Why Nigeria should not be designated a country of concern — Bishop Kukah

The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, has urged the United States not to re-designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern over religious freedom, arguing that such a move would “hurt ongoing efforts” to promote dialogue, national healing, and interfaith understanding under the current Bola Tinubu administration.

Speaking at the launch of the Aid to the Church in Need (ACIN) 2025 World Report on Religious Freedom in the World at the Augustinianum Hall in Vatican City, Bishop Kukah said although Nigeria remains deeply troubled by violence, discrimination, and insecurity, there are encouraging signs of progress that should be strengthened, not punished.

“Re-designating Nigeria a Country of Concern will only make our work in the area of dialogue among religious leaders even harder,” Mr Kukah said.

“It will increase tensions, sow doubt, open windows of suspicion and fear, and simply allow the criminals and perpetrators of violence to exploit. What Nigeria needs now is vigilance and partnership, not punishment.”

‘Nigeria has sinned and fallen short, but progress is visible’ — Kukah

The cleric, long recognised as one of Nigeria’s leading voices on human rights and interfaith relations, acknowledged that the country had failed in many respects to protect citizens’ rights to worship freely.

He said that under former President Muhammadu Buhari, religious persecution, particularly against Christians, “was visible and egregious,” marked by exclusionary policies and the capture of federal power by northern Muslims.

“The Buhari administration marked the worst phase in the history of interfaith relations in Nigeria,” Mr Kukah said.
“That government gave oxygen to jihadists through policies that overtly favoured Islam and northern Nigeria.”

However, he said the Tinubu administration has so far shown “a willingness to listen and to act inclusively.”

He cited the appointment of Christians to strategic national positions — including the Chief of Defence Staff, the Director of the State Security Service, the INEC Chairman, and the National Chairman of the ruling party — as “confidence-building measures that inspire a sense of belonging.”

Mr Kukah also commended President Tinubu for visiting Benue State after the recent Yelwata killings, describing the visit and his empathy for victims as “a departure from Buhari’s silence and indifference.”

‘Religious persecution remains real, but not total’ — Kukah

While acknowledging that Christian minorities in northern Nigeria still face discrimination — including denial of land for church buildings, refusal to rebuild destroyed places of worship, and restricted access to religious education — the bishop said Nigeria’s reality cannot be simplified as state-backed religious oppression.

“We are not dealing with people going around wielding machetes to kill me because I am a Christian,” he said. “I live in Sokoto, in the womb of Islam, and I move freely in my regalia. The Sultan of Sokoto himself attended our events and provided support for our work. This is not to say there are no problems, but the daily realities of interfaith life in Nigeria are far more complex.”

He said while terrorists and extremist groups have targeted Christians, they have also attacked Muslims who reject their ideology, turning large parts of Nigeria into “a tragic killing field.”

The bishop warned against the simplistic labelling of Nigeria as a country of religious oppression, arguing that such narratives overlook the multifaceted nature of its crisis — one driven by weak governance, poverty, ethnicity, and organized crime as much as by religion.

Mr Kukah urged global institutions to recognise the complexity of Nigeria’s struggle and assist in rebuilding trust among its diverse communities.

He recalled that the United States had previously placed Nigeria on the “Countries of Particular Concern” list under the Donald Trump administration but later removed it under President Joe Biden. While acknowledging the role of international watchdogs, he said another designation now would only “undermine fragile interfaith efforts.”

“Nigeria must stand before the mirror and decide how to create a country of common citizenship,” he said. “The goal should be to help us reform, not to stigmatize. We need encouragement to build peace, not labels that isolate us.”

The bishop appealed for constructive international engagement, including support for Nigeria’s military to combat jihadists and bandits. He accused the Barack Obama administration of having “blocked Nigeria’s access to weapons” under President Goodluck Jonathan, saying that decision “pushed back” the fight against Boko Haram.

“I appeal to President Donald Trump, who is already working hard for peace in the Middle East, to lift the restrictions and help Nigeria access the tools it needs to defeat terror,” he said.

A window of hope under Tinubu

Despite Nigeria’s concerning human rights record, Mr Kukah expressed optimism that the current government’s inclusiveness and the symbolic interfaith makeup of the First Family — with the President as a Muslim and the First Lady a Pentecostal pastor — offer “a window of hope.”

He called on the Tinubu government to deepen reforms, enforce constitutional secularism, and challenge the adoption of Sharia law by 12 northern states, which he described as unconstitutional and dangerous.

