As Pope Leo XIV continues to single out President Donald Trump, and apparently only Trump, as the cause of so much war and strife in the world, one of his own archbishops is pleading with Trump to provide Nigerian Christians with intelligence and weapons to help ensure their very survival.
According to the Catholic news organization EWTN, Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama has openly asked the United States for its help in countering Islamic terrorism in Nigeria.
The archbishop “has requested intelligence assets and weaponry from U.S. President Donald Trump to combat violence in the country,” the news site reported. It added that Kaigama delivered his remarks on March 20 at a press briefing in Madrid, “where the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) presented the campaign ‘May Persecution Not Have the Last Word: Heal Nigeria.’”
The purpose of the campaign is to “strengthen faith, heal the trauma caused by violence, and protect the persecuted.”
It’s not clear whether the Pope knew about Kaigama’s comments in advance or whether he sanctioned them. My gut tells me he did not.
Sounds like Pope Leo is talking directly to Trump: "War is back in vogue. And the zeal for war is spreading….The principle established after WWII that prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others has been completely undermined" pic.twitter.com/MkcV0rpE5l
— Molly Ploofkins (@Mollyploofkins) January 12, 2026
The Nigerian archbishop has now gone on record saying that Trump is “the first head of state to declare as a global leader, clearly and unequivocally, that Christians in Nigeria are being persecuted.” EWTN added that the archbishop “lamented that for years, only organizations like ACN had spoken out against the situation amid the silence of Western nations.”
That doesn’t sound like something the Pope would endorse.
Still, Christians, and Catholics in particular, have remained defiant and continue to proclaim their faith even if it means doing so out in the open at burned-out churches where massacres occurred.
The reality in Nigeria terrorists state. This church was burned by Nigeria Islamic Fulani terrorists. Christians in Nigeria need to wake up, and the world is still silent. Meanwhile, Nigerian Christians are being massacred every day: 5 died on June 21st. Wha do you call this? pic.twitter.com/dJh8DIxWYr
— Kiu tv (@KizyUzoma) June 22, 2024
Kaigama noted that the Trump administration did order the bombing of strongholds of the dominant Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram, in Nigeria, but the single bombing may have had a negative effect on efforts to protect the Nigerian people, particularly Nigerian Christians.
“I was glad when I heard Donald Trump say, ‘We are going to go to Nigeria; we are going to put an end to Boko Haram’… at Christmas, we received a gift — a bomb that fell on Nigerian soil — and, truth be told, I could not say whether it did any good,” EWTN reported.
While Nigerian Christians initially welcomed the bombing of Boko Haram, the lack of follow-up military operations targeting the terrorist organization may have had the opposite effect. The clip below depicts something that happened prior to the U.S. bombing, but it provides a sense of what Nigerian Christians live with every day.
Christians are being hunted like animals in Nigeria.
— AshleY (@Aku_700) March 30, 2026
An Islamist group invaded a Christian village and started shooting everyone in sight.
They are killing Christians on Eid and offering them as human sacrifices.
The media remains silent. pic.twitter.com/XfIY5Whaks
“We thought he (Trump) would come to strike at the root of the problem, utilizing intelligence, equipment, everything necessary to eradicate Boko Haram and allow us to live in peace. But a single bomb hasn’t accomplished much.”
The archbishop wants more. He wants more bombing of the terrorists. He wants weapons for his flock. He wants intelligence so that Christians in Nigeria are given a fighting chance for their own survival.
Kaigama says that Boko Haram is now “more emboldened,” and that attacks on Christians are happening with more frequency due to “inflamed passions” among Islamists.
The archbishop left no ambiguity in what he wants.
“So, we say to Donald Trump: Give us intelligence reports, give us weapons, collaborate with our government, and then find a way to eradicate all these military groups.”
Then he turned his attention to the leaders of other Western nations in places like Europe, “Stop ignoring what is happening in Africa, especially in Nigeria.”
LifeSite News reported that, citing the Nigerian government’s refusal to protect its Christians, the Trump administration halted all aid to the country and said it would “use the U.S. military to ‘wipe out’ the Islamists.”
The news site said, “When the U.S. military finally intervened in Nigeria with a Christmas Day strike against the country’s Islamists, it was notably a joint operation with the full cooperation of Nigeria’s government.”
EWTN reports that in Nigeria, “more than 80 communities have been attacked, and there are over 3 million internally displaced persons in the country due to the violence.”
LifeSite News traces the origins of the current level of persecution to 1999, when 12 of Nigeria’s northern states adopted Islamic sharia law. Then in 2009, the emergence of the Islamic terrorist organization Boko Haram "marked a dramatic escalation in the attacks."
In 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls, 87 of whom are still listed as missing. You may remember that the Obama administration’s infamous do-nothing response to such a direct act of terrorism included having First Lady Michelle Obama pose for a cringeworthy photo op, apparently to make sure she was not left out of a viral social media trend.
Where are you?
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) September 30, 2025
Taliban just cut off internet in Afghanistan. Girls already banned from schools now lose online education too. A total blackout on knowledge = a blackout on the future. This isn’t “culture” , it is called apartheid against women.
What’s the difference between… pic.twitter.com/cu8zPMdNU3
While the Obama administration was projecting impotence, Boko Haram rose to dominance in Nigeria.
A group called Open Doors conducted a study and found that from 2009 to 2022, more than 50,000 Nigerian Christians were murdered.
Since 2022, the bloodshed has increased. A 2024 report from the human rights organization Intersociety revealed that over 8,000 more Christians were murdered in 2023.
Thousands of Christians forced to flee ethnic cleansing in Nigeria as Islamist groups comitt genocide.
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) May 29, 2024
8,000 were killed in 2023.
Since 2000, 62,000 Christians have been killed by Islamist jihadist groups including Boko Haram ISWAP and Fulani militias. pic.twitter.com/P1BilIgI8x
The contrast between the archbishop's approach to Islamic terror and the Pope's is classic and familiar. Anyone who has ever worked in a large organization knows that the view from the top is always far different than the view on the ground. It's easy to speak philosophically and thematically when you're at the top. But when you're at ground-level, and you're seeing what's actually happening, you tend to be much more pragmatic. Nigeria's archbishop knows as powerful as prayer is — and it does work miracles — you can't simply pray away Islamic terror. And you can't turn it around and blame Christians for not being tolerant enough.
He knows that if Christians in Nigeria extend a conciliatory hand towards the radical Islamists in their country, they're likely to lose their hand, and possibly their life. As a result, we have a Nigerian Catholic archbishop who sees the world more through the eyes of President Trump and less through the eyes of his own Pope.
Related: Germany’s Friedrich Merz Plans to Repatriate Nearly One Million Syrian Migrants
Find out what you’re missing behind the members-only wall. It’s time for you to take advantage of the full catalogue of common-sense thinking that comes with a PJ Media VIP membership. You’ll get access to content you didn’t even know you wanted, and you’ll be hooked. The good news is, PJ Media VIP memberships are on sale! Get 60% off an annual VIP, VIP Gold, or VIP Platinum membership! Use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off a VIP membership!
Join the conversation as a VIP Member