Nigerian President Bola Tinubu named a former intelligence chief as his top envoy to the U.S. seeking to ease tensions after President Donald Trump warned of possible military action over claims that Christians are being systematically killed by Islamist militants in the West African nation.
Ayodele Oke, a former director-general of Nigeria’s National Intelligence Agency, was nominated as ambassador to the U.S., alongside retired Colonel Lateef Kayode Are to the UK and Amin Mohammed Dalhatu to France, the presidency said in a statement on Thursday. “The postings will be finalized following Senate screening,” it said.
The president also named the members of the Nigerian side of a U.S.- Nigeria working group, to deepen collaboration on security, according to an emailed statement.
The Nigerian team will be headed by National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, who led a delegation to the U.S. this month to engage senior members of Trump’s team and some U.S. lawmakers over the notion of deliberate killing of Christians. The creation of the joint working group on security was one of the outcomes of that meeting, the statement said.
Nigeria has had no substantive diplomatic representation in Washington since Tinubu recalled all ambassadors in 2023. The gap has become more glaring as tensions with the U.S. have escalated.
Earlier this month, Trump said in a Truth Social post that he’d told the Pentagon “to prepare for possible action” in Nigeria and threatened to cut off U.S. aid. He later claimed Christians were being killed “in very large numbers.”
In the days after his comments, nearly 400 people, including primary and secondary school students, were abducted in a series of attacks that prompted the president to cancel a planned trip to the G-20 summit in South Africa, and an African Union-European Union heads-of-state meeting in Angola. While some of those abducted have since been released, more than 250 pupils and teachers who were seized from a Catholic school on Nov. 22. remain in captivity.
Tinubu on Wednesday declared a security emergency and directed the military and intelligence agencies to accelerate recruitment, saying “there will be no more hiding places for agents of evil.” He asked the secret police to deploy guards “to flush out the terrorists and bandits” lurking in forests.
The idea of a genocide against Christians in Nigeria has been floating around right-wing circles in the West for years. It was brought up by Trump during his first term in office and has gained traction in recent months. Tinubu has denied that any religious group is being singled out.
The nation of 230 million people — roughly split between Muslims and Christians — has a long history of ethnic violence driven by access to resources such as land and water, and terrorism by the likes of jihadist groups Boko Haram and Islamic State.
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With assistance from Rene Vollgraaff and Moses Mozart Dzawu.
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