It Could Happen Here - Nigeria with Andrew

Episode Date: April 9, 2026

Andrew talks to James about the USA’s military incursion into Nigeria and the reality around claims of Christian genocide in the country.  Cool Zone is nominated for 3 Webby Awards! Submit your votes by April 16th or we'll hunt down your family.   Behind the Bastards - https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2026/podcasts/features/experimental-innovation  It Could Happen Here - https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2026/podcasts/limited-series-specials/news-politics  Migrating to America - https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2026/podcasts/limited-series-specials/documentary   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Now I get to sit down with some of my favorite people and relive all of the incredible moments this show brought us on and off the screen. Listen to Are You a Charlotte on the IHeart Radio app? Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. For decades, people in northern Nigeria have been suffering the violence of jihadist groups in the region. More recently, following the lobbying of some questionable interest groups and figures in the United States, President Donald Trump has dropped American bombs on Nigeria and soil. What exactly is happening in Nigeria?

Hello and welcome to Ikatapen here. I'm Andrew Sage, Andrew is on YouTube, and I'm a lot of my own YouTube, and I'm joined again by... James. I'm glad we're doing this one. Yes, to talk about what's been happening in Nigeria, since it has captured Trump's attention and thus Western media interest as of late. So first of all, what or where is Nigeria?

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Nigeria's a West African country with a diverse geography and an even more diverse population. Hundreds of languages, hundreds of ethnic groups, several religions in the most populous country in Africa, and one of the most populous countries in the world. Over 239 million people call Nigeria home, and the Nigerian diaspora is well over 10 million strong. Like much of Africa, Nigeria is rich in natural resources,

particularly petroleum and natural gas, but heavily exploited by international and local capital. Thus, much of its population, by some estimates, over half of its population, is considered multidimensionally poor. modern Nigeria was stitched together from the British protectorates of northern and southern Nigeria, and it gained its political independence only recently in 1960 and became a republic in 1963. That north-south divide is particularly relevant because it continues to define Nigerian politics today.

Nigeria splits almost evenly between its Christian population, which dominates the south, and its Muslim population, which dominates the north. alongside ethnic, linguistic and other political divisions, corruption, and all the other baggage of a typical Neo-colony has made Nigerian politics quite the powder-care good for some time. There have been tragic and deadly episodes of political and religious violence throughout Nigeria's history, going in both directions, including the 1987 crisis in Kaduna State, and the early 2000s had several notorious riots and massacres as well, including the Yellow War Massacre and the Joss riots.

Linking the show notes for the details. on those. Since 2009, however, militant Islamist group Boko Haram has engaged in a protracted incurgency against the Nigerian government and terrorized the Christian and Muslim population through bombings, assassinations and abductions with the overall intent of establishing an Islamic breakaway state in North Nigeria. For the past few months, there has been a concerted effort to paint a narrative of Christian genocide in Nigeria, a narrative that has long been co-signed by the likes of Donald Trump. So back in 2018, Trump had actually called out the killing of Christians in Nigeria,

yet stopped short of calling to genocide. But according to an article by Ayula Babolula on the myth of Christian genocide, it was not long after Nigerian Vice President Kashim Shatima's September 2025 remarks at the 80th session of the UN General Assembly, where he reasserted Nigeria's longstanding solidarity with Palestine, that the Western, largely pro-Israel far right, began the campaign of claiming Christian genocide in Nigeria. In his address, Shatima did mention the problem

of San Diego was happening with extremism, but these commentators are running with a much more specific narrative. The same people who deny the Palestinian genocide and prop up the mythical white genocide in South Africa have gone on to push this Christian genocide story. Bill Meyer, the guy who still can't prove the claims he made about October 7, month has gone on to tell people that what's happening in Nigeria is, to paraphrase, so much more of a genocide than what's happening in Gaza, end quote. In late October and early November 25,

Trump tweeted that Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria, named Nigeria as a country of particular concern, and announced the United States was ready, willing, and able to save our great Christian population around the world. And for some reason, Nikki Minaj is out there back in Trump's Christian persecution narrative as well. Perfect. Why are you in it? Yeah, just to be clear for anyone, it's not a way. Nikki Minaj, not a person from Nigeria or with any particular insight into the situation there.

She's also not turned out here, and I just want to clear that up. Yes, her birth certificate is from the Republic of a train house vehicle, but we do not claim her. Since her statements about how COVID and the vaccine and her cousin's boils, like from that moment onward, people have been like distancing themselves from her and train. Anyway. I can see why. So in November 225, according to a BBC report, Trump also said that he would send troops into Nigeria, guns are blazing, if its government continues to allow the killing of Christians.

