Category: Daily Trust

Equities investors yesterday recorded about N244.9 billion loss at the close of trading on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) as the US President Donald Trump’s threat on Nigeria sparked brief jitters.

On Monday, the first trading day after the weekend’s threat by Trump, the NGX All-Share Index and Market Capitalization dropped from Friday’s highs of 154,126.46 points and N97.829 trillion respectively to 153,739.11 points and N97.582 trillion.

The record dip in Nigeria’s stock market in the first trading day in November impacted its returns year-to-date (YtD) which stood lower at +49.37 percent

Trump had, on Friday, flagged Nigeria as a ‘Country of Particular Concern,’ and followed up with an invasion threat on Saturday.

The US President vowed to cut off all US aids to the nation over of the government fails to act fast on the alleged genocide against Christians.

And ahead of trading this new week, there were fears that the US President’s fiery comments might raise the risk premium on Nigerian assets while threatening to erode recent gains achieved by the nation’s reforms.

At the closing of the trading on Monday,

the All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 0.25% to close at 153,739.11 points, wiping out about N244.9 billion in market value.

The downturn was driven by selloffs in medium and large-cap stocks across the banking, oil and gas, and consumer goods sectors.

Market capitalization fell from N97.8 trillion to N97.5 trillion, reflecting renewed investor caution after a strong rally in October.

October had ended as one of the best-performing months this year, with stocks rising 8%, second only to July’s performance. The market had snapped a losing streak last Friday but failed to sustain the momentum as earnings results triggered fresh sell pressure.

Meanwhile, the exchange rate between the naira and the U.S. dollar weakened slightly to N1,438/$1 at the official market on Monday, compared to N1,422.2/$1 last Friday.

Despite the mild pullback, the naira remains on a remarkable run, having recorded its best monthly performance in over 18 months in October.

Monday’s close still ranks as the second-best day since May 2024, underscoring a period of renewed FX stability.

Market breadth remained negative with 24 gainers and 39 losers.

Union Dicon Salt Plc (+9.93%) topped the gainers’ chart, followed by Omatek Ventures Plc (+9.92%). On the flip side, Honeywell Flour Mills Plc (-10.00%) and Northern Nigeria Flour Mills Plc (-9.98%) led the laggards.

Trading activity was upbeat, as total volume rose by 18% to 627 million units, valued at N25.1 billion.

UBA Plc dominated both volume and value charts, exchanging 136 million shares worth N5.53 billion.

Despite the pullback, analysts say the market remains in a broadly positive trend, supported by strong corporate earnings and improving investor sentiment.

Borno traditional rulers, lawyers and government officials have decried alleged rampant child pregnancy and unsafe abortions in Internally Displaced (IDP) camps in Maiduguri, Borno.

This was revealed at a two-day stakeholders’ dialogue, organised by the Grassroots Researchers Association (GRA) with the support of We are not Weapons of War (WWoW) in Maiduguri over the weekend.

The dialogue brought together 500 survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, traditional rulers, lawyers, government officials and development partners in search of lasting solutions.

A traditional ruler and chairman of EYN IDPs Camp in Jerusalem, Wulari area, Maiduguri, Mr John Gwoma, regretted how minors and innocent young girls are quietly selling sex and aborting their pregnancy in the camp. ‘Men from the town will come in big cars, carry these small girls and impregnate them. As a result, we now have rampant cases of unsafe abortions in the camp.

‘The female toilets have turned into butchery, frequently covered with blood. These girls will enter the toilet, terminate pregnancy and leave the foetus inside,’ he said.

Corroborating his story, a female facilitator, Zaynab Abdallah, said the juvenile sex trade and feticide are flourishing in Maiduguri.

She said some of the teenage girls and underage girls were engaging in prostitution to raise money to feed their families.

‘Parents should fear God. Most of them are fully aware of what the children are doing, but stay quiet due to the material gain.

‘Apart from the economic hardship, sex has become part of their lives, and you can’t stop them, no matter how hard you try. And, when they get pregnant, they abort it quietly to avoid stigma,’ she said.

During the session, survivors and stakeholders shared painful stories of rape, juvenile sex and how poverty is forcing women into prostitution.

They also shared success stories on how the awareness campaign carried out by the GRA broke the survivors’ stigma and improved their access to justice.

The Executive Director of GRA, Mr Friday Bitrus, said the valuable feedback gathered from stakeholders would be used to produce a call-to-action document and push for advocacy.

The former minority leader of the Senate, Senator Philip Aduda, has commended the appointment of Alhaji Abdulrahman Mohammed Takushara as the Acting National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Daily Trust had reported that the PDP, supported by the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, announced the removal of the former PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Aliyu Damagun, and the party’s Legal Adviser during a press conference in Abuja on Saturday.

