Former presidential candidate and human rights advocate, Dr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has blamed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration for the current diplomatic crisis between Nigeria and the United States over alleged Christian genocide, describing it as a result of “reckless and self-serving foreign policy.”

Hashim, a 2009 recipient of the Lord Max Beloff Prize in Global Affairs from the University of Buckingham, United Kingdom, said the crisis was not caused by U.S. President Donald Trump, who is facing his own political pressures, but by the incompetence and corruption within the Nigerian government.

“It is deeply troubling that, as we speak, Nigeria does not have ambassadors in many key countries. The bi-national and bilateral commissions established to address pressing concerns on security and trade have collapsed for over a decade,” he lamented.

Hashim accused the Tinubu administration of sidelining professional diplomacy in favour of “a motley crowd of poorly informed operatives and international outlaws pushing shady interests incoherently and dangerously.”

He described this as “a Janjaweed foreign policy—disgraceful and embarrassing,” recalling that Nigeria once stood tall as a stabilizing force in Africa through ECOMOG and peacekeeping missions in Congo, Darfur, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

Hashim further dismissed government attempts to downplay reports of targeted killings, saying such arguments were “fundamentally faulty.”

“Which categories of Nigerians need to die in the staggering numbers we see before we acknowledge complicity and failure to protect citizens?” he queried.

He also alleged that grave human rights violations are being committed daily by APC loyalists while the administration looks away. According to him, open threats against groups suspected of not supporting Tinubu in 2027 amount to international crimes under the Rome Statute, which Nigeria has domesticated.