by
Moses Oludele Idowu
Few days ago the Canadian Parliament in a resolution described Nigeria “as one of the worst places on Earth for a Christian to live.” It came as a rude shock to Nigerian government because their officials rarely follow international commentaries and journals. There was nothing new in that resolution actually.
For years now the _World Watch List_ ( a reputable annual publication of Open Doors International organization that monitors persecution of Christians worldwide) has consistently maintained that Nigeria, especially Northern Nigeria, is one of the worst places now on earth to be a Christian. I reviewed one of these reports during the Buhari regime. These reports are filed with parliaments across the world.
Recently too, popular American comedian Bill Maher also confirmed the reality of genocide in Nigeria. “I am not a Christian but they are systematically killing Christians in Nigeria. They’ve killed over a hundred thousand since 2009. They’ve burnt 18,000 churches. These are the Islamists, Boko Haram. This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country.”
Adding to the flame, congressman Riley More of West Virginia 2nd District has written to Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State urging him to designate Nigeria as a country of particular concern (CPC) halting all arms sales and technical support. His counterpart in the Senate, Texas senator Ted Cruz has accused the Nigerian government of “ignoring and even facilitating the mass murder of Christians by Islamist jihadists.”
In the light of what has been happening in Benue and Plateau states in particular can these allegations be faulted? Cruz also alleged that NIgerian Christians are being targeted and executed for their faith by Islamist terrorist groups “being forced to submit to Sharia Law and blasphemy laws across Nigeria. It is long past time to impose real costs on the Nigeria officials who facilitate these activities….”
Again I ask, in the light of experiences of Deborah Samuel, Leah Sharibu, etc., the closing of all public schools for Ramadan; has Cruz lied against Nigeria? Ted Cruz has therefore on the basis of these introduced a bill to the Senate, Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act which would target the public officials responsible for these policies with powerful sanctions and other tools.
Expectedly, these actions and steps have jolted Nigerian Government out of its slumber. There is no doubt that the Federal Government was rattled by the report of accusing the nation of genocide against Christians. Spirited attempts and means have been deployed to deny the allegations and dismiss the insinuations. Still they won’t go away rather like mortar to brick, they stick.
Aides, lackeys, honchos of the party and even “useful idiots” from the Christian Association of Nigeria have been engaged to whitewash the stain off government with hyssop; still to no avail.
I do not blame the government. Genocide is a serious thing to be accused of before the international community.
First the Minister of Information tried his best to denounce the allegations and dismiss the whole label as the work of enemies and overzealous haters of the administration and its “good works.” The usual platitudes of tolerance for all religions, and religious freedoms while denying the terrible underbelly of continuous pain and tears among selected groups who have waited for government interventions for years without success and to no avail.
It is my purpose in this investigation to present the facts as they are and leave the readers to judge for themselves. Is there indeed genocide against Christians in Nigeria or is it merely fictional? And are the Americans being overzealous and weeping more than the bereaved as Femi Fani-Kayode seemed to suggest in his response?
It is so amazing that we are so reactive as a people rather than been proactive. And this debility has infected even our government. Americans are being blamed, CNN is being blamed as if they just woke up from slumber or because we supported Gaza during the last United Nations Assembly. – as Fani-Kayode so shamelessly suggested. I do not agree with these propositions.
Long before America dabbled into our affairs Nigerians themselves have called attention to ongoing genocide in Benue and Plateau states.
In July 2023 Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of Makurdi in a testimony to the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs stated:
“The inaction and silence about our plight by both the ( Nigerian) government and powerful stakeholders all over the world prompts me to often conclude that there is a conspiracy of silence and a strong desire to just watch the Islamists get away with genocide in Benue State and others parts of Nigeria.” ( _Catholic Culture_ , July 24, 2023)
Two years later the same bishop in an interview with _ACI AFRICA_ noted that since 2018 he has shutdown some 17 parishes due to killings and systematic campaigns of territorial conquest. “No nation watches her citizens slaughtered like animals and says there is nothing to be done. It’s genocide.”