Aduda, who is also the leader of the PDP in the FCT, described Takushara’s appointment as a moment of pride for the PDP family and a testament to his vision and loyalty to the ideals of the party.

In a statement he personally signed and made available to newsmen on Sunday in Abuja, the Senator said the unanimous endorsement of Takushara as the Acting National Chairman of the PDP reflects the deep trust reposed in his leadership and the collective confidence that he will guide the party with wisdom, unity, and renewed purpose.

Daily Trust reports that prior to Takushara’s appointment as Acting PDP National Chairman, he was the party’s North-Central Zonal Chairman.

Four people were reportedly injured when armed bandits invaded Isa town, headquarters of Isa Local Government Area in Sokoto State, in the early hours of Monday.

According to sources, the assailants stormed the town around 1am, shooting sporadically and injuring four residents who are currently receiving treatment at an undisclosed hospital.

Isa, one of the communities in eastern Sokoto, has been a hotspot for banditry and related criminal activities in recent years.

A resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the situation would have been worse if not for the prompt response of security operatives deployed to the area.

‘They entered the town from the eastern axis, behind the residence of Sarkin Gobir Isa, and began shooting indiscriminately. Four people sustained gunshot wounds and were rushed to the hospital,’ he said.

The resident attributed the recent surge in attacks to a peace accord reportedly reached between some communities in Shinkafi, Zamfara State, and the bandits.

‘Since the peace deal was signed, the bandits have redirected their attacks to our communities. They have stopped us from harvesting our crops,’ he lamented.

‘Just yesterday (Sunday), they abducted my elder brother, who went to the stream to fetch sand.

‘Initially, they asked us to pay whatever we could afford, and we managed to raise 1million, but they rejected it. They are now demanding 6 million, which we cannot afford.’

However, the spokesman of the Sokoto Police Command could not be reached for a comment at the time of filing this report.

Monday’s attack comes just days after gunmen struck Kurawa village in neighbouring Sabon Birni Local Government Area, killing three people, including the acting village head, Hussaini Alhaji Yawalle.

The attackers, who invaded Kurawa around midnight last Thursday, also abducted several residents and rustled more than 40 cattle.

In the early 1950s, bananas were a big deal in America. To many, they were symbols of American abundance and international trade. To others, they were the cornerstone of the idea that what was good for America was, somehow, always good for the rest of the world.

The banana’s rise in American life was largely thanks to a company called United Fruit. On paper, it was a company that produced bananas. But in practice, it was something far more complicated. It was one part business and one part power broker. You see, United Fruit owned railways and controlled docks. And in places like Guatemala, the company quietly shaped who held political power – and who did not.

At the time, Guatemala was experimenting with something new: democracy. The president, Jacobo Árbenz, was not your typical revolutionary. He did not march in the streets for change, or call for an upending of the status quo. His revolution was quieter and much more strategic. He wanted to return unused farmlands to the indigenous people. So, he passed a law. A simple one called ‘Decree 900’ that would take Guatemala’s idle lands and give it back to everyday Guatemalan farmers. The problem was, much of that land belonged to United Fruit.

As you might assume, Washington was not happy. This is because, history has shown that in the American playbook, democracy is only welcome until it stops obeying American interests. In response, the United States overthrew him.

But of course, that is not what they said publicly.

Publicly, they said that they were stopping the spread of communism. That Árbenz had opened the door to Soviet influence. That the free world was under threat. But behind the scenes, their intelligence network went to work. They trained rebels, launched psychological operations, and flew threatening missions over the capital. Eventually, Árbenz resigned and United Fruits banana shipments kept moving.

Many of us like to tell ourselves that history is shaped by big ideas and grand concepts, but more often than not, it is shaped by simple things like bananas. That single intervention gave us a phrase we still use today, ‘banana republic.’

So what does any of this have to do with Nigeria? More than it should.

Trump’s recent posts on Truth Social have set the stage for a dystopian version of the Guatemalan banana story. At the center of this script are two actors, Trump, with his posts warning that Christians in Nigeria are facing ‘mass slaughter,’ his declaration of Nigeria as a ‘Country of Particular Concern,’ and his promise to come in ‘guns-a-blazing’ to ‘protect’ Christians from terrorists if the Nigerian government fails to act, and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the opposite of Árbenz – a man known to focus on Nigeria’s select partisan and political few, in contrast to Árbenz, who focused on the everyday suffering many.

Together, they revive a familiar dance, one that begins with threats, escalates into action, and ends with everyday people paying the price. In Guatemala, it was about land. In Nigeria, they say it is about lives. But in both cases, the danger lies in the flawed assumption that foreign power can fix what local failure refuses to confront, namely, insecurity.

Now, here is what we know so far.

