Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, has asked the Federal Government to sever ties with the United States if President Donald Trump does not withdraw his threat of military action in Nigeria.
Trump redesignated Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” last week, over claims of Christian genocide in the country.
Afterwards, the US President threatened that the “USA will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country ‘guns-a-blazing’, to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists killing Christians”.
Subsequently, Pete Hegseth, US secretary of war, said his department is preparing for possible military action if the Nigerian government fails to end the “killing of innocent Christians” in the country.
A handful of right-wing US lawmakers, led by Ted Cruz, the senator from Texas, have repeatedly claimed that Christians are facing persecution in Nigeria.
Reacting to the development in a terse statement on Sunday, Gumi, who is alsoa controversial figure, urged the federal government to ask Trump to withdraw the threat, or else Nigeria would cut diplomatic ties with his country.
“For Trump to threaten a sovereign country with military attack is a profound disrespect to our authority, but we can rise above it,” he wrote.
“President Tinubu should summon the US ambassador; they either retract their threats or we sever diplomatic ties with this irresponsible regime. There are lots of other options for our economic expansion and military alliance.”
