Human rights lawyer and senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, says Donald Trump’s ongoing threat to wage a war against terrorists in Nigeria was triggered by his interior motives to expand its military presence in Africa.
Speaking on Channels Television programme Politics Today, Falana hinged his submission on the US past roles in global conflicts, stressing that saying that the US has never helped any country in conflict.
His response comes after recent claims by US President Donald Trump that Christians in Nigeria are being subjected to mass killings, warning that the alleged attacks amount to an existential threat to Christianity in the country.
The human rights lawyer dismissed Trump’s threat, describing it as another example of America’s failed record of foreign intervention, stressing that it is shameful that Nigeria has descended to a point where foreign powers could issue such threats.
He also warned that the US will launch strikes that would be “fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs who attack our cherished Christians if the Tinubu-led administration continues to handle terrorism and banditry with kid gloves.
“The United States of America has never been a saviour of a country in times of violence. Talking of Iraq, they went for weapons of mass destruction,” he said.
“Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, wherever the United States has ever gone in any of those countries.
“America today has about 12 billion bullets. Some of them are being used locally to kill their own citizens by gunmen.” Falana said
“The most painful part of it is that Nigeria has almost reduced to a point where America is planning to attack it, where China has come up to say thou shall not do it, and the European Union has come up to say there’s no evidence of Christian genocide to warrant intervention in the case of Nigeria,” he said.
He warned that any external attack on Nigeria would not end swiftly, as the country’s security challenges are widespread and complex. “If a war breaks out as Trump is planning, it’s not like going to Iraq. You have these criminals scattered all over the country. So it’s not a strike and going back like Iraq,” he said.
Trump had earlier ordered the Pentagon to “prepare for action” over the alleged killing of Christians in Nigeria.
It would be recalled that US State Department on Monday officially updated its designation for Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” for its alleged severe violations of religious freedom and persecution of Christians.
The CPC label is given by the U.S. government to nations “engaged in severe violations of religious freedom” under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. The designation is largely symbolic, but U.S. law states that governments must “take targeted responses to violations of religious freedom.”