In the days leading up to Trump’s post, several Nigerian media outlets confirmed reports of an attempted coup. A few days later, others reported the arrest of sixteen military personnel accused of plotting it. Throughout all of this, the Nigerian government remained silent. The public’s response was not alarm but indifference. There were no protests against the plot, no groundswell of support for the government, only whispers, innuendos, and jokes on social media. And in Washington, innuendos have a way of turning into suspicion, especially when they do not happen in isolation.

Mali. Burkina Faso. Niger. One by one, West African states have slipped out of the grip of the West and turned toward new partners – Russia, China, and the strategic alliances, like BRICS, that follow them. The United States has watched its sphere of influence in the sub-region shrink. Nigeria, one of the continent’s giants, is a key piece on the chessboard. And so, when there are whispers of a failed coup and the Nigerian people are silent, Washington begins to worry.

Enter Trump’s social media post.

On the surface, it looks like concern for Christian lives. But history suggests something else. When it comes to the United States, one can argue that it is rarely about the people and always about the narrative. Freedom. Democracy. And human rights. But beneath that language, the mission is often simpler. Protect economic interests. Maintain influence. And guard strategic terrain. Oil, land, leverage, and sometimes, bananas.

In 1953, the United States removed Iran’s elected Prime Minister because of oil. In 1973, it backed a coup in Chile to protect copper. In 1999, it bombed Yugoslavia under the banner of human rights, expanding NATO while distracting from a domestic scandal. In 2003, it overthrew Iraq’s government for weapons of mass destruction that it never found. In 2011, it helped topple Gaddafi in Libya to ‘save civilians,’ only to watch the country fall into chaos while the African Union’s gold-backed currency plans died with him. In 2019, it backed a failed coup in Venezuela for ‘democracy,’ and for control of oil reserves. Different countries, different decades, different justifications, yet the pattern is always the same.

So, this time around, what does ‘protecting Christians’ actually mean? Does it mean American boots in Zamfara? Does it mean airstrikes in Kaduna? And what happens the next day, when violence erupts in response? What happens when Nigerians begin to believe that one half of the country has been chosen, while the other half condemned? This is how the real chaos begin. Not with explosions. But with dangerous foreign narratives that do not understand local nuance that becomes a strategy, then a policy, then potentially, a war.

The truth is, Nigeria does not need Americans to swoop in ‘guns-a-blazing’. What it needs is political will and real security reform. It needs a president and a National Assembly who are willing to build a new security architecture and lead from the front – not from behind microphones and media aides. Because once a foreign army intervenes under the banner of religion, Nigeria’s fragile balance will not bend. It will break. And when that happens, it won’t be Washington, the same Washington now beating the drums of war, that stays behind to pick up the pieces.

That is what blowback really means. It is the slow, permanent consequences of poorly thought-out geopolitical power-plays. It is the ghost of Árbenz, the scars of Iran, the fires of Fallujah, and the ruins of Kabul.

Let’s not add Abuja to that list.

If President Trump believes that Nigeria can be reshaped from afar, maybe it is time that he remembers what history did with that banana. Because in the end, this was never really about 7000 Christians or saving lives, it has always been about Trump rallying support amongst his evangelical base and the fear that Nigeria is no longer a guaranteed puppet – but a restless sovereign nation that has chosen to drink with Russia, dance with China, while neglecting to have dinner, or bananas, with the United States.

The police on Monday charged a 40-year-old man, Saheed Oseni, before an Iyaganku Chief Magistrates’ Court in Ibadan, for allegedly threatening his mother’s life.

The defendant, who resides at Aluko Street, around the Felele area of Ibadan, is standing trial on a two-count charge of threat to life and conduct likely to breach public peace.

He, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The prosecutor, Insp. Salewa Hammed, alleged that Oseni committed the offence between 2010 and now.

He further alleged that the defendant violently threatened the life of his mother, Mrs. Rafiat Gbadamosi, by preventing her from gaining entrance into her house.

According to him, the defendant conducted himself in a manner likely to cause a breach of peace by denying his mother access to her house.

He said that the offence contravened the provisions of Section 249 (d) and 383 of the Criminal Code Law of Oyo State 2000.

The Magistrate, Mrs. M. M. Olagbenro-Adelaja, granted the defendant bail in the sum of N100,000 with one surety in like sum.

She adjourned the case until December 18, 2025, for hearing. (NAN)

On October 24, 2025, President Bola Tinubu effected mid-term sweeping reshuffle of Nigeria’s top military hierarchy, appointing General Olufemi Oluyede (Chief of Defence Staff), Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu (Chief of Army Staff), Vice Admiral Idi Abbas (Chief of Naval Staff) and Air Marshal Sunday Kelvin Aneke (Chief of Air Staff). He retained Lieutenant General Emmanuel Parker Undiandeye as Chief of Defence Intelligence.

