Abuja Denies Christian Genocide and Hires Washington Lobbyist to Spin Narrative
ByMary Kiara
(Lagos)- Nigeria accounted for nearly three-quarters of all Christians killed worldwide for their faith in 2025, according to new data from Open Doors, even as the Nigerian government rejects claims that the violence is religiously motivated and funds an information campaign to blur the facts.
The collision between documented global data and official denial is now playing out beyond Nigeria’s borders, reaching Western media, foreign policy circles, and international religious freedom watchdogs.
Nigeria at the Center of Global Christian Killings
According to the Open Doors World Watch List 2025, Nigeria recorded 3,490 of the 4,849 Christians killed globally for their faith during the reporting period ending in September 2025, approximately 72 percent of the total worldwide.
Open Doors, an international organization that tracks religious persecution ranks Nigeria seventh globally for overall persecution, but first by a wide margin for Christian fatalities.
The report breaks down killings and abductions by state and religion:
Benue State: 1,310 Christians killed
Kaduna State: 1,116 Christians abducted in 2025
Plateau State: 546 Christians killed
Taraba State: 73 Christians killed
“The latest figures should leave us in no doubt: there is a clear religious element to this horrific violence,” said Henrietta Blyth, chief executive of Open Doors UK.
Survivors, she added, consistently report attackers telling them, “We will destroy all Christians.”
A $9 Million Effort to Reframe the Story
Nigeria’s government has forcefully pushed back.
Mohammed Idris, Nigeria’s Minister of Information and National Orientation, told Fox News Digital that describing the killings as religiously motivated is “fundamentally wrong” and risks inflaming tensions.
“When a church is attacked, it is a Nigerian tragedy. When a mosque is raided, it is a Nigerian tragedy,” Idris said. “We do not categorize our grief by religion.”
He argued that the violence is driven by criminal banditry and ISIS-linked militants motivated by profit rather than faith, warning that framing the crisis as a religious conflict plays into extremist hands.
That public stance has been reinforced by a quieter effort in Washington.
Filings under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act show that President Bola Tinubu’s administration contracted DCI Group, a Republican-linked lobbying and strategic communications firm, in a deal valued at $9 million over one year.
The contract allegedly authorizes DCI Group to help Nigeria communicate its security efforts and counter what officials describe as damaging international narratives.
Seun Ambrose, a global affairs analyst told TruthNigeria, “It suggests a government under pressure that cares only about how it appears to Western nations.”
“This is not routine diplomacy. It is an attempt to prevent a narrative from hardening into policy.”
Language Shift Inside Nigeria
Analysts say the government response has been accompanied by a noticeable shift in domestic rhetoric.
More recently, references to “Christian militia” have appeared in commentary, positioned as a counterweight to descriptions of Fulani ethnic militias.
Ambrose said the pattern reflects narrative repositioning rather than factual rebuttal.
“When the data becomes difficult to dispute, the argument moves to language,” he said. “You blur categories, recode victims as participants, and portray scrutiny as bias.”
He said the effect is not clarification, but confusion.
“This is not about disproving persecution,” Ambrose said. “It is about creating enough ambiguity that accountability never arrives.”
International Alarm Grows
International concern over Nigeria’s violence has intensified.
Pope Leo XIV addressed the crisis in November, acknowledging Christian Persecution and urging Nigerian authorities to promote authentic religious freedom.
U.S. Rep. John James, Michigan Republican, cited the Open Doors findings in a public statement, calling the killings “targeted, systematic persecution” and warning against global indifference.
“The facts are undeniable, 72 percent of Christians killed globally were murdered in Nigeria. The United States and the world must not look away,” he said.
Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom Sam Brownback has also described Nigeria as the world’s deadliest place for Christians.
“We cannot allow a terrorist jihadist organization to take over a portion or all of that country or region and get a caliphate established; we will have a much bigger problem if that happens,” Brownback said.
Numbers Versus Narrative
Nigeria’s government insists it is cooperating with international partners to address terrorism. Defence Minister Christopher Musa has cited porous borders, compromised intelligence, and community collaboration with criminal groups as major obstacles.
For Christian communities across Nigeria’s Middle Belt, however, the debate over terminology feels distant from daily reality.
Open Doors reports that one in five Christians in Africa now faces high levels of persecution, with many Nigerian believers displaced, traumatized, and unable to return home.
“The numbers tell one story,” Blyth said. “The survivors tell another. Ignoring the religious dimension does not make the violence stop, it makes it impossible to confront.”
As Nigeria emerges as the global epicenter of Christian killings, the conflict is no longer only about security operations. It is increasingly about whether facts or narrative management will shape the world’s response.
Mary Kiara reports on terrorism for TruthNigeria.
