Wednesday, November 5, 2025 - Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, has delivered a strong caution to United States President Donald Trump, warning him not to “create another Sudan” through "false allegations of religious persecution" in the West African nation.
Speaking in Berlin, Germany, on Tuesday, November 4, Minister
Tuggar emphasized that “careless remarks from influential global figures risk
inflaming divisions across Africa.”
Drawing parallels with Sudan’s tragic experience, he pointed
out how sectarian and ethnic manipulation once tore the nation apart, plunging
the region into crisis and years of instability.
"We've seen what has happened
with Sudan, with agitations for the partitioning of Sudan based on religion,
based on tribal sentiments and you can see the crisis," Tuggar said.
Minister Tuggar stressed that Nigeria remains a
constitutional democracy committed to peace, unity, and religious freedom,
directly contradicting claims suggesting state-backed persecution of
Christians.
Responding to a journalist who asked about Trump's
"menacing remarks and allegations," Tuggar held up a document
outlining Nigeria’s legal and constitutional commitment to religious freedom.
“What we’ve done is we’ve articulated what our Constitution
says about religious freedom, what our federal laws say about religious
freedom, and Nigeria’s constitutional commitment to religious freedom and rule
of law,” the minister stated.
He further explained that Nigeria’s legal system makes it
impossible for any level of government—federal, regional, or local—to endorse
faith-based persecution. “All the answers are in there... this is what shows
that it's impossible for there to be a religious persecution that can be
supported in any way, shape, or form by the government of Nigeria at any
level,” he asserted.
Tuggar reminded the international community of Nigeria’s
democratic credentials and significance: “Nigeria has a population of 230
million souls. It's the largest democracy on the African continent. It's the
largest country on the continent.”
He concluded by underscoring Nigeria’s crucial role in
promoting regional peace, noting that countries like Nigeria are left to
resolve such problems and that the nation is a member of the African Union's
Peace and Security Council.
The Minister’s remarks follow a sharp increase in pressure
from President Donald Trump, who recently accused Nigeria of failing to protect
Christian communities from Islamist militant violence. In an explosive warning,
Trump suggested the U.S. could deploy troops or carry out air strikes if
Nigeria did not act.
In a social-media post, Trump wrote: “If the Nigerian
Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will
immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into
that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the
Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”
He later reiterated the threat of possible military
operations during a press interaction, saying, "Could be. I mean, other
things. I envisage a lot of things. They’re killing the Christians and killing
them in very large numbers. We’re not going to allow that to happen.”
These statements followed Nigeria’s re-designation on the
U.S. list of “Countries of Particular Concern” for religious-freedom
violations.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian government has firmly rejected both
the claim of a “Christian genocide” and the prospect of unilateral U.S.
military intervention, insisting the violence affects people of all faiths and
asserting that any foreign cooperation must respect national sovereignty.
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