There is definitely a genocide going on in Nigeria against Christians, but it’s not all black and white

This article is not an indictment of any religion or tribe in Nigeria. Rather, it is a look into the security, political, and ethno-religious realities that people in Nigeria face, which help answer the question of whether genocide is occurring. Bad actors professing Islam does not make everyone practicing Islam a bad person. Individuals should be judged on their own accord.

The Individual Level

Nigeria is not a Muslim or Christian country. Both religions have significant representation, with Christians predominantly in the south and Muslims in the north. It has had a fractured history, most notably the civil war of 1967, in which the Christian Igbos fought unsuccessfully to secede and create their own state, Biafra. The war was precipitated by the violent 1966 pogroms against the Igbos by people from the northern tribes (predominantly Hausa and Fulani). These pogroms were fueled by the narrative that the 1966 Nigerian coup d’état was led by the Igbos for their own political interests. This narrative was later debunked by former President Ibrahim Babangida, who participated in the 1966 counter-coup that resulted in the murder of many Igbo soldiers. In Oil, Politics and Violence: Nigeria’s Military Coup Culture, the author explains that religion may have played a role in inciting the large-scale violence of the 1966 pogroms because Muslims had controlled the Nigerian government until the coup brought in a new Supreme Military Council (SMC) that was mostly Christian.

After the civil war, there have been numerous incidents of religiously linked violence from some Nigerian Muslims—predominantly Hausa and Fulani—toward Nigerian Christians in the North and Middle Belt. In 2022, the lynching and murder of Deborah Yakubu by a mob in Sokoto, who accused her of blasphemy, mirrored the 1990 lynching of Gideon Akaluka in Kano, who was accused of desecrating the Quran. Both victims were innocent Nigerian Christians living in the north. None of Deborah’s killers were convicted, despite the availability of video evidence. Similarly, in 1991, Reinhard Bonnke, a German-American evangelist, was alleged to have made a blasphemous statement about Islam. Thousands of Muslim youths gathered at the Emir of Kano’s palace and subsequently murdered hundreds of Christians in the region. Again, the perpetrators were not brought to justice.

This pattern—violence against Nigerian Christians followed by a lack of accountability—repeats itself in the sphere of terrorism as well.

The Level of the Non-State Actor

Boko Haram and ISWAP are two self-professed Islamic terrorist groups responsible for murdering countless Nigerians. Boko Haram translates to “Western education is forbidden,” while ISWAP stands for Islamic State West Africa Province. Boko Haram came into global focus after abducting schoolgirls in Chibok and committing atrocities against them, including murder. Most of these girls were Christians.

There have been numerous violent attacks on Christian communities in Borno by these Islamic terrorist groups. Many of these incidents go unreported due to the remoteness of the regions and limited access to technology. When I conducted research in Borno in January 2025 on internally displaced persons (IDPs) , multiple witnesses confirmed the frequency of these attacks.

A significant number of Nigerian Christians have also lost their lives and land to some roaming Muslim Fulani herdsmen. Data shows that Christian communities have been disproportionately targeted. For instance, on June 13, 2025, Fulani herdsmen massacred more than a hundred Christians in Yelewata village in Benue State. No one has been brought to justice. Observing the pattern of violence by these Fulani herdsmen over the years, one can conclude that they use violence as a tool of displacement and replacement of Christian Nigerians in their lands.  Like Boko Haram and ISWAP attacks, these incidents recur with no accountability from the State.

Boko Haram has displaced both Christians and Muslims in Borno. During my research, I chose not to collect data on religion due to the sensitivity of the topic and the high probability of false reporting. From observation, there were Muslims in the IDP camps I visited, which is expected given Borno’s Muslim majority. If Boko Haram and ISWAP are Islamic-oriented groups, why are they displacing Muslims as well? One argument is that their geographic location makes it unavoidable. Operating in a predominantly Muslim northern region means some Muslims become collateral damage in their attempt to terrorize the Nigerian state.

The State Level

Alternatively, one could argue that Boko Haram and ISWAP are not primarily religious terrorist groups but rather political terrorist groups that use religion as a convenient tool for both aiding recruitment and attempting to shape public perception favorably among Muslims around the world. Their use of violence and abduction can be argued to be a tool used in shaping political outcomes.

For example, the abduction of the Chibok girls played a significant role in the 2015 Nigerian elections, contributing to the defeat of the incumbent Christian president, Goodluck Jonathan, after one term. The abductions heightened public fear and insecurity, causing many Nigerians to vote for Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari later granted amnesty to some Boko Haram members, allowing them to evade accountability for their crimes. Although the former he enabled the Boko Haram terrorists to escape justice via amnesty, he illegally abducted and jailed the Christian Nnamdi Kanu for crimes related terrorism. Since 2015, Nigeria has not had a Christian president. And for the first time in history, both the current President, Bola Tinubu, and his vice president Kashim Shettima are Muslims.