Then in December 2025, according to another BBC report, the US has launched strikes. on the 25th of December as a Christmas present against militants in the Islamic State Group in northwestern Nigeria. What should be noted, though, is they did not strike Boko Haram, which is based in northeast Nigeria. Yeah, it was really interesting to look at the bill that I wrote about this a bit for my newsletter, but the US was flying intelligence gathering flights, essentially, for some time of Nigeria, right? Clearly, like, there must have been some kind of agreement with the Nigerian government to allow this, right? But they were clearly trying to identify, like, where it's Wapen Boko Haram were. And, like, you could see them winding up to

this strike. And yeah, I guess they waited to Christmas Day to go for it. Yeah. Yeah. So, there was the Christmas present of the US bombing there. Yeah. And this happened less than a week, by the way, after the Alliance of Sahel states, that being Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, commissioned a joint military force of 5,000 counter-terrorists. And that move was following the economic community of West African states or ECOWAS plan to launch a 260,000 member counter-terrorism force. So there's a lot of military action happening in West Africa right now, coming from the inside and the outside.

In a January 2026 report, Trump claimed, quote, I'd love to make it a one-time strike, but if they continue to kill Christians, it will be a many-time strike. and quote. Trump has also accused the Nigerian government, as I said, of repeatedly failing to protect Christian. So Trump is a known liar to take everything he says with a grain assault, as is the rest of his administration, and generally really can't trust politicians and pundits.

Canadian women are looking for more. More to themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are out of them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart. And I'm Catherine Clark. And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

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So let me break down what is actually happening in Nigeria. The Nigerian government has said that Muslims, Christians, and those of no faith alike are targeted. According to Ayula, Bawalula, the government of Nigeria is indeed feeling to adequately address devastation being roared against communities in Nigeria. But critically, it is not religious nature. Or rather, religion is only a part of the picture. It can be used to explain the whole story on the ground. So there are several groups wreaking havoc in North Nigeria. You have a few different Islamic state-affiliated groups. They have Boko Haram, which is the main one, and you also

have the conflict between the Fulani herdsmen, who are mostly Muslim, and various farming groups, who may be Christian or Muslim. So where the herdsmen are, and the herdsmen are, and you concern, that kind of conflict has actually been taking place between the hooders and the settled people for literal centuries. The only difference is that now you have them carry an AK-47s instead of just sticks and machetes. How they got those AK-47s is really thanks to the history of the West's intervention in Africa. But we'll get to that in a moment. Critically, though, if you step outside of the religious freemen, you would see a criminal, economic, and political motivation behind these actions. They may be going after land or want to extract ransom

or pursue a particular political goal. The Muslims in North Nigeria are not safe just because they're Muslim. Boko Haram's victims are mostly Muslim because Boko Haram's target is anyone who stands between them and their political aims. Everyone who isn't Boko Haram or aligned with Islamic State West African province is considered an enemy. One article on Trump's beef with Nigeria by Yusuf Bangura talks about six types of violence in the country. We have the Boko Haram Islamist-inspired violence in the northeast, whose main victims are Muslims who reject the group's Islamist ideology. They have the banditry in the northwest, which affects Muslims and Christians in equal measure. You have the Herda-Farma conflict in the Middle Belt, which affects Christians

and Muslims, while the reports indicate that Christians are the main victims of that violence. You have the huda farmer violence in the northwest, which is distinct from the hoda farmer violence in the middle belt. So the one in the northwest has Fulani huders reportedly pitched against Hausa farmers and both groups are Muslim. You have the violence inflicted by the indigenous people of Biafra and bandits in the east against their own people, Ibos, who are Christian. And you also have general panditry in large parts of the country, which is rendered traveling by roads between cities very risky. So there's been a bit of the country. So there's been a bit of the country. a lot of Western attention drawn to just some of the victims, the churches, the church leaders,

and the Christian communities, even though mosques and imams and Muslim communities and animists have also been devastated. And it's turned a multifaceted violence into a narrative of targeted anti-Christian violence. Seemingly, at least from the Trump and Zionist camp, for the purpose of demonizing Muslims, and I guess in some convoluted way, weakening global support for Palestinians, because past sayans are also Muslims, so they're all the same. I don't know. That's just speculation on my part. Even Christian leaders in Nigeria have been calling out this frame in though. Archbishop Matthew Manoso Nagoso was quoted extensively in an article for aid to the church in need, which is an international

Catholic organization. Rather than pin the blame on Islam, he said, quote, in the northwest, the farmers are mostly Muslims and they also have conflicts with the Fulani. As moving the middle belt, it is inhabiting mostly by Christians, so there will most likely be a Christian farm. Religion and ethnicity have very sensitive problems in Nigeria. They are always used for convenience, but primarily this conflict is not religious. I am absolutely sure. If you apply for a job when you don't get it, you might say you were rejected because you were a Christian, and the same for Muslims. Opportunists, such as politicians, use these factors to their own advantage.

