Islamic cleric Ahmad Gumi has urged President Bola Tinubu to sever diplomatic relations with the United States unless President Donald Trump withdraws his threat of military action against Nigeria.
The call came after Mr Trump on Friday redesignated Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” over claims of Christian genocide. Hours later, the US president warned that the “USA will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country ‘guns-a-blazing’, to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists killing Christians.”
Following Trump’s remarks, Pete Hegseth, the United States Secretary of War, said his department was preparing for possible military action if the Nigerian government failed to stop what he called the “killing of innocent Christians” in the country.
A small group of right-wing US lawmakers, led by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, have repeatedly argued that Christians in Nigeria face persecution. In October, Cruz introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025, legislation that seeks to hold Nigerian officials accountable for “facilitating the mass murder of Christians.”
In a terse statement on Sunday, Gumi told the federal government to demand that Washington retract the threat, or cut ties. “For Trump to threaten a sovereign country with military attack is a profound disrespect to our authority, but we can rise above it,” he wrote.
He added: “President Tinubu should summon the US ambassador; they either retract their threats or we sever diplomatic ties with this irresponsible regime. There are lots of other options for our economic expansion and military alliance.”
