I am following with deep interest the ongoing debates that are erupting over Donald Trump’s designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for alleged religious freedom violations. Many Nigerians, including analysts I respect, are rushing to interpret that decision through the narrow lens of Western imperialism or anti-Islam bias. Others are dismissing it as another of Trump’s theatrics; a foreign leader speaking loudly to his conservative Christian base.
But as someone who is studying policy, governance, and environmental security — and as a Nigerian who loves his country deeply, I am insisting that Trump is not after Nigeria. He is after China. And Nigeria, whether we are realising it or not, is standing today as one of the hidden battlegrounds in the long-running strategic rivalry between the United States and China.
Trump’s silence on China and his sudden shift to Nigeria
What is capturing my attention is how Trump is behaving immediately after his meeting with the Chinese President in Tokyo just some few days ago. He said nothing too detailed about the content of the meeting. Instead, he is stepping out and talking about Nigeria — about the mass killings of Christians, the destruction of rural communities, and the rise of religiously-motivated violence in the Middle Belt.
To a casual observer, that shift looks random. But in the language of global diplomacy, it is a signal. You don’t move from Beijing to Abuja one breath unless there is a linking thread. Trump’s intelligence briefings are showing that Nigeria’s crisis is being tied to Chinese economic interests. That is what many of us are failing to see.
China’s deep hand in NigeNigeribloody mining economy
We are not deceiving ourselves when we say Nigeria is sitting on gold. Real gold, and not just gold. We are sitting on columbite, tantalite, lithium, and other rare earth minerals that are vital to modern technology — electric cars, smartphones, satellites, even weapons. Whoever is controlling the supply of these resources is controlling the future of global power.
China is dominating global rare-earth production and refining, but as its domestic reserves are depleting, it is expanding into Africa — and Nigeria, with a weak regulatory system and persistent insecurity, is looking like a prime target.
Across Zamfara, Niger, Nasarawa, Plateau, Benue and Taraba States, illegal mining is exploding. Beneath the surface of that chaos is a powerful network of Chinese-backed miners, local collaborators, and militia protection rackets. In some communities, entire villages are being emptied out by attacks so that the land is being “freed up” for mining.
Some communities in Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa States have soil carrying visible scars of reckless excavation. Locals are speaking of strange foreigners arriving at night and trucks loaded with ore moving under military escort. These are not fairy tales — they are the daily reality of a nation losing its wealth to foreign hands under the cover of terror.
Terrorism as a tool for resource control
We often view terrorism in Nigeria as purely ideological — a religious war or a clash of civilizations. But when we look closely, we are seeing that terrorism is becoming a deliberate tool for resource control.
Groups that label themselves as herders, bandits, or insurgents are aligning with illegal miners. They are attacking Christian farming communities, killing or displacing the inhabitants, and leaving behind ungoverned zones/spaces ready for exploitation. Chinese middlemen and local cartels are moving in to dig, extract, and export. The minerals are leaving Nigeria illegally, ending up in Dubai, Hong Kong or Shanghai — enriching foreign economies while Nigeria bleeds.
When Trump is talking about Christian persecution in Nigeria, many people are thinking he is pandering to faith-based voters. But he is also responding to strategic intelligence. His government is discovering that China is using Nigeria’s instability as a shield for illegal extraction — and that thousands of Christian lives are not being lost randomly, but as collateral damage in a global economic war.
The Buhari Waterways Bill — China’s Trojan horse
We are remembering how, under President Muhammadu Buhari, the Water Resources Bill was being pushed. Nigerians from every corner resisted it, and rightly so. On the surface, the bill seemed like administrative reform to bring all inland waterways and adjoining lands under federal control. But beneath that surface was something far more sinister.
Those waterways; rivers, streams, wetlands are not just water routes; they are mineral corridors. Many of Nigeria’s richest alluvial gold and rare earth deposits are located along these river systems. By centralising control of the lands, the bill, if pass, is paving the way for foreign interests especially Chinese-linked companies to gain access through federal licences, bypassing state governments and local communities.
I believe Chinese advisers and investors were quietly lobbying for that bill. They were seeing it as a legal shortcut to Nigeria’s mineral heartlands. Fortunately, Nigerians resisted it fiercely. But the attempt itself exposed how deeply Chinese mining ambitions are penetrating our policymaking corridors.
Trump’s intelligence briefing and the bigger picture
Now imagine Trump sitting in the Oval Office, reviewing a classified intelligence briefing ahead of his meeting with the Chinese President. The report might read: “China is funding illegal mining operations in Nigeria through proxies. Minerals are being smuggled to China. Terrorist groups are clearing Christian farming zones to open mining fields. Nigeria’s government is aware but failing to act”.
