The Federal Government says it has opened diplomatic discussions with the United States following the military threat issued by US President, Donald Trump.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, made this known during an interview with Sky News, where he explained that diplomatic channels were proving effective in easing tensions between the two countries.
“Channels of communication have been opened. I can confirm that we are talking with them, and I think they are understanding the situation better,” Idris said.
According to the minister, much of the alarm in Washington stemmed from a lack of proper understanding of Nigeria’s diverse and complex security realities.
“We believe that most of the information is a result of a lack of a proper understanding of the diversity and complexity of the problem we have at hand,” he stated.
Idris insisted that Nigeria had not lost any territory to Boko Haram, adding that the fight against terrorism was unconventional and often misrepresented.
The minister alleged that a proscribed separatist element in Nigeria had been working with US lobbyists to feed misinformation to influential American figures.
“Let me also put it out there that we are seeing a direct connection between (US) lobbyists and (a) proscribed terrorist organisation in Nigeria, and we have seen how they have set up this lobby in the US, contacting high-up people in the United States to help them to lobby,” he said.
Idris emphasised that the United States had been a longstanding ally in Nigeria’s counterterrorism efforts and urged Washington to maintain that partnership.
“What we are saying is that, yes, indeed, the situation is there. We have conflict in Nigeria. We have a security situation in Nigeria, but in the past, the United States government has helped Nigerian authorities to deal with this situation.
“So we are calling on them to partner with us once again, to help push this, and then we have peace once and for all in our country,” he stated.
The minister said the Federal Government was taken aback by some of the data being circulated abroad, adding that they did not accurately reflect Nigeria’s security realities.
He further stated, “We want to tell the world that this is not the case… We share the concern of the international community, including the United States, about some of these killings going on. But what we want at this point is an understanding of the diversity and the complexity of the situation.”
Idris also challenged the accuracy of figures being used to support claims of widespread religious persecution in Nigeria.
“Some of the assumptions are based on data that largely cannot stand any scientific scrutiny,” he said.
He stressed that the Nigerian constitution guarantees religious freedom and that the current conflict should not be interpreted as faith-based persecution.
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