But if you go to the route, you discover it is little or nothing to his religion. End quote. It's an excellent analysis from the church. I'm surprised it came from that source I'm glad it did, you know. Yeah, Catholic Church of all places. Yeah. So he even claims that the kidnappings of priests

have little to do with religion. And I'll quote him again. In the last three years, seven of my priests have been kidnapped. Two have been killed and one has been in captivity for three years and two months. Four were released. In 50 of my parishes,

priests cannot stay in their directories because they are targets. They are seen as an easy source of money for ransom. So he's emphasizing there that it's really about the money that the church has perceived to be able to provide to these kiddappers, more so than any religious targeting in particular. Of course, that is only one archbishop's perspective on the situation. I think Babalola makes an important point in his article on the myth that I would like to quote as well.

Crucially, Christians at times become the chosen targets in particular assaults. Churches have been attacked during worship, pre-subducted, an entire Christian village raised in Plateau, Benu and southern Kaduna. These episodes are not separate from the general crisis, but are rather moments when Christian identity is weaponized to mark a community for terror. In this sense, Christians bear both the general weight of insecurity shared by all Nigerians and the sharper trauma of faith-based targeting in certain attacks. But Mabal doesn't forget that these groups terror has a severe impact on the Muslims as well.

In fact, he makes an important comparison I wanted to highlight, which is that in areas ravaged by armed groups, the first victims tend to be those who have religious or ethnic groups in common with the militants, killed because they are seen as infidels or not noble enough or not committed enough to the ideals of that movement. If you look at the history of Zionism, in the Middle East, for example, before the founding of the state of Israel,

there were bombings of several Jewish heritage sites across the Middle East and records have later showed that they were carried out by terroristic Jewish gangs who sought to instill a fair in Jewish communities across the region to sow discord between the Jewish communities and their neighbours for the purpose of forcing them to abandon these Middle Eastern states and relocate to Israel to further Israel's economic and geopolitical goals. So it's not unheard of for a group to target its own core religionists for its geopolitical economic ambitions.

If we talk about specifically the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, right? ISIS, as opposed to the Islamic State in West Africa. They killed more Muslims than anyone else, right? Exactly. Those were the bulk of the people it murdered. We could even look at a very old historical example, the Latin Crusade. You had all these Christians from Europe,

going on a crusade, and because they didn't get paid, they decided to ransack their co-religinists in Greece and, you know, in the wider Byzantine Empire and eventually, you know, deconstruct the Byzantine Empire entirely and establish their own Latin Empire. Yeah. So I didn't want to gloss over the real challenges

that Christians specifically are facing in North Nigeria, though. Since 1999, Sharia law has been introduced and enforced in 12 northern states. And according to the same archbishop that I quoted earlier, this has ensured that religious persecution in the north is systemic. He said, and I quote, I cannot build a church. Even if you buy land, you cannot get a permission of occupancy, and therefore you cannot build. In many of these states, do not allow the teaching of Christianity, yet the government employs and pays imams to teach in schools. Every year they have money to build mosques in the budget, but they will not let you build churches.

They might say there as a university, and across the street there are five mosques, no church. We wanted to build one, they didn't allow it. If you build the truth without permission, the government can tear it down. And this is what we are going through. It is serious. We want our government to be held accountable for people to be treated equally, end quote. So again, religious conflict is still part of the picture, but not in the way that the Western governments are painted. What's happening is these issues are being amplified by opportunists and far-right lobbyists. And as I established earlier, we should be addressing where these terror groups have even come from, because the West's hands are not clean in that picture either.

Groups like Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State have known connections in their history to Western Midland. An American policy in Africa has at least indirectly armed these groups thanks to the fall of Gaddafi in Libya and the American-ledy stabilization of other Muslim countries in South West Asia and North Africa. The death squads armed as AKs that is dispersed across the Sahel region, victimizing Africans of all faiths,

or at least some of their firepower, to that Western intervention, to the flow of arms coming out of Libya. The West has repeatedly shown that it is not care of people's lives. Canadian women are looking for more. More to themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are out of them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart.

And I'm Catherine Clark. And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us. Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on IHartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. I went and sat on the little ottoman in front of him. Hi, Dad.

