A big question has arisen following US President Donald Trump’s threat to launch a military operation in Nigeria. What’s the real motive?

Trump said his mission is to stop the alleged ‘’persecution’’ of Christians amid widespread insecurity in the West African country. But experts say there is more to it.

Now, some US politicians and experts are suggesting the establishment of an emergency US military base in Nigeria’s oil-rich region of Niger-Delta to tackle alleged ‘’massacres of Christians’’ by Boko Haram terrorists.

In a social media post on 2 November, an advisor to Donald Trump and the Co-Secretary-General of the Transatlantic Parliamentary Group, Dr. Walid Phares, claimed that establishing a US base in Port Harcourt, the headquarters of Nigeria’s oil resources, will help to ‘’deter Boko Haram.’’

Opposite ends

Port Harcourt, in southern Nigeria, is about 1,370 kilometers from Maiduguri, the epicentre of Boko Haram violence.

This has sparked curiosity: Is it all about alleged Christian persecution or US interest in Nigeria’s resources?

Apart from oil in the south, Nigeria has vast reserves of critical minerals, including gold, lithium, and cobalt, mainly in northern and central parts of the country where insecurity is widespread.

The Trump administration has never hidden America’s hunger for critical minerals outside its shores and is often accused of arm-twisting countries for economic and migration deals.

‘Diverting attention’

In July, Nigeria rejected ‘’pressure’’ from the Trump administration to accept third-country deportees, particularly Venezuelans, from the US.

Back to the alleged Christian persecution in Nigeria – it’s widely known that armed groups carry out attacks indiscriminately, targeting Muslims and Christians.

''Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a “COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN'' US President Donald Trump in a social media post on 31 October.

‎Trump’s claims sharply contradicted comments by his Senior Advisor on Arab and African affairs Massad Boulos, who rejected allegations that a genocide against Christians was taking place in Nigeria.

“We even know that Boko Haram and ISIS are killing more Muslims than Christians. People are suffering from all sorts of backgrounds. This is not specifically targeted about one group or the other” Massad Boulos said in mid-October.

This isn’t the first time Donald Trump has alleged targeted mass killings in an African country.

In May, he claimed that the South African government was committing a ‘’genocide’’ against White farmers, falsely showing photos from the DRC conflict to visiting President Cyril Ramaphosa in Washington to back his widely discredited claims.

There have been tensions between Pretoria and Washington over trade and South Africa’s ICC case against the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.

Some analysts say Trump’s claims on African countries could also be a tactic to divert attention from the US-backed Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, which he never admitted.