Human rights activist and former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has strongly criticised recent remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump, who threatened to deploy military forces to Nigeria under the pretext of protecting Christians.
In a post made on Sunday, November 2, 2025, Sowore described Trump’s statement as “perilous,” warning that such foreign military interventions have historically brought instability, destruction, and long-term suffering to the nations involved.
“The latest threat by U.S. President Donald Trump @POTUS to launch military action in Nigeria, allegedly to protect Christians, may sound appealing to some. Still, history has shown this to be perilous,” Sowore said.
The activist urged Nigerians of all faiths — Christians, Muslims, traditional believers, and non-religious individuals — to reject the idea of foreign military intervention, insisting that it would do more harm than good.
“Whether you are Christian, Muslim, animist, or non-religious, no one should celebrate such rhetoric,” he added.
Sowore pointed to the United States’ long record of failed military interventions in countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, which, according to him, only led to deeper instability and chaos.
“The United States and its allies have a long record of military interventions that leave nations more unstable than before,” he noted. “They failed to secure peace in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, or Syria, and they won’t bring salvation to Nigeria through bombs or boots on the ground.”
He emphasised that Nigeria’s real path to peace and development lies not in external military assistance but in genuine domestic reform and accountable leadership.
“What Nigeria truly needs is not a foreign saviour, but legitimate, accountable leadership—one that protects all citizens, upholds justice, and ends the cycles of corruption and violence that have left the nation broken,” Sowore said.
In a direct criticism of both U.S. foreign policy and Nigeria’s political establishment, Sowore argued that President Trump’s comments were politically motivated and not driven by genuine concern for Nigerians.
“Donald Trump does not care about Nigerians—not Christians, Muslims, or anyone else. Our deliverance will never come from abroad; it must come from within, through real leadership (not the Tinubus of this world) and national renewal,” he added.
Sowore’s reaction follows a series of controversial statements by President Trump over the weekend. On Saturday, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, declaring that the United States might take military action against Nigeria if what he described as “the killing of Christians” continues.
“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. 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 who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump wrote.
He further stated that he had instructed the U.S. Department of War to prepare for “possible action,” warning that any strike would be “fast, vicious, and sweet.”
The U.S. President’s threat came a day after he announced that Nigeria had been redesignated as a “Country of Particular Concern” due to what he called the mass killing of Christians by radical Islamist groups.
“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria,” Trump said in his earlier post on Friday, claiming that “thousands of Christians are being killed.”
Trump’s remarks have sparked widespread debate and criticism both in Nigeria and internationally, with many analysts warning that such rhetoric could escalate tensions and undermine diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Meanwhile, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had earlier reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to religious freedom, stressing that the country’s democracy is founded on constitutional guarantees that protect citizens of all faiths and oppose any form of religious persecution.
As the diplomatic and public discourse continues, Sowore’s statement adds to the growing calls for Nigeria to focus on internal solutions to its challenges rather than depend on external threats or interventions.
