Buhari: Trump Asked Me To My Face, ‘Why Are You Killing Christians?’

Two years after President Donald Trump invited President Muhammadu Buhari to the White House in Washington D.C., the Nigerian president has revealed how a question thrown at him by the U.S. president left him in shock. 

Buhari said Trump looked at him in the eyes and asked him why his administration was killing Christians in the country. 

Advertisement

The Nigerian president revealed this while delivering his closing remarks at the two-day ministerial performance review retreat at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. 

“I believe I was about the only African among the less developed countries, the President of United States invited, and when I was in his office only myself and himself, only God is my witness, he looked at me in the face, he said ‘why are you killing Christians?’” Buhari said. 

“I wonder if you were the person how you will react. I hope what I was feeling inside did not betray my emotion.”

The Nigerian president said he explained to Trump that reports about killings and persecution of Christians in the country were not true. 

Advertisement

He said he also told Trump that the herders-farmers clashes being witnessed in Nigeria were a cultural issue rather than a religious crisis

“So,  I told him that the problem between the cattle rearers and stagnant farmers I know is older than me not to talk of him (Trump). I think I am a couple of years older than him. 

“With climate change and population growth and the culture of the cattle rearers, if you have 50 cows and they eat grass, any root to your water point, they will follow it, it doesn’t matter whose farm it was,” he said. 

The duo met on April 30, 2018, at the White House in Washington D.C. 

Trump was quoted to have said the U.S was, “deeply concerned by religious violence in Nigeria including the burning of churches and the killing and persecution of Christians. It’s a horrible story.”

Leave a comment

Advertisement