And just when I said that, my mom comes out of the kitchen and she says, I have some cookies and milk. This is a badass convict. Right. Just finished five years. I'm going to have cookies and milk at my mom. Yeah. On the Ceno Show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations about recovery, resilience, and redemption.

On a recent episode, I sit down with actor, cultural icon Danny Trail to talk about addiction, transformation, and the power of second chances. The entire season two is now available to bench featuring powerful conversations with the guests like Tiffany Addish, Johnny Knoxville, and more. I'm an alcoholic. and without this trouble, I'm going to die. Open your free I-Heart radio app. Search the Cito Show and listen now. I feel like it was a little bit unbelievable until I really start making money.

It's Financial Literacy Month and the podcast Eating While Broke is bringing real conversations about money, growth and building your future. This month hear from top streamer, Zoe Spencer, and venture capitalist Lakeisha Landrum-Pierre as they share their journeys from start. Starting out to leveling up.

If I'm outside with my parents and they see all these people come up to me for pictures, it's like, what? Today now, obviously, it's like 100%. They believe everything. But at first it was just like, you got to go get a real job. There's an economic component to communities thriving. If there's not enough money and entrepreneurship happening in communities, they fail. And what I mean by fail is they don't have money to pay for food.

They cannot feed their kids. They do not have homes. Communities don't work unless there's money flowing through them. Listen to Eating While Broke from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. When you listen to podcasts about AI and tech and the future of humanity, the hosts always act like they know what they're talking about and they are experts at everything. Here, the Nick Dick and Poll show, we're not afraid to make mistakes. What Coogler did that I think was so unique. He's the writer-director.

Who do you think he is? I don't know. You meet the, like, the president? You think Canada has a president. You think China has a president. Those law crusade. God, I love that thing. I use it all the time.

I wrap it in a blanket and sing to it at night. It's like the old Polish saying, not my monkeys, not my circus. Yep. It's a good one. I like that saying. It is an actual Polish saying. Yeah.

It is an actual point. Better version of Play Stupid Games win stupid prizes. Yes. Which, by the way, wasn't Taylor Swift, who said that for the first. time. I actually, I thought it was. I got that wrong. Listen to the Nick, Dick, and Paul show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So what is the real beef that Trump and Co. have with Nigeria?

Well, according to Bangor's article, Trump is not feeling the fact that the U.S. is dependent on China for rare earths. And Nigeria is very resource rich when it comes to rare earths like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and all that other stuff. Chinese companies have invested more than one point 3 billion U.S. dollars in Nigeria's lithium processing industry. And Russia has growing leverage in the region thanks to their involvement with Niger, Bikina Faso, and Mali. So in an effort to wean America all of China, Trump's been trying to alter the deal of the situation. So he signed agreements in Southeast Asia to increase the production and processing of rare earths and exports to the U.S.

He stepped into a broker peace deal, quote and code between the DRC and Rwanda so the U.S. can invest more in the DRC's minerals. And what Trump really don't like in Nigeria's case is that Nigeria's president, Tinugu is not playing ball with him, at least in this case. In Trump's eyes, Tinoubu did not do enough to reverse Nigeria's military coup, and Tanigu did not let the U.S. relocate their Nigerian military base to Nigeria. Tunugu also didn't let Trump relocate deportees to Nigeria, even when Ghana, Rwanda, Eswetini, Seltedan, and Uganda all accepted them.

Furthermore, as I established before, Nigeria continues to condemn Israel's genocide in Gaza. Now, when it wants to, the U.S. can intervene in other countries without the talk about humanitarianism. We could look at Guatemala in 1954 when they tried to implement some land reforms, and that went against the United Fruit Company's interests, so the U.S. invaded. And you also had the US willing to simply support whatever opposition exists in the country. Like in the Congo in 1961 against Patrice Lumumba, in Chile in 1973 against Salvador Allende, and in Iran in 1953 against Mohammed Mossadegh. So they will use humanitarian talk.

