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By Chinelo Obogo
United States President, Donald Trump, has again hit the Federal Government of Nigeria, describing it as inefficient.
Speaking during a conservative radio programme on Friday night, Trump said the government under President Bola Tinubu has been ineffective in addressing the security challenges in Nigeria despite the contributions of the United States.
He warned that his government would stop providing subsidies to Nigeria, saying the country is experiencing genocide with Christians being killed by the thousands.
He said: “I think Nigeria’s a disgrace, the whole thing is a disgrace. And we pay, you know, we give a lot of subsidy to Nigeria we’re going to end up stopping. The government’s done nothing. They are very ineffective. They are killing Christians at will and you know, until I got involved in it weeks ago, nobody even talked about it.”
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Trump’s statement comes after weeks of direct attacks against the Nigerian government, which began when he watched a Fox News segment about religious violence against Christians while aboard Air Force One on October 31. Within hours of landing, he took to social media to designate Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” and ordered the Pentagon to prepare plans for potential military intervention.
On November 20, US Defense Secretary met with Nigeria’s National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu at the Pentagon to discuss the violence against Christians. On the same day, the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa held a hearing entitled “President Trump’s Redesignation of Nigeria as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’: A Serious, Well-Founded Wake-Up Call.” The hearing was chaired by Representative Chris Smith and streamed live via webcast.
While the US House held formal hearings on November 20, the US Senate has been pushing legislative action through Senator Ted Cruz’s Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025. The bill, which Cruz originally introduced, is currently before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. It contains severe penalties ever proposed against Nigeria. If passed, the law would impose visa bans and asset freezes on governors of states where religious killings occur, target judges and magistrates involved in blasphemy trials, sanction police and prison officials who enforce controversial religious laws, prosecute anyone who “prosecutes, convicts, imprisons, or otherwise deprives individuals of their liberty on charges of blasphemy”
The bill mentions 12 states operating Islamic legal systems, claiming their blasphemy laws violate global religious freedom standards. They include Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Sokoto, Zamfara, and Yobe States.
