The authorities must speak to Nigerians with clarity, urges PAT ONUKWULI
There are moments when silence stops being prudent and begins to look like evidence. Nigeria may now be standing at such a moment. The recent statement by United States Secretary of War Pete Hegseth cannot be treated as routine foreign commentary. He said President Donald Trump directed the War Department to focus on protecting Nigerian Christians allegedly targeted by ISIS. He also said months of preparation and partnership-building helped kill ISIS’ “No. 2” Commander, Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, whom he linked to attacks on Christians and plots against the U.S. homeland.
That statement is reassuring and disturbing at once. Reassuring, because every genuine blow against terrorism is welcome. Disturbing, because it raises a hard question: what does Washington believe about Nigeria’s terror landscape that Nigerians are not being clearly told?
Nigeria has not been entirely silent on the operation itself. President Bola Tinubu confirmed and welcomed the joint U.S.-Nigerian operation that killed al-Minuki, praising it as a milestone in counter-terrorism cooperation. On the military success, Abuja spoke. On the American moral framing behind it, Abuja has been far more cautious.
That distinction matters. Nigeria’s known position remains defensive on the claim of religious persecution. The government has repeatedly rejected the argument that the country’s insecurity is specifically Christian persecution. Information Minister Mohammed Idris has framed the crisis as terrorism affecting citizens across faiths, not a campaign of religious persecution.
So, the careful answer is this: yes, Nigeria has responded to the operation. But there is no clear evidence that it has directly answered Hegseth’s latest claim that the United States intervened to protect Nigerian Christians. That silence is politically significant. Abuja appears willing to embrace the military victory but unwilling to accept the American explanation for why it became necessary.
This is where the contradiction begins. Nigeria insists there is no Christian persecution. America says it acted, at least partly, to protect Nigerian Christians from jihadist violence. Abuja speaks of national complexity. Washington speaks of targeted religious killing. Nigeria rejects the label. America translates the alarm into action.
Both sides cannot simply be waved away. Nigeria is right that Muslims, Christians and traditional worshippers have all suffered from terrorism, banditry and communal violence. Many Muslim communities in the North have been slaughtered, kidnapped and displaced. But Nigeria is wrong to assume that the suffering of all citizens cancels out the targeted suffering of some citizens. This subject becomes sharper against USCIRF’s recent warning that armed Fulani militant groups remain among the deadliest non-state actors linked to religious-freedom violations, with more than 30,000 operating across Nigeria in groups ranging from 10 to 1,000 fighters.
A truth does not become false because another truth stands beside it. Yes, Nigeria’s insecurity is broader than Christian persecution. But that does not prove Christian persecution is absent. Yes, violence is driven by terrorism, land conflict, ransom economies, weak policing, foreign infiltration and political failure. But that does not make religion irrelevant. The Nigerian State must be mature enough to hold opposing truths without hiding behind either.
This is why denial is no longer enough. Denial may serve diplomacy, but it does not protect citizens. It may resist foreign embarrassment, but it does not rebuild burnt churches, deserted villages or broken classrooms.
And now, the classroom is no longer a place of learning alone; it has become a crime scene in the nation’s indictment. Recently, gunmen attacked schools in Ahoro Esinele, Oyo State, abducting at least 39 pupils and seven teachers. One of the teachers was decapitated in captivity, while police said they were reviewing an alleged video showing his gruesome beheading. The horror is not only the abduction of children or the killing of a teacher. The deeper horror is that such attacks now fit a familiar Nigerian pattern.
Since Chibok, school abductions have become a national wound: Dapchi, Kankara, Kagara, Jangebe, Bethel Baptist, Kuriga, Kebbi and Niger. These are not just incidents. They are accusations. Every abducted child is a question the state has failed to answer. Every murdered teacher is a duty abandoned.
Sovereignty is not defended by silence. It is defended by competence. If Hegseth’s framing is wrong, Abuja should correct it with evidence. If foreign reports are exaggerated, Nigeria should dismantle them with facts. If there is no Christian persecution, the government should prove it through transparent data, credible prosecutions and visible protection of vulnerable communities. But if Christians are being targeted in some places, while Muslims are also being killed in others, the honest answer is not denial. It is protection.
The Federal Government must audit security agencies, investigate alleged collusion, expose ransom networks, secure vulnerable schools, strengthen local intelligence and punish compromised officers. It must speak to Nigerians with clarity, not irritation. Citizens do not need official grammar. They need safety.
The killing of a senior ISIS commander may be a tactical victory, but it is not strategic success. The deeper battle is not only in forests, camps and hideouts. It is within the institutions whose failures have allowed terrorism to become deeply entrenched.
Nigerians should not have to endure vague, uneven messaging from their government. When foreign officials frame themselves as rescuers of Nigerian Christians, when armed groups ravage communities, abduct schoolchildren, and murder teachers, silence cannot be dressed up as restraint. And where terror announces itself through bullets, kidnappings, and graves, selective official quiet is not neutrality; it risks becoming its own confession.
Dr. Onukwuli is a legal scholar and public affairs analyst. [email protected]
