U.S. President Donald Trump’s talk of rescuing the Christians in Nigeria is most likely aimed at pressuring Nigeria to allow a U.S. military base on its territory.
Speaking in Abuja on Nov. 5 at the 7th Annual Lecture of the Just Friends Club of Nigeria, the country’s former armed forces Chief of Staff, Gen. (ret.) Abdulrahman Dambazau, said, “The United States is too interested in the problem of the ‘genocide of Christians’ in Nigeria just because it wants to be able to establish a military base in Nigeria. Although our country defends its interests by all available means, including force.”
The General, who also served as an advisor to President Muhammadu Buhari’s Cabinet as Minister of the Interior from 2015-2019, added that the prospect of a U.S. base in Nigeria will not serve Nigeria’s interest , given that the former decade-long presence of two U.S. military bases in neighboring Niger did not stop the spread of terrorism in the Sahel region.
Both Muslims and Christians, he said, have been victims of attacks, citing killings of worshippers in mosques, assassinations of clerics, and attacks on traditional rulers as a result of the insecurity caused by terrorism and insurgency across the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin, and it is not directed at any single religion. There had been fierce debates inside Nigeria in the past about the prospects of a U.S. base in the country.
President Trump hadposted on Truth Social on Nov. 5: “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening there, and in numerous other Countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian Population around the World!” In a separate video statement, Trump called Nigeria “a country of particular concern,” a legal term, he noted, because Christians are being killed there “in numbers you would not believe.” He reports that he has asked a couple of Congressmen to immediately “look into this matter.” The statement concludes with a rant that it is not only in Nigeria, but around the world. “The killing of Christians is not going to happen!”