On October 29, their appointments were confirmed by the Senate while House of Representatives confirmed them on October 30 in accordance with Section 18 (1) of the Armed Forces Act. On October 31, they were decorated with their new ranks by the President.

Daily Trust congratulates them on their appointments and new ranks but reminds them that they are confronting old multifaceted threats ranging from the ongoing battle against terrorists, bandits, farmer-herder clashes mainly in the Northern region, with oil theft and piracy in the Niger Delta, to secessionist violence especially the South East.

We implore them to study President Tinubu’s charge at their decoration that they should carry out their duties with patriotic zeal.

‘Nigerians expect results, not excuses. I also urge you to be innovative, pre-emptive, and courageous. Let’s stay ahead of those who seek to threaten our peace. We must be decisive and proactive. Work with other security agencies and defeat this enemy once and for all. We need to clean them up, clear them out. I promise to provide all the support you need to get the job done,’ he said.

While we agree with the President that this should herald a new dawn in Nigeria’s long battle against insecurity, we urge him to go beyond the issuance of the Presidential matching orders and insist on a target date to stop terrorism, banditry and other criminals’ activities across the nation. The deadline must be monitored and enforced.

Second, the President must deploy a new political will to confront the vested interests profiting from the insecurity and cut off all political interference crippling needed operational decisions. Towards this, we demand that he exercises fresh moral courage which shields the CDS and service chiefs and their field commanders from power brokers or their proxies.

Already, it is an indictment on the country’s political leadership alongside those of defence and security forces that insecurity has lingered for so long with ungoverned spaces where vast communities are under the control of non-state actors. The new CDS and service chiefs must confront, reclaim and secure these spaces especially areas where government authority is weak at best or absent generally.

The defence helmsmen should know they don’t have the luxury of honeymoon as Nigerians demand and deserve to see measurable results. Also, the era of rhetorical beatitudes of phrases in place of verifiable reductions of terror attacks, killings and safety on the highways are gone. Nigeria would never be secured through proclamations, propaganda or mere changing the musical chairs but with new transformative strategy which builds on old successes while avoiding past mistakes.

Therefore, we urge them to operationalise synergy among themselves and their commanders while working in concert with other paramilitary, intelligence agencies and police in order to align their objectives through seamless collaboration.

We also urge them to embrace and rely more heavily on real-time intelligence gathering and technology to improve multi-domain and multi-agency operations through sharing the intelligence across military and actionable paramilitary agencies like Nigeria Police and Department of State Services (DSS).

The deployment of such advanced surveillance systems as drones, satellite imagery and AI analytics and even human intelligence (HUMINT) networks to track terrorists and bandit movements and financing, targeting high-value individuals will help monitor enemy communications and movements in real-time. This has become imperative as the terrorists have started launching coordinated drone attacks on multiple military and other strategic bases.

Nigerians expect them to immediately deny all non-state actors every operational freedom while disrupting and eliminating their safe havens and hideouts. This must entail pre-emptive strikes which move operational guidelines to proactive offensive missions that wipes out and neutralises any threat on sight, while exercising full domination of all joint operational areas (JOAs). There should also be surveillance and disruption of the possible linkages between local extremist groups and their foreign counterparts through heightened regional security coordination.

The Nigerian military has rich history as a dominant power. The 2025 Global Firepower (GFP) Index ranks the nation’s military as the third most powerful in Africa and 31st globally. And this same military summarily defeated rebels through enforcement of peace in Liberia (1990-1997), Sierra Leone (1997-2000) under the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) multinational peacekeeping force.

Daily Trust implores the CDS and service chiefs to rise up to the plate and show their battlefield prowess by defeating all non-state actors across the country. They must also understand that the fight they’re entrusted to finish has taken too long and it is their onerous duty to bear down on them and defeat them. This is the time to show they earned their esteemed appointments and new ranks. They should learn from their predecessors who came, saw and left with unfulfilled security outcomes. Let their tenure be remembered as a turning point in Nigerians’ desire to live in a nation where peace reigns.

Most importantly, they must ensure that under their tenures, military shortcomings which resulted in ambushes, gunfights, suicide bombings and raids on bases including daily terror attacks on civilians stop. Nigeria’s territorial integrity must be safeguarded in the real sense of it. And providence has thrust them on the driving seats to this realization. Failure is not an option.

From his statements and actions, you already know who President Donald Trump is and what he represents.

In America and worldwide, he holds people of colour in utter contempt, believing them to be the scum of the earth.

He refers to Africa as ”shithole” and regards the people who inhabit the continent as a waste of space in the world.

Since his coming to power he has lurched from one fiasco locally and internationally to the other, embarrassing his countrymen who have had to bear the brunt of global opprobrium.

