Pramila Jayapal, a member of the United States House of Representatives, has criticised former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on alleged Christian persecution in Nigeria, warning that his threats of military action are dangerous and oversimplify a complex situation.
Gatekeepers News reports that Trump had recently re-designated Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” and declared that the US military would go into Nigeria “guns-a-blazing to completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities”.
Speaking during a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Jayapal said the portrayal of a Christian genocide in Nigeria felt “simplistic” and failed to account for the country’s “intersectional diversity”.
“Certainly, religion is a contributing factor to the violence, but a review by the Search for Common Ground found that in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region, religion was not a primary driver of conflict,” she said.
“Instead, violence has been directed against both Christians and Muslims, regardless of religion, at the hands of armed terror groups like Boko Haram and ISIS West Africa, or fuelled by differences in lifestyle between farmer and herder groups compounded by climate change and governance issues.”
Jayapal said she was troubled that Trump had reacted to a Fox News clip by threatening to intervene militarily and cut US assistance.
“I’m very concerned that a day after President Trump saw a clip on Fox News about the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, he threatened to go ‘guns-a-blazing’ in Nigeria and revoke all assistance,” she said, before asking Jonathan Pratt, a senior official at the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, “Can you tell me under what authority would the US military strike inside of Nigeria?”
Earlier in the hearing, Pratt had explained that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had instructed the department to work with the Nigerian government on a comprehensive action plan.
“The secretary of state has directed us to put together a comprehensive plan that uses all tools at our disposal, including security and the Department of War, and this would be primarily focused on the security that we are providing to the government of Nigeria and how they are deploying their assets,” Pratt said.
“We can also share information and intelligence. We can talk about counterterrorism. And so those are the tools that we are primarily looking at in our strategy.”
Jayapal pressed him on why such tools were not the immediate response.
She added that diplomatic strategies should take priority: “I just wish we would actually stick to that playbook rather than bully and threaten a country that is extremely important to us and to the region. I don’t think that’s the right way to go, to just go on Truth Social and threaten ‘guns-a-blazing’. I think what you’ve described is much more appropriate.”
At the hearing, Congresswoman Sara Jacobs also criticised Trump’s comments, describing them as reckless and warning that Congress had not authorised the use of force.
Jacobs emphasised that any military action without Nigeria’s consent would violate international law.
