The head of the African Union Commission has firmly rejected claims by former US President Donald Trump that Christians are being killed in a genocide in northern Nigeria, stating that the complex security crisis is being misrepresented.
The rebuttal came amid a heated national debate, with a leading Nigerian Christian body insisting a “Christian genocide” is indeed underway and former presidential candidate Peter Obi calling for a deeper examination of the country’s systemic failures.
Speaking at a United Nations forum in New York alongside UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf directly countered the inflammatory allegations. “There is no genocide in northern Nigeria,” Youssouf stated authoritatively. “We have issued a communiqué making clear that what’s going on in the northern part of Nigeria has nothing to do with the kind of atrocities we see in Sudan or in some part of eastern DRC.”
He provided a critical clarification on the nature of the violence, emphasising that extremist groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) do not discriminate by faith in their attacks. “I think the complexity of the situation in northern Nigeria should push us to think twice before declaring or making such statements,” Youssouf cautioned. “The first victims of Boko Haram are Muslims, not Christians, the first victims, and I’m saying it with documented references.”
He explained that the AU was concerned simplified narratives would distort the underlying drivers of the violence, which include terrorism, displacement, and local competition over land and resources.
This high-level international intervention followed Trump’s recent comments alleging religiously motivated killings and his suggestion that the US could consider “military options” to protect Christian minorities.
In stark contrast to the AU chief’s stance, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has doubled down on the genocide narrative. The PFN’s president, Bishop Wale Oke, declared, “Let us call a spade a spade. There is Christian genocide ongoing in Nigeria.”
He accused the government of indifference and complicity, citing persistent attacks on Christian communities in states like Plateau, Benue, and Borno. “We have been crying for years, presenting data and evidence, but our cries were not taken seriously. Now that Donald Trump has spoken, we are joining our voices with his to appeal to the international community to help stop this evil,” Bishop Oke stated.
However, he clarified that the PFN does not seek American military intervention but rather wants Trump to work with President Bola Tinubu to “stop the targeted killing and kidnapping of our members.”
Striking a different tone, the executive secretary of the Nigeria Christian Pilgrims Commission (NCPC), Stephen Adegbite, aligned more closely with the AU’s perspective on the perpetrators. He described the terrorists as “beasts of no nation and criminals” who should not be associated with any major religion. “They can’t be members of Islam or Christians, for both faiths are bearing the consequences of the nefarious acts and, by extension, society,” Adegbite said, urging that every effort be made to wipe them out.
Amid these conflicting interpretations, the military announced that troops of Operation Hadin Kai had rescued 74 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members from a likely abduction by Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists along the Buratai–Kamuya road in Borno State.
The corps members, comprising 36 males and 38 females, were stranded after their vehicles developed mechanical faults near a known kidnapping hotspot. A swift military deployment, prompted by a CCTV monitoring system, ensured their safe rescue.
Meanwhile, former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi used a speech at the Nigerian Guild of Editors conference to steer the national conversation away from semantics and toward root causes.
Referencing Trump’s description of Nigeria as “a now disgraced country,” Obi argued that the disgrace stems from internal failures. “Our disgrace as a nation does not arise from what others say about us,” he said. “It comes from what we have allowed—killings, impunity, corruption, hunger, and the neglect of our people.” He challenged the editors, as “custodians of national conscience,” to focus on why mass killings persist and why over 130 million Nigerians live in poverty, urging a collective effort to reclaim the nation’s dignity.
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