Presidential aide, Bayo Onanuga, has publicly told the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, that the lives of Muslims living in Nigeria equally matter.
Onanuga, who is Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, reacted to a tweet by Marco Rubio on the alleged genocide against Christians in Nigeria on Saturday.
Rubio, in a tweet, threw his weight behind the decision of US President Donald Trump to designate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern.
He wrote that the “ongoing slaughter of thousands of Christians in Nigeria by radical Islamists and Fulani ethnic militias was both tragic and unacceptable.
The Secretary of State warned that the US was standing ready to take necessary action.
Onanuga saw the tweet and reacted to it, writing, “Secretary Rubio, Muslim lives matter too”.
He also denied that there is an ongoing slaughter of thousands of Christians in Nigeria.
Onanuga condemns what he calls a “gross exaggeration of the Nigerian situation.
He explained that there are sporadic attacks on some villages by bandits and terrorists, but added that the attacks are religiously insensitive.
Onanuga said both Christians and Muslims were affected by the crisis as both churches and mosques have been attacked by the bandits.
He said what Nigeria needs from America is military support to fight the bandits in some states of its states and not to be blacklisted as a nation of particular concern.
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