Joel Mowbray@joelmowbray
🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Tucker Carlson's "expert" on Nigerian Christians worked for a top defender of the Fulani Islamist militias killing Christians.
The Tucker Carlson guest on Friday who slammed @tedcruz and declared that there is no campaign of targeted killings of Christians in Nigeria, lobbyist and PR flack Robert Amsterdam, had for years represented a leading Nigerian official closely associated with Fulani Islamists — including the very militias that have been slaughtering Christians in Nigeria.
Robert Amsterdam, feted by Carlson as "defending Christians around the world," represented Nasir El-Rufai, who from 2015 to 2023 was the governor of the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna, home to the bulk of Fulani Islamist militias that have slaughtered thousands of Christians.
While serving as Kaduna's governor, El-Rufai directed substantial payments to those very same Fulani Islamists (by his own admission), and he ordered numerous crackdowns that reportedly resulted in the murders of more than 100 Christians.
El-Rufai has also contributed to the ongoing vilification and demonization of Nigeria's Christians, such as claiming in 2014 that Christians "sponsor[ed]" Boko Haram with the "motive of... tarnish[ing] the name of Islam." (Receipts below.)
In 2012, three years before becoming governor of Kaduna, El-Rufai tweeted a veiled threat to Nigerian soldiers attempting to thwart the murderous campaigns carried out by Fulani Islamists, "Anyone, soldier or not that kills the Fulani takes a loan repayable one day no matter how long it takes." (Screenshot below.)
Three years later, El-Rufai touted his endorsement from Fulani Islamists (a broader Muslim ethnic group in Nigeria whose leaders have supported implementation of Sharia law) when he successfully ran for governor.
El-Rufai also reinstated the Religious Preaching Edict, which meant that all Christian pastors required prior approval from the Kaduna government before each sermon, otherwise they "will be liable to pay a fine, and may even be imprisoned," in El-Rufai's own words.
Both Tucker and Amsterdam cited the latter's work on behalf of various Nigerian entities as the basis for his expertise to refute claims by Trump, Cruz and many others that Christians are being systematically murdered by Fulani Islamists.
Although he didn't disclose in the Tucker Carlson interview his work for a leading defender of the Fulani Islamists, Amsterdam stated in 2018 on his website that he "has represented" El-Rufai, the "Governor of Kaduna State."
Because Amsterdam never registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act for any Nigerian entity, the exact nature and duration is unknown. (Amsterdam could not be immediately reached for comment.)
There is no record of Amsterdam ever representing, protecting, and/or defending persecuted Nigerian Christians, and his X profile does not show even a single post warning about the attacks carried out by Fulani Islamists.
Yet this is the man Tucker Carlson used to refute claims of Nigerian Christians being systematically slaughtered at the hands of Fulani Islamists.
