Nuhu Ribadu, the national security adviser (NSA), on Monday convened an emergency meeting with service chiefs and heads of security and intelligence agencies at the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) in Abuja.
Though the agenda of the meeting was not known at the time
of this report, TheCable understands that it was convened to coordinate a
unified national security response and review intelligence assessments
regarding the potential consequences of the US president’s statement.
BACKGROUND
On October 31, Trump redesignated Nigeria as a ‘country of
particular concern’ in response to allegations of a Christian genocide in the
country.
“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria.
Thousands of Christians are being killed,” Trump said.
Subsequently, the US president asked the United States
department of war to prepare for “possible action” to wipe out Islamic
terrorists in Nigeria.
In a Truth Social post, he warned the Nigerian government to
act fast to end the “killing of Christians” in the country.
Hours after that, Trump said he is not ruling out air
strikes or boots on the ground in furtherance of his plan to “completely wipe
out the Islamic terrorists killing Christians in Nigeria”.
Pete Hegseth, US secretary of war, said his department is
preparing for possible military action if the Nigerian government fails to end
the “killing of innocent Christians” in the country.
A handful of right-wing US lawmakers, led by Ted Cruz, the
senator from Texas, have repeatedly claimed that Christians are facing
persecution in Nigeria.
In October, Cruz proposed the ‘Nigeria Religious Freedom
Accountability Act of 2025’, legislation that seeks to hold Nigerian government
officials accountable for “facilitating the mass murder of Christians”.
The proposed bill also calls for “targeted sanctions against
Nigerian officials who enforce Sharia and blasphemy laws”.
Cruz introduced the bill in early September, just weeks
before Trump signed a memo labelling views leaning towards anti-Americanism,
anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity as domestic terrorism.
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