Prof. Usman Yusuf
This article discusses the conspiracy of genocide of Christians in Nigeria and rumours of a coup plot against the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Christian Genocide”
The Good Book repeatedly states that “lying lips are an abomination to the Lord” and that God hates a lying tongue (Proverbs 6:16-19, Proverbs 12:22). It also encourages believers to “walk in the light” and express truth in love, rather than living in falsehood (Ephesians 4:15).
Nigeria has, in recent days, been cast negatively in the news internationally with the unfounded allegation of state-supported genocide of Christians in the country.
This false narrative took on a life of its own after the Nigerian Vice President, Kashim Shettima’s speech at the just concluded 80th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) held on September 9-28, 2025, where he clearly stated Nigeria’s official position of supporting the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
Nigeria’s position at the UNGA irked the very powerful Israeli lobby in the United States, which is made up of wealthy individuals and groups that promote policies favourable to the state of Israel and oppose those they see as hostile to Israel’s interests.
The largest American pro-Israel lobbying group, with a membership of over seven million, is Christians United for Israel. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is another influential organisation within the lobby.
The Israel lobby funds campaigns of members of the two major U.S. political parties.
Another very important lobby is the Christian Evangelical lobby, which controls the votes in the Bible belt in the deeply Christian southern states.
To win any election, from county to the Presidential, a candidate must be in the good books of these 2 lobbies.
So, the utterances of politicians like Sen. Ted Cruise, who is funded by the AIPAC and angling for the Presidency of the United States, are nothing but pandering for the support of these two powerful lobby groups.
Some Churches and Christian organisations in Nigeria have for a long time been spreading the falsehood that Nigerian Christians are being persecuted and killed with the full support of the government.
In exchange, these Churches and organisations attract a lot of funding from gullible American organisations.
These falsehoods are peddled more aggressively, particularly when a Muslim is the President in Nigeria.
Nigeria’s lack of representation at the Ambassadorial level worldwide leaves the country unrepresented on the world stage and vulnerable to the narratives of these mischievous elements.
Following this orchestrated international negative media blitz, President Tinubu, instead of being a unifier and healer as the leader of a country in distress, flew to Jos, the Plateau state capital and met with Christian leaders behind closed doors.
He has so far not made any outreach to the leadership of the much-maligned Muslim community of Nigeria.
The Nigerian Muslim community feels aggrieved and tested by these unfounded falsehoods by some mercantile mischief makers hiding behind the garb of a great religion.
Their primary goal is to do the bidding of their foreign sponsors, which is to create division between Nigerian Muslims and Christians, particularly in the north, and to set Nigeria on fire just for their selfish worldly gains.
When this story lit up social media, I had a sense of déjà vu because I had seen this movie before, when I represented His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, at the 2nd Annual International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit in Washington, DC, on June 28-30, 2022.
I wrote an article about my experience at the summit, which was published in the 4 July 2022 edition of the Daily Trust Newspaper titled: Message From Washington DC.
I decided to republish the article verbatim because its message is as relevant today as it was when it was first published more than 3 years ago.
Message from Washington DC – Published 4 July 2022
It was an honour and privilege to be asked to represent His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III at the 2nd Annual International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit in Washington DC on June 28-30, 2022.
His Eminence did not give me any prepared speech to read there, so whatever I said or wrote is my response to what I heard and read at the summit.
The summit is reported to be the largest conference in the world focused on advancing international religious freedom, drawing more than 1,200 attendees this year.
This year’s main focus was the freedom of religion worldwide and the struggles many people face in practicing their faiths.
There was an open exchange of ideas about religion, faith, and the barriers that arise between people of faith due to ignorance and misunderstanding.
Nigeria’s Delegation: From the Global Peace Foundation: Their Eminences the Sultan of Sokoto, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Samson Olasupo Adeniyi Ayokunle, Bishop Sunday Onuoha, Methodist Bishop and co-chair of Inter-faith Dialogue Forum, Ms Anne Marie Briggs, John Joseph Hayab, Kaduna State Chairman Christian Association of Nigeria and Ms Sarafina N’kenta. Additionally, other Nigerian organisations and private individuals from Nigeria and the United States attended.
Submissions by American and British Lawmakers
I was shocked to hear top American lawmakers and retired government officials repeatedly mentioning Nigeria in the same league as China, Pakistan and Afghanistan as one of the top violators of religious freedom that persecute Christians and the Church.
Letter to the US Secretary of State by US Senators
On 5th June 2022, five US Senators wrote to the US Secretary of State demanding the reversal of his previous decision to remove Nigeria from the list of countries of particular concern (CPC). The Senators made the following assertions in their letter:
i. “Mere expression of one’s Christian faith has become tantamount to a death sentence in many parts of Nigeria.”
ii. More than 4,650 cases of Nigerian Christians were killed for their faith in 2021.
iii. Nigeria has, for the second consecutive year, been the deadliest country on earth for Christians.
iv. The Nigerian government is failing to protect the religious freedom and safety of its Christian citizens.
v. The Nigerian government directly participated in the persecution of Christians through blasphemy laws.
My comment: As an American Citizen, I was very embarrassed that these Senators could append their signatures to this document knowing very well the resources available to them to seek the truth.
With all due respect, this poorly researched letter is, in my opinion, written just to pander to their narrow constituency without regard for the truth.
