Abuja Vows Security Control, Rejects Religious Framing of Crisis

The Nigerian government, through the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has issued a strong defense of its capacity to tackle the pervasive security challenges facing the country, insisting that the administration of President Bola Tinubu remains fully in control. The Minister used a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday to articulate the measures already deployed by the government and to vehemently reject the characterization of the nation’s insecurity as a “Christian Genocide.”

The briefing was necessitated by growing national and international concern following a cluster of high-profile security breaches, including the recent tragic killing of a high-ranking Army General, the mass abduction of students in Kebbi State, and an audacious attack on a Church in Kwara State. Idris noted that these heinous acts against soldiers, students, and places of worship serve only to “strengthen the resolve” of the Tinubu administration to rise above the challenges and deliver a “permanent blow to terrorism.”

Detailing the government’s decisive response, the Minister highlighted President Tinubu’s immediate action to postpone his scheduled international engagements, including the G20 Meeting in South Africa, specifically “to allow him to focus on the developments within Nigeria.” This move, he asserted, underscores the President’s commitment to prioritizing domestic security. Furthermore, the President has directed the Military and Police to deploy more personnel in Eruku and the entire Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State following the church attack.

In a direct move to address the Kebbi crisis, Vice President Kashim Shettima was dispatched to Birnin Kebbi to meet with the State Governor, Alhaji Nasir Idris, as well as security chiefs, traditional rulers, and the families of the abducted schoolgirls. The Vice President’s high-powered entourage included key political and humanitarian figures, such as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Professor Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr Bernard Doro, the Minister of Women Affairs, Honourable Imaan Suleiman Ibrahim, and the Director General of NEMA, Hajiya Zubaida Umar, ensuring a comprehensive governmental presence.

The Minister declared that President Tinubu has placed the nation’s security apparatuses on the “highest alert ever,” mandating active deployment to “pursue and eliminate terrorists, bandits, and criminal elements wherever they may be in Nigeria.” A parallel mandate has been issued to security forces to swiftly rescue the abducted Kebbi schoolgirls and reunite them safely with their families.

Idris then shifted focus to the rhetoric surrounding the crisis, noting the government’s “growing concern” over “divisive and narrow rhetoric” that seeks to frame the nation’s security challenges in sectarian terms. He issued a firm rebuttal to the “Christian Genocide” narrative: “The government categorically refutes any characterization of this situation along religious lines.” The Minister insisted that such claims are not only “factually inaccurate” but also “dangerously counterproductive” to the national unity required to overcome the shared challenges.

He elaborated that Nigeria’s security landscape is a “complex combination of terrorism, banditry, and criminality” that has indiscriminately claimed the lives and livelihoods of citizens across all ethnic and religious backgrounds. The Minister stressed that these forces of evil “do not discriminate by faith,” targeting the very fabric of the nation. He warned that framing the challenges in religious terms is especially counterproductive at a time when national cohesion is essential to defeat extraneous forces bent on destabilizing the country.

Idris concluded by affirming that the international community, including respected global religious leaders, acknowledges the complex socio-economic and political roots of the conflicts, rather than subscribing to a simplistic sectarian narrative. He reaffirmed the Federal Government’s unequivocal position that Nigeria is a multi-faith nation where the freedom of worship is constitutionally guaranteed and will be upheld by everyone, reiterating the solemn promise that the abducted Kebbi schoolgirls will be rescued and safely returned to their families.