The latest of such mischief that Trump has embroiled himself is in Nigeria. Last week he signed a declaration that designates Nigeria as a ”Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) on alleged ”genocide” on Nigeria’s Christian population. This is taken to mean that the American government will take actions from sanctioning Nigerian officials who have the responsibility to stop the killings but have neglected to do that. The declaration could also lead to visa denials and to placing comprehensive economic sanctions on Nigeria.

Just as the impact of the declaration was being assessed by Nigerians and non-Nigerians alike, President Trump suddenly shifted the bar to contemplating military action against Nigeria on this very matter.

It is on this score that I am addressing this open letter to you, the African-American service men and women in the American armed forces. A military action against Nigeria as contemplated by Trump will almost certainly include you. In effect, President Trump will deploy you to bomb and kill your own kind on a matter that he had not taken time to explain and convince his own American people of its necessity to America. He has not explained to the American people whether what is happening in Nigeria affects only Christians. He has not convinced Americans whether what is happening in Nigeria is a threat to America’s security and economic interests. Trump has also not pointed out one American citizen that has been harmed or injured by the terrorists to warrant America citing that as reason to invade Nigeria.

I don’t even believe that Trump knows the true dimension of the terrorist activities taking place in Nigeria. He may probably be aware from the intelligence briefings he is getting from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency electronic intel intercepts and reports from the American embassy in Nigeria. From these reports he will know that definitely that what is happening in Nigeria is not what he is making out to be. But driven by hubris and a sense of opportunistic transaction that has been his hallmark, as he had tried to do in Canada, Europe, Russia/Ukraine, China, Middle East, and South Africa, he sees an opportunity to threaten and intimidate Nigeria into agreeing to do concede to him certain economic and commercial rights.

From his antecedents, to believe that Trump cares about Christians in America or for that matter Nigeria and elsewhere is to be grossly deceived.

From the American war of independence to the latest wars, African-Americans have served with distinction even if they had been denied their due recognition in America. Indeed, the very first person to be martyred in the American war of Independence in 1776 was an African-American by name Crispus Attucks. African-Americans also fought in the American civil war in the 1860s to prevent the dismemberment of the country. They also fought in the first and second world wars, the Korean war, and in Vietnam were in most cases they were deployed mostly as Canon Fodder to take the fierce fire from the Viet Congs. Thousands of them were also deployed to die as ”mine sweepers” to clear the heavily planted Vietnamese mine fields so as to allow the advance of white American soldiers in their tanks, fighting vehicles and infantry columns.

In Nigeria Trump wants to use African-Americans to fight his cause of securing economic concessions. But I urge African-Americans to consider between 40 to 50 per cent of their ancestral origin are derived from Nigeria’s Yoruba, Igbo, Niger Delta ethnic groups and the rest. In effect African-American servicemen and women will be deployed in Nigeria, their ancestral home land to achieve Trump’s transactional agenda. With the help of American-Americans Trump will walk off with a deal that will strengthen his white American compatriots and little or nothing of that will benefit the African-Americans in America in terms of improving their condition of living and their status in the country.

African-American have been fighting for America but in Nigeria and Africa this is one fight they should not accept to be involved in emphatically. What benefit will a war they will help to fight in Nigeria bring to them and their folks back at home? If a great many of them including the legendary Muhammad Ali conscientiously refused to be drafted to fight the Vietnamese on account of not having any issues with them, why then should African-American service men and women agree to be drafted to fight their ancestral brethren with whom they have no issues at all?

If there is any war in which African-American servicemen and women should refuse outrightly without any equivocation it is this Trump’s personal war against Nigeria. It is neither in the interest of America nor in the interest of African-Americans. Indeed a war on Nigeria by Trump with the involvement of African-American servicemen and women will polarise the African-American community and create incalculable damage to their centuries of abiding struggle against white oppression in America. It will embolden President Trump and his fellow white supremacists to crow and say, ”we beat you in America and now with your help we beat you in Africa against your own people too.”

If Trump insists African-American must fight for him in Nigeria, you must massively mobilise African-Americans in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Baltimore, Washington DC, etc and oppose it.

If Trump wants to fight a war in Nigeria African-Americans should rise and tell him and the world they do not support it and have no truck in it. They should bear in mind that the spirits of Martin Luther King, Malcom X, Stokely Carmichael, Marcus Garvey, W.E Dubois will be watching and thousands of martyred African-Americans are watching.

The Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) Plc has held a town hall meeting with residents of Offa and nearby communities in Kwara State to address power theft, vandalism, and challenges in electricity supply.

Speaking at the meeting, the Regional Head, Kwara Region, Engr. Oluwatoyin Akinyosoye, said the company is committed to enhancing power supply and metering services.

He said the forum was organized to provide updates, listen to customer concerns, and identify immediate solutions where possible.

