OPINION:
Persecution watchdogs for months openly implored the Trump administration to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, a designation given by the secretary of state to nations guilty of severe religious liberty restrictions.
As the Christian slaughter there has continued to metastasize, these calls have only grown, with experts warning that the situation has become increasingly dire.
What’s perhaps most bizarre is that Nigeria was previously placed on the list by the first Trump administration, until the Biden camp inexplicably chose to remove the African nation, claiming it somehow didn’t meet the criteria for inclusion.
But on Nov. 1, those hoping President Trump would take decisive action found themselves rejoicing, as the commander-in-chief released a toughly worded statement via his Truth Social page that immediately went viral.
“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Mr. Trump wrote. “I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action.”
And the president wasn’t done there, pledging that any potential attack would be “fast, vicious and sweet,” targeting the “terrorist thugs” he said are attacking Christians in Nigeria. Mr. Trump implored officials there to “move fast” to remedy the situation.
While the military proclamation has sparked some pause among persecution watchdogs who recognize the complexity of the situation in Nigeria, the State Department’s move, at Mr. Trump’s direction, is welcomed and could put further pressure on Nigeria to take action to protect Christians from slaughter, horror and harassment.
For this, the president deserves praise, as more Christians are killed in Nigeria today than in any other nation. In fact, the statistics are quite staggering.
I’ve been covering this issue for years and have been perplexed by the media’s relative silence about what has been happening. There are no massive campus protests — and no pledges to halt the madness. Instead, silence has reverberated as the cries of Christians are ignored.
Meanwhile, the bloodshed has been monumental. Open Doors, an organization that monitors persecution, ranked Nigeria the seventh worst place in the world to be a Christian.
“Jihadist violence continues to escalate in Nigeria, and Christians are particularly at risk from targeted attacks by Islamist militants, including Fulani fighters, Boko Haram and ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province),” the organization explained, noting the government has done little to thwart these assaults.
According to Open Doors, the attacks are “shockingly brutal,” with women being kidnapped and targeted with sexual violence, people being driven from their homes and outright slaughter unfolding. In some Northern states, believers are forced to live under Shariah law.
Joel Veldkamp, head of international communications at Christian Solidarity International, mirrored these sentiments in an interview with CBN News this week.
“More Christians are killed in Nigeria for their faith every year than in the rest of the world combined,” he said.
Yet numerous media outlets have said the numbers on Christian persecution have been “widely disputed,” a framing given to the issue by ABC News. The outlet continued, “Experts say both Christians and Muslims — the two main religious groups in the country of more than 230 million people — have been victims of attacks by radical Islamists.”
Other media outlets are parroting the same claim about Muslims and Christians being simultaneously impacted, with some experts arguing that there are financial and economic factors at play — not just religious ones. CNN reported that the country has struggled with “deep-rooted security problems that are driven by various factors, including religiously motivated attacks.”
Mr. Veldkamp pushed back on some of these proclamations, noting that different motivations for violence do not change the impact that’s being seen on the ground.
“The real groups that are actually destroying Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt regions are Fulani militias that are conducting a slow-motion ethnic cleansing campaign, attacking Christian village after Christian village, killing whoever they find, driving people out, burning the village or occupying it,” he said. “Slowly, with time, we’re seeing the map transform, and all these hundreds of old Christian villages are now gone and occupied by new people.”
The situation in Nigeria is certainly complex, but Mr. Trump’s move to designate the nation a CPC is welcomed and much-needed. Persecution watchdogs have long sounded the alarm on the issue, and terror group Boko Haram has openly targeted Christians.
No one is disputing the complexities in Nigeria, but it’s painfully obvious that the government there has done little to curb or halt the systematic targeting of Christians. It’s far past time for the U.S. to take a stand and demand accountability, particularly if Nigeria wishes to benefit from American financial aid and assistance.
• Billy Hallowell is a digital TV host and interviewer for Faithwire and CBN News and the co-host of CBN’s “Quick Start Podcast.” Mr. Hallowell is the author of four books.
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