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Nigeria’s Christian Crisis: Silence in Abuja, Strategy in Washington

Leave a Comment / Echoes from the Sacred Forest / Nnaemeka Ali, O.M.I

It was an ordinary Sunday for many on February 22. However, for the residents of Edikwu G’Icho, Ole-G’ijamu, and Ukpogo in the Apa Local Government Area of Benue State, it was anything but. The residents started their day as usual, unaware that it would be their final day on earth. Unannounced, herders invaded and ransacked their villages, resulting in the death of a pastor returning from church and another individual, and the alleged sexual assault of two additional women. They were victims of the senseless routine killings that have become the sad reality of Nigeria’s national life in the last decade or so. Many Christian communities across Nigeria now live in constant fear of kidnappers and armed groups. From the North West through the North East, into the Middle Belt and parts of the South, armed militias, insurgents, and criminal bandits have terrorized villages with alarming frequency — a situation that prompted the United States government to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC). The problem, however, is that since Nigeria was designated a Country of Particular Concern, the situation for Nigerian Christians has not improved. Despite diplomatic visits from Washington and even a Christmas Day strike by the U.S. military, despite the arrival of some U.S. military personnel, the killings continue. Villages are still attacked. Clergy are still abducted. Families are still displaced. “Since Nigeria was designated a Country of Particular Concern, the situation for Nigerian Christians has not improved.” — Nnaemeka Ali, O.M.I. This has raised a troubling question for many Nigerians: whose interests are truly served by the dialogue between Washington and Abuja? When U.S. President Donald Trump announced sanctions against the government of Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Truth Social in October 2025, Nigerians were divided. Some celebrated the move as a long-overdue protection for persecuted Christians. Others questioned whether Washington was genuinely concerned about the suffering of Nigerians or merely advancing a strategic agenda. Many suspected that behind the strong language lay carefully concealed diplomatic calculations for regional political control. “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria,” Mr. Trump declared. “Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a ‘Country of Particular Concern.’” Yet when the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) launched a strike against ISIS-linked targets in Sokoto — a move described as a Christmas gift to Nigerians — questions emerged. Why Sokoto? Why then? And why did the attacks on vulnerable Christian villages continue almost uninterrupted? In the months that followed, American delegations visited Nigeria. Nigerian religious leaders travelled to Washington to testify about the horrors their communities endured. On February 16, 100 U.S. soldiers arrived in Nigeria, with 200 more expected later. Although it may be too early to assess the outcome of this deployment, past cooperation between Nigeria and the United States against Boko Haram produced no visible results; in fact, Boko Haram grew stronger over the years. Moreover, the terms of this recent partnership remain nebulous. There has been no transparency about the negotiations, no meaningful dialogue with Nigeria’s governing institutions to reassure citizens that this arrangement truly serves their interests. Despite the increased military presence and diplomatic exchanges, the death toll has not declined significantly. The bandits persist in their raids, kidnappings continue, and communities remain exposed. Meanwhile, policymakers in the United States formed a commission. They took their time to study the situation thoroughly. They listened to victims and spent hours online, presenting themselves as defenders of the persecuted in Nigeria. And because they know we are a deeply religious people, they presented themselves as acting in defense of Christian communities. Then, on February 23, 2026, after reviewing submissions and testimony, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee issued a joint report on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. The report opened with a forceful declaration, stating that “Nigeria is the deadliest place in the world to be a Christian.” It detailed violent attacks by armed militias and terrorist groups, the killing of pastors and priests, the destruction of churches and schools, and widespread kidnappings. At first glance, the report appears to stand firmly with Nigerian Christians. It proposes a bilateral agreement to protect vulnerable Christian communities and urges the Nigerian government to deploy sufficient security forces to the Middle Belt and other affected regions. It demands that militias be removed from confiscated farmland and that displaced communities be allowed to return home voluntarily. The report also addressed religious freedom, calling for sanctions against groups and individuals who participate in or tolerate violence against Christians, and even raising the question of Sharia law in some states. However, a closer reading reveals something more. Very quickly, the crisis of Nigerian Christians is reframed as a matter of U.S. homeland security. The report calls for comprehensive counterterrorism cooperation to eliminate Foreign Terrorist Organizations that pose a direct threat to the American homeland. It goes further, urging Nigeria to reduce its military dependence on Russia and deepen defence procurement ties with the United States. It also calls for countering Chinese and Russian influence in Nigeria. “Very quickly, the crisis of Nigerian Christians is reframed as a matter of U.S. homeland security.” — Nnaemeka Ali, O.M.I. In addition, the report recommends that the U.S. Treasury Department strengthen oversight of Nigeria’s financial system to safeguard U.S. national security and enhance America’s favourable trade balance. While discouraging Nigeria from collaborating with China and Russia, the report advises Abuja to seek support from France, Hungary, and the United Kingdom. At this point, the humanitarian tragedy of Nigerian Christians appears intertwined with broader geopolitical objectives. And while these negotiations unfold, Nigerian Christians continue to die. Many Nigerians once hoped that international pressure would bring relief. But the emerging pattern suggests that foreign involvement may be driven as much by strategic calculations for economic and regional political control. Yet to this day, nothing has changed. Christians keep dying in their villages under Abuja’s watch and amid Washington’s geopolitical ambitions. And

