Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State has dismissed claims suggesting that Christians in Nigeria’s South-East are being systematically targeted in a religious genocide, describing such assertions as false and misleading.
Speaking during a live media chat on Channels Television, Soludo explained that the ongoing violence in the region stems from social, political, and economic frustrations — not religious persecution.
His comments were a direct response to recent remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump, who accused the Nigerian government of allowing widespread killings of Christians and threatened potential military intervention to “protect” them.
Soludo countered the claim, insisting that the crisis in the South-East is internal and largely driven by self-inflicted violence. “There is a deeper conversation and introspection about what goes on in the country,” he said.
“In this part of the world, eastern Nigeria, it is not religious. People are killing themselves — Christians killing Christians. The people in the bushes are Emmanuel, Peter, and John, all Christian names, and they have maimed and killed thousands of our youths. It has nothing to do with religion.”
The former Central Bank governor noted that over 95 percent of residents in the South-East are Christians, emphasizing that both perpetrators and victims share the same faith. “It is wider than the categorisation of Christians and Muslims. Nigeria will overcome, and it will end in conversation,” he added.
Soludo also urged the United States to exercise caution in its interpretation of Nigeria’s internal issues, stressing that its policies must align with international law.
