“You’re ignorant”: Tinubu’s aide slams US lawmaker over remarks on Nigeria

Nigeria’s presidency has fired back at U.S. lawmaker Riley Moore after he labelled the country “the deadliest place in the world for Christians.” Presidential aide Olusegun Dada called the claim ignorant and detached from reality.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, Dada described the lawmaker as “ignorant” of Nigeria’s religious dynamics.

“Firstly, let me say, Congressman Riley, you are ignorant, if not more ignorant than Ted Cruz, about Nigeria,” Dada wrote.

He further asserted that Nigeria is a “proud, sovereign nation built on the faith and resilience of its people,” emphasising that “no faith is under siege, no community is excluded.”

“Our churches, mosques, and traditional shrines stand side by side — not as rivals, but as symbols of the unity that binds us,” he added.

Dada’s remarks came in response to a series of posts made by Congressman Moore on Monday, in which he labelled Nigeria “the deadliest country in the world for Christians.”

Moore had called on U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to designate Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern.” o

He had said, “Since Boko Haram’s insurgency in 2009, more than 50,000 Christians have been murdered and more than 5 million displaced,” while also  claiming that “at least 250 priests have been attacked or killed in the last decade” and that “more than 19,000 churches have been attacked or destroyed since 2009.”

Further, Moore alleged complicity on the part of some Nigerian state and federal officials, citing enforcement of anti-blasphemy laws and other incidents as evidence of state tolerance for religious violence.

A U.S. Senator Ted Cruz,  had made a similar allegation in September as he accused Nigerian authorities of ignoring and facilitating the mass murder of Christians by Islamist jihadists.

But in a pointed response, Dada  said: “I hope #TuckerCarlson can ask #TedCruz these same questions again — but this time about Nigeria. Ted Cruz wanted the U.S. to go to war with Iran, but he didn’t even know its population or cultural makeup. Same level of total ignorance now applied to Nigeria.”