Presidential media aide Bayo Onanuga has dismissed claims of religious persecution in Nigeria, asserting that violence in the country affects both Christians and Muslims alike.
Onanuga made the statement on Saturday in response to a post by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who described the “ongoing slaughter of thousands of Christians in Nigeria by radical Islamists and Fulani ethnic militias” as “tragic and unacceptable.” Rubio, reacting to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), added that “the United States stands ready, willing, and able to act.”
In reply, Onanuga wrote on X, “Secretary Rubio, Muslim lives matter too.”
The presidential aide, who has repeatedly denied allegations of a Christian genocide, said there “is no ongoing slaughter of thousands of Christians in Nigeria,” describing such reports as a “gross exaggeration of the Nigerian situation.”
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According to him, “What we do have are sporadic attacks on some villages by bandits and terrorists, and the attacks are religiously insensitive. Christians, Muslims, churches, and mosques are attacked randomly.”
Onanuga added that what Nigeria needs from the United States is not criticism or symbolic designation, but tangible security assistance.
“What our country requires from America is military support to fight these violent extremists in some states of our country, not designation as a nation of particular concern.”
