The two chambers of the Nigerian National Assembly have moved to counter a claim by a US senator that there is an ongoing systematic genocide against Christians in the West African nation.
On September 9, Ted Cruz (R-Texas) introduced a bill in the Senate seeking to classify Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern (CPC)” for allegedly flouting religious freedom.
The bill is titled, “Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 (US Senate Bill S.2747).”
He urged the Senate to direct the US Secretary of State to designate Nigeria as a CPC nation under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).
CPC designation
CPC is a designation given by the US Secretary of State to a country that engages in or tolerates “systematic, ongoing, and egregious” violations of religious freedom, according to the International Religious Freedom (IRFA) of 1998.
The severe violations may include torture, prolonged detention, forced disappearances, or flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty, or security of persons. The designation is an important foreign policy tool that can lead to diplomatic and economic consequences.
Apart from Cruz, Riley Moore, a member of the US House of Representatives, tagged Nigeria the deadliest country in the world for Christians.
Mr Moore, also a Republican, in a post on X, said he had written to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, demanding that the US use every diplomatic tool to stop what he described as the “slaughter of Christians.”
The Nigerian government had earlier debunked the claim, saying it is false, baseless, despicable, and divisive.
Nigerian lawmakers kick
On October 8, the Deputy Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, sponsored a motion under Matters of Urgent Public Importance, seeking to discountenance Mr Cruz’s claim.
It was titled “Urgent Need for a Coordinated Diplomatic and Domestic Response to the Proposed Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 (US Senate Bill S.2747) and to Mischaracterisations of Nigeria’s Security and Religious-Freedom Landscape.”
Leading debate on the motion, Kalu, who represents Bende federal constituency of Abia State, said the claim was “a mischaracterisation of Nigeria’s complex security and religious freedom landscape.”
He, therefore, canvassed a coordinated diplomatic and domestic response to it.
Mr Kalu argued that if Mr Cruz’s bill were passed by the US Congress, the designation would subject Nigeria and certain officials to potential sanctions under Executive Order 13818 and related frameworks of the Global Magnitsky Act, a US law that targets individuals accused of human rights abuses or corruption worldwide.
The deputy speaker reminded his colleagues that the Nigerian Constitution guarantees freedom of thought, conscience, and religion and prohibits the adoption of any state religion.
According to him, successive administrations and security agencies in Nigeria, working with faith leaders and civil society organisations, have taken deliberate steps to protect worshippers of all faiths and to prosecute offenders. He said this is even reflected in the US Department of State’s 2023 Country Report on Human Rights Practices for Nigeria.
Kalu noted that the bill was unjustified and potentially damaging, warning that such unilateral legislative action could undermine Nigeria’s sovereignty and misrepresent the country’s internal security challenges before the international community.
“This proposed US legislation is based on incomplete and decontextualised assessments. Nigeria’s insecurity is complex, multi-causal, driven by insurgency, criminal banditry, farmer–herder conflicts, separatist agitations, and communal disputes that affect citizens of all faiths,” Kalu stated.
House Committee on Foreign Affairs chair, Oluwole Oke, said the bill had long been under consideration in the US Congress, and that a public hearing on the bill was conducted without the participation of Nigeria’s diplomatic mission in Washington.
He said, “They denied our Nigerian mission and other Nigerians’ audience and participation,” adding, “It is a deliberate attempt to damage the Nigerian image.”
Oke, a longtime lawmaker, urged the House to fully support the investigation proposed in Mr Kalu’s motion and to ensure the Senate is on the same page.
Another ranking lawmaker, Sada Soli (APC, Katsina), asked the Nigerian parliament to adopt a more robust form of parliamentary diplomacy to engage the U.S. legislative system directly.
According to him, “This is the moment this Parliament must re-engineer its parliamentary diplomacy. Nigeria has always been of strategic interest to the U.S. politically and economically. What we are facing now is global politics, and we must address it with facts through proper diplomatic channels.”
He recounted that in 2015, when the US National Security Council predicted Nigeria would become a failed state, the Nigerian Parliament sent delegations to Washington to engage key institutions until the report was disowned.
After the debate, the House resolved to condemn all forms of violence and persecution on religious grounds and also to reject external narratives portraying Nigeria’s security crisis as a purely religious conflict.
It further asked its Committees on Foreign Affairs, National Security and Intelligence, Police Affairs, Interior, Civil Societies and Human Rights and National Orientation Values, to coordinate with the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Nigeria’s Embassy in Washington, D.C. to transmit Nigeria’s official position to the sponsors of S. 2747 and relevant US authorities as well as the US mission in Nigeria and interested US legislators to propose a Nigeria-US Joint Fact-Finding and Dialogue within 21 days.
The lower chamber also resolved to transmit the resolution to the Nigerian Presidency, the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the US Congress Leadership, the US Department of State, the African Union, and the ECOWAS Commission.
Nigerian Senate resolution
The Nigerian Senate, which also discussed the issue the following day, resolved to set up an ad hoc committee to engage with the US Congress.
The resolution was based on the motion jointly sponsored by Borno South Senator, Ali Ndume, and 20 others.
Ndume’s Borno State is the worst hit by terrorist attacks since 2009.
Speaking on the matter, Ondo South senator, Jimoh Ibrahim, called for a complete review of Nigeria’s counterterrorism approach.
Subsequently, after a 40-minute closed-door session on October 14 to which it referred the matter, the upper chamber constituted a 12-member ad hoc committee to guide it on how to respond to allegations of Christian genocide against Nigeria.
Members of the committee, as announced by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, are Abubakar Bello (APC, Niger North), Adamu Ailero (APC, Kebbi Central), Victor Umeh (LP, Anambra Central), Aneikan Bassey (PDP, Akwa Ibom North-East), Niyi Adegbonmire (APC, Ondo Central), and Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central).
Others are Asuquo Ekpenyong (APC, Cross-River South), Adetokunbo Abiru (APC, Lagos East), Tony Nwoye (LP, Anambra North), Titus Zam (APC, Benue North-west), Tahir Munguno (APC, Borno North and Abdulhamid Madori (Jigawa North-east).
Mr Akpabio said the committee will, within one week, “come up with a position paper on what should be presented to the executive and also to the Senate that will form a major reaction of the approach of the legislature in Nigeria towards the ongoing discussions in America with facts and statistics.”
The senate president had earlier justified the need for the Nigerian legislature to act, noting, “What is happening in the United States is of concern to Nigeria. It’s of concern to the Christians. It’s of concern to the Muslims because the moment they bring sanctions, sanctions breed poverty, and poverty knows no religion. So, for me, engagement will be the best.”
He stressed that terrorist activities were aimed at destabilising the country and preventing citizens from farming, not targeting any particular faith.
“We are facing a situation whereby these terrorists are trying to terminate the lives of Nigerians, and then of course, frustrates us from going into the farms, producing food to feed ourselves.
“It’ll be better in a closed session. And I think at the end of the day, we should actually have a small team that should visit our colleagues and also put the other side because some people must have gone there to give a one-sided story,” the senate president said.
