Trump’s Neocolonial ‘Slam’ on Nigeria.Part I – Trump’s Ultimatum to Nigeria

On 31st October 2025, US President Donald Trump unexpectedly informed Nigerian leaders that he had placed Nigeria on the list of countries causing particular concern to the US, due to persecution of Christians within the country, which borders on genocide.

This threat was voiced the day after the US State Department included Nigeria on its list of “Countries of Particular Concern,” which comprises China, Afghanistan, and other states that fail to ensure religious freedom for their citizens. At the same time, Trump tasked the Pentagon with preparing options for further action, including US military intervention, should Abuja fail to undertake effective measures to address the issue.

This rhetoric of his took aback not only the Nigerian governmental and socio-political circles, but it also provoked a wide response abroad, including within the United States per se.

The renowned Nigerian public and political figure, Nobel Prize Winner in Literature, Professor Wole Soyinka, castigated President Trump’s threat to initiate an invasion of Nigeria, dubbing it “a madcap venture voiced without a proper understanding of the complexity of the problems that Nigeria has been facing.”

Washington’s poorly considered and inadequately substantiated statements, as it is underlined by the Nigerian Daily Mail, “are quite dangerous in nature, as they could further exacerbate the situation in the country and escalate into a full-scale religious crisis.”

The crux of the matter is that for many years, from 2009 right up to the present day, Nigeria has been engaged in military operations against the Islamist groups Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa (both recognised as terrorist organisations and banned in the Russian Federation) in the northeast of the country, as well as against gangs in the northwest. It has also been taking measures to contain inter-communal clashes in the Middle Belt region between Muslim herders, mainly from the Fulani ethnic group, and Christian farmers from various ethnic groups, who are engaged in a struggle to maintain control over agricultural land, grazing pastures, and access to water resources.

According to experts from the International Crisis Group, the strife between farmers and herders in the Middle Belt region poses the greatest threat to Nigeria’s security. By their estimates, the death toll as a result of these clashes in the region is six times greater than that caused by the activities of Boko Haram terrorists across the whole of Nigeria.

In response to the accusations from the American side, Nigerian officials, while not denying the facts of Christian deaths, cite the serious difficulties in ensuring security within the country and state that jihadist attacks take their toll not only on Christians but also on Muslims to no lesser extent.

Commenting on the Washington’s statements, the Deputy President of the Senate, Nigeria’s upper parliamentary chamber, Barau Jibrin, demanded that the US President, who called Nigeria a “disgraced country,” issue an apology, as this not only fails to comply with diplomatic etiquette but is also offensive in nature, as reported by the Nigerian Daily Post.

The spokesperson for the Nigerian President, Daniel Bwala, dismissing the American leader’s claims, stated in an interview with the Associated Press that the US has no right to unilaterally conduct any military operations in Nigeria based on unreliable information. In his words, such an approach appears to be “Trump’s style – using force to compel the other party to sit down at the negotiating table.”

The Nigerian African Sociocultural Harmony and Enlightenment Foundation interpreted the threat of US military intervention, ostensibly aimed at stopping the genocide of Christians, as Washington’s aspiration for a new recolonisation of Africa, similar to the way the European powers scrambled for Africa in the 19th century, aspiring to establish control over its natural resources.

Overall, the administration of President Bola Tinubu rejected the accusations of genocide against Christians, stating that it faces extremely complex challenges in ensuring security, which affects citizens of all faiths.

In Abuja, it is also believed that this constitutes not only “an encroachment on Nigeria’s sovereignty” but also a blow to the personal prestige of its president, who pledged during the 2023 elections to work on strengthening the position of Nigeria in the international arena. This issue is so sensitive for the Nigerian political elite that on 23rd November, amidst US-Nigerian disagreements, the situation reached a point where Nigeria’s First Lady, Remi Tinubu, declared at a meeting in the capital that “Nigeria will never succumb to threats from foreign powers, regardless of where they come from.”

The President himself underlined that the accusations of the Nigerian government persecuting Christians in no way reflect the reality on the ground. He also refuted the assertion about the “religious intolerance” flourishing in his country.

