THE Federal Government has opened high-level diplomatic engagements with the United States following renewed allegations by some American lawmakers accusing Nigeria of state-backed persecution and genocide against Christians.
News Point Nigeria reports that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Nigeria had formally reached out to the U.S. government through its missions in Washington and Atlanta, rejecting what it described as baseless and misleading claims being circulated by a section of the U.S. Congress.
The controversy was triggered on September 11, when Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate titled “Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 (S.2747)”.
The proposed legislation seeks to re-designate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern (CPC)” under the International Religious Freedom Act, a status that could attract diplomatic and economic sanctions.
Nigeria had first been listed as a CPC in December 2020 under the administration of former President Donald Trump. However, the Biden administration removed the designation in November 2021, stating that Nigeria’s government was not directly involved in severe violations of religious freedom.
In the new bill, Senator Cruz alleged that Nigeria’s government had tolerated or enabled “systematic persecution” of Christians and religious minorities by Boko Haram terrorists and Fulani militants, and called for sanctions against Nigerian officials purportedly complicit in the violence.
The bill proposes visa bans, asset freezes, and restrictions on U.S. aid, arms sales, and development assistance to Nigerian officials until what it termed “compliance” is demonstrated. It also directs the U.S. State Department to submit annual reports to Congress on Nigeria’s religious freedom record.
Following Cruz’s move, five Republican senators led by Senator Ted Budd wrote a joint letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on September 12, urging the U.S. government to immediately re-designate Nigeria as a CPC.
They alleged that over 52,000 Christians had been killed since 2009, and that more than 20,000 churches and Christian institutions had been attacked or destroyed.
“In 2025 alone, at least 3,100 of the 4,476 global faith-related killings occurred in Nigeria,” the letter claimed, citing data from Open Doors World Watch List, which ranked Nigeria as the deadliest country for Christians worldwide.
The wave of accusations intensified after Riley Moore, a member of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote a separate letter to Secretary Rubio, calling Nigeria “the deadliest place in the world to be a Christian” and accusing its government of “complicity through inaction and corruption.”
Similarly, Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, posted on X (formerly Twitter) that “faith should never be a death sentence,” and described the situation in Nigeria and parts of Africa as “a tragedy and disgrace.”
Despite the mounting pressure from the U.S. Congress, the U.S. State Department has not issued any official statement on the proposed bill or on lawmakers’ requests for Nigeria’s re-designation.
When contacted, spokesperson for Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, confirmed to News Point Nigeria that the Federal Government had already taken diplomatic steps to counter the allegations and clarify the situation.
“We have reached out to the U.S. government explaining that the allegations are not true,” Ebienfa said. “We have done that through our missions in Washington and even Atlanta.”
He added that in April 2025, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, commissioned a detailed study on killings in Nigeria. The report, described as comprehensive and data-driven, was distributed to Nigeria’s foreign missions to provide factual evidence disproving the genocide narrative.
“It’s an unbiased report, and we’ve asked all our missions to use it to engage foreign governments with facts, dismissing allegations of targeted killings,” he said.
Back home, Nigeria’s House of Representatives on Wednesday unanimously adopted a motion rejecting the narrative advanced by the U.S. lawmakers.
Titled “Need for a Coordinated Diplomatic and Domestic Response to the Proposed Nigerian Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 (U.S. Senate Bill 2747)”, the motion, sponsored by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, mandated the government to submit a formal diplomatic protest within 21 days.
The House also called for the establishment of a Nigeria–U.S. joint fact-finding mission on religious freedom and directed Nigerian security agencies and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to compile a consolidated report on religion-linked violence since 2023, to demonstrate that there is no state-sponsored persecution of any faith group.
“We can’t deny that there are killings in Nigeria, but the victims cut across different ethnic and religious groups,” Ebienfa explained. “It’s not targeted at any specific religion.”
He clarified that while individual U.S. lawmakers are entitled to their opinions, those do not automatically represent the official policy of the United States government.
Meanwhile, Presidential Adviser on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, said the Presidency was actively countering what he described as “Western propaganda” aimed at tarnishing Nigeria’s image.
During an interview on France 24’s Eye on Africa, Bwala linked the timing of the genocide narrative to Nigeria’s foreign policy stance on the Israel–Palestine conflict at the United Nations General Assembly.
“Nigeria took a principled position in support of a two-state solution and condemned the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” Bwala said. “Barely 24 hours later, Western commentators like Bill Maher started amplifying this false narrative of Christian genocide. It’s all politically motivated.”
He described the genocide claim as a “manufactured narrative by foreign interests” aimed at undermining the Tinubu administration.
“Yes, there’s insecurity in Nigeria, we admit that. But since President Tinubu assumed office, we’ve recorded tremendous progress in combating it,” he said.
Bwala alleged that the claims by U.S. lawmakers were based on inaccurate reports by a local rights group, Intersociety Organisation, which he said was “funded by foreign interests” and had published “inconsistent and misleading statistics.”
“If you read their report, you’ll see glaring contradictions. They didn’t mention the insecurity in the Southeast or killings by IPOB and ESN; instead, they blamed the Nigerian military,” he said.
He argued that the campaign was intended to inflame religious tension and destabilize Nigeria’s internal cohesion.
“Boko Haram’s early operations targeted Christians, yes, but the group has since turned its attacks on all Nigerians, regardless of faith,” he concluded.