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The Nigerian government said on Tuesday that the country’s constitution prohibits religious persecution after US President Donald Trump’s recent threats of military action in response to the killings of Christians in the nation.
“It’s impossible for there to be a religious persecution that can be supported in any way, shape or form by the government of Nigeria at any level,” Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar said at a press conference in Berlin.
This was the first statement from a high-ranking Nigerian official after Trump’s comments on Sunday. Over the weekend, Trump said on social media that he had instructed the Pentagon to formulate a potential plan for intervention, citing “they’re killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers.”
However, Tuggar stressed that Nigeria is committed to upholding constitutional principles of religious freedom and the rule of law.
As Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria has a population roughly divided between a predominantly Christian south and a Muslim-majority north, with numerous conflicts reportedly resulting in fatalities for both Christians and Muslims alike, often indiscriminately.
In recent months, claims of Christian persecution in Nigeria have gained traction among the right in the US and Europe.
Joined by his German counterpart Johann Wadephul, Tuggar warned against any efforts to create divisions in Nigeria based on religion, citing parallels to Sudan.
Although Trump has not proposed dividing Nigeria along religious lines, he claimed without substantiation that “thousands of Christians are being killed (and) Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter.”
Nigeria has refuted allegations that terrorist attacks disproportionately target Christians compared to followers of other faiths.
