Christian genocide allegation: FG opens diplomatic talks with US

The Federal Government said it had opened conversation with the United States Government over allegations of state-backed Christian genocide.

Sunday PUNCH gathered that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reached out to the US and rejected the claim made by some lawmakers.

On September 11, Republican Senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, introduced a bill in the US Senate, titled, ‘Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 (S.2747)’.

The legislation seeks to restore Nigeria’s status as a “Country of Particular Concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act, and to impose accountability measures on government officials.

Nigeria was first designated as a CPC in December 2020 under the Trump administration.

However, the Biden administration removed the designation in November 2021, saying the Federal Government was not directly “engaged” in the severe religious freedom violations.

Calling for a return of the CPC tag last month, Cruz premised his move on what he described as the systematic persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in Nigeria by Islamist Boko Haram and Fulani militants, as well as alleged government complicity through weak enforcement and blasphemy laws.

Details of bill

According to Cruz, the bill aims to “hold accountable Nigerian officials who facilitate Islamist jihadist violence and the imposition of blasphemy laws.”

It mandates executive action and outlines enforcement tools, including visa bans, asset freezes, and restrictions on access to U.S. visas or financial assistance for implicated Nigerian officials.

It also directs the US State Department to submit annual reports to Congress on Nigeria’s religious freedom record, including progress on prosecuting perpetrators.

In addition, the bill proposes the withholding of certain aid, arms sales, or development assistance to Nigeria until compliance is demonstrated.

While the bill had yet to be assigned to any US Senate committee for deliberation, a group of five Republican senators, led by Senator Ted Budd, sent a joint letter to US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, on September 12, throwing their weight behind Cruz’s proposal and urging the US government to re-designate Nigeria as a CPC.

In the letter, the senators alleged that more than 52,000 Christians had been killed in Nigeria since 2009, while over 20,000 churches and Christian institutions had been destroyed or attacked.

“In 2025 alone, at least 3,100 of the 4,476 global faith-related killings occurred in Nigeria, making it the deadliest country for Christians worldwide (per Open Doors World Watch List),” the letter stated.

Also on Monday, a member of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Riley Moore, sent a solo letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, urging immediate action to address what he described as the “systematic persecution and slaughter of Christians” in Nigeria.

He described Nigeria as “the deadliest place in the world to be a Christian,” accusing the Federal Government of complicity through inaction and corruption.

The Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), also threw his weight behind his colleagues on X(formerly Twitter), saying decisive action was long overdue on what he called a “tragedy and disgrace.”

“Faith should never be a death sentence. Yet across parts of Africa, Christians are hunted, butchered, and terrorised for their beliefs while the world looks away,” he wrote on Thursday.

“In countries like Nigeria, DR Congo, and Mozambique, they are targeted by terrorists, exploited by elites to settle political and ethnic scores, and abandoned — or betrayed — by their own governments. This is not just a tragedy. It is a disgrace. Action is long overdue.”

As of Friday, the US government had not issued any formal statement on the lawmakers’ request, while the Department of State had yet to respond to Sunday PUNCH’s enquiry regarding the country’s next line of action.

Also, messages sent to the offices of Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Riley Moore on Thursday had yet to receive any response as of the time of filing this report.

FG’s multiple countermoves

Speaking to Sunday PUNCH, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Kimiebi Ebienfa, said the Federal Government had taken multiple diplomatic steps to correct the misrepresentations.

Ebienfa said the government had consistently engaged US counterparts through official diplomatic channels.

He said, “We have reached out to the US government explaining that the allegations are not true. We have done that through our missions in Washington and even Atlanta.”

He added that in April 2025, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar commissioned a study on killings in Nigeria that produced an unbiased report.

“It’s a comprehensive document and the ministry has forwarded that document to all our diplomatic missions abroad to engage foreign governments with facts, dismissing allegations of targeted killings,” Ebienfa said.

The House of Representatives had on Wednesday unanimously adopted a motion rejecting the US Senate narrative.

Titled, “Need for a Coordinated Diplomatic and Domestic Response to the Proposed Nigerian Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 (U.S. Senate Bill 2747),” the motion was presented by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu and directed key committees to submit a formal diplomatic protest to the sponsors of the bill within 21 days.

The House also urged the formation of a Nigeria–US joint fact-finding mission on religious freedom and called on Nigerian security agencies and the National Human Rights Commission to submit a consolidated report on religion-linked violence since 2023 to confirm that “there is no state-sponsored persecution based on religion.”

Ebienfa re-echoed the National Assembly’s blunt rejections.

“We can’t deny the fact that there are killings in Nigeria. There are killings, but the victims cut across borders. So, it’s not focused on a specific group or religious sect, as the case may be,” the MFA spokesperson said.

He, however, emphasised that while individual US lawmakers had the right to sponsor resolutions, their positions did not necessarily reflect official US foreign policy.

According to him, Nigeria remains open to continued dialogue through existing platforms like the Nigeria-US Parliamentary Friendship Group.

“The National Assembly can use that platform to engage with their contemporaries. They have done that before,” he said.

Presidency begins campaign on foreign media

Meanwhile, a Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, on Thursday, hinted at ongoing efforts by the Presidency to counter what he described as “Western propaganda” against the current administration.

Kicking off the government’s counter-narrative during an appearance on France 24’s Eye on Africa programme on Thursday night, Bwala linked the renewed genocide allegations against Nigeria to the country’s foreign policy stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

“At the United Nations General Assembly, Nigeria took a position in support of a two-state solution and condemned the inhuman treatment in Gaza,” he said.

“Twenty-four hours later, this comedian called Bill Maher started this campaign of Christian genocide. So, the allegation is a result of the position Nigeria took on Gaza.”

He described the allegations as a “cooked-up narrative by the West” aimed at discrediting the country’s progress under President Tinubu’s administration.

“We strongly object to the notion that there is a systematic genocide in Nigeria,” Bwala said.

“Yes, we admit that there is insecurity in the country, which we’ve been addressing. But since the President came on board two years ago, there has been massive improvement in the fight against insecurity.”

Bwala alleged that the US lawmakers’ accusations were largely based on reports from the human rights group Intersociety Organisation, which he claimed was “funded by foreign interests” and relied on “falsified figures and contradictions.”

“All of them, from Ted Cruz to Patrick Bet-David to Senator Moore, base their arguments on a report by Intersociety.

“If you go through the report, you’ll see contradictions. The author never mentioned, even for a second, the insecurity in the Southeast.

“In fact, killings by IPOB and the Eastern Security Network were attributed to the Nigerian military. You don’t need to go further to know where this whole agenda is coming from,” he added.

Bwala suggested that such narratives were part of a deliberate attempt to inflame religious tension in Nigeria.

He, however, acknowledged that Boko Haram’s early operations had specifically targeted Christians and churches but said the insurgents had since expanded their attacks to include Nigerians of all faiths.(Punch)