“The President should go to court to have the adoption of Sharia law declared unconstitutional,” Mr Kukah said.
“This is the only way to end mob justice and restore confidence in Nigeria’s secular state.”

Concluding his address, Mr Kukah urged religious and political leaders to seize the moment to restore national harmony.

“Despite our challenges, Nigeria can still make a great contribution to world peace if we rid our country of religious extremism,” he said.

“We should be supported and encouraged, not punished.”

He described the ACIN report, which shows that 5.4 billion people globally live without full religious freedom, as “a wake-up call,” not a verdict of condemnation.

“Let Nigeria be judged not only by its wounds, but by its willingness to heal,” Mr Kukah said.

The trigger for Mr Kukah’s remarks

In recent months, US Senator Ted Cruz and a group of Republican lawmakers have renewed pressure on the US State Department to redesignate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act.

They argue that Nigerian authorities have tolerated or failed to stop widespread persecution of Christians by extremist groups and that officials who enable such violence should face sanctions.

Senator Cruz’s proposed Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 seeks to make the CPC status mandatory and impose penalties on officials complicit in religiously motivated killings or the enforcement of blasphemy and Sharia laws.

Nigeria was first placed on the CPC list in 2020 under the Trump administration but removed in 2021 by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The new congressional campaign follows inaccurate of ongoing attacks on churches and faith-based communities, with Mr Cruz claiming, without evidence, that more than 50,000 Christians have been killed since 2009. Supporters of the move say it would compel Nigeria to uphold religious freedoms, while critics, including rights monitors, note that much of the country’s violence stems from terrorism, banditry, and communal conflict rather than state-sponsored persecution.

The Nigerian government has strongly rejected the accusations, insisting that it does not persecute any religious group and that the crisis is rooted in insecurity and governance failures, not faith-based repression.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Muhammed Idris, and the House of Representatives have dismissed the American lawmakers’ proposal as an “unfair and misleading” depiction of Nigeria’s situation, warning that it undermines national sovereignty and ongoing efforts at interfaith dialogue. Nigerian officials say both Christians and Muslims have been victims of extremist violence.

BELOW IS THE FULL STATEMENT BY BISHOP MATHEW HASSAN KUKAH

Comments at the Launch of the ACIN 2025 World Report on Religious Freedom in the World .

A Plea & Testimony from Nigeria

By Matthew Hassan Kukah, Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Nigeria,
Delivered at the Augustinianum Hall, on October 21st, 2021, Vatican City.

1: I want to thank Aid to the Church in Need for their kind invitation to me to speak in response to the release of their biennial report on, Religious Freedom in the World. The report itself is a huge document of 1248 pages. It covers the state of Religious Freedom around the entire world between Jan 2023 & December 2024. According to the authors, the report reveals a worrying decline that shows more than 5.4 billion living today in countries without religious freedom. It is important to note that this report neither targets a particular country nor a particular faith. It cuts across all faiths and focuses only on the degree to which countries comply with this fundamental human right. The report identifies authoritarianism, religious extremism, ethno-religious nationalism and organized crime as drivers of religious persecution. To rephrase Leo Tolstoy therefore; Every victim of persecution is persecuted differently.

2: There have been serious concerns nationally and internationally over the deterioration of security matters in Nigeria. The reports have focused on the tragic outburst of violence that has turned huge swaths of the Nigerian landscape into a huge killing field. For over 15 years now, these murderous gangs of Islamicists and jihadist groups have found their way into our country, wreaking havoc, destroying lives and properties, ravaging farmlands and leaving huge parts of the country empty of human existence. Along with this, a culture of uncontrolled banditry, thousands of communities have been destroyed, with thousands of lives lost. The country has witnessed an unacceptable surge in internal displacement in most parts of the north especially around the middle belt states.

3: The biggest challenge for us is the appropriate language to use in describing this tragedy. The reactions have been confusing. Early narratives spoke of farmer-herder clashes, climate change, cattle rustling, outright criminality, etc. With the emergence of Boko Haram and the targeting of Church structures, destruction of schools, hospitals, the kidnapping of priests, the religious, seminarians and other pastoral agents, the murderous gangs invoking the words like, allahu akubar as their anthem of death, there was no other way of speaking of persecution of Christians by these jihadist groups rather than calling them religious persecution targeted at Christians. Then came the sacking of communities and the occupation of swaths of lands by these terrorist and murderous groups. These groups would later target Muslims who did not believe in their brand of Islam. Today, the floods of blood in Nigeria have no boundaries. This is why the debate over what is happening to us has become so confusing within and outside Nigeria. Although we cannot find the right words, the simple truth is that Nigerians are dying for a living.