Simultaneously, his Information Minister, Mohammed Idris, labelled Trump’s statements about the genocide of Christians as “false and unfounded, sowing discord within the country.”

In this regard, the Nigerian Punch pinpoints that the American President’s comments on the situation in Nigeria have already caused a rift in the realms of the country’s opposition circles. For instance, the Nigerian Labour Party welcomed Trump’s statements. Its National Publicity Secretary, Tony Akeni, accused President Bola Tinubu, who is Muslim by background, of hypocrisy and denying the targeted attacks by Muslims on Christians.

At the same time, the New Nigeria Peoples Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, stated that the security threat looming over Nigeria, as a sovereign state, does not depend on religion, ethnicity, or political beliefs. Given that the security situation is quite complex, the country needs assistance, not intimidation. Instead of punitive rhetoric, he called on the US to provide it with advanced military technology and intelligence information to combat terrorists.

The anti-Nigerian remarks by the American President prompted an extremely negative reaction within Nigerian military circles, as the Nigerian Vanguard notes. According to the former Chief of Defence Staff of the Nigerian Armed Forces and former Minister of Interior, retired Lieutenant-General Abdulrahman Dambazau, “Whatever the US plans in Nigeria will not benefit anyone, because Americans pursue only their own interests.”

In this regard, he recalled that the US, which had been present at its largest military base in Africa, located in Niger, for over 10 years, and was expelled from there in 2024, failed to put paid to the escalation of tension in the Sahel region. The conclusion that the Nigerian general comes to resides in the following: “In short, today the US is seeking an opportunity to establish an alternative military base on the Nigerian territory.”

Reasons Behind American Intervention in Nigeria’s Affairs

Beyond the aforementioned factor, the analytical circles put such unexpected interest from Washington in Nigeria down to the fact that Nigeria, possessing proven oil reserves of around 37 billion barrels and being Africa’s largest producer (1,517 thousand barrels per day in September 2025), but dependent on fuel and other petroleum product imports from the West due to the lack of domestic refining capacity, has begun taking measures to cut down on this particular dependence.

In January 2024, the Dangote Refinery, Africa’s largest oil refinery, costing $20 billion and owned by the continent’s wealthiest individual, the Nigerian Aliko Dangote, was commissioned in the city of Lagos. In October 2025, the plant’s owner announced his intention to increase its capacity from the current 650,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day, making it the most powerful refinery in the world. In 2025, this plant has already exported 1 million tons of petrol to Asian countries, including two batches of aviation fuel to Saudi Arabia, and 1.7 million barrels to the US.

As a consequence, the US and Western countries have increasingly become apprehensive about this “plot twist” in global petroleum product trade, as the Dangote refinery exceeds the combined capacity of Europe’s ten largest refining facilities, disrupts established supply chains, and is altering the rules of the game on global energy markets.

Hence, Trump’s unexpected interest in the events in Nigeria should be explained not by humanitarian concern for the situation of the 110-million-strong Christian community in the country, but by the vested interests of American business, which is seeking in an even more active way to gain control over the African continent’s natural resources.

Another reason for the heightened US interest in Nigeria, as noted by the publication ThisDayLive, lies in Washington’s desire to put the process of integration of this largest African country into the BRICS association on hold. The fact is that over the last five years, Nigeria, like South Africa, has begun to devote significant attention to developing ties with China, leading to South Africa acquiring BRICS membership status and Nigeria gaining partner status in the hope of becoming a fully-fledged member of this association.

According to the Nigerian newspaper Global Up Front, this particular factor has caused clear displeasure in Washington, as Trump has labelled this organisation “anti-American,” created to harm the US by undermining the American dollar. In view of this, first the US accused the South African authorities of “killing whites,” and now it accuses the Nigerian government of “genocide of Christians.”

Additionally, the cooling of US-Nigerian relations was contributed to by Abuja’s refusal in July 2025 to accept Venezuelan prisoners whom Trump wished to deport to Nigeria, as well as the unwillingness of the Nigerian authorities to grant most-favoured-nation status to American companies in the extraction of rare earth minerals recently discovered in Nigeria.

Victor Goncharov, Expert in African Studies, PhD in Economics

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