The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has condemned the designation of Nigeria as a ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ over alleged genocide against Christians, a claim made by the United States of America’s President, Donald Trump.
The Council also described the designation as a political tool, wielded by lobbyists, and not based on facts, adding that it cheapens the very idea of “religious freedom.”
The federal government, notable Christian leaders, prominent individuals, groups and some members of the international communities, have debunked the claim.
While acknowledging the security challenges faced by the nation, the federal government said the present administration was doing everything possible to tame terrorism, adding that the criminal elements carry out their nefarious activities without religious or ethnic consideration.
…NSCIA cautions
Rising from its Expanded General Purpose Committee (EGPC) meeting held on behalf of the Nigerian Muslim Ummah, the Council condemned the U.S. threat against the sovereignty of the nation.
Addressing journalists Sunday in Abuja, NSCIA Secretary General, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, said rather than threatening, Trump’s US should help government fight insecurity and not invade Nigeria.
He said the body chose not to emphasise “the killings of Muslims because we do not see it as a religious war, but a national security issue.
“The world is aware that some Islamophobic and unpatriotic Nigerians had authored a dangerous script, promoted it in Western circles especially in the United States and got the attention of the highest levels of the United States government, which are erroneously made to believe that there is a “Christian genocide” in Nigeria.”
Oloyede said: “When the U.S. President, Mr Donald Trump labelled our country “disgraced”, every right-thinking Nigerian was concerned because an ally that is determined to help a sovereign country to “completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities” would offer to assist and collaborate with the country and not use such language to describe a country it aims to partner in wiping out the terrorists.
“While a number of countries (e.g., China, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar) have also been designated “Countries of Particular Concern”, the present context of “what Nigeria will not like”
While reaffirming that there is no “Christian genocide” in Nigeria, he said: “Under Article II of the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 9 and Article 6 of the Rome Statute 11, the crime is defined by a critical “mental element” known as dolus specialis. This is the specific “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such”. There is nothing of such in Nigeria.”
According to the body, “the “genocide” claim completely collapses when confronted with reality, context and verifiable data. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) report of 2022 proves conclusively that the overwhelming driver of violence in Nigeria is not anti-Christian persecution, as Muslims and people of other faiths are also overwhelmingly affected.
“While President Trump and Senator Cruz name “Radical Islamists” and “Islamist Jihadists” as the culprits, ISWAP and Boko Haram, the fact is that these groups are khawarij (deviants), whose ideology declares Muslims who do not join them as “dissidents”. Muslims are also their victims. As Amnesty International correctly stated, “The jihadist groups kill both Muslims and Christians. They demolish Mosques and Churches. They don’t differentiate”. These terrorists are not our representatives; they are our mortal enemies.”
…‘Terror groups creation of non-Muslims’
Tracing the root of terrorism, the NSCIA said: “The world knows that some of the terrorist groups being paraded as “Islamic” are creations of non-Muslims. For instance, it is publicly acknowledged that the United States of America created Al-Qaeda, which is being projected as Islamic. Also, a US Congressman, Scott Perry, testified that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was financing the activities of Boko Haram and other terrorist groups in Nigeria and elsewhere.”
He further noted that “if the violence in some parts of Nigeria is not religious, what are the real drivers? The first is ecological.
“As the International Crisis Group has detailed in multiple reports, how relentless desertification and drought, products of climate change, have degraded pastures and dried up water sources in the far-northern Sahelian Belt.”
…On drivers of the criminal acts
He, however, submitted that “this is not an “Islamist invasion”; it is a desperate southward migration of herders seeking survival. This climate-driven migration forces herders into direct and often violent competition with sedentary farming communities over dwindling resources of land and water.
“Historic grazing reserves have been lost to expanding settlements, and traditional conflict resolution mechanisms have eroded. This is the flashpoint for the farmer-herder crisis in Plateau, Benue and other middle belt states in Northern Nigeria.
