Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria's foreign affairs minister, at the Berlin Global Dialogue in Berlin, Germany, on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. The forum runs until Wednesday, Oct. 2. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yussuf Tuggar has said it was impossible under Nigerian constitution for the government to be involved in prosecution of any religion.
President of United States, Donald Trump had last week listed Nigeria as a country of particular concern, alleging that Christians are being killed over time in parts of the country with government’s complicity.
Trump announced on Truth Social last weekend that his government would immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation.
If the United States sends in military forces, it would go in “‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump wrote.
Speaking in Berlin, Germany while standing alongside Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, Tuggar said state involvement in religious persecution was “impossible” in Nigeria under the country’s laws and constitution.
He was responding to a question about U.S. President Donald Trump’s warning of possible “fast” military action in Nigeria if it fails to crack down on the killing of Christians by Islamist insurgents.
He said: “This is what shows that it’s impossible for there to be a religious persecution that can be supported in any way, shape or form by the government of Nigeria at any level, be it federal, be it regional, be it local, it’s impossible.”
The Nigerian presidency has early said it would welcome U.S. help in fighting Islamist insurgents as long as the country’s territorial integrity is respected.
Nigerian Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Olufemi Oluyede had also said: “So if we have countries out there who are ready to support Nigeria, we are ready to have them on board to help us checkmate the acts of terrorism within our space.”
A leading Muslim cleric in Kaduna, one of the northwestern states most affected by violence against Muslims and Christians, Ahmed Gumi said Trump’s comments risked further inflaming tensions in the country.
Gumi, who has faced criticism for negotiating with armed groups, said the government should work to reduce poverty in northern Nigeria to help end insecurity.
He told Reuters that: “Just do what you are supposed to do as a government. Build schools for them, build hospitals for them, good markets for them, good roads for them, give them grazing areas so they feel there’s a government.”
Michael Olugbode
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