Adamu Garba, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has backed the claim by President Donald Trump of the United States, that there is an ongoing genocide in Nigeria.
Garba spoke in a video interview with Trust TV shared on Facebook on Wednesday while reacting to the United States’ recent designation of Nigeria as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’.
He said that judging by the number of people killed in violent attacks across the country, the situation fits the definition of genocide.
Garba recalled that in 2014, when the APC was in opposition, some of its members visited the White House to seek support over what they described as the mass killing of Christians in Nigeria.
“In fact, in 2014, Nigerian opposition party, then the APC, were in the White House seeking for the same help on the same Christian genocide as a fallout of the Chibok girls,” he said.
He also referenced recent military cooperation between Nigeria and the US, including the acquisition of $346 million worth of weapons and ongoing training of Nigerian military personnel.
Garba said the United States has both global authority and responsibility to intervene in counterterrorism, under the United Nations framework.
“And wherever a word terrorism was defined in a given area, that means US have rights to protect, they call it a responsibility to protect (R2P),” he said.
He urged the federal government to demonstrate commitment to partnering with the United States to eliminate terrorism instead of dismissing external concerns.
“So what we should show in our own case in Nigeria is that we should show commitment and willingness to partner to eliminate the threat of terrorism, not completely condemn a hand that is coming to help us,” he said.
He said the government should negotiate responsibly, adding that Nigeria can clarify that the killings affect both Christians and Muslims.
“We can discuss with them and acknowledge that this genocide is taking place,” he said. “Yes, they say Christian genocide. Now, we can justify to them that look, it’s not only Christians, Muslims also are affected.”
Garba said many communities have been repeatedly attacked across Katsina, Sokoto, and Zamfara, leaving defenceless citizens dead.
“When you look at the total number of the people that have been killed over time in Nigeria and they are killed defenceless in villages, sleeping in their homes, then what can you call this for God’s sake?” he said.
“I think it’s actually pure genocide because you just come and kill people just like that, and this thing has been happening every day.”
The article was originally published on Politics Nigeria.