Is the First Lady of Nigeria Scared? When I met her in Washington, D.C., she was reluctant to acknowledge that Christians like her are being attacked in her country—despite all the evidence of widespread atrocities.
Nigerian First Lady Oluremi Tinubu stands for a portrait inside the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C., on February 4, 2026. (Jason Andrew for The Free Press)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — I met the First Lady of Nigeria at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C., during her short trip to the U.S. last week. “I’m here,” said Oluremi Tinubu, “to make some clarifications.” She’s aware of what she calls “the recent hype in the social media that there is Christian genocide,” and has come to America to “really tell who would like to listen the real situation on the ground.” I have reported on the atrocities committed against Christian communities by Islamists in Nigeria. I’ve also spoken to Nigerians who are on the ground. I’ve reviewed photographs of butchered children and heard eyewitness testimonies that are not easily forgotten. So I was curious to know how her husband’s government views the violence. In early October 2025, President Bola Tinubu told an audience in Imo State, which is majority Christian, that there is no religious persecution in his country. To say otherwise, he said, “is a lie from the pit of hell.” I asked his wife if that is still his position, and she replied: “To an extent.”...
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