Trump’s Reckless War Drums in Nigeria Stink of Islamophobia and Imperial Arrogance
For the sake of Nigerian lives and the American soul, we must not allow Trump to drag America into a quagmire of his own making.
.png)
Nov 07, 2025
In yet another display of the same divisive rhetoric that defined his first term, US President Donald Trump has once again pulled the United States into the crosshairs of global instability, this time by saber rattling over Nigeria’s complex ethnic and religious conflict. Trump not only threatened to slash US aid, but he also said he might order “fast and vicious” military strikes against what he calls “Islamic terrorists” slaughtering Christians. Aside from the fact that Trump is wrong, he is ranting xenophobic ideas, platforming American exceptionalism, and demonstrating a blatant disregard for the lives of millions caught in the cross fire of what is simply a resource war with colonial-era grudges.
Let’s be clear: The violence taking place today in Nigeria is heartbreaking and must end. Boko Haram’s extremism, clashes between farmers and herders, and general hooliganism have claimed over 20,000 civilian lives since 2020. It is true that Christian communities in the north-central regions have suffered unimaginable horrors as raids have left villages in ashes, children murdered in their beds, and churches reduced to rubble. The April massacre in Zike and the June bloodbath in Yelwata are prime examples of the atrocities taking place in Nigeria. These incidents are grave reminders that the international community must pay more attention to this crisis.
Echoes of Obama Libya Strikes as Trump Argues Boat Bombings Are Immune From War Powers Law
‘They’re Going to Be, Like, Dead’: Trump Says Land Strikes on Venezuela Are Next
But Trump’s response is crude and wrong. Painting all Muslims as genocidal monsters is not the answer. Calling Nigeria a failed state ripe for American liberation is not the solution, especially since the data shows otherwise. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, more Muslims than Christians have been targeted in recent years. Boko Haram has massacred worshipers in mosques, torched markets in Muslim-majority areas, and threatened their own co-religionists.
The crisis in Nigeria is not a holy war against Christianity. Instead, it’s a devastating cocktail of poverty, climate-driven land disputes, and radical ideologies that prey on everyone and not just any distinct group. By framing Nigeria’s conflict as an existential threat to Christians alone, Trump is not shining a spotlight on the victims. Instead, he is weaponizing right-wing conspiracy theories to stoke Islamophobia, the same toxic playbook he used to fuel his ban on Muslims, and which left refugee families shattered at America’s borders.
Americans must reject Trump’s imperial fantasy and instead demand congressional oversight on any military action.
Nigeria’s leaders are right to be astonished and furious. Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga said he was “shocked” over Trump’s invasion musings, while President Bola Tinubu decried the religious intolerance label as a distortion of their “national reality.” Even opposition voices, like Labour Party spokesperson Ken Eluma Asogwa, admit the government’s security lapses but reject Trump’s extermination narrative as baseless fearmongering.
Trump should indeed be viewed as a warmonger, seeking every opportunity to sow discord and destruction in his wake. He sees every crisis as a photo op for his machismo and self-promotion. His first term was a disaster and now, in his second term, he wants to unleash drones and troops on Africa’s most populous nation, destabilizing a key partner in counterterrorism and migration management.
Unilateral strikes will only inflame the conflict’s root causes like resource scarcity and ethnic tensions. If anything, Trump’s misguided ideas to resolve the crisis will only exacerbate it by creating new waves of refugees and sowing even more discord throughout Nigeria. The country needs real solutions, not Trump’s wrong-headed conspiracy theories. He should be saving those who are vulnerable, not bombing them into submission.
A real solution would involve surging humanitarian aid to displaced families, partnering with the United Nations and African Union for joint security training, and pressuring Nigeria’s government through incentives, not threats. Real strength is in building bridges. Trump shows his weakness by building bunkers.
The Nigerian crisis is a clarion call for the world, but especially for America. Trump’s rhetoric is not just wrong; it is a betrayal of American values. Americans must reject Trump’s imperial fantasy and instead demand congressional oversight on any military action. America must recommit to a foreign policy that heals rather than divides. The world is watching, and for the sake of Nigerian lives and the American soul, we must not allow Trump to drag America into a quagmire of his own making. Nigeria deserves better.
