Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Nyesom Wike has blamed the opposition political parties for the brewing diplomatic row between the United States and Nigeria over alleged Christian genocide as a result of which President Donald Trump threatened to invade Nigeria to crush the Boko Haram terrorists.
Wike said the goal of the opposition is to make sure that President Bola Tinubu is not re-elected in 2027 just like the opposition in 2015 orchestrated the defeat of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
At the time, Tinubu was the face of opposition that made Nigeria almost ungovernable for Jonathan, inciting protests and engaging in international campaigns against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration.
Newsmata.com.ng reports that Trump had Saturday night in a post on Truth Social, threatened to stop all aid to Nigeria and has instructed the Pentagon to “prepare for possible action”, accusing the Tinubu-led government of allegedly failing to rein in the persecution of Christians.
He threatened that the U.S. “may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”
But reacting to this development on Channels Television programme, Politics Today on Monday night, Wike insisted that it is all about 2027, stressing that it is politics taken too far. “This is very clear. Everyone knows that”, he insisted.
The minister, who argued that the President Tinubu that he knows would not shut his eyes when people were being eliminated being a Muslim and his wife a Christian, said, “That is why I said it is politics taken too far. The point is that I have always told everybody, in 2015, under Jonathan, people capitalise on this kind of things to take over power. It happened”.
According to him, “There are so many undercurrents going on. The opposition today have seen that look, the way it is, no party is ready, no party is prepared to challenge the president’s return to power.
“Now, what do we do? Should we allow him to just go in like that? What are challenges? We must do something. One of the best things is bring up such thing that we can divide the country that will make people to say no, no, no, we would not accept this. And I say look, this is politics taken too far”.
Reminded this the allegation emerged from the US Congress, Wike said “I have told you here the way opposition works. It happened under Jonathan, for Christ’s sake. Opposition used external forces to make President Jonathan not to win the election. Are we not aware of that?”
Stoutly defending the president, Wike queried: “When the Chibok girls were kidnapped and taken away, Tinubu was the president. Jonathan was the president. So, killings in Benue, in Plateau is not because Tinubu was in power.
“And you cannot say that the government under his leadership has not taken steps to see that the killings stop”.
Rejecting the notion of Christian genocide, he said “I don’t need to be a Christian for me to feel bad that people are killed. I don’t need to be a Muslim to feel bad that human beings are being slaughtered. Rather, I should say as a human being, as a patriotic Nigerian, what do I do to support the government in making sure that we stop these killings.
“It is not for me to capitalise that people are dying in Plateau, it’s not for me to capitalise that people are dying in Benue. They wanted to take over the reins of governance. No, no, no”.
Wike however stated that he would support President Trump in assisting Nigeria in the fight against insurgency.
“I have said I will support Trump in providing, supporting Nigerian with technology in prosecuting the fight against terrorism. I will support any country that wants to proffer solution in supporting Nigerian government to fight terrorism. After all, so many countries have done that in fighting terrorism. Just for example, when you go to Borno State, you hear bombings in the city. Who knows so, so, person died; is he a Christian, is he a Moslem, is he a non-believer?”
Narrating how he narrowly escaped death in 2011 when he visited Maiduguri, the FCT minister said, “In 2011, when I was made a minister of State (Education), I travelled to Maiduguri. I was the first minister under that Boko Haram to go to Maiduguri. I visited a school. Immediately I left that school that same day, that school was burnt down. Nobody should be happy. Nobody should play politics”.
