In response to some US lawmakers’ proposal to have the US State Department redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, a senior official in the administration of Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has rejected the narrative that Christians were selectively persecuted and killed in the country.
Dada Olusegun, Tinubu’s Special Assistant, accused Congressman Riley Moore of ignorance. In his post on X, Olusegun claimed that in Nigeria “no faith was under siege and no community was excluded.” News Outlet Crux reported that the Nigerian Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, issued a statement describing the accusations of Christian persecution in Nigeria as “a gross misrepresentation of reality.” The Nigerian Senate has also introduced a motion to “correct misconceptions regarding the purported ‘Christian Genocide’ narrative.”
The US designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern in December 2020. However, a year later, the Biden administration removed the African country from the CPC list. A number of US lawmakers, including Congressman Riley M. Moore and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, have called on the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to restore Nigeria’s CPC status. In a recent statement, Moore stated that Nigeria had become “the deadliest place in the world to be a Christian,” noting that more than 7,000 Christians have been killed there this year alone.
According to Emeka Umeagbalasi, the leader of the Intersociety group, approximately 22 jihadist organizations are actively working to turn Nigeria into an Islamic state.