Ismaeel Aleem
A prominient chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has slammed the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration for its feeble diplomatic riposte to United States President Donald Trump’s recent military threat against Nigeria.
Appearing on Arise Television’s Prime Time programme on Wednesday, Olawepo-Hashim expressed dismay not at Trump’s provocative remarks centred on alleged failures to curb Christian persecution by Islamist militants but at the Nigerian government’s tepid reaction.
He argued that years of US Senate hearings on religious violence in Nigeria should have prompted robust engagement, yet official channels remained dormant.
“I am not shocked about the threat from President Donald Trump. What shocks me is the Nigerian government’s response.
There have been hearings in the US Senate on these issues for years, yet Nigeria did not have a functioning ambassador in the United States.
How then do you put your story across in a serious manner?” Olawepo-Hashim queried.
Trump’s escalation, including orders for Pentagon planning and threats to halt all aid, has ignited widespread alarm in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation.
The US President’s designation of Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” for religious freedom violations underscores longstanding tensions over attacks by groups like Boko Haram, which have claimed thousands of lives, predominantly Christian.
Olawepo-Hashim decried the APC‘s predilection for “back channels” over institutional diplomacy, branding such tactics “funny” and amateuris.
“They like back channels when there are institutional structures of communication in international relations.”
“Your ambassador is your president in a foreign land, not the same as a chargé d’affaires. These structures, such as bi-national or bilateral commissions, have been paralysed for years,” he asserted.
He linked this malaise to broader diplomatic atrophy, including frayed ties with neighbours like Niger Republic, where cooperation against shared threats has waned.
Under President Bola Tinubu, Olawepo-Hashim charged, Nigeria’s foreign policy veers towards recklessness, eroding its stature as West Africa’s linchpin.
“The APC government, particularly under President Tinubu, has pursued a reckless and incoherent foreign policy. This is not the first time we are being pushed to the brink of a foreign war. The first was when Tinubu threatened to go to war with Niger Republic.
That was the first foreign policy blunder,” he remarked, referencing the 2023 ECOWAS ultimatum against Niger’s junta, which Tinubu championed as regional bloc chair.
The critique highlights deepening partisan fissures as Nigeria navigates this crisis. With porous borders and overlapping insurgencies, Olawepo-Hashim warned that neglected diplomacy risks regional destabilisation, urging a return to principled, structured engagement to safeguard sovereignty and counter narratives of religious strife.
