ABUJA: Nigerians across the religious spectrum pushed back on Monday on US President Donald Trump’s threats of military intervention over the killing of Christians in the country.

Africa’s most populous country, which is roughly evenly split between a mostly Christian south and Muslim-majority north, is home to myriad conflicts, which experts say kill both Christians and Muslims, often without distinction.

But claims of Christian “persecution” in Nigeria have found traction online among the US and European right in recent months.

“Christians are being killed, we can’t deny the fact that Muslims are (also) being killed,” Danjuma Dickson Auta, a Christian and community leader, said.

Trump said on social media over the weekend that he had asked the Pentagon to map out a plan of attack.

Asked by a reporter aboard Air Force One if he was considering putting US troops on the ground or using air strikes, Trump replied: “Could be, I mean, a lot of things -- I envisage a lot of things.” “They’re killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers,” he said on Sunday. “We’re not going to allow that to happen.”

Pushing back on the accusations, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said religious tolerance was “a core tenet of our collective identity”.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2025