‎Donald Trump and His Vicious and Sweet Attack -By Abdulkadir Salaudeen

Nigeria is a great country by whatever criteria one chooses to measure greatness. Define greatness as an admirable concept from any perspective, and you will find out that Nigeria has the potential to be great. However, the country has been plagued by selfish, inept, and unpatriotic rulers who could trade anything for their insatiable appetite for pleasure and the capture of state power. Until we elect leaders and reject rulers, I don’t see Nigeria surmounting any of its problems.

‎So, how do we distinguish leaders from rulers at the poll? This might be somewhat difficult since rulers can deceive the electorate and present themselves as leaders. Here I am referring to contesting candidates who have never held public office. But for those who have been in office, we already know them. Rejecting the bad, the ugly, and the worst among them is very easy— but only if we are reasonable people.

‎We lose our reason and sanity when we allow ethnicity, regionalism, and hypocritical religiosity (the most dangerous of all) to influence our sense of judgment. In addition, we lose our sense of humanity when we sell our conscience for peanuts; when we vote for candidates in return for crumbs (spaghetti, rice, sugar, biscuits, and other consumables) as if occasional food puts an end to hunger induced by injustice and caused by bad governance.

‎Since Bishop Wilfred Anagbe from Benue State made the controversial claim that there is an ongoing genocide against Christians in Nigeria, religious fissures in Nigeria have widened to a more deplorable state. Due to our hypocritical religiosity, which derides objectivity, every writer, commentator, and analyst on this genocidal claim is viewed, first, from his name. Whether he bears a Christian or Muslim name is the first thing to find out. Should a Christian analyst claim the claim of genocide against Christians is too wild to believe, he would be branded, immediately, as a useless and sell‑out Christian. His brethren will reject him and libel him a Judas.

‎Similarly, should a Muslim condemn the Nigerian government for denying that there is genocide against Christians in Nigeria, saying it is not a well‑thought‑out diplomatic response, all hell would let loose on him for betraying a Muslim‑Muslim government. I have my position on this issue, like many other commentators. However, stating my position, as others have done, will not solve the problem. As far as I am concerned, the Nigerian government has the solution to the problem if it intends to solve it.

‎Now, let’s put the argument of whether there is genocide against Christians or not aside. The question to ask is: what is the government doing (or planning to do) about this overwhelming insecurity that leads to the designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC)? I checked the website of the Nigeria Sanctions Committee (NSC); as of today (7th Nov 2025), there are 48 individuals and 11 entities identified as financiers of terrorism on the sanction list. What is the government doing about these terrorism sponsors? Is being placed on a sanction list all that is required? May be President Tinubu should submit the list to Trump, the new “Messiah.”

‎If the Nigerian government is truly willing to collaborate with the United States, why now? And is the United States a country to actually collaborate with to fight insurgency? What footprints have its interventions left in those countries in crisis? According to Trump, “If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet.” Those who care to know should ask citizens of Libya, Syria, Iraq, Vietnam, Somalia, Haiti, and Panama how vicious and sweet the intervention of the United States was. But do we really blame those who reported the Nigerian government to megalomaniac Trump?

‎I listened to the Bishop Wilfred Anagbe’s controversial presentation where he testified before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, saying Christians face “systematic, frequent” violence. While he generalized that there is genocide against Christianity in Nigeria, his emphasis was more on Benue State.

‎But to be frank, is Benue State a place to be and feel safe? I know the northern Muslims would say Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Borno are far worse than Benue State in terms of insecurity. In fact, they could plausibly argue that the killings in each of these core Muslim states are far more than the killings in Benue State. That is true and no doubt about it. But should the Christians in Benue State resign themselves to fate while they are being killed on a daily basis? Should they be shouting “Ba Korafi”  (No complaint, all is well) and singing “Ọmọ Ologo”  while they continue to bury, conduct mass burials of, their loved ones who fall to the cold hands of marauding kidnappers and terrorists?

‎What have the Muslim organizations, sects, and clerics in the North been doing while their villages are being wiped completely off the surface of the Nigerian map by bandits and terrorists? No protest, it is haram. No demonstration, you go to Hell when you demonstrate. No complaint, it will amount to criticizing rulers in public, and that is also haram. If a Muslim cleric were to testify before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa about genocide against Muslims in Nigeria, his action would be described, by his clerical fellows, as rebellion against rulers which is haram that leads to Hell. When terrorists strike and kill hundreds of your people, just say “Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un— to Allah we belong and to Him shall we return.” That is all.

‎I actually don’t know who did this to us. Yet our people are being moved in droves to the slaughter labs on a regular basis. What the Muslim clerics in the North proudly do is engage terrorists, with the support of the government, in “peaceful” dialogue. I am still struggling to understand what this means. Apology to those Muslim clerics who could not make sense of this nonsense.

‎Now that those who care for their people report the Nigerian government—for doing nothing about the “genocide” committed against them—to the almighty Trump, the government is running helter‑skelter. I wish the government, under the rulership of Tinubu, would run in the right direction.

‎But, is there genocide against Christians in Nigeria? This is half the truth. There is truly genocide in Nigeria, but it is not against any religious group. It is against Nigerians. So Trump should be generous in firing his quick, vicious, and sweet missiles. They shouldn’t be fired against the killers of his “cherished Christians” only; they should be fired against the killers of innocent Nigerians. We are all victims of wicked, selfish, and nonchalant rulers in Nigeria. May the Almighty restore peace to our mother country. We are really in a mess.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen

salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com