By Ochereome Nnanna
The greatest oxygen of insecurity in Nigeria is what people call “political correctness.” Most people do not want to call a spade by its name. The question of whether there are Christian genocides in Nigeria should not arise. Routine Benue and Plateau mass burials say it all.
The miasma of these massacres of Christian populations in Nigeria has been swirling on local and international social media and podcast platforms for some time. It became more visible when President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, and vowed that he would not tolerate the persecution of Christians around the world. Republican Senator, Ted Cruz, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, recently posited that there was “Christian mass murder” in Nigeria, and wanted Nigeria to be designated as a country of “particular concern”. A country that carries this stigma is not in good standing with the United States, the world’s sole superpower. It experiences certain diplomatic difficulties, including subtle belligerence towards the leadership.
Because of this, the Nigerian government, through its Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, swiftly issued an official rebuttal of Cruz’s allegation as “false, baseless, despicable and divisive”. He said it “plays into the hands of terrorists who seek to divide Nigerians along religious or ethnic lines”. As if on cue, Massad Boulos, President Donald Trump’s Adviser on Arab and African Affairs, visited President Bola Tinubu in Aso Villa over the weekend. He came out and dismissed the claims of Christian genocide in Nigeria, saying that the killings do not target any particular group. He also added that more Muslims have been killed.
Before I continue, let me tell you about Mr Boulos. He is the 54-year-old son of the late George Boulos, a Lebanese Christian of Greek ethnicity who migrated to Nigeria in 1936 and naturalised as a Nigerian. He founded a very successful business, Boulos Enterprises, with headquarters in Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos. It is still running. They specialise on the assembly of motorcycles, outboard motors, tricycles and power bikes, as well as the manufacture and distribution of household goods. George’s son, Massad Boulos, left Nigeria for the US in the 1980s.
He settled in Texas, where he also gained his citizenship and prospered as a businessman. His son, Michael Boulos, 27, is currently married to 31-year-old Tiffany, one of President Trump’s daughters. Trump named his in-law, Massad Boulos, his Adviser on Arab and African Affairs. Massad Boulos is a Nigerian-American whom Trump sent to verify whether there was Christian genocide in Nigeria.
His utterance followed the “politically-correct”, narrative framed by the Federal Government to dismiss the obvious. As an envoy and businessman with deep family roots in Nigeria, he wouldn’t exactly come out swinging with bunched fists.
However, I hope this is not what he will tell the President of America. If he does, he will be misinforming Trump about the true situation of things in Nigeria. During the same weekend of Boulos’ visit, a macabre drama took place in Plateau State.
On Friday, October 17, a Christian cleric, Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo, had come on the social media to alert the world of an impending Fulani attack on his community, Barkin Ladi, a major epicentre of the Christian genocides in Nigeria. He alleged that the military personnel sent to the area had “suddenly disappeared”, and that Fulani militants were mustering to attack them.
The following day, he was seen standing inside a freshly dug mass grave containing 20 bodies of people slaughtered by the Fulani attackers. He was crying out to President Trump for protection. There is no way that Trump will not see that viral video. If Massad Boulos comes home to tell him that there is no Christian genocide and he sees this mass grave drama the next minute, what will Trump believe?
Anyway, why should a Nigerian call on the president of America to save his people from killers? Shouldn’t he be calling on his own president, Bola Tinubu? The answer is simple: he has lost all faith in the ability or willingness of his president to protect him. The killings by Fulani militants on the Plateau started way back in 2003, 18 years ago! Any wonder that Rev. Dachomo told the media that he was tired of “burying my members everyday”?
It was from Plateau that Fulani land-grabbing invaders moved into Benue, and from there into Enugu and Ebonyi. The Federal Government always reacts violently to any independent effort to confront these barbarians. A state of emergency was invoked against Governor Joshua Dariye on May 18, 2004 when he tried to protect his people. Similarly, when leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, set up the Eastern Security Network, ESN, to protect Igboland from Fulani invaders, his organisation was proscribed and he was arraigned on treason charges, which he still faces till date.
I do not contest the notion that insecurity in Nigeria targets everybody. It is also true that possibly more Moslems may have been killed by their religious kinsmen operating in Boko Haram and the various bandit/jihadist terror groups in the North. The truth, which the Nigeria government has refused to admit for reasons best known to it, is that the armed Fulani “herdsmen” (I call them Janjaweed) specifically target Christian communities in Southern Kaduna, Plateau, Benue, Taraba and states in the South-East and South-South. They have killed hundreds of thousands and driven millions out of their communities, especially in Benue and Plateau, two of the three Christian majority states in the North. They occupy and rename “captured” villages.
The crimes of Fulani militants are officially concealed and never profiled as part of our insecurity. They are never officially seen for the terrorists they are. If Trump really wants the truth, he should send in experts.
Boulos should just pocket his baloney.
@Vanguard
