Nigerian advocates called on the Trump administration to take increased actions to end terrorism and Christian persecution in the West African country at a rally near the White House on June 20.
The Save Nigeria Rally included speakers such as Alveda King, the niece of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., along with representatives from all six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.
“We are here to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the persecuted Christians of Nigeria,” Save Nigeria Group USA President Stephen Osemwegie said during his rally speech, in which he thanked the U.S. President Donald Trump for his efforts to redesignate Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” and to carry out strategic strikes on terrorist groups there.
“This is the Juneteenth holiday weekend,” Osemwegie said. “As our American brothers and sisters celebrate the historic victory over the evils of slavery and chattel oppression, we see an unbreakable spiritual connection between the American civil rights struggle and our fight against religious persecution and terrorism today.”
“The shackles may look different, but the demonic spirit of oppression is exactly the same,” he said.
Osemwegie told EWTN News that ending radical terrorism and persecution in Nigeria is “in the vital national security interest of the United States.”
As a country of 240 million people with 70% under the age of 45 years old, Osemwegie emphasized the critical need for the U.S. to prevent Nigeria from falling “into the hands of radical Islamic terror.”
“Nigeria sits at the epicenter today of global jihad,” he said. “If Boko Haram and ISIS reconstitute like they did in Syria, Nigeria could be another Syria, another Afghanistan. And that means that their core goal … [would be] to reconstitute and come after the United States.”
“They are really planning to regroup using the awesome resources in Africa and Nigeria, which has lithium, rare earths, gold, you name it, and two million barrels per day oil production,” he said. “You cannot allow such a country to become a terror hub. It will threaten the global community.”
Osemwegie further emphasized that escalating terrorism could spark a migration crisis. “We are 240 million [citizens], we could overrun many neighboring countries and Europe. We want America and the world to help us stay there by fighting the terrorism.”
“What Nigeria needs is not U.S. troops fighting on the ground,” Osemwegie said. “We need support — the platform, the drones, the advisors who will be behind our very gallant Nigerian troops that are giving their lives every day. As a matter of fact, weʼve lost senior officers, generals, soldiers fighting without the right equipment.”
According to Osemwegie, Nigeria needs the United States to intervene in cutting off funding to terrorist groups in the country such as Boko Haram and ISIS, which he said receive the bulk of their funding from the Middle East and other “nefarious parts of the world.”
The activist further called attention to the “humanitarian crisis that Nigeria faces,” with those who have been forced to flee their homes after facing persecution from armed militant groups, particularly the Fulani militant groups that have carried out most of the Christian persecution in the country.
“An estimated 11 million people have been driven from their homes since 2009,” he said. “These people now live in makeshift camps. They want for everything, but the world is not aware that they need food, shelter, and most importantly, they need to be safely returned to their communities.”
‘Nigeria, we hear you, we love you’
“I encourage President Trump, and I am continually praying for him, to care about the people of Nigeria,” Alveda King said during her rally speech.
Reflecting on the message of her late uncle, King called for people of all faiths to consider each other as brothers and sisters.
“We have to learn to live together. Same thing for Israel and the Palestinians and the Jews. Theyʼre brothers. Theyʼre not neighbors and cousins. They are actually brothers,” she said, alluding to ongoing conflicts in Israel and the broader Middle East.
At different points in her remarks, King sang verses of the gospel songs “This Little Light of Mine” and “How Great Thou Art.”
She emphasized the need for Christians to support humanitarian causes. “When little children are hungry, I don’t say ‘Are you a Muslim or a Jew?’ ‘Are you from Nigeria or America?’ A little child is hungry, so we’re going to feed that child.”
In an interview with EWTN News, King encouraged the Nigerian people to maintain hope.
“Be encouraged,” she said. “Of one blood, God made all people to live together on the face of the earth. My uncle, Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr, said: ‘We must learn to live together as brothers … and not to perish together as fools’”
“Nigeria, we hear you, we love you, be encouraged and have faith in God,” she said.
Survivor of Boko Haram kidnapping calls for ‘open doors’
Rebecca Samuel Dali, who was kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014 and survived sexual assault as a young child, told EWTN News at the rally that she came to express her gratitude for Trumpʼs efforts to end persecution in Nigeria, and to ask that he “open doors” to those fleeing persecution.
Dali was taken by Boko Haram July 30, 2014. She said the group released her after three hours when its leader realized his family had benefitted from the services provided by her organization, the Center for Compassion, Empowerment, and Peace Initiative.
“If America was locked, I could not have been here now,” she said. “So to open doors for people to come and stay in this peaceful country, this is why I’m here.”
Dali is also a minister of the Church of the Brethren and a 2017 recipient of the Humanitarian Award from the Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation.
