Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has written an open letter to former U.S. President Donald Trump, defending President Bola Tinubu’s administration against claims of targeted persecution of Christians in Nigeria.
In the letter addressed to Trump and shared publicly, Keyamo said he felt compelled to “add his little voice” to what he described as the “purported mass killings of Christians in Nigeria,” a matter he said appeared to have “agitated” Trump’s mind.
“I was appointed by the present President of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as his Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, along with other Christians,” Keyamo wrote. “Because of my strong Christian background and ethical pedigree, it would have been most unconscionable for me to associate with – let alone accept to serve or continue to serve – a government if truly there is any scintilla of truth in the assertion that Christians are specifically targeted in Nigeria for persecution, killings or harassment on account of their faith. It is simply not true.”
Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said his Christian upbringing and long-standing record in human rights activism guided his response. He recalled receiving the Global Human Rights Award in 2017 from the United States Global Leadership Council for his work “in promotion of the rights of the downtrodden.”
The minister dismissed reports of targeted religious killings, insisting that Nigeria’s security challenges stemmed from decades-old issues tied to terrorism and banditry rather than religion.
“Just like the U.S. and many countries in the world, we have faced our own fair share of societal violence,” he said. “Ours has been perpetrated by deadly groups known as Boko Haram (now seriously decimated), herdsmen, and cattle rustlers. These decades-old problems were inherited by our President who has made great progress in the fight against these insurgents.”
He further highlighted that most of the current security chiefs in Nigeria are Christians, making it “unthinkable to imagine them being complicit in the killing of fellow Christians.”
Keyamo described President Tinubu as a “moderate Muslim,” noting that his wife is a pastor of one of Nigeria’s largest Pentecostal churches and that several of his children are practising Christians.
“When he was Governor of Lagos State, he regularly invited Christian pastors for prayers and worship sessions at the Government House,” Keyamo added. “He will be the last person to either adopt the killing of Christians as a State policy, or condone such acts or be complicit in them.”
The minister emphasized Nigeria’s secular nature, citing constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion and the prohibition of any state religion. He said insecurity in Nigeria affects adherents of all faiths and that the Tinubu administration “has not sought to protect one set of adherents and ignore the others.”
Concluding his letter, Keyamo urged Trump and the U.S. government to seek a balanced understanding of Nigeria’s security situation.
“The Nigerian people ask for deep and sincere understanding from your government at this point,” he wrote. “We ask for support, cooperation, and collaboration to confront this decades-old menace of terrorism… and that you broaden your sources of information to get a balanced view of the happenings in Nigeria.”
The letter was signed by Festus Keyamo (SAN), Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (United Kingdom), and Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Federal Republic of Nigeria.
