Andy Ezeani
In the South West of Nigeria, Christianity, Islam, and traditional religion live happily ever. They inhabit a shared space where no faith is oppressed.
Religious diversity has never been a bone of contention among the Yoruba.The explanation for this unique sense of accommodation may possibly be located in the fact that the people remain largely connected to their traditional ways more than any other religion rooted abroad. That is one thesis, though.
It is instructive that not even major historical incidents, including wars and betrayals in prime places of leadership, resulting in rankling loss of territory, have succeeded in inserting religious wedge among the Yoruba. That, however it is interpreted, must be reckoned to them as credit.
In the last few years, one or two mercantilist protagonists of religious rights, who obviously derive their upkeep from sponsors of religious disharmony elsewhere, have tried assiduously to accentuate the differences between Christianity and Islam in Yorubaland. To the remarkable credit of the people, they have almost completely ignored the antics of the charlatans, retaining the robust sense of commonality that has served their society so well over time.
The model of religious tolerance and harmony which Yorubaland has held up over time to the benefit of all inhabitants of the region, is, from all indications, of little, if any appeal to many in the Northern region.
A region that harbours adherents of Islam and Christianity in their numbers should, under normal circumstances, be desirous of copying from a tested model that has excelled in promoting co-habitation. Well, it has not turned out so.
For political leaders in contemporary Nigeria, the redemptive path is not often the desired path. The more the schism, the better for business. Unfortunately, the country at large, not only the North, is paying a steep price for mindless extremism and the abnormal preference by some for religious bigotry and violence.
It bears noting that Islamic fundamentalism and devastation of Christian communities, which are now the defining profile of Northern Nigeria and also the yoke of the country, were not always the case.
Pre-eminent political and religious leaders in Northern Nigeria at Independence and immediately after, mostly Muslims, were not known for rabid religiosity. They were ardent in their faith but respected Christianity no less. Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto (1910- 1966), was a good example. Testimonies bear him out as a devout Muslim who respected the space and tenets of Christianity for his associates and staff of that faith.
Such disposition has substantially vanished in the North. The result is the tension, the religious baiting, and the perennial violence that not only characterize the Northern region but have now imposed insecurity and absence of peace across the country.
Any genuine effort to defend Nigeria of the accusation of religious genocide levied against it recently in the United States of America ( USA), is bound to be difficult, if not futile. The evidence in support of the allegation is weighty. And it didn’t just start today.
Christianity has been at the receiving end of all manner of baiting and consistent violent assault in Nigeria over the last two decades, and the government pretends to be helpless. In truth, it is complicit.
The failure of the government to take any decisive action against perpetrators of killings and violent sacking of Christian communities in the Middle Belt and in Northern states, cutting across Plateau, Benue, Taraba, Kaduna and Adamawa states, stand as incontrovertible evidence of government condoning these barbaric acts.
In several instances, really, the communities attacked and sacked at will by Jihadist invaders have strong reasons to read state complicity in the atrocities. The most demoralizing is the perceived complicity of the military and sundry security personnel.
United States of America’s Republican Senator Ted Cruz did not manufacture any motive for his petition to the U.S. government to designate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC). Cruz was not making a wild charge when he alleged that “officials in Nigeria are ignoring and even facilitating the mass murder of Christians by Islamist jihadists”. The evidence abounds, stretching over decades.
No person of good conscience, Christian or Muslim, will dispute that Christians in parts of Northern Nigeria are an endangered species. The situation is extremely obnoxious because there can be no other justification for the bloodletting in the vast terrain of northern Nigeria, except an innate proclivity to despoil others and an ambition to establish religious hegemony.
The contention that there is no religious genocide in Nigeria because Muslims are also killed at various instances by terrorists is at best, superficial, if not dishonest. Yes, terrorists also kill Muslims. They have even attacked the mosque. The question is, how may Muslim communities have been sacked, burnt down, the inhabitants displaced, and the names of the communities brazenly changed? Over and over and over.
The truth is that there is a method in the madness of the Jihadists. Their agenda is not hidden. How does a government that is not complicit allow invaders to sack communities, displace the people, and rename the towns without exerting its force to ward off the vandals? The government appears even more willing to empty the people into Internally Displaced Peoples camps than deploy resources to ward off the Jihadists.
On October 23 2025, a coalition of Christian Youth groups issued a statement in Abuja, expressing disgust at the indecency of the government or any of its officials denying the obvious tragedy of religious genocide in the country.
As the group puts it, “There have been sustained campaigns of extermination of Christians in Nigeria running unabated for almost two decades in which tens of thousands have been killed,maimed, scores of Christian communities destroyed and millions displaced… Most of the communities sacked in Benue, Plateau and other Christian states have already been occupied and renamed by the aggressors. The aim is ethnic cleansing with the sole intention of exterminating the Christian population”. Does the government or anyone contest this?
As elevated as the plea against designation of Nigeria as CPC by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah is, the truth is that Nigerian Christians have ample reason to feel unjustly treated by the government of Nigeria in the last ten years. Even the appointment of duly qualified Christian citizens into prime government positions is seen now as a mark of large-heartedness by the government. That’s how awkward this secular state has turned.
Speaking at the Vatican on October 21 2025, Bishop Kukah pleaded with the international community to help Nigeria solve its problems and not impose sanctions or isolate the country diplomatically That was a patriotic duty. Even the Bishop will concede that there is no sign that the government is about to be even-handed and firm in presenting an unblemished expression to the secular status of the Nigeria.
Where the Buhari government stopped in insensitivity of tendencies, the Tinubu government is continuing apace. He is even launching a religiously anchored economic programme that portends further religious crisis for the country down the road. To Tinubu, it is all politics. What a blighted land!
