The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has criticised the Federal Government for failing to announce the recent United States airstrikes in Nigeria before President Donald Trump made them public.
Trump announced on Truth Social on Thursday that US forces had carried out airstrikes in North-West Nigeria, killing several terrorists. The Nigerian government later confirmed the attacks, saying they were conducted in collaboration with the United States.
However, the PDP said the Federal Government should have informed Nigerians first, rather than reacting after the US president’s announcement.
In a statement issued on Friday, the party’s spokesperson, Ini Ememobong, said the government’s handling of the communication raised serious concerns.
“The Federal Government should have been the first to report the news in order to properly sensitise the Nigerian populace, instead of waiting to confirm information already in public circulation, unless they were taken unawares like the rest of the citizens,” Ememobong said.
The opposition party said the “passive confirmation” of Nigeria’s knowledge of and cooperation in the operation highlighted what it described as a troubling communication gap.
“This inverted communication approach does not help the Federal Government or Nigerians in any way,” the PDP said, noting reports that US forces had previously operated in Nigeria without the knowledge or permission of the authorities.
‘Numerous perfect strikes’
In his post on Thursday, Trump said the US Department of War had executed “numerous perfect strikes.”
“Under my leadership, our country will not allow radical Islamic terrorism to prosper,” he wrote. He also praised the US military and warned of further action if attacks against Christians continued.
Trump did not disclose details of the operation. His comments came weeks after he said Christians in Nigeria faced what he described as an “existential threat” amounting to “genocide.”
The US Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, later said the operation in Sokoto State was carried out in coordination with Nigerian authorities.
Joint operation, intelligence provided
Following the announcement, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, said the airstrikes were approved by Nigerian authorities and carried out as a joint operation.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, Tuggar said President Bola Tinubu authorised the strikes and emphasised that they were not directed at any religious group.
“As the President stressed before giving the go-ahead, it had to be clear that this was a joint operation and that it was not targeting any religion,” Tuggar said.
He added that Nigeria provided the intelligence used for the strikes and disclosed that he spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio before the operation.
“It was Nigeria that provided the intelligence,” Tuggar said. “I spoke with the US Secretary of State for 19 minutes before the strike, and after the President gave his approval, I spoke with him again about five minutes before the operation was launched.”