Whether they use that talk or not, the results tend to be disastrous for the people in those countries. US intervention sucks pretty much everywhere. Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, and more besides. So we can count on whatever Trump attempts in Nigeria being an abject failure. More recently, the United States announced it will be sending a military team to Nigeria after a string of recent attacks, that being 200 troops. So we'll see what happens next. But it's clear that US intervention is not the solution.

its intentions are definitely malicious. So what can the future be for the people of Nigeria? How can its people be free? Obviously, the battle against these reactionary forces rages on, but military solutions and militarization will not be enough. In fact, it carries some serious risk in the region as a whole in terms of escalation. An article by Ayodale Ovalabi in Al-Jazeera recognized that with Nigeria's entanglement with the US and the 260,000 strong ICAWAS force,

The AES is going to feel threatened, you know, as it's trying to keep Western influence out of the region. So there's a danger of future ECOWAS deployments overlapping with AES operations and potentially leading to clashes. And if there isn't a de-escalation of tensions between ECOWAS and AES, we can end up seeing interstate wars that would devastate communities in the region and give the insurgents opportunities to expand. It could very well set up another proxy battleground for global powers in some kind of new Cold War. So they have to find some way of avoiding this clash and see if they can build a cooperative security framework despite their vastly different interests. Yeah. To a degree we already see like global powers, right? Like Russia has been honing its most horrific war crimes in parts of West Africa for a long time, right?

With its like private military contractors. Exactly. Ukraine. Ukraine has sent special forces to assist the people fighting against their Russian private military contractors. We've seen Nigeria's own government kill its own civilians and its counterterrorism operation. All of this just makes life less livable for people who are ready, like on the thick end of climate change for one thing and have suffered under centuries of colonialism for another. So that's the geopolitic analysis, I suppose. In the long term, I think there's much to be done to rebuild the revolutionary front within Nigeria, led by Nigerians themselves, to chart another path for the future of the country away from a status of vassalage. Yeah.

You know, left and left adjacent movements were very diminished in relevance and credibility after the end of military rule in Nigeria in 1999, due to several reasons that we could get into at another time. But by the time we got the N-SARs movement in 2020, left forces were present but didn't have the level of organization and strategy necessary to rise the occasion. But according to an article in Progressive International by Ayula Babolola, there's potential for a resurgence. The end-bad governance movement had demonstrations in August, October 24, which saw leftist groups like Take It Back and the Socialist Workers League play a central role in organizing and mobilizing and protests. Unlike earlier moments, these groups articulated clear demands, coordinated protest strategies, and attempted to provide ideological direction. This is in spite of facing crackdowns and arrests

of key figures in the left and progressive spaces. Of course, not everyone mobilizing against Nigeria's struggling economic and political conditions are committed to left or left-adjacent ideas. Still, the question remains unresolved. Can this renewed street-level influence be transformed into lasting organizational power, or will repeat the cycle of focalization followed by fragmentation that has littered movements before it. This violence taking place in Nigeria is bound up with the violence taking place across the world. It is bound up in imperialist interests, in capitalist interests, in status interests, and in petty tyrant's

interests. From Nigeria to Congo to Sudan to Palestine, violence and suppression tactics wielded in one place often brought to another. Babelola says in his article that, quote, a genuine pursuit of justice must confront proximate perpetrators as well as the transnational systems of power that sustain them. What we must not allow is for the global perpetrators of criminality and terror to tell the world where to focus its attention.

End quote. In other words, do let the perpetrators of these violences tell you where to focus. We must look everywhere, look holistically at what's happening, and put the power and solidarity in the hands of the people affected to resist that violence. That's all I have for say. As usual, all power to all the people. Peace. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media.

For more podcasts from Coolzone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia. Or check us out on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for It Could Happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. How much you wait, Wanda? Right now, about 130. I'm at 183. We should race. No, I want to leave here with my original hips.

On the podcast The Matchup with Alia, I pair prominent female athletes with unexpected guests. On a recent episode, I sat down with undisputed boxing champ, Clarissa Shields, and comedian Wanda Sykes to talk about Wanda's new movie Undercard, The Art of Trash Talk, and what it really means to be ladylike. Open your free IHeart Radio app. Search the Matchup with Alia and listen now. Brought to you by Novartis, founding partner of Eye. I heart women's sports network.

You know the famous author, Roald Dahl. He thought up Willie Wonka and the BFG. But did you know he was a spy? Neither did I. You can hear all about his wildlife story in the podcast, The Secret World of Roald Dahl. All episodes are out now. Was this before he wrote his stories?

It must have been. What? Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you. I was a spy. Binge all 10 episodes of The Secret World of Roll Dahl. Now on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I actually drop better when I'm high. It heightens my senses, calms me down. If anything, I'm more careful. Honestly, it just helps me focus. That's probably what the driver who killed a four-year-old told himself. And now he's in prison.

You see, no matter what you tell yourself, if you feel different, you drive different. So if you're high, just don't drive. brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. I'm Kristen Davis, host of the podcast, Are You a Charlotte? In 1998, my life was forever changed when I took on the role of Charlotte York on a new show called Sex and the City. Now I get to sit down with some of my favorite people

and relive all of the incredible moments this show brought us on and off the screen. Listen to Are You a Charlotte on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human.