‘We understand that effective communication is vital for better service. This meeting allows us to share our efforts to improve reliability and billing while hearing directly from customers,’ Engr. Akinyosoye said.

He noted that energy theft, vandalism, and unpaid bills remain major challenges affecting the company’s ability to maintain steady power supply.

‘Acts of theft or vandalism damage equipment, cause revenue losses, and lead to prolonged outages. We appeal to residents to protect electrical installations and report suspicious activities,’ he added.

The Business Manager for Offa Business Hub, Mrs. Funmilayo Ibitoye, highlighted IBEDC’s efforts in metering, billing, and quick fault response.

She urged customers to pay bills promptly to enable better service delivery.

Community leader Chief Abdulrasheed Olatunji said the meeting provided a valuable platform for direct interaction with company officials and urged consistency in follow-ups.

Businesswoman Mrs. Aishat Bello, appealed for quicker response to transformer faults, noting that reliable electricity is crucial for daily business operations.

The event brought together traditional rulers, community leaders, religious groups, youth representatives, and business stakeholders.

It is part of IBEDC’s ongoing initiative to strengthen engagement with customers and improve service delivery.

Participants thanked IBEDC for the engagement but called for improved power supply and faster resolution of faults.

By Itodo Daniel Sule, Baba Martins, Al-Mustapha A. Mustapha, Dalhatu Liman, Abuja and Mumini Abdulkareem, Ilorin

A diplomat, Ambassador Suleiman Dahiru, has called on the federal government to quickly engage the American government and the American Senate, over the designation of Nigeria and potential invasion, giving them all the facts about what has been going on in the country.

Speaking on a programme on Trust TV, 30 Minutes with Mannir Dan-Ali, Suleiman who has had several postings before his eventual retirement, said the Nigerian government should have acted faster on this matter. He maintained that by now, the federal government ought to have dispatched a team led by either the Secretary of the Government or the Minister of Foreign Affairs, including the Minister of State Foreign Affairs, who is a Christian, to go and engage the State Department, giving them all the facts about what is going on.

United States President Donald Trump had on Friday designated Nigeria as a country of particular concern and warned that ‘if the Nigerian government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the USA 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 had also instructed the US Department of War to prepare for possible action.

Since then, there have been reactions from authorities, condemning the designation and insisting that there is no Christian genocide in Nigeria.

Ambassador Suleiman also said he had expected the United States Embassy in Nigeria, which is very much aware of all the happenings in the country, to tell the American government the truth about what is going on.

‘If they didn’t, then it is a failure of diplomacy. Because if you are posted to a foreign country, your primary responsibility is to monitor, observe everything going on, whether it is politics, economics, cultural, social, whatever. And report to your government’, he said.

He added that things could have gone differently if the government was on top of its game in the area of diplomacy.

‘When I started speaking, I said there has been failure of diplomacy and failure of leadership. When the issue started in the United States Senate by Ted Cruz, that should have been the right time for the Nigerian Senate to assemble facts and figures, possibly with pictures of devastation in both North West, North East, and North Central, involving two states, Benue and Plateau, to go and meet their counterparts in the American Senate and convince them that there is no genocide. I have seen Senator Ali Ndume actually making this argument that there is failure within the Senate, within the National Assembly, because they failed to engage their counterparts in America.

‘And it has escalated to many senators introducing other elements and getting the American president to make the pronouncements he made.’

He also faulted the absence of ambassadors, over two years after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office, saying it is bad for the system.

‘When you have an ambassador, fully accredited, he can book an appointment to see anybody in the receiving authority. But if you don’t have an ambassador, you only have a charge d’affaires. A charge d’affaires is not an ambassador. There is a limit to where he can go. I will give you an example. I served in Brazil. When I was in Brazil, if you call the foreign ministry and you want to talk to somebody, the first thing they will do is to ask you, what is your grade? What is your rank? Because diplomacy is very hierarchical. It is very hierarchical. You cannot make a call to talk to somebody senior to you.

‘.There is nobody now in the embassy of Nigeria in Washington that can go to the State Department and see even the head of the section dealing with Nigeria,’ he said.

Daily Trust gathered yesterday that the federal government is using many channels to address the situation. Also yesterday, there were reports that the National Security Adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, met with the service chiefs. But details of the meeting were not made available to newsmen as at press time.

We’ve made our position known – House of Reps

Speaking on the matter last night, House Committee Chairman on Foreign Affairs, Oluwole Oke, said legislative and diplomatic engagements will be deployed in addressing the matter.

Oke said the United States should rather partner Nigeria to fight terrorism and general insecurity without religious colouration.

When asked about the steps taken by the committee in addressing the issue, Oke said, ‘We have conveyed our position to the US government through the appropriate channel.’

Oke faulted Trump’s position, insisting that there is no Christian genocide in Nigeria.

