By Ezinwanne Onwuka
A diplomatic firestorm has engulfed Abuja, trapping the Nigerian government between a punitive U.S. Bill to punish officials who enforce blasphemy laws in the country and a binding writ of execution from the ECOWAS Court ordering Abuja to repeal its death-penalty blasphemy laws.
Blasphemy Laws Ruled ‘Excessive’
In April 2025, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court of Justice ruled in favor of the Incorporated Trustees of Expression Now Human Rights Initiative in a case against the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The regional court held that Nigeria’s blasphemy laws violate the right to freedom of expression.
The court singled out Section 210 of the Kano State Penal Code and Section 382(b) of the Kano State Sharia Penal Code Law, both of which call for the death penalty for insulting Prophet Muhammad.
The court dismissed these provisions as ‘excessive and disproportionate in a democratic society’, declaring them incompatible with Nigeria’s obligations under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). It gave a marching order for Abuja to either amend or repeal the blasphemy laws and ‘other similar legal provisions.’
“The action challenged the consistent use or failure to prevent the use of criminal provisions bothering on the offense of blasphemy to arrest, arbitrarily detain, unlawfully prosecute, imprison, and impose death sentence on citizens by the Nigerian government, and failure of the Nigerian government to prevent extrajudicial killing of citizens on the allegation of blasphemy which are clear violations of Nigeria government’s obligations under the ACHPR, ICCPR, UNCAT and other international instruments,” Solomon Okedara, the Nigerian human rights lawyer who pioneered the case, told TruthNigeria.
Regional Court Pushes Nigeria to Act
After nearly eight months of inaction from Abuja, the ECOWAS Court escalated the matter. On September 23, 2025, it served Abuja with a writ of execution directing the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), the designated Competent National Authority, to enforce the judgment delivered on April 9, 2025. The office of the received and has officially acknowledged the writ.
“The enforcement of this landmark judgment will be more than a procedural act, it will indeed be a defining test of Nigeria’s fidelity to the rule of law, its commitment to human rights, and its respect for regional judicial authority,” said Okedara.
At the June 2025 inaugural meeting of ECOWAS’ Competent National Authorities in Lagos, the court’s President, Justice Ricardo Cláudio Monteiro Gonçalves emphasized the binding nature of the Court’s decisions and urged member states to take enforcement seriously.
According to Okedara, the writ service is a ‘procedural step’ the court uses to compel compliance with its judgment.
“Implementing the ECOWAS Court’s decision is not merely about compliance; it is about restoring faith in justice as a living force within the ECOWAS community, one that transcends political borders and protects the dignity of every individual,” he added.
U.S. Turns Up the Heat
The pressure from ECOWAS comes as U.S. Senator Ted Cruz pushes a sharply critical narrative of Nigeria. In September, Cruz introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025, which would impose targeted sanctions on Nigerian officials accused of enforcing Islamist blasphemy laws. He accused Nigerian officials of “facilitating the imposition of blasphemy laws,” and described the situation as “Christian persecution.”
This prompted Washington to closely monitor Nigeria’s rising religious tensions, and the momentum intensified when U.S. President Donald Trump redesignated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC).
The U.S. 2025 Report on International Religious Freedom documented multiple blasphemy-related prosecutions in Nigeria, including that of Sufi singer Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, sentenced to death in 2020 by a sharia court for song lyrics shared on WhatsApp. There is also the 2022 case of Deborah Samuel, a Christian student who was beaten and burned alive in public by classmates after being accused of blasphemous comments.
Washington ramped up its push for the enforcement of religious freedom in Nigeria on November 18, beginning with discussions by UN Ambassador Mike Waltz and rapper Nicki Minaj, followed by a hearing by the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Africa Sub-committee on 20 November 2025 titled “President Trump’s Redesignation of Nigeria as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’: A Serious, Well-Founded Wake-Up Call”. Chairman Chris Smith (R-NJ) described Nigeria as “ground zero, the focal point of the most brutal and murderous anti-Christian persecution in the world today.”
CPC Listing Sharpens ECOWAS Call to Action
Responding to a question on whether Nigeria’s redesignation as CPC could influence Abuja to enforce the ruling, Okedara said the implications of enforcing blasphemy laws already meet the threshold of “systematic, ongoing and egregious” violations of religious freedom.
“When a government therefore maintains and enforces laws that impose death sentence for blasphemy or allow such to be enforced within its territory despite its commitment to protection of right to life it is tantamount to flagrant denial of the right to life,” he said.
The lawyer added that revoking the laws, in line with the ECOWAS judgment, “can take Nigeria off the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC).”
While acknowledging that diplomatic pressure from Washington could influence Nigeria’s response, Okedara said: “I would rather have the Nigerian government enforce the judgment as a demonstration of its respect for the judicial arm of the ECOWAS Community, the right-protecting international instruments it ratified, and, more importantly, the sanctity of lives of its citizens.”
Ezinwanne Onwuka writes special features for TruthNigeria.
