US Congress votes to freeze aid to ‘corrupt’ Nigeria despite ‘wonderful’ visit by Trump Africa envoy

Republicans in the US House of Representatives voted on 15 July to restrict US economic and security aid to “corrupt” Abuja just as the State Department’s top Africa diplomat was highlighting his “wonderful” meetings with top Nigerian officials, laying bare the internal contradictions and conflicting constituencies of US policy.

Eight and a half months after President Donald Trump threatened to enter Africa’s most populous country “guns-a-blazing” amid a surge in anti-Christian violence, relations with the White House have markedly improved.

Also on Wednesday, President Bola Tinubu confirmed his attendance at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in September in New York. He has sent Vice President Kassim Shettima in his stead in the past.

Assistant Secretary of State Frank Garcia chose Nigeria as the first stop on his inaugural trip to the continent this week, meeting with top officials including National Security Advisor Nuhu Ribadu, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sola Enikanolaiye, Air Vice Marshal Francis Edosa and General Olufemi Olatubosun Oluyede, the chief of defence staff. The spokesperson for Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, however told The Africa Report that the diplomatic engagement had yet to produce a positive outcome.

“Nigeria’s stability is paramount to security across West Africa, and the US is committed to working with Nigeria to address shared threats, including terrorism and instability,” a smiling Garcia said in an X post on 15 July. “Together, we are making the region safer.”

Just hours later, Republicans on Capitol Hill delivered a starkly different message. By voice vote, Trump’s party passed an amendment to the annual foreign aid spending bill that would condition all future economic and security assistance – rather than just 50% – to progress on preventing violence and holding perpetrators accountable.

“The generosity of our taxpayers is a reflection of the American values we hold so firmly,” said Republican Congressman Greg Steube of Florida, who authored the amendment to the National Security, Department of State and Related Programs Appropriations Act.

“Never should we allow their hard-earned tax dollars to be funnelled to corrupt regimes that fail to uphold religious freedom, fail to adequately confront terrorism and fail to protect the innocent from persecution.”

The House of Representatives passed the amended bill by a vote of 217-209, setting up a vote in the Senate.

Unfinished business

The clashing narratives underscore the progress Nigeria has made over recent months in winning over the Christian right – and the long road that still lies ahead.

Caught flat-footed by Trump’s military threats and his designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for religious discrimination in October, Tinubu quickly moved to try to win over Washington sceptics. On 12 December, Ribadu – via Nigerian law firm Aster Legal – hired the DCI Group for a hefty $9m. A month later, Nigeria added a $900,000 contract with BGR Government Affairs.

Almost immediately, DCI began courting US lawmakers and journalists and set up a clearinghouse for information about Nigerian security forces’ fight to defeat terrorism and protect the faithful, www.securenigeria.com. As early as February, the firm helped bring Nigeria’s Christian First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, to Washington to attend Religious Freedom Week and the National Prayer Breakfast.

“We are honoured to be joined today by the First Lady of Nigeria, who also happens to serve as a Christian pastor at one of the largest churches. A very respected woman.”

While the first lady pushed back against accusations that her husband’s government was complacent – if not complicit – in an alleged “Christian genocide”, Nigeria’s security forces welcomed the US military’s help to go after jihadi groups in northern Nigeria.

After US Africa Command (AFRICOM) deployed 200 troops to the country in February, joint operations in May reportedly killed Islamic State’s second-in-command, Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, and almost 200 fighters. That month, Ribadu met with Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington.

“The Nigerian shift towards limiting public objections to the Trump administration’s rhetoric while embracing closer cooperation with the US military has definitely helped Nigeria’s standing, for now,” says James Barnett, a Nigeria expert and research fellow with the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank.

“The joint special forces raid and airstrikes in Maygave the Trump administration a tangible counterterrorism success that it portrayed to its base as helping Christians overseas. I imagine the Nigerian government hopes that those operations, and possibly similar ones in the future, will be enough to stay in the Trump administration’s good graces.”

Counter-narrative

However, that’s no sure thing, as the House action made clear.

Ahead of 15 July, the Republican Study Committee (RSC), the conservative caucus of House Republicans, expressed support for Steube’s amendment, according to language from an internal staff bulletin seen by The Africa Report. The RSC memos claim to be informational only and not statements of support.

“Conservatives may be pleased that this amendment would hold Nigeria accountable for the persecution of Christians,” the RSC memo says.

Democrats countered that the amendment was counterproductive. “Our security assistance helps Nigeria combat Boko Haram, ISIS and other violent extremist groups that threaten both regional and global security,” said Lois Frankel of Florida, the top Democrat on the House foreign aid spending panel. “And if the US walks away, the challenges will not disappear.”

Some Christian activists argue that the focus on US defence cooperation in the northern states is overshadowing continued attacks by Fulani herders in central Nigeria.

“I am deeply concerned that credible information is not reaching President Trump on the continuing targeted slaughter of Christians, especially by Fulani militias in Nigeria’s Middle Belt,” says Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute. “The Middle Belt is where most of the violent attacks against Christians are occurring and are carried out with virtual impunity.”

A former member of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Shea says the US should maintain its CPC designation for Nigeria. USCIRF echoed the sentiment on 10 July when it unveiled its policy recommendations for 2026.

The House bill is also accompanied by an explanatory report directing the State Department to ensure that “funds made available under this heading be used to address violence perpetrated by Fulani ethnic militia and other instability in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria”.

Tinubu’s backers argue that the US strikes have relieved pressure on Nigerian forces in the north, allowing them to ramp up their presence in the Middle Belt.

For Oge Onubogu, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, the focus on kinetic successes on the battlefield risks missing the bigger picture.

Security must be restored

“A military approach that is only focused on hardware will not necessarily get to the root of the issues,” she says. “There have been some successes in the US-Nigeria security partnership. But for me, the ultimate test at the end of the day would be if this has made any impact on the lives of the average Nigerian citizen.”

So far, Onubogu says, that hasn’t been the case. Until security is restored, she adds, the Tinubu administration will fail to win over American Christian groups and their allies in the Nigerian diaspora, no matter how much headway Abuja and its lobbyists make with the White House and the Pentagon.

“We must not lose sight that the narrative we hear here in DC may actually be different from the narrative you would hear happening in Iowa or Oklahoma or Texas,” Onubogu tells The Africa Report. “If we look over the past year or so, a lot of our foreign policy is informed by domestic issues here in the US.”

Until those pressure groups are convinced that the violence has ebbed, US-Nigeria relations will remain rocky. “There have been some encouraging signs on the security front in recent months, but the unfortunate fact is Nigeria remains beset by a number of complex, deadly conflicts that will take a lot of sustained effort to address,” says Barnett.

“This problem is not going away overnight. And because there is a strong constituency in the US that will raise the alarm when Nigerian Christians are killed, we can’t be certain that the US-Nigeria relationship will continue in this current form indefinitely,” he adds. (The Africa Report)