U.S. lawmaker Riley Moore says President Donald Trump’s administration will closely monitor Nigeria’s 2027 elections.
Mr Moore stated this in an interview with NoireTV, published on social media on Saturday, in response to a question about whether the U.S. government will ensure Nigeria’s election is credible.
“What I’d say is that we’re certainly going to be watching these results and how these elections unfold and how they’re executed. And that’s something that myself and the administration are going to be paying very close attention to,” Mr Moore said.
Mr Moore, who was among a U.S. fact-finding delegation to Nigeria on alleged Christian genocide, also spoke about a bill he is co-sponsoring with another lawmaker, targeted at restricting security assistance to Nigeria unless certain criteria are met.
“We’re working on Chris (Smith)’s bill, which obviously I’m a co-sponsor of that bill. But I’d say, more importantly, what people need to pay attention to is the appropriations bill that we’re going to have on the floor today,” Mr Moore said.
The lawmaker added, “There’s a lot of language that I put on that bill that’s inside of it that relates to Nigeria and the persecution of Christians and restrictions on security assistance to the government of Nigeria, and steps that they have to take.
“That bill’s likely to become law. We’re about to, hopefully, pass that here today. And so there’s some pretty strong and aggressive language in that bill that’s going to be binding as it relates to our relationship to Nigeria moving forward.”
