Anambra State Governor, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, has cautioned United States President Donald Trump against reducing Nigeria’s security challenges to a clash between Christians and Muslims, saying the nation’s problems are deeply rooted and far more complex than religion.
Speaking during a media chat on Sunday, Soludo dismissed Trump’s recent threat to “protect Christians in Nigeria,” describing it as a shallow interpretation of events that fails to capture the true nature of Nigeria’s crisis. He noted that while the United States reserves the right to express concern on global issues, any intervention must be guided by diplomacy and international law.
“As a country, America has a right to hold its own views,” Soludo said. “But whatever it does must fall within the boundaries of international law.”
The governor urged the Federal Government to engage diplomatically with Washington to correct misconceptions about the situation in Nigeria. He explained that most of the killings in the South-East are not religiously motivated but stem from local conflicts, political grievances, and criminal activities.
“People are killing themselves; Christians killing Christians,” Soludo said. “The people in the bushes are Emmanuel, Peter, John; all Christian names and they have maimed and killed thousands of our youths. It has nothing to do with religion.”
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He argued that if Nigeria ever sought international assistance, it would come through formal requests for military cooperation, intelligence, or technology support not through external threats or unilateral action.
The governor condemned any notion of foreign invasion, saying Trump’s logic would be unacceptable if applied to the United States itself. “You had policemen killing some blacks, I remember the #BlackLivesMatter protests. Should Africa then threaten to invade America because blacks were being killed? I don’t think so,” he said.
Soludo, who faces re-election on Saturday, said constructive dialogue remains the only sustainable path to peace, not divisive rhetoric or foreign interference. “There is a need for deeper conversation,” he said. “The government of Nigeria will respond robustly. Nigeria is a large country, and much is being done to secure it.”
He also rejected attempts to frame the South-East violence as a religious war, stressing that the region is overwhelmingly Christian. “In this part of the country, we are 95 percent Christian,” he said. “The people in the bushes killing others bear Christian names. It is far beyond a Christian-Muslim categorisation. Nigeria will overcome, and the solution will come through dialogue.”
