Survivors speak openly on national television, yet no arrests, prosecutions, or deterrence follow
By M. Kiara
(Lagos) – For years, Christian survivors of Boko Haram and Fulani militant violence existed outside Nigeria’s official story. Their testimonies circulated through churches, aid groups, and foreign reports, while government officials insisted the crisis was merely “criminal,” not religious.
That era has ended.
In 2025, Nigeria’s major television networks began airing detailed survivor accounts describing forced conversion attempts, religious punishment, enslavement, and years of captivity. What has not followed this new openness is enforcement. There have been no major arrests, no prosecutions, and no visible reduction in attacks.
Nigeria’s problem is no longer denial and silence. It is state inaction.
Survivors Speak on Nigerian Television
In a widely broadcast interview on Arise News, Ms. Fayina Akilawus described nine months of captivity under Boko Haram after refusing to renounce her Christian faith.
“I am a Christian, and they wanted us to convert to Islam,” Akilawus said. “If we refused, we became their slaves. They told us that if we didn’t want to be slaves, we should become Muslims.”
She described threats of permanent servitude inside militant households for captives who resisted conversion.
Her account mirrors testimony aired on Channels Television from Yakubu Dauda, abducted in 2012 and targeted explicitly for his faith.
“I was asleep with my Bible on my chest when they entered my house,” Dauda said. “They flung it away and told me to either convert to Islam or join them. I refused, and my neck was slashed but I survived by the grace of God.”
These were not foreign documentaries or Western advocacy campaigns. They are Nigerian broadcasts, aired to Nigerian audiences, contradicting years of official insistence that religion played no role in the violence.
Visibility Without Consequence
The surge in survivor testimony coincided with mounting international pressure. In late 2025, the United States redesignated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern for religious freedom violations and announced of visa restrictions set to take effect in January 2026.
President Bola Tinubu’s administration emphasized dialogue, cooperation with international partners, and broad security reforms. It announced no executive actions tied specifically to religiously targeted violence. Officials continued to reject the premise that Nigeria faces a faith-driven crisis, framing the violence instead as “economic crime and generalized banditry.”
Joseph Hayab, the Chairman, Northern Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) told TruthNigeria; “the truth is, there’s Christian genocide in Nigeria, suggesting otherwise will be unfair to the victims and their families. Many Christians have been buried as a result of Islamic attacks in northern Nigeria; we have the figures and dates.”
No major terrorism financiers have been prosecuted. No trials have followed. No convictions have signaled deterrence.
Weeks ago, prominent human-rights lawyer Femi Falana publicly questioned the government’s failure to act on known terror financing cases.
“We are demanding the immediate prosecution of more than 400 terrorism financiers arrested in 2021,” Falana said. “Failure to punish perpetrators is what emboldens this crisis.”
Four years later, most of those cases remain unresolved.
Protection Withdrawn in Plain Sight
What has changed on the ground is not protection, but repetition.
Independent monitors and TruthNigeria continue to document attacks on Christian villages, Churches, and schools across Nigeria’s Middle Belt and northern regions.
Schools reopen briefly, then close again.
Displaced families return, then flee again.
Some captives are released quietly, others remain missing.
Even after mass abductions, including the kidnapping of hundreds of students and staff from St. Mary’s Catholic school in Niger State, no sustained security repositioning followed.
Attacks continued. Statements were issued. The cycle resumed.
Nigeria has moved from silence to normalization.
The state now allows atrocity to be named, while declining to interrupt it.
When Exposure Replaces Enforcement
Security analysts warn that public testimony without consequence carries its own risk.
“When survivors speak openly and nothing happens, violence becomes normalized,” said Polycarp Enedu, a security analyst who spoke to TruthNigeria. “It teaches armed groups that exposure carries no cost.”
In such an environment, militants do not need secrecy. They need endurance.
Human rights activist Kay Lionel noted the contradiction this creates.
“It is deeply ironic that Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, is modernizing,” Lionel said, “while Islamic extremists in Nigeria terrorize Christians in an effort to drag society backward.”
The contradiction is not merely moral. It is operational.
The Question Nigeria Now Faces
Nigerian media has crossed a line it once feared. Survivors are speaking openly. Networks are airing what was once taboo. The language of denial has weakened.
What remains unanswered is whether the state will act with equal clarity.
For Christians living under constant threat, the question is no longer whether their suffering is acknowledged, but whether they finally will gain protection.
Until that changes, Nigerian ruling elites stand convicted of freezing in fear rather than acting.
M. Kiara is a news analyst for TruthNigeria.
