…Ted Cruz claims that over 20,000 schools have been destroyed, over 18,000 persons kidnapped, and over 15,000 killed
“…the government has not shown good faith in trying to deal with these matters.”
A Catholic priest known for advocacy and peace initiatives has decried Christian persecution in northern Nigeria, calling on the government to address the general issue of insecurity across the country.
The Executive Director of the Justice and Peace Centre (JPC) in the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, Fr. Raymond Anoliefo, made the point during a recent interview with Dr. Reuben Abati, host of ThisDay Live, a flagship Sunday talk show on Arise TV.
“I agree that there is some level of Christian genocide, especially in the areas of the Middle Belt, the Northeast, the Northwest and all of that. Yes, I do agree that there is Christian genocide,” Fr. Anoliefo stated.
As regards what lawmakers in the US are saying concerning the situation in Nigeria, the priest said, “I align with it a hundred percent with what Senator Ted Cruz has been saying, that the government has been complicit; the government has not shown good faith in trying to deal with these matters.”
“Visible to the blind and audible to the deaf.”
For context, Senator Ted Cruz, Kimberly Daniels, and Representative Riley Moore are pushing a narrative of genocide in the United States.
Ted Cruz claims that over 20,000 schools have been destroyed, over 18,000 persons have been kidnapped, and over 15,000 persons have been killed as a result of Christian genocide, including schools and churches.
The US politicians claim that the Nigerian government is hypocritical in the face of targeted killings and a general problem of insecurity, despite paying lip service to using kinetic and non-kinetic methods to address the issue of insecurity.
The US lawmaker states that President Trump is not going to stand arms at Kimbo and watch the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.
Further commenting on Senator Cruz’s accusation of the Nigerian government’s complicity in the ongoing Christian genocide in the country, the JPC director disclosed that “Nigeria has been indicted under the Freedom Accountability Act of 2025, and Nigeria has been designated as a country of particular concern.”
Providing specifics about those targeted, the Lagos Archdiocesan Priest narrated that, “I have lost comrades. I’ve lost a brother priest who was also a director of JDPC, and he was murdered and all of that. So, I’m not going to stay here and say okay, it’s neither here nor there. I agree it is what it is. For me, it’s visible to the blind and audible to the deaf.”
Fr. Raymond Anoliefo, Executive Director of the Justice and Peace Centre in the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos.
“Insecurity in the country affects both major faiths.”
Although Christians are targeted, the cleric assured that Muslims too have suffered the brunt of attacks and insecurity.
“However, I must also say that the spate of insecurity in the country affects both major faiths. It affects all persons. Have there been Muslims who have been killed? Those of Islamic, the Islamic adherents? The answer is certainly yes.
“But of course, the overwhelming majority is, of course, the Christian folk. The fact that when these people come, they scream Allah Akbar and then they burn down churches, schools, and kidnap scores of children. They get into parish rectories and abduct priests and those who are in the parish house,” he said.
It begins with subtle persecutions and continues until the entire Christian faithful is affected.
The priest described the situation as an unusual insecurity where the attackers just come in target people.
“The target is clear here. It just begins with subtle persecutions, and people keep quiet about it until it reaches the entire Christian faithful is affected.
“They begin to leave that place and move into IDP camps and before you know, everyone is displaced and because we see what exactly is happening, these guys do this and they take over those places, and they entrench whatever it is.
“They want to entrench there, and you find that what the government is doing, they speak tongue-in-cheek. They say it’s just politics, it’s just politics. We know that insecurity is there, we know that other faiths are also affected, but there is absolutely no doubt,” he narrated.
When you kill a thousand Christians, and then you kill maybe a hundred Muslims, and then you know what is happening didn’t start today. It’s not even like the government is serious about anything. Who are those have been apprehended in the last few months or years? We don’t know them. So I think that the government needs to up their antics.
They need to let us see them do the work if they claim that this is no Christian genocide; then let them deploy those that need to be deployed. Let us see that the Christian facilities and institutions are well protected. That the Christian goes about his or her religious and civic responsibilities without fear of molestation or attack or anything; so that is the reality we live in this country.
I align with it that yes, there’s some Christian genocide but the government should walk the talk. Let’s see them carry out some reasonable action and see if things can improve.
Let’s see government’s sincerity – Fix security, roads, light, build schools, “get them back to normalcy.”
On claims by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, that Boko Haram has been degraded in addition to the rehabilitation of 744 repentant terrorists under the Operation Safe Corridor, the priest who was ordained in 2007 said, “to a large extent, I disagree with that – rehabilitation of 744 so-called repentant terrorists…I think efforts should have been made first to take care of the victims and their families. We should see that those are the ones that need the rehabilitation first.
“They should be taken care of. They should be brought back to their country homes. They should be given all the grants and the subventions that they need to live lives to the fullest. They are the victims. But here we see the parade. We see uniforms being sold. And there are 744 persons who have undergone six months of rehabilitation and reintegration. Of course the question that is going to be asked is exactly where are they going to be reintegrated to?
“How many people are willing to even engage people whom they know are probably repentant? Let’s agree, repentant terrorists, and they have to come and become plumbers for you, or security guards, or do one or two jobs? We are not saying that these people cannot actually repent. No! That’s not what we’re saying. We are saying that you would know the optics are not nice at this time, where people are still being killed; people are still being abducted; parish residences are still being ransacked; schoolchildren are being abducted.
“That is the least that we need if there is a non-kinetic whatever the army is saying that they need to use, let’s see efforts that have been put in place to bring back those who have been dislodged and displaced from their communities, let’s see sincere government effort put security, put good roads, put light, put build schools, get them back to normalcy,” the cleric decried.
“If you have 744 repentant Boko Haram, we have well over how many million displaced persons?”
He also lamented about the plight of IDPs, clarifying that widows, widowers and children are still not cared for.
“After them, we can then begin to see, okay, let’s begin to get these guys who have, if you have 744 repentant Boko Haram, we have well over how many million displaced persons? What’s going to happen to them? They remain displaced. They are still in how many IDP camps scattered around the north central and the northeast? For how long are they going to be there? How do we think they are going to feel? Some of them have become widows, widowers, orphans, childless men and women.
“I can imagine the pain in the heart when they see the kind of money that must have been spent. And of course, you know, there’s a trust deficit with this government.
“So, regardless of what the Secretary to the government has said, George Akume, I take it with not just a pinch of salt; with a bag of salt or a trailer load of salt because I don’t expect him to say otherwise. I do not expect him to say otherwise. But those of us who are on the ground, those of us who are engaging with the faithful,” the aid worker underscored.
“We know exactly what’s happening. We feel the pause.”
Stressing that the Church feels with the citizenry, Fr. Anoliefo stated that “those of us who have friends, brothers, sisters living in those areas, brother priests working in those war-torn areas, in those challenges, and they cannot speak. They go to bed. They can’t close their eyes properly. We know exactly what’s happening. We feel the pause.”
The priest of Lagos Archdiocese questioned the government’s integrity amid killings, stressing that it fails to keep its promises to the people.
“If they say Boko Haram has been largely degraded, okay, can we feel it? Let’s see it. Can we go this one week, even one week is too much, without hearing of some killings, some attacks, some abductions, just one week? Can we just go one full year or six months without any of those things?
“Only then can we begin to take them seriously. That, truly, they have committed. They are walking the talk. And there’s some sanity or some semblance of peace or some semblance that the government is actually doing what it says – a sworn oath that they were going to do for now, I think, on a scale of one to ten.
“I’d probably give the government about 1%. 1%, simply because they said they were going to do something. Not because they’ve done much, but simply because they said they’ve got to do something,” he moaned.
