By Our Reporter
President Bola Tinubu is to hold a high-level meeting with United States President Donald J. Trump to seek resolution of the diplomatic rift that followed Washington’s designation of Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern”, the Presidency has said.
Daniel Bwala, Special Adviser on Policy Communication to Mr Tinubu, said in a statement on the President’s official X account that the forthcoming bilateral talks which could take place at the State House in Abuja or at the White House in Washington are intended to correct what he described as a “misconception” that Nigeria’s security crisis is primarily a religious conflict, and to demonstrate that terrorist violence in the country is indiscriminate and affects people of all faiths.
Mr Bwala said Mr Tinubu will present a detailed report to President Trump outlining the scale and nature of the government’s response to insurgency and violent extremism, and he noted that the two leaders share an interest in combating groups such as Boko Haram, ISWAP and bandit gangs; he also pointed to previous US support in the form of authorised arms sales, which he said had been utilised in Nigeria’s anti-terror operations.
The announcement came amid a flurry of strong rhetoric from some US quarters after Mr Trump said he would instruct the US “Department of War” to “prepare for possible action” and warned that American forces “may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing’” if killings of Christians continued, and that Washington would immediately cut off assistance to Nigeria.
The comments prompted alarm among diplomats and politicians; Riley Moore, a Republican member of the US House of Representatives, warned the Nigerian government to “cooperate with us in preventing this atrocity” and said Washington would not “look the other way”.
Separately, Pete Hegseth, described in some accounts as a US war-department official, was reported to have said the department was preparing for action unless Nigeria halts what he termed the “persecution and mass killings” of Christians.
The Presidency, for its part, has stressed that Mr Tinubu’s administration is committed to protecting the rights of all citizens, to engaging both Christian and Muslim leaders since 2023, and to working with the United States and other partners to deepen cooperation on security and the protection of faith-based communities.
Nigerian aides said the forthcoming meeting is expected to clarify differences of perspective and defuse tensions, while underlining that the country’s counter-insurgency efforts are undertaken without religious bias and with the aim of safeguarding all Nigerians.
