Trump’s threat of US military action clashes with Nigeria’s reality

Nigeria reeled on Monday from US President Donald Trump’s claim over the weekend that Christians were being systematically killed in the West African country, with blanket coverage across local media.

“They’re killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers,” Trump said in comments while travelling on Air Force One on Saturday. “We’re not going to allow that to happen.”

The false idea of a genocide against Christians in Nigeria has been floating around right-wing circles in the West for years, and was brought up by Trump during his first term in power. But it has gained particular traction in recent months, prompting rising concern in Africa’s most populous country.

The nation of 230 million – roughly split between Muslims and Christians – has a long history of ethnic violence driven by access to resources such as land and water, and terrorism by the likes of Boko Haram and Islamic State that largely kills Muslims.

On Sunday, President Bola Tinubu said his government was committed to working with the US and international community to protect all faiths. But “the characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality,” he added. Tinubu is Muslim; his wife is a Christian pastor.