This is not an American talking and not a Canadian but a Nigerian bishop in Makurdi who is an eyewitness and a victim. Can we, in all honesty fault what he has said? In the light of what we know about Benue State has this bishop told a lie?
In March 12, 2025 the same bishop again appealed to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, African Subcommittee to redesignate Nigeria as a country of particular concern (CPC) owing to increased Islamist attacks against Christians. He details the persecution of Christians especially in Northern and Central regions of Nigeria where there is a manifest agenda “to reduce and eventually eliminate the Christian identity” of the country.He then concluded by saying, “Concretely I request and I plead, I ask you to redesignate Nigeria as a country of particular concern. This has practical and diplomatic meaning…”
The claim of genocide against Nigeria and the double standard often displayed by security agencies have been made by others even within the country. On April 17, 2025 CAN President, Daniel Okoh described the attacks in Bokkos and Bassa Local Government Areas of Plateau State as ” premeditated vicious acts of genocide” against indigenous Christian communities. [ See _BusinessDay_ April 17, 2025 ]
As usual the government response to all these is to be dismissive and mouth the same worn- out cliches and jaded old tales of tolerance, neutrality, freedom of religion and worship. These mask the insincerity of government and a proof that something sinister is underneath because it fails to address the real issues.
*Pattern of Attacks*
A common defense which usually provides a convenient narrative from government and its many apologists and “useful idiots” is the allusion to the pattern of attacks by insurgents. They claim the attacks do not show any pattern and all Nigerians have been attacked by insurgents without any discrimination.
The CAN national spokesman, one Abimbola Ayuba employed this tactic in his defense. “The pattern of killings has truly not been in a particular pattern,” _Punch_ reported him as saying.
That is not true and he knows in his heart and I will soon show the figures putting a lie to his statement.
“If they open fire in a market place the bullets don’t look for a Christian or spare a Muslim or even spare a baby…” rambled CAN spokesman Abimbola Ayuba to _Guardian_ newspaper. How about that? But Yelwata, where Fulani militia operated for hours killing over 200 without resistance from state security agencies, is not a market place; it is a residential community. Agatu, Bokkos, Bassa where Christians die daily are not market places but residential communities and where people live especially people of a particular Faith. Then there is a pattern.
How many of these militia men have been arrested and brought to book?
Why do the security agencies always maintained that the local vigilantes in these Christian areas cannot carry sophisticated guns like their attackers and refused to defend them claiming they have not received orders to engage? Isn’t that suggestive of genocide? When you refused to defend a people from sophisticated terrorists and you disable them from defending themselves what do you call that?
Abimbola added to his folly when he said: “Why run to America when you have a Senate here where you can file your petition?”
And if we may ask him, how many of the petitions filed by the besieged Christian communities in Benue and Plateau States and by their Development Associations and representatives have been successfully addressed by your Senate? Obviously they had stopped teaching Logic when you went to school or you didn’t learn well. It is so sad that CAN is now loaded with government apologists, fifth columnists and agents.
Sometimes I wonder reading press releases from CAN whether it was written by even Muslims or Aso Rock. I wrote years ago that this Association should be dissolved because it seems to have been hijacked by politicians and has therefore outlived its usefulness. Now I am vindicated.
Femi Fani-Kayode has spoken in similar vein. He believes that all Nigerians are facing genocide not just Christians. That makes it even worse for the government, if it is so. For he has thus charged Nigerian Government of gross irresponsibility. This is not a defense, it is an indictment. If all Nigerians are facing genocide why has Nigerian officials not asked for help from other nations and why is Nigeria crying and making case against Palestinian genocide at the United Nations Assembly when her own people are facing worse genocide at home? It is criminal irresponsibility and dereliction of duty. What responsible man goes out trying to put out fire in another man’s house while his own house with his children are on bigger conflagration?
Contrary to the lies and puerile and asinine logic of absence of discernible pattern in the attacks and killings there is indeed a pattern for anyone who can see, whose eyes have not been blinded by cataract as a result of politician’s filthy lucre and government’s cash transfusions. The figures tell the true story and these are figures from several reputable international observers and organisations and their is a common agreement in what they say. And curiously the natives of.these communities agree with what they say. Unfortunately even the press is compromised.
