly dealing with safety challenges, many of the assaults usually are not pushed by non secular motives.
“Nigeria has a historical past of violent extremism that has created stress for us within the nation, however I additionally need to level out that largely they don’t discriminate between who’s a Muslim or who’s a Christian,” Malagi stated.
“Christian communities and Muslim communities have been attacked by these extremists.”
Malagi defined that claims Christians are being particularly focused replicate a “lack of correct understanding of the range and complexity of the scenario that we’ve in Nigeria”.
On November 1, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, instructing the Department of Defense to organize for attainable motion, to which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth replied, “Yes sir.”
“I’m hereby instructing our Department of War to organize for attainable motion. If we assault, it will likely be quick, vicious, and candy, identical to the terrorist thugs assault our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!” the submit stated, utilizing the division’s rechristened title.
The day earlier than, on October 31, Trump redesignated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), including it again to an inventory of governments that the US considers to have engaged in or tolerated violations of non secular freedom. Nigeria was placed on the checklist throughout Trump’s first time period however was eliminated in 2021 beneath the Biden administration. Global powers like China and Russia have additionally been on the CPC checklist. Being added to it might probably result in severe financial penalties, together with sanctions and withdrawal of assist.
Abuja and lots of Nigerians have refuted claims pushed for months by US figures like Senator Ted Cruz that the Nigerian authorities is enabling a “bloodbath” towards Christians.
“Nigeria is just not a violator of non secular freedom. Nigeria is a really tolerant nation, however we do have, and we do recognise, that we’ve violence,” Malagi stated. The authorities, he added, is “going after” the perpetrators.
In the wake of Trump’s feedback, the minister said that Abuja was engaged in talks with the US over a safety partnership to handle Nigeria’s safety challenges “as soon as and for all”.
Overlapping crises
Armed battle has been one in all Nigeria’s largest challenges since 2009, when varied teams started waging warfare within the nation’s north. The battle grabbed worldwide consideration in April 2014, when Boko Haram — a bunch identified for its violent marketing campaign towards Western schooling — kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from their dormitory in Chibok, Borno State.
Today, Nigeria faces overlapping safety crises, together with assaults by armed teams, bandits focusing on farmers and rural communities, widespread kidnapping, separatist agitations, and lethal communal clashes between predominantly Muslim pastoral herders and largely Christian farming communities of assorted ethnic teams.
Nigeria has a inhabitants of 235 million, with a presence of greater than 250 ethnic teams. Fifty-three % of Nigerians are Muslim, and 45 % are Christian. Ongoing violence has severely impacted the financial system and, as a result of many farmers are unable to farm, is inflicting a meals emergency that has left tens of millions of Nigerians ravenous and displaced.
Malagi defined that whereas a few of the violent clashes within the center belt, or central area, contain teams motivated by felony intent, sometimes called bandits, most are linked to competitors for sources like water and land. These skirmishes happen between locals and pastoralists who migrate south for financial causes or are compelled to maneuver attributable to overwhelming local weather components, similar to desertification and drought.
Following Trump’s threats, the Nigerian authorities has additionally come beneath large inner strain and criticism for failing to manage the violence.
In response, Malagi stated Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has ordered senior safety officers to “flush out” these chargeable for the assaults. Since Tinubu got here to energy, the minister stated, greater than 13,500 fighters and bandits have been killed, and a few 17,000 have been captured and are awaiting trial.
Some Nigerians, particularly those that have been instantly affected by the violence, accuse the federal government of complacency and blame safety forces for his or her incapability to rein within the assaults.
And their considerations usually are not with out motive. On Monday, 25 schoolgirls have been kidnapped from their college in Maga, Kebbi State, within the northwest, by armed males who killed a vice principal. In the previous week, the ISIL (ISIS) affiliate in West Africa Province – ISWAP – stated it killed a Nigerian navy normal, which President Tinubu confirmed on Tuesday.
“We have proven that we need to work onerous to make sure that these considerations are addressed,” Malagi stated.
The minister defined that Tinubu has been mulling a nationwide neighborhood policing programme – a transfer that has been rejected by earlier administrations – wherein police forces can be deployed into their native communities, the place they perceive the dynamics, somewhat than sending them from elsewhere.
“In the previous, [community policing] has include some scepticism,” Malagi stated, referring to the considerations that state governors may exploit the forces for political acquire. But a rethink is beneath approach, the minister added, as a result of “the federal government is seeing that these [security] points are literally community-based” and have to be tackled at this degree. The transfer nonetheless faces a prolonged legislative course of.
Malik Samuel, a senior safety researcher at Good Governance Africa, a analysis and advocacy nonprofit, believes neighborhood policing ought to already be in place because of the essential safety scenario in northern Nigeria and the center belt.
“At this level, we needs to be taking a look at, perhaps, declaring a state of emergency with insecurity, particularly in northern Nigeria,” he stated.
To fight violence, Malagi stated the federal government final yr went to the Supreme Court in search of a pronouncement to fiscally and politically empower native governments working in cities, cities, and rural areas.
“Drivers of insecurity like lack of social infrastructures, such nearly as good roads, hospitals and colleges, can be taken care of” if native governments had extra autonomy, stated Samuel.
