<\/p>\n
Pastor Tunde Bakare, Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, says the renewed attention of the Donald Trump administration on Nigeria is driven largely by strategic interests in oil, mineral resources and emerging technologies.<\/p>\n
Speaking during a State of the Nation Address in Lagos on Sunday, Bakare said Nigeria\u2019s natural endowments and role in future tech value chains align with what he described as the \u201ctransactional\u201d style of the US president.<\/p>\n
Bakare\u2019s remarks follow America\u2019s redesignation of Nigeria as a \u201cCountry of Particular Concern\u201d over religious freedom and Trump\u2019s recent comments on violent attacks in Middle Belt communities.<\/p>\n
The cleric recalled that shortly after Trump won the 2024 election, he received what he called a symbolic revelation pointing to a \u201cparticular interest\u201d in Nigeria linked to geopolitics and the global economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was clear to us that President Donald Trump was going to have a particular interest in Nigeria. Nigeria\u2019s oil wealth and other mineral resources will be critical to the Trump presidency, as will our role in the value chain of emerging technologies,\u201d Bakare stated.<\/p>\n
He warned that external pressure on Nigeria\u2019s religious fault lines could escalate tensions if not carefully managed, adding that the federal government to respond with a clear economic strategy rather than confrontation.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Donald Trump has proven to be a transactional leader whose threats are usually invitations to the negotiating table,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The cleric said Nigeria\u2019s insecurity, especially in the Middle Belt, North-West and South-East, had exposed longstanding structural issues, adding that communities under constant attack feel abandoned.<\/p>\n
He criticised the National Assembly and foreign affairs officials for being \u201creactive\u201d and prioritising politics ahead of national security.<\/p>\n
Bakare argued that stabilising the country requires both decisive military action and reconciliation, including a victims\u2019 register and a national apology led by President Bola Tinubu.<\/p>\n
Other proposals he outlined include community-based policing under federal coordination, expanded use of veterans and paramilitary personnel, investment in surveillance technology and deeper security cooperation with the US.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pastor Tunde Bakare, Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, says the renewed attention of the Donald Trump administration on Nigeria is driven largely by strategic interests in oil, mineral resources and emerging technologies. Speaking during a State of the Nation Address in Lagos on Sunday, Bakare said Nigeria\u2019s natural endowments and role in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":237786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Pastor-Tunde-Bakare-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}