What Are Nicki Minaj and Trump Up to in Nigeria?

“[President Donald Trump] said he enjoys war. And it’s clear he’s dying to make war,” Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian author Wole Soyinka said this month. “He says he wants to help Nigeria. Of course—anybody, any leader, any nation, would gladly accept assistance from anywhere to get rid of this vicious fundamentalist group, whose principle, whose understanding of their religion is just to butcher others who happen not to follow them…. At the same time, there has been partnership, partnership between Nigeria, other regimes for weaponry, equipment, training to deal with these well-organized and transnational killers under the name of Islam. They exist…. But to use language like ‘invading’ … ‘guns-blazing,’ ‘sweetly,’ ‘viciously.’”

“This is not a Christian genocide, because the facts don’t support it,” Good Governance Nigeria researcher Malik Samuel has also said. “If you look at the areas where this conflict is rife, even in the—even if you take Borno state alone, you look at northern Borno, many of these communities are Muslim-dominated. So most of the victims of Boko Haram violence are Muslims.”

But the facts don’t matter to the Trump administration. As Minaj’s role suggests, Trump wasn’t just suddenly compelled by the plight of Christians in Nigeria. These recent developments are the result of a long-standing evangelical campaign to shape Nigeria—and the greater African continent—in the evangelical image. Multiple white evangelical groups like Focus on the Family, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and the Fellowship Foundation have poured millions into a concerted effort to push U.S.-branded right-wing ideologies on African countries like Nigeria, Uganda, and others. Paula White-Cain, Trump’s own spiritual adviser, has been taking trips to Nigeria and other African countries in the name of Jesus for years.