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War of Choice: Why America Must Not Repeat Iraq in Iran

President Trump is dragging the U.S. into an unnecessary war without any national conversation or the approval of Congress. This military operation is both ill-advised and wrong-headed. President Trump is going into it alone without the consent of any of America’s allies in the Middle East, the G20, NATO, or elsewhere, except Israel. Iran was already negotiating in good faith, and the Omanis and other third parties were invested in allowing diplomacy and negotiation to work. But with the U.S. arms buildup in the region, it seems President Trump never really wanted to give diplomacy and peace a chance, believing in gunboat diplomacy and in leveraging military might over the long, patient path of jaw-jaw rather than war-war. \”President Trump is dragging the U.S. into an unnecessary war without any national conversation or the approval of Congress.” — Stan Chu Ilo War is the solution that lunatics prefer to peacemaking and nonviolence. It is anachronistic. The world has no appetite for war because we have found better ways to resolve our conflicts as a human family. War destroys everything. No American, Iranian, Israeli, Palestinian, or any other human being deserves to die needlessly in this senseless war of choice that President Trump has just begun. Americans did not elect Donald Trump as their President because they desire the continuation of these endless wars that America chooses now and again in the Middle East or other regions. A greater majority of Americans have learned from the calamities in Vietnam, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, and many other places where America went in, driven by a superpower syndrome, that an imperialistic pursuit of America’s interests or regime change in other people’s lands, motivated solely by America’s security, geopolitical, and economic interests, always ends in failure and more chaos. Just look at Iraq! However, the reasoning for the United States, as Noam Chomsky writes, regarding America’s global influence is straightforward: “What we say goes!” However, I say that any attempt to dictate to other nations or impose America’s version of governance on them through military means always ends in failure and more misery for the people, the region, and the world. President Trump is attacking Iran not because of the interests of the Iranian people but because of Trump’s narrow version of America’s interests as of today. That might change tomorrow. “Any attempt to dictate to other nations or impose America’s version of governance on them through military means always ends in failure and more misery.” — Stan Chu Ilo President Trump is dragging America into another irreversible mistake in the Middle East, and Americans must stand up to this President. Indeed, all men and women of goodwill throughout the world must say “no” to this violation of Iran’s sovereignty by the U.S. and Israel. War against Iran is not the solution to the needed surgical change in Iran, whose government has brought so much misery and pain to its own people and has made this proud nation a pariah in the world. No nation can survive by repressing its own people, undermining its neighbours’ security, or pushing for the death of America, Israel, or any other nation through terrorism, sabotage, and subversive acts. Iran needs a new and enduring political dispensation that promotes and guarantees the common good for all Iranians. Still, it cannot be brought about through the current American and Israeli operation. President Bush, like President Trump today, had predicted that after the toppling of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the Iraqis would greet Americans as liberators. We know how many lives were wasted, and Iraq is still bleeding from that terrible war experiment that America waged with the so-called coalition of the willing. More than 20 years later, we are hearing the same irrational sabre-rattling and rhetoric from another American President. I wonder: What makes President Trump think that America has the solution to other people’s problems when America is struggling to address myriad problems and challenges in its crisis of democracy, going back to the storming of Congress on January 6, 2021? What makes anyone believe that America can bring about in Iran or any other country what it is struggling to uphold in its own country, with what we are experiencing as Americans today: the dismantling of the rule of law and separation of powers, the crisis surrounding the Epstein files, government by retribution, executive overreach, and autocracy under the Trump regime in the U.S.? I long for a world where God’s people can live in peace and prosperity. I long for a world where the lives of God’s children are no longer sacrificed so cheaply by our political leaders to advance their limited perception of reality, insatiable greed, and unredeemed power to dominate. Power today, whether locally or internationally, should be exercised in concert to address human and global problems, especially to reduce human suffering and the pain of the poor, who are often the non-grievable victims of these forever wars. War should no longer be an option on the table because the just war theory was not developed with these massive weapons of destruction in mind. Who is the unjust aggressor in this surprise development in Iran today? Where is the proportionality in the destruction already inflicted on Iran and other Gulf states? An urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council and the U.S. Congress, respectively, is needed to stop this calamitous experiment from expanding into a regional conflict and a river of blood for our fellow human beings. “War should no longer be an option on the table.” — Stan Chu Ilo With Pope Leo I, I say: “Every war is truly a wound inflicted upon the entire human family; it leaves in its wake death, devastation, and a trail of pain that marks generations. Peace cannot be postponed. It is an urgent necessity that must find a home in our hearts and be translated into responsible decisions.”