If I put myself in Trump’s shoes — a man obsessed with America First, economic nationalism, and confronting Chinese influence, I see why he is doing what he is doing.
That explains why after his meeting with the Chinese President, he is saying nothing about the trade war or Huawei. Instead, he is focusing on Nigeria. He is not only expressing moral outrage, he is sending a geostrategic message to Beijing and Abuja alike: ‘We see what you’re doing in Nigeria, and we are watching’.
The CPC designation thus becomes a diplomatic weapon; not just to defend religious freedom, but to pressure Nigeria’s leadership to confront internal terrorism, regulate its mining sector, and cut off China’s exploitation routes. It is also telling China that the U.S. will not silently allow Africa’s mineral corridors to slip into Beijing’s hands.
The blood of the poor, the gold of the powerful
As a development professional, I am telling ourselves that underdevelopment is not accidental. It is a system maintained for the benefit of those who profit from chaos. The violence ravaging Nigeria’s north and middle belt follows an economic logic. It is driving farmers away from ancestral lands, weakening resistance, and clearing the field for predatory extraction.
In many of these regions, the victims are overwhelmingly Christian farmers. Their lands sit on mineral deposits. Their displacement, often labelled as “herder-farmer clashes”, is enabling illegal mining. Every truckload of gold leaving Zamfara or Niger State without record is carrying stolen wealth plus the blood of innocent people.
When Trump is referring to ‘Christian genocide’, it may sound dramatic to some. But to me it is truthful. He is naming what the rest of the world is refusing to name: a systematic campaign of dispossession combining religion, resource greed, and geopolitics.
Nigeria at the crossroads of global power politics
Nigeria is now standing at a dangerous crossroads. On one side is China — aggressive, patient, and comfortable operating in the shadows. On the other side is the United States — loud, moralistic, and determined not to lose strategic ground. Both are seeing our country as strategic: China for minerals; America for influence.
For Beijing, Nigeria is a silent goldmine. For Washington, Nigeria is a partner slipping away. And for Nigerians like us, we are caught in the middle — a proud nation being turned into a chessboard for foreign powers.
The truth is uncomfortable: our leaders allowed it. Through negligence or complicity, they permit foreign powers to profit from our insecurity. Every village burned in Benue or Plateau State, every displaced farmer in Nasarawa State, every illegal mining pit in Niger State is part of the same global script — the conversion of African lives into raw material for foreign profit.
What Trump’s move is actually signalling
Trump’s move is not hostility toward us. It is a wake-up call. He is using America’s legal and diplomatic tools like the CPC designation to jolt our leadership into action. He is highlighting the shootings in Plateau and Benue States, and Southern Kaduna not just out of empathy, but because those regions sit atop mineral deposits that feed China’s industrial machine.
When he says ‘the persecution of Christians must stop’, he is also meaning ‘Nigeria must stop enriching our biggest rival through the corridors of instability’. His message, though blunt, aligns with what every patriotic Nigerian should demand: a state that protects its people, its land, and its resources.
Nigeria must wake up
Nigeria cannot continue to live in denial. We must stop pretending that our insecurity is purely domestic. It is not. It is being sponsored, exploited, and sustained by global powers who see profit in our pain.
We must press for urgent reforms — a national mining framework that shuts down illegal foreign operators; a security architecture that protects communities; and leadership that understands that when a Nigerian village falls, the nation’s sovereignty is being stripped.
We must draw the connections from the blood on our farmlands to the gold in Chinese vaults. From Christian families fleeing in the Middle Belt to the wealth fueling Asian factories. From the failed waterways bill to the shadowy corridors of global mining diplomacy.
Conclusion
Trump is not after Nigeria. He is after China and Nigeria is just one of the theatres where this global confrontation is playing out. His warnings about Christian killings and religious freedom are carrying more than moral weight; they are linked to strategic intelligence.
As a Nigerian, I accept his message not as an insult, but as a challenge — a reminder that sovereignty lies not only in our flag, but in how we protect our people, our land, and our resources.
If we fail to act, the silent war between the United States and China will keep being waged on our soil — not with tanks or missiles, but with shovels, mineral flows, and human suffering.
It is time for Nigeria to wake up.
Orngu writes from Koti-Yogh, Ute, Vandeikya Local Government Area of Benue State. Email: oranngu@gmail.com
