Trump and the Issues of Interventions in Nigeria
By Elempe Dele
In a recent post on social media that has kept Nigerian citizens very busy for about forty eights hours now, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, threatened to “completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities” against Christians.
Although this will not happen as it will be part of several of his numerous unfulfilled and desperate rhetorics like the promise to end war in Ukraine before inauguration, lock Hillary Clinton up over emails, build a big beautiful wall on the Mexico border paid for by Mexico, fire ‘deep state’ federal workers…but for the sake of discussion as “the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killings of Christians”, there is need for this article.
Ideally, if the formal channels of diplomacy was opened by Trump to address the issue in the usual unpublicized meetings between governments, the intervention should not be seen as a bad idea at all, in all honesty.
We all want these terrorist from Benue, Edo, Calabar, Zamfara, Sokoto and Plateau States to be wiped out sweetly.
The sustained killings of Nigerians by these Islamic terrorists, kidnappers and bandits across the swathe of the nation has reached feverish pitch.
Thousands of Nigerians have been killed since 2009 when Boko Haram first launched its uprising against the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua led government.
The group has caused over 37,000 deaths and displaced over two millions in places like Yobe, Borno, Adamawa States etc.
Why this interventionist bid is trendy within diplomatic circles is the unorthodox method Trump has employed to address the very burning issue that needs global attention.
We can all recall the un-presidential way and manner he addressed and dressed down President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa over his unsubstantiated claims that white Afrikaers farmers are being killed in South Africa and their lands are being taken by black South Africans some months ago.
We also witnessed how he also practically attempted to humiliated President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in the White House with a bid to force him to sign off his country’s rare elements in exchange for peace with Russia.
These are not ‘sweet’ diplomatic and acceptable political overtones.
This insurgency has since spread as other criminal offshoots across predominantly peaceful states such as Benue, Plateau, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kaduna States etc since 2009.
There are uncomfortable truths associated with the issue that have made many Christians that have been victims in parts of the North to feel uneasy. But the truth must be told.
While no precise record exist for obvious reasons, but cross-referencing according to reliable sources yields a substantiated estimate of 4,000–8,000 Christians killed by Islamist insurgents from 2009 to November 2025.
“This excludes deaths from non-insurgent violence. Violence (including Fulani militias) may raise the total to 10,000–20,000.”
On the other hand, “reliable data on victims by religion is also challenging due to underreporting.
The insurgents’ operations in Muslim-majority areas (e.g., Borno, Yobe states, where ~90% of the population is Muslim).
However, multiple independent trackers and analyses confirm that the vast majority of civilian victims—likely 70–90%—have been Muslims.
This includes moderate or “liberal” Muslims, clerics, and communities accused of supporting the government. Christians, while targeted explicitly in some attacks (e.g., church bombings), represent a minority of fatalities, often due to geographic factors rather than systematic genocide claims.
“No single authoritative total exists for Muslim deaths specifically, but cross-referencing sources yields a substantiated estimate of 25,000–30,000 Muslims killed by these groups from 2009 to November 2025.
This excludes deaths from inter-group clashes (e.g., ISWAP vs. JAS) or government counter operations.”
These records and details are from the combination of results from multiple sources.
If we try to get grips of the issues without prejudice and emotions, but rely on facts before us, we would find out that the criminals, these fanatics, these zealots, these thieves, these murderers, these cattle rustlers, these extortionists, land grabbers…..actually don’t profess religion in connection to their crimes.
They are not trying to force religion on their victims anywhere in the country. They are usual and unusual criminals that are plagued by several factors.
Their grounds of criminalities are neither ideological nor theological, the represent clear pathological criminals that go on to kill just to fulfill their resolutions.
So their crimes are not religiously motivated even when we cannot excuse religion from breeding such fanatics, such extremists, such fundamentalists, such killers, such mass murderers and criminals within its ranks.
Without addressing the issues, the “guns-a-blazing” Trump goes away with a different notion that is not altogether true.
The atrocities are horrible and regrettable, the government must act fast, and as a matter of necessity, decide to seek for help in terms of arms, intelligence sharing, training, equipments, technology…etc before Trumps Department of War prepare for possible action. This is a wake up call.
However, the Department of War must be told through Trump that all the victims, including the Muslims and non-religious, are Nigerians, and must be protected from these vicious killers. Just like the lives of the Christians matter, so also are the lives of the other victims.
The lives of black American matter as much as the life of the Gazan in the Shatila Refugee Camp who is feed with doses of humiliation in his homeland daily until he meets his maker. The life of the Afghanistan girl child matters as much as the life of the Rohingya boy who is stateless.
The bottom line is distressing: The insurgency has displaced over two million Nigerians, mostly Muslims, and caused a humanitarian crisis across the country. Like the Muslim victims, the Christian victims are not being targeted because of their faith, they are targeted because of their possessions.
The criminalities and violence are not basically driven by ideology or religion, but by economic factors, poverty and governmental failures. Thieves and criminals anywhere in the world don’t profess religion, they profess greed and covetousness – they want that which they have not worked for and make people who have possessions their victims.
