When Trump’s adviser, Massad Boulos, claimed that Boko Haram killed more Muslims than Christians, it sounded like another attempt to twist a painful reality into political talk. It’s easy to sit in Washington and make blanket statements, but Nigerians who have lived through the horror know the truth. From Borno to Plateau, Benue to Kaduna, churches have been burned, pastors slaughtered, and entire Christian communities wiped out. To say Boko Haram “killed more Muslims” sounds careless and deeply insulting to the memories of those who died for their faith.
Insensitive and Misinformed
There’s a difference between general insecurity and targeted killings. Boko Haram didn’t start as a group fighting farmers or politicians, it started by declaring war on Christianity and Western education. “Boko Haram” literally means “Western education is forbidden.” Their first major attacks were on churches, schools, and Christian gatherings. The adviser’s claim dismisses that painful history. Yes, Muslims also suffered, but it’s dishonest to pretend the group didn’t single out Christians for murder and displacement. Statements like “Boko Haram killed more Muslims than Christians” may sound politically balanced, but they ignore the ideological root of the terror.
Tell That to the Victims
Tell that to the people of Chibok, whose daughters were abducted in 2014 for simply going to school. Tell that to the villagers in Gwoza, Baga, and Mubi, many of them Christians who were slaughtered during Sunday worship. Tell that to the Reverend Lawan Andimi, who was executed on video for refusing to deny Christ. These aren’t just statistics, these are lives. Every time someone tries to rewrite this narrative, it feels like erasing those graves. If “Boko Haram killed more Muslims than Christians,” Trump’s adviser says is meant to sound diplomatic, it only ends up sounding heartless.
The Western Habit of Downplaying African Pain
The West has a habit of explaining away African suffering with academic phrases, “complex insecurity,” “tribal conflict,” “shared casualties.” But Nigerians know the truth: religion played a major role in this war. Boko Haram fighters didn’t shout “down with bad governance”; they shouted “Allahu Akbar” while burning churches. Their victims were targeted for believing differently. When an American official claims it’s not about religion, it shows how disconnected outsiders are from the blood that has been shed on Nigerian soil.
Facts Shouldn’t Be Twisted
Of course, no life lost, Muslim or Christian, should be minimized. Boko Haram’s evil has touched everyone. But you can’t rewrite a story to fit a foreign agenda. The adviser’s statement that “Boko Haram killed more Muslims than Christians” sounds like an attempt to sanitize the truth, to make terrorism look like random violence. It wasn’t. It was deliberate, planned, and faith-driven. Christians were forced to flee from the North, churches became ruins, and thousands live today as refugees because of what Boko Haram stood for.
The real problem with such comments is not just ignorance, it’s the arrogance behind it. People like Boulos talk as though they know Nigeria better than Nigerians. If he had stepped foot in Chibok or Maiduguri during those years, he wouldn’t have made such a careless statement. The truth is that both Muslims and Christians have suffered, but one group has clearly been a prime target from the start. Reducing that pain to a line in a press statement is cruel.
