Remi Tinubu, Nigeria’s first lady, has called for more U.S. military strikes targeted at terrorists and bandits in the northern region of the country.
Mrs Tinubu described the Christmas Day military strikes ordered by President Donald Trump as a blessing to the West African nation.
“Nigeria is looking forward to collaboration….We are expecting that there will be more,” Mrs Tinubu stated in an interview with Fox News on Friday during her visit to the United States.
Asked about America’s Christmas Day strike on terrorists in Sokoto, Mrs Tinubu said, “It was quite a blessing.”
Mrs Tinubu had attended the National Prayer Breakfast with Mr Trump on Thursday.
Mr Trump poured encomium on her during the programme on Thursday, months after President Bola Tinubu’s government splashed millions of dollars on Republican lobbyists to burnish his tainted reputation in Washington following Mr Trump’s 2025 remarks denouncing Nigeria “a disgrace” under his leadership.
In January, the U.S. president warned that airstrikes in northern Nigeria would continue as long as terrorists and bandits keep killing Christians.
“I’d love to make it a one-time strike,” Mr Trump said, “But if they continue to kill Christians, it will be a many-time strike.”
Mr Trump announced on Christmas Day that the United States military, at his direction, carried out a series of airstrikes against terrorist targets in the northern part of Nigeria, marking America’s first kinetic action in the West African country.
“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in North-West Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even centuries!” Mr Trump said in a statement on Truth Social late on Thursday.
The announcement came days after news broke that the U.S. government had been conducting intelligence-gathering flights over Nigerian airspace since November, after Mr Trump’s threat of a military invasion of Nigeria to eliminate terrorists killing Christians.
Speaking further, Mr Trump added, “I have previously warned these terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was. The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing. Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper.”
Mr Trump described the military strikes as a gift.
