The Federal Government stated that it has opened diplomatic discourse with the United States Government over ongoing allegations of state-backed Christian genocide in Nigeria.
According to information obtained, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted the United States and denied the assertion made by certain politicians.
Ted Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas, introduced the “Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 (S.2747)” on September 11.
The law aims to hold government officials accountable and reinstate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act.
Under the Trump administration, Nigeria was initially classified as a CPC in December 2020.
But in November 2021, the Biden administration revoked the designation, claiming that the Federal Government was not “engaged” in the serious breaches of religious freedom.
Following recent developments, Cruz called for the return of the CPC tag last month, citing alleged government complicity through lax enforcement and blasphemy laws, as well as the systematic persecution and genocide of Christians and other religious minorities in Nigeria by Islamist Boko Haram and Fulani militants.
Details of the bill
According to Cruz, the bill seeks to “hold accountable Nigerian officials who facilitate Islamist jihadist violence and the imposition of blasphemy laws.”
It calls for presidential action and describes enforcement measures, such as asset freezes, visa bans, and limitations on implicated Nigerian officials’ access to financial aid or U.S. visas.
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Additionally, it mandates that the US State Department provide Congress with yearly reports on Nigeria’s record on religious freedom, including the status of the prosecution of violators.
Furthermore, unless compliance is proven, the law suggests suspending specific aid, arms sales, or development assistance to Nigeria.
While the new anti genocide bill is yet to be assigned to any US Senate committee for deliberation, a group of five Republican senators, led by Senator Ted Budd, sent a joint letter to US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, on September 12, throwing their weight behind Cruz’s proposal and urging the US government to re-designate Nigeria as a CPC.
The senators said in the letter that since 2009, over 20,000 churches and Christian institutions had been assaulted or demolished, and over 52,000 Christians had been killed in these religious genocide attacks in Nigeria.
In a separate letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday, Riley Moore, a member of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, called for quick action to stop what he called Nigeria’s “systematic persecution and slaughter of Christians.”
He accused the Federal Government of collusion through corruption and inaction, describing Nigeria “the deadliest place in the world to be a Christian” following the genocide attacks.
FG’s multiple countermoves
Kimiebi Ebienfa, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Sunday PUNCH that the Federal Government had taken many diplomatic measures to address the false statements.
According to Ebienfa, the government has been in communication with its US counterparts via formal diplomatic channels.
He said, “We have reached out to the US government explaining that the allegations are not true. 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 study on killings in Nigeria that produced an unbiased report.
Ebienfa further re-iterated the National Assembly’s blunt rejections.
“We can’t deny the fact that there are killings in Nigeria. There are killings, but the victims cut across borders. So, it’s not focused on a specific group or religious sect, as the case may be,” he said.
He, however, stressed that while individual US lawmakers had the right to sponsor resolutions, their positions did not necessarily reflect official US foreign policy.
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