President Bola Tinubu will visit the US and meet with President Donald Trump once the “situation is right for him”.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said this on Friday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today amid diplomatic tension between Nigeria and the US following Trump’s recent redesignation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC).
“We believe that he will go [to the US] once the situation is right for him to go. But he has been to America. I was with him at the UN when he took office,” Mohammed said on the current affairs show.
Diplomatic tensions rose between Nigeria and the US after Trump redesignated the West African nation as a CPC over what he described as the mass slaughter of Christians.
Days later, the US leader threatened military action in Nigeria if the country’s authorities fail to address the rising wave of insecurity.
“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump said in an explosive post on his Truth Social platform.
“I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet.”
Diplomatic Moves
That comment from the US president drew global attention, but the Nigerian government has denied the targeted killing of Christians.
“Nigeria is a country with constitutional guarantees to protect citizens of all faiths,” President Tinubu said following Trump’s comment.
The Nigerian authorities are currently engaging the US government over the matter with a high-powered delegation, including the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, visiting the North American nation.
According to him, the move is part of diplomatic efforts to engage the US government and strengthen ties between the two nations.
Idris said that while the country is experiencing security challenges, the Federal Government is doing much to curtail the situation.
On Thursday, the US Congress held a public hearing on Trump’s designation of Nigeria as a CPC, drawing more attention to the state of insecurity in Africa’s most populous nation.
Nigeria is battling a myriad of security challenges ranging from banditry to terrorism and kidnapping for ransom.
This week alone, gunmen have abducted students in Kebbi and Niger State, both in Nigeria’s northern region, taking away scores of students.
