Christian minority groups in Northern Nigeria have for years spoken of being marginalised in the political equation of the Nigerian state.
That cry of marginalisation gained global attention in the recent past when Ted Cruz, a US congressman raised an allegation of Christian genocide happening in Nigeria,
Cruz had on September 8 officially introduced the bill known as the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 in the US Senate. The bill is a concrete legislative action to address the alleged persecution of Christians in the northern part of Nigeria.
However, on Tuesday October 7 he made public statements, including a post on X (formerly Twitter) blaming Nigerian officials for the “mass murder” of Christians and vowing to hold them accountable.
Read also: Senate counters Christian genocide allegations, set to engage U.S. lawmakers
A day after Cruz alleged public call for accountability, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) through its president, Daniel Okoh, issued a statement clarifying the Association’s position on the matter.
CAN through a statement on Wednesday October 8, brought to public knowledge some of its earlier actions in addressing the situation.
“The Association has established mechanisms for recording incidents of religiously motivated killings, engaged with international partners, written to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and hosted global Christian organisations such as the World Evangelical Alliance and the Lausanne Movement.
“These sustained efforts demonstrate CAN’s consistent advocacy for justice, peace, and the protection of Christian communities under threat,” it stated, indicating that many Christian communities in some parts of Nigeria, especially in the North, have suffered severe attacks, loss of lives, and the destruction of places of worship.
According to CAN, these realities are painful reminders of the urgent need for the government and security agencies to act decisively in protecting every citizen, regardless of their region. The Christian umbrella body added that the pain of Christian families torn apart by violence must never be treated as mere statistics.
“It is equally imperative that perpetrators of violence are brought swiftly and transparently to justice. We also appeal to all Christian leaders to continue to speak and act with wisdom, unity, and faith, knowing that peace is too fragile to be taken for granted,” CAN stated.
According to CAN, Nigeria’s healing will not come from denial or blame, but from courage. “The courage to face our collective failures, to grieve together, and to rebuild trust within our communities. Only then can our nation rise from its wounds and embrace a future of genuine peace.”
While CAN statement cannot be said to be a direct acceptance of Ted Cruz’ allegation of ‘Christian genocide’ in Nigeria; the statement is however loaded with unspoken words that brings to reckoning what available data on killings say about Nigeria.
For years, international observers and advocacy groups have referenced the scale and targeting of these attacks as evidence of an attempt at ‘Christian Genocide,’ a term that the CAN statement sought to clarify as persecution experienced in the north.
While conflicts in the region are historically complex—often revolving around land, water scarcity, and political marginalisation between predominantly Muslim nomadic pastoralists and Christian farmers—the consistency of the attacks on Christian settlements and clergy lends credence to the notion of systematic ethno-religious targeting.
The problem of operational failure
The frustration expressed by CAN stems from a widespread belief that the government possesses adequate information but lacks the will or capability to act decisively. This point has been consistently validated by independent security analysts.
“The tragedy we consistently document is the failure to translate specific, actionable warnings—which our data shows precedes the majority of major attacks—into decisive, timely interventions. The issue is less ‘intelligence failure’ and more operational failure rooted in accountability gaps,” Kehinde Giwa, an analyst at SBM Intelligence, whose firm tracks conflict dynamics and security incidents across Nigeria, highlighting where the real failure lies.
Read also: Reps condemns US bill alleging mass killings of christians in Nigeria
According to Giwa, the tragedy is not that the state is blind, but that it is often paralyzed, allowing for what SBM Intelligence often calls a “Cycle of Carnage” to repeat across vulnerable zones.
Targeting the clergy
This operational failure has had profound consequences on the Christian leadership itself. SBM Intelligence data confirms that Christian clergy are specifically targeted for kidnapping and extortion, disrupting the very fabric of community life and leadership.
According to data by SBM Intelligence, 21 Catholic priests were abducted in Nigeria between July 2022 and June 2023. Similarly, official data from the Catholic Church also indicated that about 145 priests were kidnapped over the last 10 years.
According to SBM data released in late 2023, the trend of kidnapped priests in Nigeria has been alarming, with dozens of Catholic priests and other clergy members abducted annually across different states, including those in the Middle Belt, over the past few years.
The targeting of these religious figures serves a dual purpose for criminal elements: they represent a high-value target (due to the assumed ability of the Church to pay ransom) and their removal creates a vacuum of moral and social authority in rural, besieged communities.
This strategy according to the report effectively hollows out local resilience, forcing displaced populations to remain in internal displacement camps.
However, Giwa is of the view that CAN’s concluding plea in the statement “courage to face our collective failures”—thus serves as both a moral appeal and a strategic warning. According to him, the CAN statement makes it clear that until the government moves beyond political denial and addresses the operational failures and accountability gaps that SBM Intelligence and others point to, the violence will continue to erode not only the faith and safety of its citizens but the very foundations of the Nigerian economy.
