Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, has strongly countered recent pressure from the United States regarding the security situation in Nigeria, particularly concerning allegations of Christian persecution. Onanuga asserted that the Nigerian leader was “well ahead of the orchestrated game unfolding in America.”
This comment comes amid heightened diplomatic friction, days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced the redesignation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) and threatened to cut off all financial aid to the West African nation. Trump also issued a stark warning, threatening that the United States “may very well go into that now disgraced country guns-a-blazing, to completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists killing Christians.”
Reacting to the escalating rhetoric and the broader international attention on Nigeria’s security challenges, Onanuga took to his X handle on Sunday to defend the President’s proactive leadership. He emphasized that President Tinubu had already issued forceful instructions to the newly appointed service chiefs.
“President Bola Tinubu was well ahead of the orchestrated game unfolding in America as he told the new service chiefs on Thursday what Nigerians expect of them. No more excuses, he said. Nigerians want results,” Onanuga wrote, referencing the President’s recent address.
To demonstrate this proactive stance, Onanuga shared a direct excerpt from the President’s address to the military leadership, in which Tinubu called for decisive and technologically-driven action against all emerging threats nationwide.
In his address to the service chiefs, President Tinubu issued a clear mandate: “Security threats are constantly evolving, constantly mutating. Of grave concern to our administration is the recent emergence of new armed groups in the North-Central, North-West, and parts of the South. We must not allow these new threats to fester. We must be decisive and proactive. Let us smash the new snakes right in the head.”
The President concluded his remarks by assuring the military of his full support in deploying technology and innovation to secure positive results in the fight against insurgency.
These exchanges occur against a backdrop of increasing criticism from powerful right-wing figures in the U.S. Congress, notably Senator Ted Cruz, who claim that Nigerian Christians are facing systematic persecution. In October, Senator Cruz introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025, a bill that seeks to impose sanctions on Nigerian officials accused of enabling the “mass murder of Christians.”
