Senator Orji Uzor Kalu has thrown his weight behind former U.S. President Donald Trump over his recent comments on the killings of Christians in Nigeria.
The lawmaker said Trump “told the truth,” stressing that the situation in the country has gone beyond politics.
Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, Kalu, who chairs the Senate Committee on the South East Development Commission (SEDC), said the spate of killings across Nigeria affects both Christians and Muslims.
According to him, the government must take strong action against those behind the violence.
“If it’s a lie, then the answer is that it’s not a lie because he said the truth. Nigerians are being killed, whether they are Christians or Muslims,” he said. “There are jihadists who just want to destroy Nigeria. We should blacklist them without pity so that they will be smoked out.”
The former Abia State governor also disclosed that he had discussed the country’s security situation with two former U.S. Presidents and several American lawmakers.
He claimed they all showed readiness to support Nigeria in tackling terrorism.
“Before President Trump says a word, the American intelligence community must have found out where these terrorists are located,” Kalu explained.
“You can see that the Nigerian Air Force is already acting, possibly using information shared by the U.S. to bomb terrorist hideouts. That’s how it should be.”
Kalu, who described himself as “pro-America,” linked the current wave of global insecurity to the fall of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. He said their deaths opened the floodgates of illegal arms across Africa.
“When you killed Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein, it became a problem because those people were maintaining their borders. After their deaths, light and heavy arms spilled all over the world, and we are suffering from it today,” he added.
He further dismissed claims that the U.S. is working against President Bola Tinubu’s administration. According to him, Washington’s focus is strictly on extremist groups causing unrest in Nigeria.
“Nigerians are clapping hands and political opponents are thinking the U.S. is after Tinubu’s government. No! They are going after the jihadists,” the senator stated.
However, POLITICS NIGERIA earlier reported that Trump had condemned what he described as a “Christian genocide” in Nigeria, warning that the U.S. may intervene if the killings persist.