On a peripheral and surface level it appears the attacks are mindless and patternless but when viewed carefully, the nature and consistency of attacks, the response from the authority to these show a different picture.
It is true that there are critical insecurity challenges in most Northern states especially the Northeast and Northwest but often these are results of age-long misgivings and frictions between Hausa farmers and Fulani pastoralists occasioned by several factors. The Fulanis are mostly pastoralists while Hausas are mostly farmers on land. But these cannot be compared with what is happening and has been happening in Benue and Plateau States and, to some degrees, Taraba which are dominantly Christian states. Is this a coincidence?
Two, why are civilian vigilantes in the core North allowed to carry sophisticated arms to defend their communities and themselves but the same privilege is not accorded those in Benue and Plateau where there has been more bloodshed? Can anyone explain this?
Can anyone compare the statistics in other areas of the North with what is happening and has happened in Benue and Plateau states and Southern Kaduna in the past 10 years especially since these jihadists of APC took over the rein of government in Nigeria? The facts speak for themselves unless when we want to lie.
*Let The Figures Speak*
The _World Watch List_ , a publication of Open Doors International that measures and monitors Christian persecution around the world noted that in 2024 alone 3100 Christians were killed. These are killings targeted for the sake of belief and Faith. The report admitted that it is even lower compared to previous years.
The _International Christian Concern_ designate Nigeria a country of particular concern where persecution of Christians take place. Thus putting Nigeria in the same big league with North Korea, Saudi Arabia, etc.
Genocide or persecution encourages migration because people are bound to flee from zones of danger. Thus the pattern of migration can be indicative of the level of extreme persecution and killings in a particular region. Whatever forces people to leave their ancestral homes, houses and towns as it is currently happening in my dear Igbomina Land must be serious.
Now what does the statistics show? According to _International Organization for Migration (_ IOM) an estimate of 3.3 million Nigerians (i.e., three million, three hundred thousand) have been internally displaced. Now the same organization noted that of these sum almost half ( 1.5 million) has been displaced in Benue State alone. It also admitted that in Plateau State another Christian State, dozens of communities have been overrun in Bokkos, Riyom, Bakin Ladi and Mangu Local Government Areas and their farmland seized and lost. So even the remaining now face the threat of hunger and food shortage.
The _Christian International Solidarity_ ( CIS) detailed series of killings by Fulani militia men in Plateau State. The Nigerian manager has noted in his reports continuous massacres with details and specific beyond any exaggerations. “Since I arrived Jos, Plateau State there has been an attack on Christian villages every night. His log book and report read like those of observers or Red Cross agents in war-torn Somalia or Rwanda during turmoil except that this is Nigeria and our government wants us to believe that all is well. Here is a sample:
“March 27: Massacre of 12 mourners at a funeral in Ruwi village with a gang rape of 19- year old woman.
April 2: Killing of Anglican pastor Ezekiel Gama by Fulani militia. His wife, Naomi Ezekiel Gama sighted the men and hid.
April 13, Palm Sunday: Deadliest massacre in Zike village of Bassa Local Government leading to the death of 56 people including 15 children and displacing 2000 people.
April 15: I visited some victims at Jos University Teaching Hospital. Three people died in the hospital that day. The majority of the victims had been hacked on the back of their necks with machetes. ”
Despite the presence of the military the CSI’ s president, Dr. John Elbner noted there has been “no effective intervention..” Now what do you call these premeditated killings without state intervention? It is genocide.
Unfortunately your compromised press won’t report this.
Let us come nearer home. According to _International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Inter- Society,_ 2200 Christians were allegedly killed by Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram, security personnel and other jihadist, bandits in several states of Nigeria between January and December 2020
They further did a breakdown:
Fulani herdsmen: 1300
Boko Haram/ Splinter groups ISWAP, Ansaru. (500)
NIgerian Army (200)
Jihadist/ bandits. (100)
Further breakdown per state and region shows a pattern which some say they couldn’t see.