‘You and I live in this country. The American Mission in Nigeria does not share President Trump’s opinion. We have interacted on several occasions, even with the American group that came on fact finding and they agreed that there was nothing like religious genocide in Nigeria.

‘Mr President is a Muslim, his wife, Her Excellency (Remi Tinubu) is a serious minded Christian; a Pastor; we don’t have religious crisis in Nigeria and we won’t succumb to such,’ he said.

Meanwhile, barring any last minute change, the House of Representatives will today deliberate on the threat by President Trump of a possible military action in Nigeria.

While efforts to get the spokesperson of the House, Akin Rotimi and his deputy, Philip Agbese, to speak on the matter proved abortive last night, some lawmakers who spoke said the matter which is a burning issue in the country at the moment, will get the attention of members upon resumption of plenary today.

One of the lawmakers, in a WhatsApp message to Daily Trust last night said the matter would most likely come up on the floor of the House for deliberation today.

Another source close to the House leadership also corroborated the position that the matter would be tabled on the floor of the House for deliberation today.

Earlier, the House of Representatives on October 8, passed a resolution rejecting claim of religious persecution and genocide against Christians in Nigeria, describing it as a ‘misleading narrative.’

It also called for a coordinated diplomatic and domestic response to the proposed legislation in the United States Senate seeking to designate Nigeria as a ‘country of particular concern’.

Meanwhile, Daily Trust could not get a reaction from the Senate and its spokesman, Senator Yemi Adaramodu (APC, Ekiti South), neither answered phone calls put through to him nor responded to messages seeking clarification on the matter.

Adaramodu is also a member of the Senate ad hoc committee constituted on October 14, 2025, to develop a comprehensive position paper in response to the concerns over alleged state-backed persecution of Christians in Nigeria.

Another member of the committee, Senator Tahir Monguno (APC, Borno North), in a text message, referred our reporter to the chairman of the committee. However, Senate President Godswill Akpabio did not announce a chairman when he named members of the committee.

Although sources identified Senator Victor Umeh (LP, Anambra Central) as the committee’s chairman, efforts to reach him were unsuccessful as he neither took phone calls put through to him nor replied to a WhatsApp message seeking his comments.

Similarly, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Senator Abubakar Sani Bello (APC, Niger), could not be reached.

Trump’s allegation shows U.S. intelligence has failed – NOA

The Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Lanre Issa-Onilu, has dismissed claims of a Christian genocide in Nigeria, saying the United States has once again erred in its intelligence gathering.

Speaking at the monthly joint security press briefing in Abuja on Monday, the NOA boss described the allegation as false and unfair, stressing that even the U.S. knows there is no systematic persecution of Christians in Nigeria.

‘Let me speak specifically to some of the imports of the tweet. One is to say that the Christian genocide in Nigeria, I’m sure even America knows that is not true. This is not the first time that the intelligence of the United States has failed America.

‘It failed them in Iraq. It turned out that there were no weapons of mass destruction, and they apologised. It failed them in Libya and many other instances. So, I’m sure this is another error in their intelligence gathering,’ Issa-Onilu said.

He noted that the recent changes in Nigeria’s military leadership demonstrated the government’s seriousness about strengthening internal security.

‘A country that is not working seriously on the issue of security will not take such drastic steps as the president took last week, changing the top echelons of the military to ensure that the system is rejigged and empowered to do more,’ he said.

He also noted an improvement in security synergy among the military, Department of State Services, Police, Immigration, and others in October.

‘Security synergy among the military, DSS, Police, Immigration Services and others improved measurably in October, producing faster interdictions and fewer casualties.

‘Terror-linked arrests rose by 33 per cent, reflecting proactive use of human and digital intelligence. Rescues increased by 40 per cent, showing that security operations are shifting from reactive to preventive.

‘Fatalities dropped by 12 per cent, demonstrating effectiveness of joint operations and early warning systems.

‘The government acknowledges the sacrifices of our security forces and reaffirms that data-driven collaboration and citizen intelligence are central to sustaining national peace and safety,’ Issa-Onilu said.

Abdulsalami urges national unity

Former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd), has called on Nigerians to set aside their differences and unite in defence of the country’s sovereignty, warning that external threats could undermine Nigeria’s fragile peace.

Speaking from London in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday, Abubakar expressed concern over recent comments attributed to US President Donald Trump, describing them as a ‘grave threat to the country’s hard-won unity.’

He said Nigeria must respond to such provocations with restraint and strategic engagement, rather than division and confrontation.

‘Unity, wisdom, and diplomacy must take precedence over division and pride at this critical moment,’ Abubakar said.

He urged the United States to support Nigeria’s efforts in combating insecurity, rather than issuing threats that could escalate tensions.

According to the former leader, quiet diplomacy and strategic dialogue are essential in engaging Washington and addressing the underlying issues fuelling the current rhetoric.

