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…Says country “A Disgrace”
…Describes FG and inefficient
By Chinelo Obogo
The United States President, Donald Trump, has again hit the Federal Government of Nigeria, describing it as inefficient and the country as a disgrace.
Speaking during a conservative radio program on Friday night, November 21, 2025, Trump said that the government under President Bola Tinubu has been ineffective in addressing the security challenges in Nigeria despite the contributions of the US. 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.”
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.
Timeline of the US government’s actions against Nigeria
October 6, 2025: US Congressman Riley Moore sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging the Trump administration to take immediate action to address the killing of Christians in Nigeria. Moore said that over 7,000 Christians had been killed in Nigeria in 2025 alone, an average of 35 per day, with hundreds more kidnapped, tortured, or displaced by extremist groups such as Boko Haram.
October 31, 2025: Trump took to social media to declare Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act. Trump stated, “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter.”
November 1, 2025: Trump warned that if the Nigerian government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the United States would immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria and may go into the ‘disgraced country with guns blazing’ to completely wipe out Islamic terrorists. The State Department then officially updated its designation for Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern for its violations of religious freedom and persecution of Christians.
November 2, 2025: President Bola Tinubu responded, saying his administration would be open to meeting with Trump to discuss counterterrorism and security cooperation, while stressing that any collaboration must respect Nigeria’s sovereignty. Tinubu stated that the characterization of Nigeria as a religiously intolerant country does not reflect the national reality, noting that religious freedom and tolerance have been core tenets of the nation’s collective identity.
November 17, 2025: Senator Ted Cruz revealed that the next step would be imposing targeted sanctions on government officials aiding terrorism in Nigeria. Cruz said, “The next step is putting targeted sanctions on particular government officials; government officials who are complicit in what is happening. There are twelve states in Nigeria that have Sharia and blasphemy laws. Those laws are used to persecute Christians.”
November 20, 2025: 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” at 11:00 am in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building. 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: Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Sokoto, Zamfara, and Yobe State. Nigeria would remain on the CPC list unless all 12 northern states repeal or substantially amend their blasphemy laws, extremist groups are neutralized and progress is shown in tackling insecurity.
