Is the Christian Genocide in Nigeria a Lie?

It was the middle of the afternoon on a rainy October day in England. As we stood in the small, low lit room, people poured in for a last-minute BTJ meeting, organised only days before. Among the gatherers was one particular family who caught my eye throughout the meeting. The mother and father listened attentively while their two children sat perfectly quiet in their seats as Eugene shared about the underground churches, from Iran to Nigeria.

As it happened, this family knew these stories all too well. They had fled Nigeria to the UK in a desperate attempt to escape the rampant violence and persecution against Christians in Northern Nigeria.

Persecution in Nigeria has gained unexpected traction in mainstream news recently due to the most unlikeliest of sources—Bill Maher, the American talkshow host. President Trump even declared, “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter.” After Maher and President Trump highlighted the “Christian genocide” taking place, news outlets exploded with articles, either highlighting the claims, or refuting them.

Of course this is to be expected. For years, the world has remained silent about the ongoing number of Christians killed by Muslims in Nigeria. And for years, BTJ has been joining the church in Nigeria to raise awareness, but for the most part, those pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

Unsurprisingly, one of the first outlets to react against the topic was Al Jazeera, writing a scathing article titled, No, Bill Maher, there is no ‘Christian genocide’ in Nigeria. They write “In recent days, coordinated attacks on Nigeria’s nationhood have swept across social media, blogs and television outlets, alleging a so-called “Christian genocide” . . . Every country at the UN faces domestic challenges, yet many stood firmly with the people of Palestine. In acknowledging this, Nigeria offered one of the assembly’s deepest truths, declaring that “None of us is safe until all of us are safe.”

Their motivation is clear. For a group seemingly so dedicated to protecting the ‘oppressed’ and the vulnerable, this empathy dissolves when the oppressed group in question is inconveniently Christian. Rather than an acknowledgment of the horror and suffering that Nigerian Christians have been enduring, Al Jazeera instead chooses to praise Nigeria’s Muslim government because of their allyship with Palestine. The greater irony is Nigeria’s declaration about Palestine, that “None of us is safe until all of us are safe,” while thousands are massacred within their own borders.

Perhaps the most prevalent criticism of the claims of genocide against Christians in Nigeria is that Christians are not the only victims of Boko Haram attacks. While this may be true, the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in the 19 Northern states, Reverend John Joseph Hayab, said Nigerian authorities must admit that religiously motivated attacks have been ongoing for decades before the Boko Haram insurgency. “Can I consider what has been happening as genocide against Christians? And my straightforward answer is yes. Y-E-S, Yes,” Reverend Hayab declared, explaining that the violence against Christians in Nigeria long predates Boko Haram.

“Anybody who comes out and says there is no Christian genocide, it’s not fair to the Christians of Northern Nigeria,” he said. “Some of us have buried many in numbers… We can give those numbers and incidences with dates.”

Even beyond the senseless killings, Hayab explained that persecution of Christians extends further. “Our children cannot be admitted to certain universities, and their crime is not because they are not qualified, they are Christians,” he said.

One law maker who is behind President Trump’s decision to name Nigeria a ‘country of particular concern’, warned that Nigeria risks repeating the horrors seen in nations like Rwanda and South Sudan if its government does not put an end to the killing.

“We were too late on Rwanda, we were too late on South Sudan. Let’s not be too late again on this one,” Huizenga warned.