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Chloe Atkinson
Chloe Atkinson is a climate activist focused on US and European domestic policies.
Full Bio >
Nigeria's Ondo State announces $50bn investment framework for proposed 500,000bpd refinery, free trade zone
REAL REASON TRUMP WANTS TO INVADE NIGERIA
Nigeria’s Ondo State Government said on Wednesday (November 5) it has signed a $50bn investment agreement with a consortium of international firms under the Sunshine Infrastructure Joint Venture to establish a 500,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) oil refinery and free trade zone, The Punch reports.
Earlier this week, Backbone Infrastructure Nigeria Limited said it has secured expressions of interest for up to NGN71.8 trillion ($50bn) in funding to develop a refinery and build out the 1,471-hectare Sunshine Free Trade Zone in Ilaje, Ondo State.
The initiative follows a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the Nigerian company and the Ondo State Government in July. The State government said on Wednesday it signed an agreement with a consortium that includes Backbone Infrastructure, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), and Honeywell OUP.
CHEC, a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Company (HK:1800; SHA:601800), typically acts as an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor rather than a primary project financier. Honeywell OUP is a private real estate and industrial development arm of Honeywell Group.
“The funding followed the successful execution of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Joint Venture and the state government through the Ondo State Investment Promotion Agency,” said Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa’s press secretary, Ebenezer Adeniyan, in a statement. “This investment marks a new dawn for Ondo State. It will fast-track industrial development, attract more investors and create jobs for our people.”
Backbone earlier stated that the planned development would include storage, loading and transport infrastructure to position the zone as a refining and export hub. The private Nigerian infrastructure and project development firm said it was working with strategic partner NEFEX Holding Limited, a Canadian company that operates across key sectors of the global energy and logistics chain.
The investment scale represents a major increase from estimates publicised in mid-2025, when Backbone described the refinery concept as a 100,000-bpd project with an indicative cost of around $15bn. The larger figure reflects a fivefold expanded capacity and broader integrated zone development.
Sunshine Infrastructure JV managing director Henry Owonka is quoted by The Punch as saying that the Ondo refinery-free trade zone project’s initial valuation, which he put at $30bn, has been revised upwards to $50bn following an expansion to cover broader infrastructure and community-driven programmes. The refinery would supply petroleum products locally and internationally, he added.
The Nigerian government has prioritised domestic refining to reduce fuel imports and preserve foreign exchange. However, large-scale private refinery projects have frequently faced delays linked to financing conditions, FX volatility, and crude supply arrangements.
If realised, the proposed 500,000bpd refinery project in Ondo would significantly expand Nigeria’s private downstream refining capacity, alongside the 650,000bpd Dangote refinery, which was commissioned in 2024 and last month announced plans to double its capacity.
Dangote said on November 1 it is ramping up gasoline and diesel output to meet domestic demand, after the government last week approved a 15% import duty on refined petroleum products.
Meanwhile, as bne intelliNews reported, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has begun a fresh review of the country’s three state-owned refineries, Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, signalling yet another attempt to revive facilities that have remained largely idle despite repeated rehabilitation efforts.
World War Gorka
Reprinted from The Realist Review.
News comes this weekend that the ‘Department of War’ now has Nigeria in its crosshairs. Taking to Truth Social on Saturday, Trump let loose on the Nigerian government, warning that,
…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, I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians.”
In this administration some Christians are more cherished than others; Trump and Co. have shown zero sympathy for the scores of Palestinian Christians murdered by the IDF and Benjamin Netanyahu, a frequent and honored guest at the White House and on Capitol Hill. That aside, the planned Nigeria operation is clearly the product of the capacious imagination of Sebastian Gorka, Trump’s chief counter-terrorism adviser.
Who is this Gorka?
Before coming to the White House he was a radio host (“America First with Sebastian Gorka”) and a pitchman for Relief Factor, a dietary supplement. America First? An odd name for a program hosted by someone with British, Hungarian and American citizenship – and with probable ties to foreign intelligence. Those ties cost him a job during Trump’s first term. After his ignominious exit from the White House in 2017, Gorka spent the Biden interregnum glued to Trump’s side, appearing alongside a gaggle of future Trump II officials during Trump’s trial in New York.
