The Nigerian government said it does not tolerate religious persecution, responding to US President Donald Trump’s threats of military intervention over the killing of Christians by jihadists in the country. Trump said on social media that he had asked the Pentagon to map out a possible plan of attack in Africa’s most populous nation because radical Islamists are “killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers”. But Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar insisted that the country’s constitution did not allow religious persecution, in the first comment by a senior Nigerian government official following Trump’s weekend threats. For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective, François Picard welcomes Najim Animashaun, Nonresident Research Fellow at the African Policy Research Institute.