Submissions by some Nigerians & Christian organizations
It was equally shocking to hear the submission of some Nigerians summarised below:
i. Terrorist Fulanis and Kanuris are systematically targeting and killing Nigerian Christians.
ii. Armed Muslim Militia are deliberately targeting Christians and Churches with full complicity of the government.
iii. Blasphemy law that enabled the killing of Deborah Yakubu Samuel in Sokoto.
iv. Chibok Girls who are now 8 years in Boko Haram captivity.
v. Leah Sharibu now 4 years in Boko Haram captivity for refusing to convert from Christianity to Islam.
vi. The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Ondo state made an emotional presentation asking for the world’s help after asserting that on Sunday, June 5, 2022, “armed Fulani terrorists” massacred at least 40 worshippers in his diocese at St Francis Catholic Church, Owo.
vii. A Christian Lawyer told the summit that the Kaduna State Government enacted a law specifically requiring only Christian Clerics to be licensed before they could preach.
viii. A claim that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has set up an estimate of over 20 polling stations in Niger Republic to enable Muslims in that country to vote for the Nigerian Fulani Muslim candidate.
ix. The threat of secession if Nigeria is not renegotiated.
There was silence on the following
i. More Muslims have been killed, maimed, raped or displaced by Bandits and Boko Haram than Christians.
ii. More Muslim Clerics have been killed by these terrorist groups than Christian Clerics.
iii. More Muslim traditional rulers have been killed or kidnapped than Christians.
iv. More Mosques Have been burnt or destroyed by terrorists than Churches in Nigeria.
v. More Muslims, including children, have been abducted by these terrorists than Christians.
vi. More Muslim majority states are under siege by these terrorists than Christian states.
vii. More Nigerian Muslims have been made poorer by insecurity than Christians.
viii. Harirah Jubril, the Muslim Fulani woman from Adamawa state, who was in her last trimester of pregnancy, and her 4 little children, who were brutally gunned down by the Igbo separatist armed terrorists group Eastern Security Network (ESN) while waiting for a bus in Isulo Orumba North LGA, Anambra State.
ix. A Governor from the South-South who declared his state a Christian state and demolished mosques.
x. The lawful Fulani herders were beheaded, their cattle killed, their huts burnt, and chased out of the South-East just because they were Muslims.
xi. The unconstitutional law enacted by the 17 southern states banning Muslim Fulani herders was just to ethnically cleanse them from lands they have inhabited for generations.
xii. The tractor-trailer drivers and the Suya seller were burnt and killed in the South-East.
xiii. The ban on Muslim girls from wearing the hijab in schools.
Take home from Washington, DC
i. The world is fed the wrong narrative that Christians are targeted and persecuted in Nigeria.
ii. American and British lawmakers have distorted views on religion in Nigeria.
iii. Strong religious lobby groups in Nigeria, with the help of their foreign partners, have, over the years, fed this negative narrative about Nigeria into the people and leadership of the Western world.
iv. Nigeria’s problem is not religion but corruption and bad governance of our leaders, regardless of faith.
v. Nigeria’s problems can only be solved by Nigerians in Nigeria, not in London, Washington DC, or anywhere else.
vi. Nigerian Muslims need to tell our stories ourselves, truthfully, in our words and deeds, both at home and abroad.
vii. The Nigerian government and its missions abroad need to engage our foreign friends and partners to correct this negative narrative.
viii. Religious leaders of all faiths have a pivotal role to play in continuing to be messengers of hope and reconciliation.
ix. Nigeria is a beautiful country with lots of promise and enough room for all.
“Coup attempt”
It is under this dark cloud of widening religious mistrust in the country, exacerbated by the widespread falsehood of the genocide of Christians in Nigeria, that Nigeria awoke to the news of an attempted coup by some officers of the Nigerian Army.
The Nigerian Defence Headquarters (DHQ) denied reports of a coup attempt but released a statement saying that 16 officers had been arrested and were being investigated for disciplinary and rank stagnation issues.
The DHQ’s denial was not at all reassuring to citizens; if anything, it fuelled more speculations that resulted in the Army losing control of the narrative to social media news outlets. It also raised a lot more questions than answers.
Top most on the minds of citizens is, was there really a coup attempt or not, is this coup real or not, why is the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) handling issues of discipline and rank stagnation, the infractions given by the DHQ as reasons for the arrest of the 16 Army officers when we know that these issues are usually handled at the Unit level.
What are Nigerians to make of the rumours that some of the arrested officers are staff of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA)? What operational command do officers in the ONSA have to stage a coup?
A list of 10 Army officers, reportedly among the 16 arrested, has been circulating on social media; the DHQ has remained silent on the veracity of the list.
Nine of the 10 officers on the list, that is 90 per cent, are all from the Northern part of the country. I hope the DHQ is not expecting us to accept this list as true.
Is this all a calculated rumour and set up to weed out officers from a geopolitical zone deemed politically hostile to the ruling party as the 2027 election draws near?
The military Service Chiefs were hurriedly changed on 24 October 2025, an action that only supports what social media has been reporting, that there was indeed a coup attempt.
But, in keeping with his character, President Tinubu only doubled down on his Yorubanisation agenda by replacing a northerner who was the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) with his Yoruba kinsman, who should have been the first casualty of the purge because the alleged coup plotters were reportedly from the Army, a Service he headed.
Real or phantom, this coup scare should be a wake-up call to President Tinubu that there is discontent on the streets, in homes, marketplaces, classrooms, government offices, barracks, and war fronts, which only good governance can remedy, not purging of Service Chiefs.
Yusuf is a Professor of Haematology-Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation
