Nigeria Is In Trump’s sights; Will It Be Next? …. Alake favouring China and Chagoury, puts Tinubu at risk. By Biliyaminu Suraj

"By favouring China and Chagoury, Mines Minister Alake has likely put President Bola Tinubu on the list of persons of interest to President Trump."

American forces captured Venezuela's now-deposed president Nicolás Maduro and his wife in a major military attack in the country's capital, Caracas.

Maduro and his wife, were flown out of the country and placed on a US-bound warship to face a criminal trial in New York. President Trump said, “the US will temporarily run Venezuela until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition".

The military action follows allegations by Mr Trump of Maduro running a corrupt and illegitimate dictatorship.

President Trump does not seem concerned by international law experts who say the attack appears to blatantly breach the UN Charter, which only permits member states to use force against another in two circumstances: either with the endorsement of the Security Council, or in self-defence.

Mr Trump also said he is "ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to".

US Attorney-General Pam Bondi released documents alleging Mr Maduro "sits atop a corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity". This description by the US Attorney-General could equally apply to Nigeria.

President Tinubu has recently come into Mr Trump’s orbit with Mr Trump accusing the Tinubu Administration of allowing jihadist forces to target Christian villages and massacre thousands of Christians. Trump authorised a US Senate delegation to investigate and report directly to him as a matter of urgency. The evidence collected by the Senators during their trip to Nigeria was deeply disturbing. It wasn’t long before a US warship stationed in the Gulf of Guinea launched a successful missile strike on an ISIS camp in Northern Nigeria. That was a warning shot to President Tinubu to do more to prevent the killing of Christians and do it quickly.

The further dimension to the US-Nigeria tension is the blatant action by Mines Minister Alake in channelling critical minerals discoveries away from the US to Chinese companies and allowing President Tinubu’s benefactor, Gilbert Chagoury, to take his share too.

Chagoury is well known for his role as Sani Abacha’s bagman. After Abacha died in 1998, having looted Nigeria’s treasury of approximately $5billion, Chagoury agreed to return an estimated $300 million to the Nigerian government to secure his indemnity from possible criminal charges. He currently serves as Saint Lucia’s Ambassador to the Holy See and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO which conveniently affords him diplomatic immunity. His close connections to Tinubu are well known so it should come as no surprise that, after Mines Minister Alake revoked Jupiter Lithium Ltd’s titles to Nigeria’s largest lithium project which Jupiter discovered and developed over the last decade, the Jupiter Lithium Project’s titles were given to Chagoury’s companies.

Maybe President Tinubu didn’t realise that Jupiter Lithium Ltd, a UK company, had signed a deal to supply critical minerals to American Resources, a NASDAQ listed company.

The Jupiter Project is one of the world’s largest deposits of lithium and other critical minerals. It is also one of the world’s lowest cost and highest grade deposits. It has been held in limbo for two years by Nigeria’s court while Mines Minister Alake has been trying to figure out how to get the project off Jupiter Lithium Ltd and give it to the Chinese. The answer came in the form of Gilbert Chagoury. Chagoury employed an Australian, Colin Ikin, to set up a series of front companies to whom the Mining Cadastre Office would award the critical minerals tenements they had revoked from Jupiter Lithium Ltd. Jupiter Lithium Ltd were ejected from their tenements in November 2025 by Nigeria’s Civil Defence Corps who then escorted Chagoury’s Chinese miners to site to commence mining. But the local communities did not like Ikin or the Chinese. They wanted to continue with the Jupiter Project and all the community development Jupiter had been undertaking for several years. The community leaders challenged the Minister and Ikin. The community was attacked by Fulani herdsmen who used machetes to hack several villages, chopping of one girl’s hand. Such is the intimidation of communities who are told that if they comply with the request for consent to mine the attacks will stop.

The result: the communities live in fear after Jupiter’s staff and security were removed, Gilbert Chagoury becomes the owner of Nigeria’s largest critical minerals project, China secures all the product from one of the world’s largest critical minerals deposits and the US gets … absolutely nothing.

So, by favouring China and Chagoury, Mines Minister Alake has likely put President Bola Tinubu on the list of persons of interest to President Trump.