Borno Central Senator Ali Ndume has criticised the Federal Government and the National Assembly for failing to act promptly to counter what he described as the growing “misconception” about religious persecution in Nigeria before the United States reclassified the country as a “Country of Particular Concern”.

UGAMATV reports that former United States President Donald Trump, on Friday, via his Truth Social platform, declared Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern, alleging that “Christianity is facing an existential threat in the country.”

Trump also ordered that Nigeria be placed on the watchlist for “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”

Reacting in a statement on Saturday, Ndume avowed that both the Tinubu administration and the Senate ignored earlier warnings and failed to engage Washington diplomatically before the redesignation was announced.

“I have alerted the government; I even moved a motion. Nigeria is a sovereign state. It isn’t about what the United States can do to us, but about the misconception and the ripple effects of classifying us as a country of concern.

“We should engage the American government by presenting facts and figures. By engaging the US government, we should demand that they hear the other side of the story from the Nigerian government and the Muslim community.

“Muslims have been killed, too. The genocide isn’t against Christians but Nigerians generally,” he said.