The Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has explained why the United States President, Donald Trump, designated Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern (CPC).”
In October, PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform, categorised Nigeria as a CPC.
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He alleged that Christianity in Nigeria faced a grave existential threat due to killings by radical Islamist groups.
Speaking during a state-of-the-nation address delivered at the church on Sunday in Lagos, posted on Channels Television’s YouTube page, Mr Bakare said Mr Trump’s administration’s position was influenced by Nigeria’s vast oil and mineral resources, as well as its strategic sectors.
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He recounted that shortly after Mr Trump won the 2024 US presidential election, he received a vision in which he (Mr Trump) arrived in Sabo, Yaba, Lagos, aboard Air Force One.
According to him, Mr Trump was dressed in an Arabian thobe and ghutra and declared, “We are here now.”
Nigerian interest
He said the vision indicated a particular interest MrTrump would develop in Nigeria, tied to Middle East geopolitics, the oil and gas industry, real estate, and the country’s fast-growing technology sector.
The 71-year-old said, “It was clear to us that President Donald Trump was going to have a particular interest in Nigeria. His interest in Nigeria was closely tied to his interests in the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula. Nigeria’s oil industry is expected to be crucial to the Trump presidency, as well as other mineral resources and key sectors, such as real estate.
“The American president will be particularly interested in Nigeria’s role in the value chain of emerging technologies. In that vision, the tech industry dimension was represented by Sabo Yaba, where the president’s aircraft landed. Sabo Yaba is a presenter of Nigeria’s tech startup hub, hosting such hubs as the co-creation hub, founded by Nigeria’s current minister of communication, innovation, and digital economy, Dr Bosun Tijani.”
The Ogun-born clergyman added that Mr Trump’s appearance in Muslim attire clearly signalled that his interest in Nigeria would carry significant religious implications.
“Sabo Yaba has unleashed such unicorns as Andala, Flutterwave, and Jumia to the extent that Yaba has earned the nickname Yabacon Valley, emulating the American-based global hub for technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and venture capital, Silicon Valley.
“Trump’s Muslim attire was a clear indication that his interest in Nigeria was going to have serious religious implications, so that could cause religiously motivated social unrest. By the way, Sabo in the Hausa language is a short form of Sabungiri, which means new town or migrant settlement”, he said.
Enter the national assembly
Furthermore, Mr Bakare criticised the National Assembly for engrossing itself in politicking while the US Congress convened a hearing on the nation’s worsening insecurity.
Politics of chaos
He argued that lawmakers were preoccupied with the politics of chaos and paid scant attention to the real work of governance, until Mr Trump’s remarks jolted what he described as a sleeping giant.
The former presidential aspirant said, “Nigeria’s political class have been dancing on the hot stool like the experimental frog that slowly boiled to death as the heat rises. They have numbed themselves to the painful realities that ordinary citizens endure daily. It is a stain on the Nigerian government that it took the threat of external intervention to rouse leaders to their responsibilities.
“It is a shame on our National Assembly that it took the United States Congress, not the representatives elected by Nigerians, to convene a hearing on the lived experiences of citizens suffering under insecurity, while those in Abuja were busy with politicking, posturing for political relevance, defecting from one political party to another in their desperate maneuvers to secure their seats ahead of the 2027 elections.”
He also criticised what he described as Nigeria’s failed foreign affairs architecture.
According to him, the government’s sudden flurry of activity following Trump’s remarks merely exposed its earlier lack of urgency.
READ ALSO: Trump threatens to suspend immigration from ‘Third World’ countries
He added that it reflected poorly on the Nigerian government that external pressure was required before officials took action.
Mr Bakare said, “It’s indeed a shame that Nigeria’s foreign affairs architecture failed all the while to mobilise Nigeria’s dwindling diplomatic goodwill to secure international support for the war on terror, only to respond with excuses when that goodwill reached its lowest ebb.
“Amid all of these developments, concerned Nigerians have been reaching out to me, both directly and through my aide, as well as through the media, asking why I have not spoken all this time.”
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