{"id":268527,"date":"2025-11-17T21:49:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T21:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/268527\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T21:49:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T21:49:14","slug":"nicki-minaj-to-spotlight-plight-of-nigerian-christians-in-un-speech-arranged-by-white-house-nicki-minaj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/268527\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicki Minaj to spotlight plight of Nigerian Christians in UN speech arranged by White House | Nicki Minaj"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The US-based Trinidadian rapper <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/nicki-minaj\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nicki Minaj<\/a> will work alongside the White House to highlight claims of Christian persecution in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/nigeria\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nigeria<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Minaj is expected to deliver a speech at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EricCortellessa\/status\/1990097775858417714?s=20\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow\">according to<\/a> a Time journalist who first posted about the collaboration on Sunday, adding that it was arranged by Alex Bruesewitz, an adviser to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/donaldtrump\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Responding to the X post, the US ambassador to the UN, Michael Waltz <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/michaelgwaltz\/status\/1990189618172432615?s=20\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow\">confirmed<\/a> the plan, describing Minaj as \u201cnot only arguably the greatest female recording artist, but also a principled individual who refuses to remain silent in the face of injustice\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cI\u2019m grateful she\u2019s leveraging her massive platform to spotlight the atrocities against Christians in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/nigeria\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nigeria<\/a>, and I look forward to standing with her as we discuss the steps the president and his administration are taking to end the persecution of our Christian brothers and sisters,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Minaj later confirmed the collaboration, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NICKIMINAJ\/status\/1990212305783836689?s=20\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow\">writing:<\/a> \u201cAmbassador, I am so grateful to be entrusted with an opportunity of this magnitude. I do not take it for granted. It means more than you know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Referring to her fanbase, known as the Barbz, she continued: \u201cThe Barbz &amp; I will never stand down in the face of injustice. We\u2019ve been given our influence by God. There must be a bigger purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Minaj\u2019s collaboration with the White House comes just days after she publicly supported a Truth Social post from the US president in which he condemned what he called the Nigerian government\u2019s failure to prevent attacks on Christians.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Trump\u2019s comments follow weeks of pressure from conservative Christian groups urging him to categorize the west African nation as a \u201ccountry of particular concern\u201d over alleged religious persecution. In his statements, Trump has not made mention of any violence against Muslims who have also been targeted by extremist religious groups, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/blog\/conflict-nigeria-more-complicated-christians-vs-muslims\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">including Boko Haram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In response to Trump\u2019s comments earlier this month, Minaj <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NICKIMINAJ\/status\/1984566555460485280?s=20\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow\">wrote<\/a> on X: \u201cReading this made me feel a deep sense of gratitude. We live in a country where we can freely worship God \u2026 Thank you to the president &amp; his team for taking this seriously. God bless every persecuted Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Trump has also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/nov\/01\/trump-nigeria-christian-persecution\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">threatened <\/a>to send US troops \u201cguns-a-blazing\u201d to Nigeria, which he called a \u201cdisgraced country\u201d, adding that if the US did militarily intervene, \u201cit will be fast, vicious and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our cherished Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Nigeria\u2019s leadership has swiftly contested Trump\u2019s comments, with its president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/nov\/03\/why-is-donald-trump-threatening-military-intervention-in-nigeria\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> saying <\/a>that Nigeria \u201cis a democracy with constitutional guarantees of religious liberty\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Although the country is officially secular, Nigeria is closely split between Muslims (53%) and Christians (45%). Despite violence against Christians having garnered international attention, analysts say the causes are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/blog\/conflict-nigeria-more-complicated-christians-vs-muslims\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">more complex<\/a>, with many conflicts stemming from ethnic rivalries as well as land and water disputes, among other reasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Kidnappings of priests and pastors have surged, as criminals see them as high-value targets whose communities can raise ransom quickly, prompting some analysts to view their actions as driven more by criminal profit than religious discrimination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US-based Trinidadian rapper Nicki Minaj will work alongside the White House to highlight claims of Christian persecution&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-268527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}