A remarkable diplomatic and rhetorical tussle has erupted between Nigeria and the United States, after the head of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) publicly challenged President Donald Trump’s threat of a “fast, vicious, and sweet” military operation on Nigerian soil.
Africa Update reports that the extraordinary intervention, which saw the NOA accuse the US of a “failure of intelligence,” came after Mr Trump took to social media on Saturday to fulminate against the Nigerian government. The former President vowed an immediate and devastating military strike should President Bola Tinubu’s administration fail to curb the escalating violence against Christians, which he termed “genocide.”
Addressing the monthly National Joint Security press briefing in Abuja on Monday, the NOA Director-General, Lanre Issa-Onilu, delivered a scathing public challenge to the American statesman.
“The U.S. should start by saving Christians in war-torn Palestine first before considering the launch of any military operation in Nigeria,” Mr Issa-Onilu declared, pivoting the debate from internal Nigerian security to perceived American foreign policy oversights.
The NOA boss was quick to dismiss the veracity of the genocide claim, using historical precedents to undermine the basis of the US threat.
“This is not the first time that the intelligence of the United States failed Americans,” he stated. “It failed in Iraq, it turned out that there was no weapon 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.”
Mr Issa-Onilu went on to directly fault the invasion threats, suggesting that the narrative of a targeted, systematic Christian genocide was being manufactured by domestic interests for pecuniary or political gain.
“Let me speak specifically to some of the imports of the tweet, one is to say that there is a Christian genocide in Nigeria, which I am sure that even America knows that it’s not true. But it is also understandable that there are some Nigerians actively pushing this agenda for their selfish interests,” he contended.
The Director-General acknowledged that “killings in Nigeria… should never happen,” but insisted that the violence, attributed to a combination of non-state actors, including killer herdsmen, bandits, and terrorists is a complex, multifaceted security challenge rather than a targeted religious purge.
The NOA chief concluded by defending the proactive steps taken by the Tinubu government to stabilise the volatile security environment. He cited the recent military shake-up, the replacement of top echelons in the Nigerian military, as clear evidence of the President’s resolve.
“A country that is not serious about tackling the situation will never do what the President did by changing top echelons in the military,” he asserted. He urged the Nigerian populace not to be swayed by external threats or internal “false narratives,” stating the government’s commitment was beyond question.
The fiery press conference transforms the security debate from a purely domestic matter into a high-stakes international row, demanding clarity on the source of the US intelligence and potentially compelling the Nigerian government to further demonstrate its strategic capability to secure its territory without foreign military intervention.
