By Joshua Tosin Ogunsakin 
Former Minister of Aviation Femi Fani-Kayode has warned that Nigerians will resist any attempt by the United States to mount military action against the country after US President Donald Trump ordered the Department of War to prepare for possible intervention.
In an X post on Sunday, Fani-Kayode condemned the US president’s comments and accused him of issuing a direct threat to Nigeria. He described Trump in scathing terms and said the remarks were intolerable.
“Imagine a deranged & sociopathic meglomaniac & tyrant, a recalcitrant and unrepentant schoolyard and dockside bully and a cheap and shameless godless scumbag like @realDonaldTrump threatening our country with violence, military action and invasion. What a nerve!”
Fani-Kayode said the comments had been flagged to him by a friend who was deeply concerned about the potential for escalation. He told followers that Nigerians must refuse to be treated as inferiors by foreign powers.
Responding to his friend, the ex-minister insisted that if Washington followed through on its threat, citizens would not abandon their homeland. Instead, he said, they would stand and fight, adding that the episode should expose any lack of courage among the nation’s leadership and populace.
“My response to her was as follows. ‘You are right. They are evil and, if he carries out his abominable threat, there will be a war. We shall not leave the country but we will fight it out with them. We behaved like cowards and allowed them to demonise us with no response. I do not know what is wrong with Nigerians but this will be the greatest challenge they have ever faced and maybe after it is all over they will appreciate the importance of having bold, articulate and courageous leaders & disavow themselves of their accursed cowardice, ignorance, pettiness, weakness, envy & complacency.’”
Fani-Kayode went on to link Trump’s stance to the US president’s relationships with other world leaders, accusing him of siding with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and of double standards over global atrocities.
“Trump, a fascist & an associate of the globally recognized Hitler of the 21st century, @netanyahu, has refused to call the Israeli Zionist Nazis and the UAE-backed RSF butchers of Darfur, Sudan mass murderers and genocidal maniacs but he is calling our people the “killers of Christians” and is desperately trying to label our nation with the genocide tag and create a crisis in Nigeria.”
The former minister’s intervention follows Mr Trump’s post on Truth Social on Saturday in which the US president said he had instructed the Department of War to prepare for possible strikes in Nigeria. In that post, Trump accused Nigerian authorities of turning a blind eye to what he described as a “genocide of Christians” and warned Washington would halt aid if the attacks continued.
“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump wrote.
“I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!”
The exchange has further fuelled debate at home over how best to address the country’s security challenges and respond to international criticism.
“Fani-Kayode’s remarks came in reaction to Trump’s statement, which has sparked heated debate within Nigeria.”