Yesterday, the president gave a brief update on the nation’s counterterrorism efforts, including arrests, convictions, and notable drops in terror-related fatalities since 2023.
Following charges of genocide against Christians in Nigeria by US President Donald Trump and the classification of Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC), the update was tweeted on its verified X handle, @NGRPresident.
Additionally, the US had alluded to potential military action and threatened penalties.
The update coincided with the denunciation by the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) of the US president’s accusation of genocide against Christian believers and the classification of Nigeria as a country of particular concern as part of an American government plot to destabilize Nigeria.
In a similar vein, the leadership of Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN), Muslim Ummah, and Bauchi State Chapter denounced Trump’s plan to designate Hamas as a terrorist group, calling it unfair and detrimental to the settlement of the Palestinian problem.
The Nigerian government consistently denied the genocide accusation, claiming that terrorism, banditry, and communal violence—rather than religious persecution—are the main causes of the nation’s ten-year security crisis.
The government insisted that people of all religions and geographical locations had died as a result of the security problem, and it persisted in requesting assistance from international allies, particularly the United States, in its continuous efforts to overcome the crippling obstacle.
The statement reiterated President Bola Tinubu’s position that “the security of Nigeria is non-negotiable,” emphasizing that since 2023, increased inter-agency cooperation has resulted in strict measures against terrorists and insurgents.
According to the numbers made public, security services had “vigorously pursued, arrested, eliminated or successfully convicted” radicals connected to some of the deadliest incidents in the nation.
According to the update, since 2024, Nigerian courts have found over 124 terrorists and insurgents guilty, and a number of high-profile suspects, such as Ansaru leaders, those connected to the 2022 Owo Church massacre, and those involved in the Yelwata reprisal killings in Benue, were on trial.
The federal government also outlined a number of counterterrorism initiatives, such as bolstered joint security task forces, improved border patrols with regional allies, ongoing joint operations in high-risk areas, higher compensation for attack victims, and increased intelligence cooperation with foreign partners.
The presidency announced, using quantifiable findings, that as of 2025, terror-related deaths in Nigeria had decreased by 81% from 2015. The improvement was attributed to increased interaction with affected communities and counter-insurgency efforts.
Additionally, it showed that more than 124,000 fighters and their dependents turned themselves in to the authorities, and more than 13,000 terrorists were neutralized in the last year alone.
More than 2.1 million internally displaced people (IDPs) have returned to their communities, and many places are seeing restoration and restored stability, according to the presidential message.
In order to boost reintegration efforts, reconstruct damaged settlements, and facilitate rehabilitation, the government said it also implemented a Resettlement Scheme for Persons Impacted by Conflict.
Nonetheless, the administration persisted in advocating for international cooperation, stressing that international assistance is still essential for breaking up terror networks that operate internationally.
NSCIA: US Pretext to Destabilize Nigeria: Alleged Christian Genocide
The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) condemned the accusation of genocide against Christians and the designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern, claiming they are part of an American government plot to destabilize Nigeria. At a press briefing yesterday, NSCIA Secretary General Professor Ishaq Oloyede reaffirmed this stance in response to Trump’s accusations of ongoing genocide against Christians and his threat to authorize the US to strike Nigeria if no meaningful action was made to stop the atrocity.
According to Oloyede, all Nigerians, regardless of their ethnicity or religion, were suffering unimaginably as a result of the country’s complicated and terrible ongoing security issue.
He emphasized that Amnesty International, which conducted a thorough investigation into the country’s insecurity and concluded that there was “no evidence of a religious motivation” to classify it as genocide, has confirmed that many parts of the country are experiencing horrific savagery against Muslims and Christians, Imams, and priests.
“On behalf of the Nigerian Muslim Ummah, the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), following its Expanded General Purpose Committee (EGPC) meeting earlier today, convenes this conference to condemn the recent threat against the sovereignty of our nation,” said Oloyede.
Since we view the deaths of Muslims as a matter of national security rather than a religious conflict, we have not been drawing attention to them. The world is aware that some unpatriotic and Islamophobic Nigerians wrote a dangerous script, spread it in Western circles, particularly in the US, and attracted the attention of the US government’s top officials, who are mistakenly led to believe that Nigeria is experiencing a “Christian genocide.”
Every right-thinking Nigerian was alarmed when Mr. Donald Trump, the president of the United States, called our nation “disgraced.” This is because an ally who is committed to helping a sovereign nation “completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities” would offer to help and collaborate with the nation rather than using such language to describe a country it aims to partner in wiping out the terrorists.
Although several nations, including China, Saudi Arabia, and Myanmar, have also been named “Countries of Particular Concern,” the current context of “what Nigeria will not like” implies that the plan is a ruse to destabilize our nation. /
“It reaffirmed the findings of the 2022 Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) report, which concluded that anti-Christian persecution was not the primary cause of violence in Nigeria because Muslims and adherents of other faiths were also severely impacted.”
There was no “Christian genocide” in Nigeria, according to NSCIA. According to Article II of the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 9 and Article 6 of the Rome Statute 11, the accusation was a crime with a specific “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
According to the council, Muslims who disagreed with Islamist Jihadists-ISWAP and Boko Haram were “dissidents and were killing both Muslims and Christians and demolishing Mosques and Churches.”
In addition to supporting the claim made by US Congressman Scott Perry in his testimony that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was funding the operations of Boko Haram and other terrorist organizations in Nigeria and other countries, NSCIA accused the US of founding Al-Qaeda, which is being portrayed as Islamic.
