Christians are being persecuted in Nigeria

Nicki Minaj – the US-based, multi-million-selling Trinidadian rapper – has publicly backed President Donald Trump’s allegations that Christians face persecution in Nigeria.

“In Nigeria, Christians are being targeted,” Minaj said on Tuesday at a UN event organised by the US, adding that “Churches have been burned, families have been torn apart … simply because of how they pray.”

It follows recent threats by Trump to send troops into Nigeria “guns a-blazing” if its government “continues to allow the killing of Christians”.

But the Nigerian presidency says the widespread violence that has long plagued the West African nation affects everyone, regardless of background or belief.

Minaj, whose real name is Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, said calling for the protection of Christians in Nigeria “is not about taking sides or dividing people, “but about “uniting humanity”.

“This is about standing up in the face of injustice. It’s about what I’ve always stood for,” she added while standing alongside the US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz.

The 42-year-old rapper thanked Trump for “prioritizing this issue and for his leadership”.

She described Nigeria as “a beautiful nation with deep faith traditions” and even acknowledged the “beautiful Barbz” – her fans – in the West African country.

Waltz thanked the rapper for “leveraging her massive platform to spotlight the atrocities against Christians in Nigeria”.

For months, right-wing campaigners and politicians in Washington have been alleging that Islamist militants were systematically targeting Christians in Nigeria.

But the BBC has found that some of the data being relied on to come to this conclusion is difficult to verify.

Deadly disputes are also often over vital resources like land and water or fuelled by inter-ethnic tensions, rather than religion, say analysts.

Nigeria’s government does not deny that there is deadly violence in the country. But says that, “Terrorists attack all who reject their murderous ideology – Muslims, Christians and those of no faith alike”.

Minaj previously namechecked her fanbase, known as the “Barbz”, as a reason for her intervention, saying online: “The Barbz & I will never stand down in the face of injustice. We’ve been given our influence by God. There must be a bigger purpose.”

Last year she publicly revealed that despite moving from her native Trinidad to New York at an early age, she still does not have US citizenship.

Her appearance at the UN on Tuesday is her highest-profile political intervention to date.

She made headlines during the pandemic for sharing disinformation about side-effects of the Covid vaccine – claiming that when a friend of her cousin had the jab, it caused his testicles to swell up and he became impotent.

“His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding,” Minaj wrote online.

Her comments were criticised by UK’s chief medical officer at the time, and then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson also commented, joking: “I am not as familiar with the works of Nicki Minaj as I probably should be.”

In recent months, her years-long feud with fellow New York rapper Cardi B escalated to them trading insults about each others’ careers and family members.