Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has accused U.S. President Donald Trump of making false claims about a “Christian genocide” in Nigeria. He recently described the American leader as someone who hates Africa, and Nigerians have been reacting.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Falana revealed that Trump cannot back his allegation that thousands of Christians were being systematically killed in Nigeria with proof.
According to him, the truth of the matter is that the violence in different parts of the country is mainly driven by criminality and resource conflicts rather than religion.
He stated that kidnappers, for instance, do not care about the religion of their victims, and they only want the ransom their people will pay to secure their release.
“My position is that Mr. Trump has lied to the whole world by alleging Christian genocide in Nigeria without any evidence to back it up.
He said about 3,100 Christians have been killed in Nigeria. When you look at the narrative of Mr Trump, and match it with what is on ground, the killers — be it terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers and so on and so forth, or people we simply call gunmen — do not care about your religion and many of them care about the ransom that you’re going to pay. So, it’s not about religion,” he said.
Falana further noted that in violence-prone areas like Benue and Plateau states, the conflict is a result of land and grazing disputes.
He concluded by advising the Federal Government not to be bothered about Trump’s threat of military action against Nigeria, stressing that it should concentrate on examining its own shortcomings in tackling insecurity.
“Instead of losing sleep over Trump’s statement, the government has a duty to look inwards; where have we made errors?
I know him, I know his antics, I know his hatred for Africa. This matter is about the resources of our country. The same guys who are promoting this debate are also saying let’s cut China to size in Africa. We must look at the geopolitical considerations… and the errors made by our government in the past and present,” he added.
