The Presidency has denied reports claiming that President Bola Tinubu will visit the United States on Tuesday to meet with U.S. Vice President JD Vance over President Donald Trump’s controversial statement on Nigeria.
The report, first published by Sahara Reporters, alleged that Tinubu planned to travel to Washington for emergency diplomatic talks following Trump’s threat of possible U.S. military intervention in Nigeria.
Reacting to the claim on Monday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, dismissed the report as false and misleading. He stressed that there is no such visit or meeting scheduled between President Tinubu and the U.S. Vice President.
Ajayi, in a post on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle, said:
“There is a Sahara Reporters story that President Tinubu is going to the U.S. on Tuesday to see U.S. Vice President JD Vance. That story is not true. I can see that the fake news by Sahara has become the basis for some uninformed commentaries since yesterday.”
He further stated that if President Tinubu were to visit the United States, he would not be meeting with a vice president but with President Donald Trump himself.
“If President Tinubu is going to the White House, he won’t be going to see a vice president,” Ajayi added.
The Presidency’s clarification comes amid escalating diplomatic tensions triggered by Trump’s recent remarks on alleged religious killings in Nigeria.
Over the weekend, Trump accused Nigerian authorities of turning a blind eye to what he called “genocidal killings of Christians,” warning that the United States “may very well go into that disgraced country guns-a-blazing.”
His comment, posted on his Truth Social account, sparked widespread reactions across Nigeria. While some groups applauded Trump’s concern, others condemned the tone of his statement, calling it an attempt to interfere in Nigeria’s internal affairs.
Human rights activists and legal experts have also criticized Trump’s threat as a breach of international law and a potential violation of Nigeria’s sovereignty.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian government has maintained that reports of Christian genocide are exaggerated and politically motivated. The Presidency reiterated that Tinubu’s administration remains focused on strengthening national security and religious harmony.
Ajayi urged the public to ignore unfounded reports and rely only on verified information from official government sources.