4: The confusion over the appropriate language is understandable. The greatest area of concern is how much this tragic turn of events has disrupted years of Nigeria being a colourful tapestry of wonderful human relationships marked by great friendships among our people, across faiths and ethnicities. For example, I live in Sokoto, right in the womb of Islam. If we were dealing with outright persecution of Christians on grounds of identity, both myself and my small flock would not exist. For example, on September 8th, 2011, the ceremony of my ordination and installation as the Bishop of Sokoto was marked by this exemplary show of collaboration between the Diocese, the state government and the Sultan who personally enthusiastically provided accommodation for my guests during the occasion. I received the gift of a new Prado Jeep from a Muslim friend of mine who said to me, Bishop; This is my gift to you for your pastoral work in your vast Diocese! On the 30th of September this year, the Sultan himself was physically in the premises of our Secretariat where we commissioned an ICT facility with almost 300 computers for youth and children. This is not to say that there are no problems, but our daily lives should be defined by a better narrative.

5: We are therefore not dealing with cases of people who are going around wielding machetes and looking for me to kill because I am a Christian. I travel in my official regalia as Bishop in and out of Sokoto. We carry out our religious services with no molestations. However, what is important is not to create the impression that we have no problems. We do have serious problems but these have escalated because the federal and state governments have, over the years allowed these problems to fester. The inability of the federal government and its security agencies to end these killings has created the condition for the genocide that has taken over many communities today. By whatever names we choose, the fact is that Nigerians are dying unacceptable deaths across the country. In many cases, they are targeted because of their beliefs but also because of their ethnicity. We are in the cusp of a weak state with clear lack of capacity to arrest the descent into anarchy.

6: Nigerians feel vulnerable and unprotected irrespective of their faiths, ethnicity or social classes. A significant part of our social life has literally collapsed as many citizens now fear large gatherings for social events or prayer. It is important to restate that things were never really always like this. The last 8 years of the Buhari administration marked the worst phase in the history of interfaith relations in Nigeria, especially relating to violence against Christians and their exclusion from power. That administration gave oxygen to jihadists by virtue of its policies which overtly favoured Islam and northern Nigeria. The President himself was a Muslim, ensured that the Senate President, the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker, the entire leadership of security was entrusted to the hands of only Muslims, almost all from the north. This was a departure from the sensibilities that had characterized power sharing in Nigeria. I argued then that in reality, the difference between President Buhari and the Jihadists was that he was using a pen while the jihadists were using weapons of violence against Christians. I also stated that under Buhari, to gain power, it was more important to be a northern Muslim than to be a citizen of Nigeria.

7: Today, sadly, Nigeria is still bleeding. However, I see a window of opportunity that we could use to restore harmony among our people. The Report acknowledged that the First Family is an example of what should give hope in Nigeria; with the President being a Muslim and his wife being a Pastor in a Pentecostal Church! The President and the Vice President are Muslims, yet Christians have not felt alienated. The Chief of General Staff of the Nigerian Army, the Director of State Security Services among others are Christians. The President just appointed a Christian as the leader of the ruling Party. He also has appointed a Christian as the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. These are confidence building measures aimed at inspiring confidence in the citizens about having a sense of belonging. Our situation is far from perfect. We are still in a bad place, but there are signs of a government willing to listen. In response to the tragedy of the horrible killings in Yelwata, Benue state, the President physically paid a visit and had interactive sessions with the victims and the state government. It also pledged financial assistance to the victims. Such actions are different from the Buhari period where the President largely simply looked the other way without empathy.

8: The report indicates some decline in terrorist attacks quoting the Global Terrorism Index Report for2025 which states that terrorist attacks in Nigeria declined by 37% in 2024. However, the report still notes that; During the reporting period, innumerable attacks in Nigeria were documented in which the victims’ religious affiliation played a contributing or decisive role. Religious identity, particularly Christian identity in the northern states, matters intensely because it renders Christians (and moderate Muslims) particularly vulnerable to violence, persecution, and displacement….Religious freedom in Nigeria is under grave threat, principally due to legal measures that support discrimination against Christians in the northern states, as well as severe and relentless atrocities committed throughout the country. It is therefore deeply discouraging to note that prospects for religious freedom in Africa’s most populous nation remain extremely grim.

