A former United States mayor, Mike Arnold, has declared that Nigeria is at a crossroads, noting that the country is facing two scenarios – “America’s greatest African ally, innovative, peaceful and prosperous — or the greatest security threat of our lifetime, a sharia-exporting giant”.
Arnold, founder and Chairman of Africa Arise International
(Nigeria) and Africa Arise USA, made the assertion in a presentation at a
hearing by the US Congress. A video and excerpts of the presentation was shared
on his Facebook page.
Tracing Nigeria’s history, from pre-colonial times to the
present day, Arnold expressed concern that Nigerian authorities are not doing
enough to address the spread of radical Islamic insurgency in the country.
He also highlighted the recent upsurge in attacks by
terrorists, dismissing what he described as the false narrative framing the
violence as “farmer-herder” clashes. According to Arnold, “the real narrative
is this: Nigeria is in the throes of an Islamic conquest”.
Listing what he described as “examples of ongoing failures
and impunity” on the part of the Nigerian government, Arnold pointed to the
prosecution and conviction of leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB),
Nnamdi Kanu, to highlight the selective approach in handling southern
self-determination activists and northern Islamist jihadists.
The ex-US mayor specifically faulted the silence of Nigerian
authorities after a viral video showed an Islamic cleric placing a N1 million
bounty on a Jos based pastor, identified as Emmanuel Sunday Garba. The Imam
said he would pay the amount to whoever can behead the pastor for allegedly
insulting Prophet Mohammed.
Arnold said, “Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People
of Biafra (IPOB) and founder of Radio Biafra. British-Nigerian dual national.
Abducted from Kenya in June 2021 in what international human rights
organizations have characterized as an extraordinary rendition. Returned to
Nigerian custody. In November 2025 convicted on terrorism-related charges and
sentenced to life imprisonment. Law under which portions of his conviction were
based had been nullified by an Enugu High Court in 2023. Within 24 hours of
sentencing, transferred approximately 800 kilometers to Sokoto — seat of the
Sokoto Caliphate— far from his family and legal counsel.
“A northern Nigeria-based Islamic cleric publicly placed a
₦1 million (approximately $670 USD at April 2026 exchange rates) bounty on the
head of an unnamed Christian pastor accused of insulting Prophet Muhammad.
Following public calls for the cleric’s arrest, he publicly doubled the bounty
to ₦2 million in a Hausa-language video recording, openly daring Nigeria’s
Department of State Services (DSS) to arrest him.
“No charges filed, no arrest executed, no formal government
condemnation issued.”
The Nigerian government goes to great expense to
“rehabilitate” the killers, while millions of innocent displaced victims are
denied, neglected, and dying, Arnold stated.
He urged the US Congress to “demand the release of Mazi
Nnamdi Kanu and other prisoners of conscience”, and “offer asylum protection to
them and others threatened by this (Nigerian) regime”.
The US citizen also spoke out against the Sultan of Sokoto,
Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, for allegedly not calling for an end to mass
killings, and also for promoting that spread of Sharia to Christian
communities.
“Has (Sultan) never decreed an end to the killing or mineral
looting in his domain, but has called social media a terrorist group: When they
challenged his authority over them, the Sultan issued a single fatwa in 2015
discouraging Boko Haram recruitment, which reportedly contributed to a
recruitment decline in Kano and Sokoto. He has not issued a subsequent
authoritative condemnation of other jihadi groups operating in his hereditary
domain despite the continuation of mass killings.
“In 2025 he publicly supported the push for Sharia in
traditionally Christian, Southern states. In January 2025, Sultan Muhammad
Sa’ad Abubakar III publicly supported the establishment of Sharia arbitration
panels in southern Nigerian states including Ekiti and Oyo, stating the panels
would cater to “millions of Nigerian citizens” — a direct expansion of Islamic
legal structures into traditionally non-Sharia regions,” Arnold said in the
presentation to the US Congress.
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