Prominent pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has asked President Donald John Trump to make good his administration’s threat to degrade, decimate and drstroy the pro-Islamist terrorists groups in Northern Nigerian forests as soon as possible because not doing so timeosly and in a time-sensitive fashion could endangers the lives of Christians especially in the major flashpoints whereby Christians have come under persistent attacks.
“We in the organised civil society community in Nigeria hereby appeal to the President of the United States of America supported by the United States congressional members to sanction the immediate enforcement of the threats by the President of the United States of America to make good his administration’s threats to massively take out the Islamic terror networks and armed insurgents responsible for some of the most heinous killings of Christians and the destruction of the places of worship especially in the North Central, North West and North East States of Benue, Southern Kaduna, Zamfara, Katsina, Plateau, and Taraba States. The reason for making this urgent appeal is because if the military strikes are not carried out, it will expose these Christians under attacks to more attacks by the terrorists just to show that the President of the USA is not committed and willing to use lawful military means to end the genocide of Christians which are realities in many states of Northern Nigeria.”
HURIWA recalled that the President of the United States of America, Mr. Donald John Trump had in a widely publiscised media statement ordered the military to prepare for action in Nigeria to tackle Islamist militant groups, accusing the government of failing to protect Christians.
HURIWA also for the umpteenth time condemned Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu for wrongly insisting that there is religious tolerance in the country and said the security challenges were affecting people “across faiths and regions”, a statement that the Rights group said constituted a deliberate official decision by a government dominated in strategic positions like Foreign Affairs, Defence and ministry of Information to lie about the reality of the ongoing bombardments of Christian communities and farming communities dominated by Christians by armed Fulani herders, Pro-Islamists terrorists and insurgents. HURIWA also blatantly accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of playing politics with the national security interest of Nigeria by failing to direct the military operatives to go all out to eliminate these terrorists or the heads of the military institutions that failed are dismissed.
HURIWA affirmed that there are a large body of evidence that the government of Tinubu may be doing business with terrorists because it is unacceptable and totally unimaginable that terrorism masterminds who were declared wanted by the Defence Headquarters in Abuja have been seen openly wielding weapons of mass destruction and have held the so-called peaceful negotiations with the state governments of Katsina and some local authorities in Sokoto and yet the military institutions in Nigeria failed to take out these terrorists.
In a media statement by Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko the National Coordinator, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA recalled that President Trump wrote in a social media post on Saturday that he had instructed the US Department of War to prepare for “possible action”.
And on Sunday, Trump reiterated that his country could deploy troops to Nigeria or carry out airstrikes to stop the alleged killings.
“They’re killing record numbers of Christians in Nigeria. They’re killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers. We’re not going to allow that to happen,” the US president said.
In Saturday’s post he warned that he might send the military into Nigeria “guns-a-blazing” unless the Nigerian government intervened, and said that all aid to what he called “the now disgraced country” would be cut.
Trump had said: “If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!”
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth then replied to the post by writing: “Yes sir.
“The Department of War is preparing for action. Either the Nigerian Government protects Christians, or we will kill the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”
Besides, President Trump earlier announced that he had declared Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” because of the “existential threat” posed to its Christian population. He said “thousands” had been killed, without providing any evidence.
This is a designation used by the US State Department that provides for sanctions against countries “engaged in severe violations of religious freedom”.
Following this announcement, Tinubu said his government was committed to working with the US and the international community to protect communities of all faiths.
HURIWA said it is shocking and disappointing that the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is kicking against the well-intentioned decision of the President of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA President Donald John Trump to help Nigeria eliminate terrorists that the President Tinubu’s government has been unwilling to deal with decisively just as the Rights group said if these attacks aren’t carried out, what it means is that the attacks against Christians in Nigeria will become more vicious and violent in the attempt by the terrorists to rubbish the publicly announced decision by the government of President Trump to hit them and eliminate them. So we are basically saying that President Trump should not expose Christians to more attacks by not actualising and pragmatically enforcing his administration’s threats to eradicate the terrorists killing Christians in massive scale in Nigeria. “We think President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should be happy that USA now wants to voluntarily wipe out the biggest security threats to the National security interest of not just Christians but the corporate entity of Nigeria. Any opposition to the plan by USA to eliminate terrorists could be interpreted to mean that the Tinubu’s government has some hidden agenda about the insecurity in the country.
*COMRADE EMMANUEL NNADOZIE ONWUBIKO,
NATIONAL COORDINATOR,
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA). NOVEMBER 4TH 2025. TUESDAY.