President Trump’s Righteous Action on Behalf of Nigeria’s Christians

President Trump’s decision to redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern over the systematic persecution of Christians is a welcome and much-needed step to protect religious freedom. The President has restored the designation that we first made in 2020 during my tenure at the State Department – a measure that sent a clear message to the Nigerian government to address the problem, but which was shamefully revoked by the Biden Administration. With this action, America will once again be able to exert significant diplomatic and economic pressure on the Nigerian government to protect its Christian population.

The plight of Nigerian Christians has never really received the attention it deserves. Over the past three decades, acts of terror and violence by militant Islamic groups in Sub-Saharan Africa – including Islamic State in West Africa, Fulani Herdsmen, and Boko Haram – have steadily increased. The situation is at its worst in the north, where 12 Muslim-majority states declared sharia law in 1999, but intensified rapidly with the rise of Boko Haram in 2009. Since that time, more than 50,000 Christians have reportedly been killed and millions have been made refugees – simply for practicing their Christian faith.

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In 2018, 110 schoolgirls were kidnapped by Boko Haram, who sold the girls into slavery. In 2014, Boko Haram attacked Gamboru Ngala and massacred 310 Nigerians. Earlier this year, at least 200 people were killed at a Benue State Catholic Mission. Yet the Nigerian government – fearing the radical Islamic militants who continue to pour in through the country’s northern border – persists in its official stance of denial of religious persecution.

Churches and organizations like the ACLJ have made valiant efforts to keep this issue alive, as has the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Yet while so many progressives took to the streets over the past two years to slander Israel as genocidal, we’ve heard nary a peep from the same people about the slaughter of Nigerian Christians. I hate to be cynical, but it’s pretty clear why: According to the Left’s hierarchy of victimhood, Christians can only ever be villains, not victims; likewise, Muslims – even those who pervert their faith to justify violence – can never be villains, only victims.

Thankfully, President Trump and Secretary Rubio have long track records of defending religious freedom around the world and are prepared to do what is necessary to address the persecution of Christians in Nigeria and beyond. This reflects the deep and long-standing convictions of Americans, who have always understood religious liberty as our most fundamental “first freedom.” It’s consistent with the strategy we set out in the first Trump Administration, which the President and his team are continuing today: to make religious freedom a priority and call out violations of religious freedom around the world, from the Christians of Nigeria to the Muslim Uyghurs of China.

History shows us that governments that do not respect this foundational right internally almost always end up causing problems with broader consequences for international peace and security. America must now use all the tools at our disposal to deliver on our promise to stand up for the Christians of Nigeria – and organizations like ACLJ will continue to be crucial in providing the Administration with the legal and intellectual ballast it needs to do just that.