Southern Kaduna (455)
Benue State (200)
Plateau State (173)
Southwest (35)
Niger State ( 70)
Kogi ( 55)
Nassarawa (42)
Delta. (20)
Bayelsa (4)
Adamawa (40)
Igboland (40)
Taraba ( 32)
Edo (15)
For those who say there is no pattern in the killings, it depends on where they are looking. Sure there has been widespread killings but it is concentrated in some areas and more pronounced in certain communities which are curiously dominantly Christian. In the Southwest for instance the only state that has been attacked more than the others is Ondo State; the only State where traditional rulers have been killed in the Southwest is Ekiti State. Curiously these are the two dominant Christian states in the region. How else is it true to say there is no pattern in the killings?
A high- powered fact- finding committee set up by Plateau State Government and headed by a Major General (retd) Nicholas Rogers on the tragedies that have befallen the state. The committee submitted its report this penultimate week and its findings are substantial and tragic:
In two decades they found out that no fewer than 420 communities ( _Daily Newshub_ says 450) across 13 Local Government Areas have been destroyed and desolate, 11, 749 people killed in two decades of violence. It also noted:
35% destruction of livestock
32.5% displacement of communities
16.8% destruction of food supplies
9.9% destruction of houses
3.4% illegal land occupation. [ See _Daily Newshub_ 21, September, 2025; _Salientnewsonline.com_ ]
How many are standing trial for these atrocities? None. The House of Representatives member from Plateau State informed the House that 55 communities in his Federal Constituency have been occupied by foreign Fulanis who are now dwelling there. Did the House do anything? Did they summon the army to go and dislodge them? This is why the response from CAN is so disappointing.
A journalist, Steven Kefas who was imprisoned in Kaduna for his writings expressed shock because he never found a single Fulani in the prison for all their atrocities in Southern Kaduna which they even publicly admitted. On the other hand what he found made him sick. He found innocent vigilantes from Southern Kaduna whose only offense was trying to defend their communities. That was their crimes. The serious Fulani prisoners he found brought for other crimes were even looking better fed than him coming from outside. That is Nigeria.
That is the colour of genocide.
Our government has beaten about the bush for too long. The people in Benue and Plateau States who are daily killed and in Southern Kaduna who are constrained from defending themselves from attack are also humans. An army is claiming it has not received orders to attack the assailants yet the same army is stopping the vigilantes from carrying high-grade weapons to confront the hooligans and even arresting them for merely protesting, as we saw in Igbomina Land. What do you call that? When you make people vulnerable to attack from parasitic barbarians from the jungle and leave them defenceless the very people whose tax pay your salaries and drive the convoy in your presidential fleet then that is not just enemy action. It is outright betrayal. When you made people incapable of defending themselves through devious schemes and legislation and selective enforcement of laws and deployment of security agencies thus rendering them vulnerable to murderous jihadist mobs it is not just betrayal or enemy action. It is premeditated killings by instalment. It is genocide.
I love Nigeria but I don’t love her more than God or Truth. What is going on in Nigeria in the last 10 years is a scandal and it must not be denied or trivialized in anyway.
It has come to the stage that the whole world need to see what is happening in Nigeria. In all my life I have never heard or read of any nation where soldiers of a National Army watch while legitimate citizens are being attacked and they refused to act because they have “not been ordered to engage” the assailants. Only in Nigeria. The world must hear that and why this only happens when it concerns a particular ethnic nationality and its deadly militia.
The world must now hear. We have pretended enough about patriotism – the usual refuge of the scoundrels. It is not patriotism to obscure the truth that meant loss of lives for entire people groups. Strangers are now occupying whole communities while the owners of the land are in IDPs camps. Killers, jihadists, terrorists and genocidists are being rehabilitated and furnished in the misbegotten name of “de-radicalisation” while the owners of the land and victims of their atrocities are neglected, hunger- bitten and cold- bitten in IDP Camps. The world must now hear. That is not being unpatriotic.
Let the truth be told: there is Christian genocide in Nigeria. And it must now stop.
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© Moses Oludele Idowu
October 8, 2025
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