If he has any talent at all (itself a debatable proposition) it is for ass-kissing. Here he is on Facebook in late September posting about Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s eulogy for Charlie Kirk:
I was born a Catholic and have walked this Earth for 54 years. Before dedicating a quarter of a century to Counterterrorism, my first degree was in Philosophy and Theology.
But I will say for the record, I have never seen a human being encapsulate in 90 seconds the meaning of Jesus Christ like Acting National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Thank you Sir.
No. Thank you, Sebastian.
Gorka is not merely a fool. He is a religious fanatic (there being significant overlap between the two categories).
Gorka believes he and his fellow zealots are “not the lambs of the Bible; that is Jesus, our savior. We turn over the tables of the moneylenders. We are there when he calls, ‘Sell everything you own and buy a sword.’” Gorka’s advice to Netanyahu after October 7th was”: “Kill every single one of them. God bless Israel. God bless Judeo-Christian civilization.”
The scholar Michael Vlahos has described Gorka as “a subaltern mini-me of the emperor himself.”
But is the emperor now taking his cues from the subaltern? Perhaps. Only 2 months into Trump II, the New York Times reported deepening divisions between the newly christened counterterrorism chief, Gorka, and elements within the interagency over whether and how to respond to an Islamist insurgency in Somalia. Gorka eventually won out. During the first week of August, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), conducted airstrikes in central Somalia.
Turning close to home: Why, one wonders, is the peace president with the Nobel Prize very much on his mind, conducting a drone war in the Caribbean? Well, appearing on Newsmax this weekend, Gorka informed viewers that, “The connections of that regime, the Maduro regime, to other bad actors, other states, other nations who, for example, have been plotting to target members of this administration, including the president. Iran’s tentacles into this hemisphere go straight through Caracas and Venezuela.” Echoing Gorka, Sen. Lindsey Graham, reliable war propagandist that he is, took to the airwaves and called Maduro’s Venezuela a “drug caliphate.” The implications are impossible to miss, as the likes of Gorka and Graham seek to marry the War on Drugs with the War on Terror.
Call it World War Gorka.
Trump: Sincerity and Verisimilitude
US president Donald Trump is apparently trying to burnish his Christian bona fides on Truth Social:
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. I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!
Secretary-of-war Pete Hegseth saluted his commander-in-chief:
Yes sir.
The killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria — and anywhere — must end immediately. 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.
Nigerian president Bola Ahmed Tinubu took exception to Trump’s and Hegseth’s depiction of internecine conflict in his country:
The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians.
Nonetheless, Trump the Savior doubled down, stating,
Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter…. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!
First off, any comments made by Trump and his yes-men/yes-women ought to be greeted with utmost skepticism. And the aphorism of “Fool me once, shame on you; Fool me twice, shame on me,” ought to be rigorously applied.
There are some questions that should spring to mind in judging the sincerity of Trump and his minions recent pronouncements.
For instance, if Trump is so concerned about the plight of Christians in Nigeria, then where was this concern for the Christian segment of Palestinians killed “by [Jewish] Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”
Elementary morality demands that ethnicity or religious allegiance should neither condemn nor exculpate a people purely by virtue of their birthright, inculcation, or even belief. We are all humans, and it is the actions of humans that speak louder than any words.
Another question: If Trump claims a right to intervene in a purported religious conflict in far-off Nigeria, how does this relate to Russia coming to the defense of ethnic Russians under attack in next-door Donbass? Or is this moot, eclipsed by American exceptionalism?
What about Trump inviting al Qaeda terrorist cum Syrian president Ahmad al-Sharaa to the White House on 10 November? Ahmad al-Sharaa’s rebranded Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is reportedly behind an “abominable massacre of Christians and Alawites in Syria,” as well as “heinous violence, including the indiscriminate murders of children and elderly” Druze Syrians.
Now ask yourself, given just these three examples, how much verisimilitude should one extend to Trump’s concern for Christian Nigerians?
Moreover, is this even about ethnicity and religious confession?
Ask: What ties all these examples together?
Oil.
Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer. Russia is the world’s third largest oil producer. Trump already bragged about stealing Syrian oil. As for Palestine: “This genocide is about oil.” A report by UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) notes, “Geologists and natural resources economists have confirmed that the Occupied Palestinian Territory lies above sizeable reservoirs of oil and natural gas wealth, in Area C of the occupied West Bank and the Mediterranean coast off the Gaza Strip…. discoveries of oil and natural gas in the Levant Basin, amounting to 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas at a net value of $453 billion (in 2017 prices) and 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil at a net value of about $71 billion…”
Why did Trump bomb Iran this summer? Because Iran is legally developing its nuclear program? Democracy Now! offers another reason: “‘It’s Always About Oil’: CIA & MI6 Staged Coup in Iran 70 Years Ago, Destroying Democracy in Iran.” And why is Trump currently blowing up fishing boats and positioning US forces threateningly around Venezuela? Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, with approximately 300 billion barrels.
The self-declared peace president has promoted a cornucopia of fake news stories to gullible folk, disseminated disinformation, and openly bragged.
The Solution
Practice open-minded skepticism or risk shaming yourself.
By Paul Wallis
November 3, 2025
Trump said 'thousands of Christians are being killed' in Nigeria, though experts say the violence is indiscriminate - Copyright APEC 2025 KOREA/AFP Handout
The news that Trump is considering military intervention in Nigeria opens a very much larger can of worms. This proposal is based on the killing and supposed persecution of Christians by Islamic terror groups.
The Catholic Weekly reports a cautious but slightly upbeat response from church leaders, who point out that interfaith coexistence is a major issue. The mix of faiths in Nigeria includes a large Christian minority.
The focus is also misleading. It’s not “just” Nigeria, to start with. Terrorism in this region has been ongoing for many years. It’s one of Africa’s festering sores and has been more or less continuous. Boko Haram and ISIS are in the catalogue of participants. The two groups are directly affiliated.
There’s another issue at the Nigerian governmental level. Nigeria denies “Christian genocide” stating that all groups are attacked by the terrorists.
This is a very different war in many ways. They’re real power groups with basic military capacity ranging across multiple countries. They have fought local national armies with limited success, but they survive.
This is also a truly huge regional area with very fluid borders. It makes cross-border wars in Afghanistan look relatively simple. Boko Haram’s known areas of operation are also obviously linked to economic and “turf wars”. Operationally they can strike across Nigeria in the north-east and the center of the country. They regularly conduct raids and publicize them well
In short, it’s a mess that can get a lot messier with third parties getting involved. Let alone the US, with the usual shipload of added political baggage.
From a purely military perspective, “going in guns a-blazing” comes with more than a few caveats.
Any US troops on the ground could be facing not just asymmetric warfare but from multiple directions and a large mix of different, often mutually conflicting parties and countries. That’s fairly normal in terror wars.
The big and defining difference is that these are long-established groups with many external links in the Middle East. In an escalated conflict, they can be expected to upgrade and call in extra resources.
This is not a subject for military naivete on any level. The theory of fighting the bad guys is fine, but these are very experienced bad guys. Far better intelligence and thorough evaluations are the minimum requirements for any sort of military operations from the boots up.
The mere presence of US troops would also be a magnet for jihadis. Attacking Americans adds a lot of propaganda value. The large African military arms black market and at the very least arm’s length national players, could be expected to get involved almost instantly. Africa’s terrorists are cashed up and can certainly obtain meaningful support from outside.
The US does not need yet another war with no clear properly defined winning strategy.
How would you beat these groups?
If the war against ISIS is any guide, they have to be militarily destroyed as a fighting force at the bare minimum. You need local support like the Kurds, who did so much inexcusably unappreciated work, stopping ISIS and grinding them down in years of hard fighting.
The terror support networks must be totally eliminated. External bases and networks like those of the Taliban in Pakistan are also likely to be major issues.
This would be a major operation. A few airstrikes will just motivate them It’ll also be ultra-expensive. It could be a matter of years to actually achieve anything.
You have to wonder how anyone can just blithely sprinkle military forces into multiple largely thankless and objective-less scenarios. Vietnam is not just another overworked but apt metaphor in this case. It can happen.
This has all the hallmarks of a very bad idea.
_____________________________________________________________
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
No comments:
Post a Comment