The Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Lanre Issa-Onilu, has dismissed allegations of a “Christian genocide” in Nigeria, saying the United States must have made “another mistake in its intelligence gathering.”
Issa-Onilu made this remark while responding to Nigeria’s redesignation as a “Country of Particular Concern” by the U.S. government. The move came after former U.S. President Donald Trump accused Nigerian authorities of ignoring the killings of Christians in the country.
In a post shared on his Truth Social platform over the weekend, Trump alleged that the Nigerian government had failed to protect Christians from persecution. He went further to threaten that the U.S. would stop all aid to Nigeria — and might even intervene militarily — if the killings continued.
But Issa-Onilu, speaking during a joint security press briefing at the NOA headquarters in Abuja on Monday, dismissed Trump’s claims as false and unfair. He argued that even the U.S. knows there is no systematic persecution of Christians in Nigeria.
“Let me respond directly to that claim of Christian genocide — I’m sure even America knows it’s not true,” Issa-Onilu said. “This won’t be the first time U.S. intelligence has failed. It failed them in Iraq, where they claimed there were weapons of mass destruction. It failed them in Libya, and several other cases. I’m certain this is another error in their intelligence gathering.”
He added that the recent changes in Nigeria’s military leadership show that the government is serious about improving internal security and tackling communal and religious violence.
“A country that isn’t taking security seriously wouldn’t have made such bold decisions as the President did last week — replacing top military leaders to strengthen the system,” he said.
Issa-Onilu also revealed that the National Security Adviser and the newly appointed service chiefs would later brief the press from the Office of the NSA to give a detailed response to the genocide allegations.
Nigeria was first listed as a “Country of Particular Concern” in 2020 under the U.S. International Religious Freedom Act, following claims of religious persecution. The designation was removed in 2021 under President Joe Biden after diplomatic talks between both countries.
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However, its recent reinstatement has reignited debate about Nigeria’s human rights record and whether U.S. intelligence accurately reflects the situation on the ground.
The Federal Government has continued to insist that it protects all citizens regardless of religion, citing ongoing counterterrorism operations and peacebuilding