It argued that unrelenting desertification and climate change, which dried up water sources and ruined pastures in the far-northern Sahelian area, were the true causes of violence in Nigeria.
“This is a desperate southward migration of herders seeking survival, not a ‘Islamist invasion,'” stated Oloyede. Herders are forced to compete directly and frequently violently with sedentary farming groups over limited land and water resources as a result of this climate-driven migration.
Traditional methods of resolving disputes have been undermined, and historic grazing reserves have been lost to growing settlements. This is the focal point of the farmer-herder conflict in Northern Nigeria’s Plateau, Benue, and other middle belt states.
Criminal activity is the second driver. Grinding poverty, widespread youth unemployment, drug misuse, porous borders, and the decades-long spread of small arms and light weapons are all contributing causes to banditry in the North-West, North-East, and South-East. Importantly, it is also fueled by illegal artisanal mining of solid minerals, as academics have pointed out.
Bandits and criminal organizations loot communities and uproot people, leaving an uncontrolled area for their illicit mining activities. There is nothing Islamic about this ruthless, well-organized crime ring for resources. More than 1,200 Muslims have perished in the Zamfara, Katsina, and Sokoto axis at the hands of the same bandits who are motivated by criminality rather than ethnicity or religion.
The United States Department itself claimed that “banditry and other criminality, not animosity between particular religious groups… were the primary drivers” of intercommunal violence in its 2022 Report on International Religious Freedom, according to NSCIA. There is no religious conflict here.
Then, we cannot ignore how Nigerian violence has been made possible over a long period of time by poor government. Research has shown how widespread corruption, a lack of accountability for violations of human rights, and a failure to provide individuals with basic security have all contributed to the development of impunity throughout time.
“Criminals and militias flourish when the state fails to protect anyone.” Some have referred to this as a “massive state failure” rather than a state-sponsored “genocide.”
In order to energize their domestic evangelical base and win votes in Texas and West Virginia, the council accused foreign instigators—particularly some American politicians, such as Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Riley Moore—of disseminating the false narrative of a mass murder of 50,000–100,000 Christians in Nigeria.
According to NSCIA’s regulatory filings in Washington, D.C., domestic instigators, especially separatist organizations like Biafra Republic Government In-Exile, which it claimed was hatching political/economic, but not religious, agendas by outspending the federal government on lobbyists, aided and abetted the foreign actors.
“And what is their core message?” asked NSCIA. According to the documents, their main goal is to bring up the subject of “Christian killings” on Capitol Hill. This political separatist organization uses religious identity as a weapon to further its objective of dividing and balkanizing Nigeria.
“These million-dollar lobbyists bombard Washington with manipulated footage and fictitious data. They cite 52,000 Christian deaths since 2009—a figure that Open Doors declines to support.
Additionally, as we’ve already mentioned, there is a network of Nigerians both domestically and internationally who have made a significant profit from self-flagellation. These crisis entrepreneurs take use of religious animosity transactions as quick routes to popularity and international renown.
To obtain speaking engagements, financial benefits, or privileged refugee status in the West, they invent or decontextualize allegations of persecution. There is ample proof in the media that certain religious leaders and elites made the bogus claim for nonreligious reasons. Some of them start a fire while feigning to put it out. We denounce these people for lying and doing things that are almost treasonous.
“For this reason, the council is deeply disappointed by the CAN President’s false declaration, which has now demonstrated unequivocally that those spreading the falsehood were, in fact, acting out CAN scripts.”
Muslim Ummah opposes Trump’s Hamas policy and supports Nigeria’s position on the Palestinian issue
Trump’s designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization was denounced by the Muslim Ummah, Bauchi State Chapter, and the leadership of the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN), who said it was unfair and detrimental to peace in the Palestinian problem.
However, they called for an unconditional ceasefire and the removal of Zionist forces from Gaza, expressing support for the federal government’s advocacy for justice for Palestinians.
The National Islamic Center, Zaria, issued the call in a communiqué following a session on leadership development.
The MSSN, Bauchi Area Unit leadership met over the weekend at Sultan Muhammad Saad Abubakar Hajj Camp in Bauchi.
In addition to denouncing the ongoing banditry and kidnappings, the communiqué, which was signed by Professor Abdullahi Lare Amaoo, Chairman of the Communiqué Drafting Committee, called on stakeholders and security agencies to step up their efforts to counter these threats.
It voiced profound concern about the widespread corruption that permeates society at all levels and urged swift, coordinated action to prevent the country from collapsing.
The Muslim Ummah emphasized that in order to ensure the survival and prosperity of the country, piety (Taqwa) was a crucial leadership quality.
The nation’s widespread poverty and misery were again emphasized in the communiqué, underscoring the pressing need for practical solutions.
In response to security concerns, the Ummah encouraged security agencies and stakeholders to step up their efforts to combat the ongoing kidnappings and banditry.
They called for an unconditional ceasefire and the evacuation of Zionist forces from Gaza, expressing support for the federal government’s struggle for justice for Palestinians.
The goal of the Muslim Ummah was described by Professor Muhammad Babangida Muhammad, National Ameer, who emphasized its role in guaranteeing the people’s spiritual, physical, socioeconomic, and moral advancement.
Dr. Usman Bugaje emphasized the need to strike a balance between obstacles and the skills necessary for efficient management, highlighting the significance of resolving the Ummah’s leadership crisis for stability and healthy growth.
Additionally, the workshop included elections for new state leadership, the establishment of area branches, and the inauguration of their leadership in 20 local government regions.
