The Nigerian presidency yesterday intensified diplomatic engagement with Washington, following threats by the US President Donald Trump to launch a military intervention in Nigeria over alleged killings of Christians.

On November 1, 2025, President Trump declared that he had instructed the Pentagon to begin planning for potential action in Nigeria, and warned that US aid would be immediately cut if the Nigerian government did not act decisively.

Also yesterday, the the Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, reacted to the threats by Trump, opining that the issues are more complex than the picture of a Christian/Muslim dichotomy being painted by the US.

Soludo, who spoke during a media chat broadcast live on Arise News Channel and several other national television stations, further maintained that if for any reasons the US must step in, it must be on the invitation of the Nigerian government with due respect for international laws.

In the same vein, the federal government has said that President Bola Tinubu was proactive concerning the emerging diplomatic row from the US administration of Trump, especially with his reorganisation of the military and a serious instruction to them to end all forms of insecurity bedevilling the nation.

In Abuja, THISDAY learnt that officials of government have moved swiftly to douse tension, with several contacts currently being made with the US government for a possible meeting.

The diplomatic engagement between Abuja and Washington is seen as crucial to manage what could become a major bilateral crisis. As of last night, Nigerian officials were still coordinating with their US counterparts to clarify the basis for Trump’s demands, to reaffirm Nigeria’s commitment to protecting all citizens, and to secure assurances that any military cooperation will not undermine Nigeria’s sovereignty.

“We are talking to the White House. We are engaging seriously with them to ensure that the issue does not escalate,” a source told THISDAY.

Aside from the Foreign Affairs Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, others who attended some of the meetings yesterday included: the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu; Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake; Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris; Tinubu’s spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, among others.

But during the media chat, Soludo said that the Nigerian government needed to respond with the facts in a “deeper conversation”, adding that although America has the right to hold an opinion about other countries, it must be done within the precincts of international law.

“As a country, America has its own rights to have its own views about what is going on elsewhere, but when it comes to what it does, I am sure it must also do what it does in terms of its own response within the realm of international law,” he stated.

For instance, the governor maintained that the killings in the South-east where he hails from were not motivated by religion, emphasising that those who are killing Christians in that part of the country are people of the same religion.

“People are killing themselves, Christians killing Christians, the people in the bushes are Emmanuel, Peter, John, all Christian names, and they have maimed and killed thousands of our youths, it has nothing to do with religion. Certainly, if Nigeria requests any assistance for the military, technology and hardware to deal with insurgency, then it is within Nigeria’s call,” he added.

Soludo dismissed the planned ‘invasion’, stressing that if Nigeria was to follow the same logic, when blacks were being killed in America sometime ago, African countries would have also threatened to invade the US.

“You had police men killing some blacks… I remember the #Black Lives Matter protest, and somebody will say maybe Africa should go and invade America because blacks are being killed? I am not quite sure. Because that is the way I see it.

“I think there is a need for deeper conversation. It must end in conversation, and I am sure the government of Nigeria will respond very robustly on behalf of Nigeria. Nigeria is such a big country, and the government is doing a whole lot to safeguard the country.

“In this part of the country (South-east), we are 95 per cent Christian, and around the South-east are Christians. The people in the bushes killing people bear Christian names; it is wider than the categorisation of Christians, Muslims. Nigeria will overcome and it will end in a conversation,” the governor who is seeking re-election next Saturday stated.

He insisted that the facts needed to be properly dimensioned and understood, explaining that Nigeria could request for any assistance for the military, including technology and hardware and software to deal with the insurgents and bandits, and not on the basis of threats.