Tinubu Moves To Calm Trump, Names Ex-NIA DG Ambassador To U.S.

President Bola Tinubu has nominated non-career ambassadors to the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, according to presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga.

The development came after the United States, under President Donald Trump, designated Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern”.

It also followed Trump’s threat to send U.S. troops to wipe out terrorists in Nigeria over President Tinubu’s alleged failure to address the persecution of Christians in the country.

The three nominees are Ambassador Ayodele Oke for the United States, Retired Colonel Lateef Kayode Are for the United Kingdom, and Ambassador Amin Mohammed Dalhatu for France.

The nominations are subject to Senate screening and confirmation.

Ambassador Dalhatu previously served as Nigeria’s ambassador to South Korea during the late former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. He was first appointed in 2016.

Ambassador Oke, an alumnus of Emory University in Atlanta, is a former Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and previously served as Nigeria’s ambassador to the Secretariat of the Commonwealth of Nations in London.

Are was Director General of the State Security Service (SSS) from 1999 to 2007, served as National Security Adviser in 2010, and was an officer in the Directorate of Military Intelligence.

Last week, the federal government rejected the framing of Nigeria’s security challenges through a religious lens. It warned that such “divisive and narrow rhetoric” threatens national cohesion.

Reacting to Trump’s claim that recent killings in the country are targeted at Christians and amount to Christian genocide, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said terrorism, banditry, and other violent crimes affecting the nation cut across ethnic and religious lines.

According to him, such claims were not only factually inaccurate but also counterproductive to national unity.

“Nigeria’s security landscape is a complex combination of terrorism, banditry, and criminality that has claimed the lives and livelihoods of citizens across all ethnic and religious backgrounds.

“These forces of evil do not discriminate by faith; they target the very fabric of our nation.

“Indeed, framing Nigeria’s security challenges in religious terms is counterproductive to national unity, especially at a time when we need to stand together to defeat extraneous forces that are bent on destabilising our country.

“The international community, including respected global religious leaders, acknowledges the complex socio-economic and political roots of the conflicts, rather than a simplistic sectarian narrative.

“The position of the Federal Government of Nigeria remains unequivocal: Nigeria is a multi-faith nation where the freedom of worship is constitutionally guaranteed and must be upheld by everyone,” he had said.

But Trump has continued his attack against the Tinubu administration, calling Nigeria “a disgrace” over worsening insecurity and the continued killing of citizens.

“I think Nigeria is a disgrace. The whole thing is a disgrace. They’re killing people by the thousands. It’s a genocide. And I’m really angry about it. And we pay, you know, we give a lot of subsidy to Nigeria, which we’re going to end up stopping,” Trump told Fox News Radio’s ‘The Brian Kilmeade Show’ on Friday.

“The government’s done nothing. They are very ineffective. They’re killing Christians at will. And you know, until I got involved in it two weeks ago, nobody even talked about it.”

The comment came after President Tinubu had sent a high-powered delegation to America to declare his administration’s efforts to address the insecurity.

The delegation led by Nuhu Ribadu, National Security Adviser, met with top officials of Trump’s government, including Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War.

Ribadu’s delegation also met with Congressman Riley Moore, whom Trump directed to investigate the situation in Nigeria and report back to him.