Malagi stated the federal government final yr deepened interfaith programmes, additional supporting the work of the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council (NARIC), an affiliation comprising Christians and Muslims to debate ethnoreligious tensions to foster higher understanding and cooperation.
Cheta Nwanze, lead accomplice at Lagos-based danger advisory agency SBM Intelligence, stated it’s essential that programmes rebuild public belief within the authorities, which has eroded over a long time of violence.
“There is a belief thread that has been damaged … You can not defeat an insurgency in the event you don’t have the belief of the native inhabitants,” Nwanze stated.
Rising menace of banditry
President Tinubu additionally permitted the creation of a nationwide armed power to guard the nation’s forests from felony gangs finishing up assaults, extortion, kidnapping and unlawful logging as the specter of banditry grows.
Experts have applauded the efforts, however some expressed concern concerning the power’s suitability. Samuel questioned their capability to combat off the violent actors who’ve taken over Nigeria’s forests, particularly within the north and the center belt, and have an important deal extra firepower.
“These are guys that even our safety forces are discovering it troublesome to cope with,” stated Samuel. “By deploying forest guards to forests which can be infested by terrorists, you can be placing the lives of these [guards] in danger.”
Banditry has been on the rise within the states of Kwara in central Nigeria and Kano within the north. In the primary half of the yr, bandits or armed teams killed not less than 2,266 folks within the north and the center belt. Meanwhile, kidnapping by bandits and armed teams has turn into a million-dollar trade, netting 2.23 trillion naira ($1.55bn) final yr.
“The authorities can be creating new methods to defeat [the bandits] … We will proceed to chase them wherever they’re,” Malagi stated.
But Samuel sees the September 28 killing of 15 folks in Oke-Ode, a city within the central state of Kwara that has been seen as protected, as an indicator that banditry may unfold additional south if no complete steps are taken to cease it.
Regional cooperation
As a part of efforts to strengthen safety companies inside Nigeria and regional partnerships to handle shared threats, the nation has deepened cooperation with our bodies together with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union and the Multinational Joint Task Force.
Last yr, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso — every beneath navy governments — formally withdrew from ECOWAS, the regional bloc that Nigeria chaired beneath Tinubu.
The withdrawal disrupted regional navy cooperation, contributing to a fragile diplomatic and safety panorama throughout West Africa. It has additionally challenged the positive factors made in stabilising the Sahel, with the emergence and resurgence of teams like Boko Haram and a number of splinter teams.
“It is regrettable that a few of our neighbours — Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger — have pulled out of ECOWAS. Nigeria has all the time maintained that the area is stronger after we are all collectively,” Malagi stated.
Samuel instructed that the federal government ought to exploit the close-knit relationship northern Nigerians have with Niger to restore the connection.
The weakening of state management, stated Nwanze, has given armed teams area to recoup and recruit.
Mali’s capital, Bamako, is beneath siege by fighters with the al-Qaeda affiliate group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), which lately made inroads into Nigeria, launching its first identified assault within the nation final month.
“The greater downside within the wider Sahel is that the [region] is filled with weak states that don’t have the power to manage their whole territory, so it offers all kinds of nefarious teams an opportunity to commerce area for time, and that’s one thing that can have an effect on Nigeria as properly,” Nwanze stated.
US safety ties
To sort out the safety scenario, stated Malagi, the Nigerian authorities has additionally reshuffled the highest of its armed forces, together with modifications within the chief of defence employees and different service chiefs — though native media reported the modifications adopted a failed coup try in October. He didn’t touch upon the alleged deliberate coup, however stated a navy investigation was ongoing.
Meanwhile, on the diplomatic degree, when Tinubu took workplace in 2023, all Nigerian ambassadors have been recalled, and none has been appointed to switch them to go the nation’s embassies overseas. Experts say Nigeria’s notable absence in essential rooms in Washington, for instance, might need performed a job in Trump’s threats.
Nwanze stated if Nigeria had an envoy in Washington, the diplomat would have requested a gathering with Secretary of State Marco Rubio as quickly as Ted Cruz and different right-wing lawmakers started making accusations.
Nigeria has but to make a public diplomatic transfer.
Malagi agrees that Nigeria must appoint ambassadors, however says that diplomatic relations proceed as a result of the nation’s embassies stay staffed.
He stated talks have been beneath approach with the US to strengthen safety ties.
“There are talks ongoing, diplomatic channels haven’t been foreclosed; they’re truly energetic and we expect that they’re working,” Malagi added.
This is just not the primary time the nations have partnered. They have had a safety partnership for the previous 50 years. Nigeria buys arms from the US, receives navy schooling and coaching programmes, and the nations maintain joint navy workouts.
In response to questions from Al Jazeera, the US State Department cited earlier statements by Trump and Rubio condemning violence towards Christians in Nigeria.
“The United States stands prepared, prepared, and capable of act,” a State Department spokesperson instructed Al Jazeera, with out addressing particular questions on a partnership to sort out insecurity.
“We urge the Nigerian authorities to enhance non secular freedom, strengthen protections for Christians, and guarantee accountability for perpetrators,” the spokesperson added.
“We don’t consider [the security challenge] is a matter that may be dealt with by simply issuing threats and in addition saying that the president will put boots on the bottom and assault communities instantly in Nigeria,” Malagi stated.
“We consider that we will do higher if we’ve higher cooperation with the United States to sort out this as soon as and for all.”
