There was drama on the floor of the Nigerian Senate on Tuesday as Senate President Godswill Akpabio and his Deputy, Barau Jibrin, openly disagreed over how the National Assembly should respond to U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent threat to take military action against Nigeria.
The session turned tense after Akpabio addressed a viral online report which claimed he (Akpabio) had publicly rebuffed Trump’s comments and allegedly said Nigerians were “not complaining” about their condition.
Visibly irritated, Akpabio denied ever making such statements, calling the publication “false and malicious.”
“Who am I to answer President Trump? Somebody said that the Senate President said Nigerians are not complaining, that we like the way we are living. I have petitioned the Police and the DSS,” he said.
Akpabio said the story was fabricated to “create diplomatic tension” and “discredit the National Assembly.
“I am saying this time, the Senate President did not answer President Trump. That quotation is meant to cause a diplomatic row. It is the Presidency that will answer President Trump. And who is that person who ascribed comments to me that I never made?” he asked.
He added that the images circulating online were doctored.
“Somebody will sit in the comfort of his room and fabricate a report, and produce fake pictures from 2023 when I visited Port Harcourt with Senators for a completely different event, and then claim that the Senate President answered President Trump. Who am I to answer Trump?” Akpabio asked jokingly, drawing laughter from some Lawmakers.
But the mood quickly shifted when Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin interjected, saying he had no fear of Trump and that Nigerian Lawmakers had the right to speak.
“I’m not scared of Trump. I will say my mind. I’m a Nigerian. Nigeria is a sovereign nation,” Barau said firmly.
“I’m a Parliamentarian, the Deputy Senate President, I can speak. Don’t be scared of Trump. You can say your mind about Trump. We are a sovereign nation.”
The exchange briefly lightened the chamber but also revealed a divide between the two presiding officers over how the legislature should handle Trump’s warning.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Government had also told President Donald Trump to respect Nigeria’s sovereignty and stay away from any plans to deploy American troops to its territory.
Daniel Bwala, an aide to President Bola Tinubu, stated this on Monday while appearing on Russia National TV.
Bwala dismissed the allegations as part of an orchestrated media campaign to paint the Tinubu administration as anti-Christian, saying independent global monitors and credible civil society organizations have found no evidence of state-backed religious genocide.
He said: “We try our best to downplay the rhetoric because we know for sure that that can be the reflection of the realities on ground.
He further alleged that U.S. Senators such as Ted Cruz had been misled by IPOB sympathizers seeking to influence Washington’s foreign policy.
He continued: “The decision of President Trump is anchored on the various tweets and pushes by congressmen. And the congressmen rely on a data and report that were submitted by a separatist group in Nigeria called the IPOB, that there’s a genocide of Christians in Nigeria, which is false because all intelligence and non-governmental organizations that carry out research and data about killings in Nigeria, none but these two that have affiliation with IPOB that indicated that there is a Christian genocide. In fact, even the content of the data contradict that.”