TRUMP AND CHRISTIAN GENOCIDE IN NIGERIA
According to reports, the US president Donald Trump had declared that a genocide was taking place against Christians in Nigeria. He had also followed that with a threat to take various punitive actions on Nigeria which could even involve direct military intervention.
Under the 1948 Genocide Convention, genocide is an internationally recognised crime.
Is it true that genocide is taking place in Nigeria? Does Trump have the authority under international law to declare genocide, then follow it with punitive measures?
In order to answer the first question we need to begin with the definition of genocide.
According to Oxford Dictionary:
Genocide as a Noun means:
“The deliberate and systematic killing or persecution of a large number of people from a particular national or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group”.
As a Verb it means:
“Deliberately and systematically kill or persecute a large number of people from a particular national or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group”.
From this we understand that for a genocide to take place:
i. Mass killing or persecution of people has to take place;
ii. The killing or persecution has to be deliberate and systematic;
iii. The targetted people have to belong to an identified group;
iv. They are targeted solely because of their membership of the said group;
v. The aim of the attack can be established to be the destruction of that group, in whole or in part.
According to AI overview:
“Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part”.
How can the crime of genocide be established?
There are some key aspects that must be established to prove genocide which include:
1. Intent to destroy;
2. Target group;
3. Form of destruction which includes:
a. Killing of group members;
b. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to group members;
c. Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction in whole or in part;
d. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
e. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
In the Nigerian context then, Trump and the Christian clergymen who petitioned Nigerian Muslims to the USA Government will need to establish that these key aspects are happening before condemning our country of tolerating genocide or calling it a disgraced nation or threatening it with military action.
They can prove that Christians are being killed of course, or that Churches are being destroyed. Here we don’t need to counter that by explaining that even Muslims are being killed or even Mosques are being destroyed. It was the Christians who complained, so they must be listened to, but they must prove their case beyond reasonable doubt.
Apart from killing of Christians, the other forms of destruction can not be proven to have taken place against them like causing serious bodily or mental harm, inflicting conditions calculated to bring destruction, imposing measures to prevent births or forcible transfer of children. In fact it can even be proved that Christians in Nigeria engaged in forcible mass transfer of Muslim children to their domains.
It is not enough to just say people are being killed or buildings are being destroyed to prove genocide. As mentioned in Wikipedia on genocide:
“To constitute genocide, there must be a proven intent on the part of the perpetrators to physically destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Cultural destruction does not suffice, nor does intention to simply disperse a group”.
Trump or the clergymen of Nigeria cannot prove that Nigerian Muslims or the Nigerian Government had such intention in all the religious crises taking place in the country. Muslims are not even trying to disperse Christians in any place, as the Christians are trying to do in Plateau State and Southern Kaduna, or have already done in Southern Bauchi, especially in Tafawa Balewa Township. In fact according to a source of mine, Christians and Traditionalists in Yorubaland are teaming up to ask Yoruba Muslims to pack and leave Yorubaland because Islam and Muslims as well as the Shari’ah system have no place in Yorubaland. Yet all these are efforts at dispersal of people and does not constitute genocide even if it involves killings and destruction of properties. It is not an effort to annihilate Muslims.
We therefore conclude that contrary to Trump’s claim, and the petition of the Nigerian clergymen, there is no genocide in Nigeria. But Christians and Muslims do constantly kill each other and destroy each other’s properties, sometimes in the name of religion and at other times in the name of ethnicity. There is also ongoing insecurity issues in some places which pose a threat to everyone, but which cannot be understood as an effort to annihilate any group, even in the South East where IPOB is waging a war of cessation.
As to our second question we refer to the contents of the United Nations Office On Genocide Prevention And The Responsibility To Protect online page, which stated in an article titled: ‘When to refer to a situation as “Genocide” ‘ thus:
“…..Nations can advocate for actions to prevent, halt, and/or punish such ‘alleged’ or ‘possible’ crimes. Nevertheless it is up to a mandated judicial body……”
This statement clearly elucidated that no nation can unilaterally make a charge of genocide, let alone prescribe punishment on its assumption. The opinion of any nation remains an “allegation” or a “possibility”, until a court of competent jurisdiction rules on the matter. Before then, a nation can only advocate for actions to be taken, not practically take the action, as Trump is threatening to do for Nigeria.
According to that write – up, courts of competent jurisdiction to judge on cases of genocide are:
a. National Courts, where the nation in which the crime took place or is taking place has decided to try the case;
b. International Criminal Tribunals such as Ecowas Court;
c. International Criminal Court (ICC) where the affected nation is a signatory or the affected individuals belong to a nation that is a signatory to the court;
d. International Court Of Justice (ICJ) where the case is between two or more states that are signatories to the court or individuals that are indegines of those countries.
In order for Trump to advocate for Nigeria to be halted from committing genocide, or to be punished for doing so, the only option he legally possesses is for the USA to take Nigeria to the ICJ, and not threaten it with unilateral punishment.
Modibbon Gusau
14/05/1447
05/11/2025