“The second driver is criminality. In the Northwest, Northeast and Southeast, banditry is fueled by the overlapping factors of grinding poverty, mass youth unemployment, drug abuse, porous borders and the proliferation of small arms and light weapons over the decades.
“Crucially, as researchers have noted, it is also driven by illicit artisanal mining of solid minerals. Criminal syndicates and bandits sack villages and displace populations, creating an ungoverned space for their illegal mining operations. This is a violent, organised crime racket for resources and there is nothing Islamic about it also.
“In Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto axis, Muslims have lost more than 1,200 souls to the same bandits who answer to crime, not tribe or faith. The United States Department itself, in its 2022 Report on International Religious Freedom, stated that “banditry and other criminality, not animosity between particular religious groups… were the primary drivers” of intercommunal violence. This is not a religious war.
“Then, we cannot gloss over how, over a long period, failure of governance has enabled violence in Nigeria. Studies have revealed how endemic corruption, lack of accountability for human rights abuses and failure to provide basic security for citizens have, over time, created a vacuum for impunity. When the state fails to protect anyone, criminals and militias thrive. This is a “massive state failure”, as some have called it, not a state-sponsored “genocide”.
…Expresses dismay at CAN
On the position taken by the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) on the controversy, the NSCIA said “the Council is extremely disappointed by the false proclamation of the CAN President, which has now shown clearly that the individuals who were propagating the falsehood were, in reality, playing the scripts of CAN.
“We commend the principled stance of some patriotic and responsible Christians, including the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)’s Director of National Issues and Social Welfare, who noted thus: Sometimes, our situation is being taken advantage of by groups who know what they benefit from foreign interests. Those foreign interests have a right to poke their nose into what’s going on in our system, but we also have a right to report things as they are… Also, the spate of killings does not take any pattern. If they open fire in a marketplace, the bullets don’t look for a Christian or spare a Muslim or even spare a baby.
“So, all we must be doing now is adopt an all-of-society action to stop this insurgency and also address issues of groupthink. Why run to America when you have a Senate here where you can file your petition? In the end, when they place Nigeria as a country of particular interest, all of us will suffer. But those who run abroad to look for sympathy know why they do that.”
“For being factual, we also commend individuals like Mr Femi Falana, SAN, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, Reno Omokri and Gov. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, among numerous other Christians for their sincerity, while we denounce irresponsible bigots in religious garbs and ethnic irredentists who fail to realise that you don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. The citizens that falsely concoct a genocide claim, which is capable of igniting divisions and religious war that can turn the country into a battlefield field are neither patriotic nor Godly.
Countries like Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc. are worse off today because bombs don’t discriminate destruction,” it added.
…Political undertones
It noted that “the U.S. government’s re-imposition of the “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) designation on Nigeria is an act of political cynicism. This is the same designation placed on China and Russia. This designation of Nigeria was lifted by the previous U.S. administration in 2023 when the USA acknowledged the complex reality. Its re-imposition by President Trump is not based on new facts: it is a political tool, wielded by lobbyists, and it cheapens the very idea of “religious freedom.”
“Since independence, Nigeria has walked within the circle of non-aligned nations, free to choose partners for mutual benefits. As such, Nigeria has always extended a welcome to all, to China as to Africa’s broader family. We have many opportunities to harness from diplomatic diversification, with each relationship moulding a building block in our development project or offering a pathway towards our national interest. It is quite troubling to note that our progressive relationship with China, our economic recovery, and the increase in our domestic oil refining capacity, which has reduced importation of fuel to the barest minimum, have suddenly attracted this unsavory development.
“So, there is a clear picture: some U.S. politicians seeking domestic votes; U.S. evangelical groups pushing an ideological agenda; Nigerian separatists pushing for fragmentation; and domestic profiteers seeking personal gain are behind this saber-rattling. This is not a human rights campaign; it is a coordinated information operation,” they further added.