Abubakar reiterated the importance of national solidarity, noting that Nigeria’s strength lies in its ability to remain united in the face of adversity.

US president’s comments oversimplify Nigeria’s security crisis – Analyst

A London-based Nigerian analyst has also faulted President Trump’s position. Barrister Bulama Bukarti, a Senior Analyst on Conflict and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa, told Daily Trust that the comments risk deepening religious divisions and undermining peace building efforts.

‘President Trump’s comments reflect a dangerous oversimplification of Nigeria’s complex security crisis,’ Bukarti said. ‘The claim that there is a ‘mass slaughter of Christians’ by ‘Islamic radicals’ distorts the reality on the ground and risks deepening divisions in a country already under immense strain.’

He explained that while extremist groups such as Boko Haram and its offshoot, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), have targeted Christians, they have also killed tens of thousands of Muslims.

‘Yes, the groups have sadly killed many Christians. But they have also massacred tens of thousands of Muslims.

‘For instance, data from the Council on Foreign Relations’ Nigeria Security Tracker that I gathered and analysed in my PhD thesis shows that between May 2011 and December 2020, Boko Haram carried out 83 attacks on churches and 72 attacks on mosques during that period, killing 1,521 people in churches and 2,017 in mosques,’ he said.

He added that the group’s attacks on civilian locations such as markets, bus stops, and refugee camps disproportionately affect Muslims, as the regions where they operate are predominantly Muslim.

‘By framing this crisis as a religious genocide, Mr. Trump’s rhetoric not only misinforms the international community but also risks fuelling extremist propaganda and undermining local efforts to build peace,’ Bukarti warned.

He noted that Nigeria’s security challenges are rooted in a mix of factors, including poverty, weak governance, and corruption-not religion alone.

‘If the United States truly wants to help, it should strengthen Nigeria’s capacity to protect all its citizens, Christian and Muslim alike, rather than import a divisive narrative that serves neither truth nor peace,’ he said.

Decision misguided – Political scientists

The Nigeria Political Scientists Association (NPSA) has described as misguided the decision of the United States of America. The association said while insecurity in the country remains worrisome, it does not meet the threshold of genocide as defined by international law.

In a statement signed by its President, Professor Hassan Saliu in Il?rin, NPSA said its examination of relevant documents showed that Nigeria’s situation falls short of the definition of genocide as contained in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

It stressed that this assessment does not absolve the Nigerian State of responsibility for citizens’ safety or for the failure to prosecute perpetrators of heinous crimes effectively.

According to the group, government responses have largely been limited to statements and visits without meaningful reforms.

He said the trend signals a lack of commitment to tackling the root causes of insecurity.

‘Citizens of different faiths have been victims of violence, and this is worsened by the perception that the State is lenient towards perpetrators.

‘The situation demands urgent attention, and government priorities should move from electoral concerns to addressing the growing security crisis’, the association said.

NPSA added that while the US classification might be counterproductive, Nigeria should handle the situation through diplomacy and demonstrate its commitment to human rights as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution and international conventions.

The association warned that activating US sanctions could harm Nigeria’s global image, deepen religious divisions, and reverse diplomatic gains achieved in recent years.

ADC: Trump should support Nigeria to solve its challenges

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) said it appreciates the United States of America, President Donald Trump and other world leaders for their concern about the security situation in our country, but added that such concerns should be translated into supporting Nigeria to grow her democracy and develop its capacity to solve its own problems.

Reacting to the designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern by the US President, ADC said mobilising armed troops or even a mere threat of doing so would do more harm than good and ultimately prove counter-productive to Nigeria’s democratic aspiration and the long-term unity and stability.

Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, National Publicity Secretary of the party in a statement said the problem of insecurity in Nigeria did not start with President Tinubu, adding that ‘The problem is that President Tinubu has refused to acknowledge that the crisis has got worse under his watch and has refused to accept responsibility. Instead, Nigerians have been met with excuses, cruel silence or utter indifference, and political posturing that mocks the tragedy of victims and their families.’

ADC also blamed the ‘structural and diplomatic failures that continue to deepen Nigeria’s vulnerability on the international stage,’ asking why has the Nigerian government failed to appoint ambassadors to key countries, more than two years into its term?

‘How can a government that has been boasting of unprecedented revenue success continue to give lack of fund as excuse for not appointing ambassadors?’ The party queried.

The party lamented that under President Tinubu, Nigeria has declined both as a continental and a regional leader, saying, ‘Nothing underlines this decline more than the fracturing of the ECOWAS under his watch.

‘A region that once looked up to us for direction and leadership on issues of democratization and security now doesn’t think we matter anymore as smaller countries watch us fumble aimlessly with our own domestic crisis’, it said.