8: This Report is not meant to make anyone side happy or sad. It is a wake-up call for Nigeria. The report offers Nigeria and opportunity to stand in the mirror and decide how it wants to create a country of common citizenship. President Bola Tinubu ordered Nigeria to return to its old national anthem, emphasizing that one of the stanzas says, we want to; build a country where no one is oppressed. Now is the time to live up to these principles. There is an urgent need to bring all laws, I am mean all, under the purview of the Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.

9: For years, the agents of state have stood by as individuals took the law into their hands, destroying churches and killing Christians over the last forty years, killing innocent citizens of both faiths on grounds of blasphemy laws with the Hisbah groups seeking to enforce Islamic laws by the backdoor, all with no repercussion. The dubious decision by 12 northern states to adopt Sharia law in a Democracy in 2000, opened the door to Islamicists who saw this as a sign that Islam was on the ascendancy. Things must change. The President should go to court to have the adoption of the Sharia law by the 12 northern states declared unconstitutional as the only way to arrest the tendency to mob justice which continues to claim innocent lives of citizens such as Deborah Samuel (Sokoto), Bridget Agbahime (Kano). The secular state anticipated by the Constitution must be enforced.

10: In the experiences of Christian minorities in northern Nigeria, what constitutes persecution is not necessarily just violence. It is also the perceived denial of their rights to access to places of worship in public institutions, refusal of state authorities to allocate lands for the building of churches, not reconstructing destroyed churches when fanatics raze them down, denial of employment opportunities and promotion in public institutions, lack of access to religious education for Christian children in public schools etc. The right to what constitutes persecution belongs to the victim. It is left for the state to gauge these claims against the Constitution.

11: Finally, I want once again to thank ACIN for their tireless work towards the restoration of human dignity in the fulfilment of God’s gift to humanity, the right for all to worship him without let or hindrance. I believe that over the years, Nigeria has sinned and fallen short. Under the Buhari administration, its egregious persecution of Christians was visible. I accepted and encouraged the designation of Nigeria as a Country of Concern. In their statement dated December 11th, 2020, (a day after the Human Rights Day) the Trump administration said: Governments whose leaders have allowed perpetrators of vicious persecution to act with impunity pose a national security threat to the United States and the world.

12: I do believe that today, acts of impunity still persist, but it is my view that re-designating Nigeria a Country of Concern will hurt the initiatives we are working on with the current government to collectively resolve the nagging problems of first, the persecution of Christians and of course the larger issues of ending the mindless killings of our citizens. Designating my country, Nigeria, a Country of Concern will only make our work in the area of dialogue among religious leaders in our country and elsewhere with the Nigerian state even harder. It will only increase tensions, sow doubt, open windows of suspicion and fear and simply allow the criminals and perpetrators of violence to exploit. What Nigeria needs now is a more vigilance by the organisations such as the ACIN and civil society groups to continue to press for change and to deliberately work to end impunity.

12: I believe that the Obama and Biden administrations were complicit in the way they handled the fight against Boko Haram under the Presidency of Goodluck Jonathan. The country was already making progress. The decision to block Nigeria’s access to the required weapons to end this violence by the Obama administration and their drive to impose President Buhari on Nigeria pushed back this fight. I therefore appeal President, Donald Trump who is already working hard to show that a peaceful world is possible with his historic achievement in the Middle East to lift the ban and allow Nigeria access the military tools it requires to free our country from the stranglehold of these evil men. I believe this will set us on a course to end the violence that extremist groups and merchants of death have inflicted on us.

13: Thankfully, in his new Encyclical, Dilexi Te, the holy father, Pope Leo has said: I am sure that preferential option for the poor is the source of extraordinary renewal both for Church and society. Happily, our President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu sent a delegation of the Catholic Bishops for the burial of our beloved holy father, Pope Francis. He personally took the historic decision to be at the inauguration of the holy father, Pope Leo, X1V. We believe that despite our challenges, there is a window of opportunity to the religious leaders in Nigeria to map out the best strategies towards national harmony and integration. With the historic developments in the Middle East coming in this year of Hope, the world has a chance to reverse the vicious hold of all forms of religious extremism threatening a peaceful world order. Nigeria, a country of well over 200 million people of faith can make a great contribution towards this quest for world peace if we can rid our country of the virus of religious extremism. We should be supported and encouraged in this effort and not punished. On our part, the Nigerian government must urgently design a robust template to restore confidence in our country by taking the concerns expressed in this Report in good faith. Thank you very much.