Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has called for increased United States military action against terrorists and bandits operating in the northern part of the country.
Mrs Tinubu described the Christmas Day airstrikes ordered by US President Donald Trump against terrorist targets in northern Nigeria as a “blessing” to the country.
Speaking in an interview with Fox News on Friday during her visit to the United States, the First Lady said Nigeria was open to deeper collaboration with Washington.
“Nigeria is looking forward to collaboration. We are expecting that there will be more,” she said.
When asked specifically about the Christmas Day strike reportedly carried out in Sokoto, Mrs Tinubu responded, “It was quite a blessing.”
Mrs Tinubu was in the US to attend the National Prayer Breakfast, where she was hosted by President Trump on Thursday.
During the event, President Trump praised the First Lady, months after tensions followed his earlier remarks in 2025 describing Nigeria as “a disgrace” under President Bola Tinubu’s leadership.
In January, President Trump warned that US airstrikes in northern Nigeria would continue as long as terrorists and bandits kept killing Christians.
“I’d love to make it a one-time strike,” Trump had said. “But if they continue to kill Christians, it will be a many-time strike.”
On Christmas Day, the US president announced that American forces had carried out airstrikes against terrorist targets in northern Nigeria, marking the first direct US military action in the West African country.
“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS terrorist scum in North-West Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
The announcement came days after reports emerged that US intelligence-gathering flights had been conducted over Nigerian airspace since November, following Trump’s earlier threats of military action against terrorists in the country.
Trump further stated that the strikes were in response to continued attacks on Christians.
“I have previously warned these terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” he said, adding that the strikes were executed by the US Department of War.
President Trump later described the military action as a “gift.”
