Former Presidential Aide, Reno Omokri has challenged United States Senator, Ted Cruz, former US Mayor, Mike Arnold and others to name and shame any government official known to facilitate terrorism or Christian genocide in Nigeria.
This is just as the Secretary-General of the Jama’at Nasril Islam, JNI, Prof Khalid Aliyu, also dismissed claims by Ted Cruz that the security situation in Nigeria amounted to a calculated genocide against Christians.
These reactions come amid renewed scrutiny of the Nigerian government’s handling of violent attacks on citizens by extremists, with international and domestic observers offering diverse interpretations of the crisis.
Omokri threw the challenge at the US during a media round table in Abuja, where he also blamed the Obama administration for unleashing policies that led to Boko Haram insurgency in the country.
He accused U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of selectively citing stories to support his call to designate Nigeria a “country of particular concern” on religious freedom, saying “he picked only reports that favoured his agenda.”
Omokri noted that while he does not believe there is genocide in Nigeria, allegations that state officials may be facilitating terrorism should be substantiated with names and evidence.
He was, in part, responding to comments by Mike Arnold, an independent fact-finder in Nigeria, who had insisted that there were targeted violent killings in Nigeria.
But when pressed to emphatically name the culprits from his findings, Arnold explained that the alleged genocide is done by terrorists against both Christians and Muslims.
However, Omokri argued, “Saying there is genocide in Nigeria is against common sense. The claim is not true, but if you think it is true, don’t just come and make accusations, name them and shame them. Be specific, that’s how you’re going to help Nigeria.
“I believe Senator Cruz means well, that’s my personal belief, but that he doesn’t have the right information. If he knows the names of the Nigerian officials who are facilitating this genocide, he should name and shame them. Because he did say that he knows and that he’s aware of them.”
”We know there are still challenges, impunity hasn’t ended, but it’s a process. We’re expanding the capacity of the Nigerian Army and Police. We can’t be everywhere at the same time.”
Omokri cited improvements in Nigeria’s security ranking on the Global Terrorism Index, saying the country had moved down from the third most terrorised nation to the eighth place.
He said, ”deaths recorded in Nigeria, according to the Global Terror Index, reduced from 7,512 in 2015 to 565 in 2024.”
On his part, JNI scribe, Prof Aliyu, also described the claims by Ted Cruz as baseless and strange, saying, “it sounds really very strange for such an unverified claim that there is Christian genocide in Nigeria. I think it is really very dangerous to change the paradigm and the narrative from the act of criminality, and identify it with ethnic nationality or religious inclination.
”I think this claim is intended to create bad blood and to further extend the challenges we are going through in this country. And I think there may be a sinister motive behind such claims, to really draw us back from going out of the quagmire we are passing through.”
“I believe Senator Cruz means well, that’s my personal belief, but that he doesn’t have the right information. If he knows the names of the Nigerian officials who are facilitating this genocide, he should name and shame them. Because he did say that he knows and that he’s aware of them”.