News Today

President Tinubu and opposition elites were using “Christian slaughter” as a political weapon back in Jonathan’s time.

On 29 January 2014, Bola Ahmed Tinubu tweeted:

“The slaughtering of Christian worshippers is strongly condemnable. It calls to question the competence of Jonathan to protect Nigerians.”

That exact sentence is documented and has been resurfacing in coverage after Trump’s recent comments. x.com

So, even back then:

• The language of “Christian slaughter” was already being used
• It was being used publicly, not in some secret Igbo or Biafran network
• And it was clearly being deployed to attack the Jonathan government’s competence, exactly as you said

Opposition leaders (who are now in power) helped internationalise the Christian persecution framing during the anti-Jonathan era. They met Western leaders, spoke about insecurity, and emphasised Christian victims to weaken a southern Christian president and pave the way for Buhari.

It’s deeply ironic that the same political camp that used this narrative against Jonathan is now allowing its supporters to shout “Igbo propaganda!” when that same narrative is turned back toward them.

Benue, Middle Belt and Christian groups have been loudly pushing this story - not Igbos

• In June 2025, after the massacre in Yelewata, Guma LGA, Benue, where over 200 people were reportedly killed, Benue community leaders in the diaspora wrote to President Tinubu describing it as a “silent genocide” and accusing the government of inaction. Leadership News
• US-based and diaspora Tiv / Benue groups have repeatedly petitioned international bodies and the US government about “genocide” against indigenous Christian farming communities in the Middle Belt. signalng.com

International Christian advocacy groups also highlight Benue, Plateau, Kaduna, Taraba as core areas where Christian farming communities are massacred by herder militias and other armed groups. persecution.org

In other words:

• Who is bringing petitions?
  – Benue / Tiv / Middle Belt diaspora
• Who is writing detailed reports?
  – Open Doors, USCIRF, Intersociety, etc., often using Middle Belt data opendoors.org churchinneed.org
• Who is hosting congressional hearings?
  – US bodies listening to Nigerian bishops, lawyers, and Middle Belt activists, not Biafrans separatist groups 21Wilberforce congress.gov

Why are some people now saying “it’s Igbos doing this”?

a) Scapegoating + a long history of blaming Igbo

Whenever Nigeria is embarrassed internationally, coups, civil war, #EndSARS, human rights reports, now “Christian genocide” talk - there is a habit of locating an “internal enemy”. Igbo are the most historically convenient scapegoat.

So when Trump threatens “guns blazing” intervention in defence of Nigerian Christians Vox and watchdogs push for designating Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern for religious freedom violations, some Nigerians don’t want to face:

• the failures of the security architecture
• the role of jihadist groups
• the farmer–herder conflict
• the specific suffering of Middle Belt Christian communities

Instead, they say:

“It’s those Igbos spoiling our image.”

It’s a psychological defence: easier to blame a familiar ethnic rival than to accept that the state is failing huge numbers of citizens.

b) Mixing up Igbo online presence with “Igbo control”

Igbos are highly visible online, very vocal in diasporic spaces, and strongly Christian. So:

• They amplify global Christian persecution stories
• Some Biafra-leaning accounts push hard on narratives that make Nigeria look bad

But amplification isn't authorship.

It’s exactly like northern Muslims amplifying Palestine content online — you don’t then say “Arewa people created the Israel–Palestine conflict.”

c) Political rivalry and resentment

There’s also a political subtext:
Some people resent that many Igbos didn’t support APC or the current northern/south-west alliance. So when international pressure comes, blaming Igbos is a way to:

• delegitimize their voices (“they’re just bitter Biafrans”)
• avoid engaging with the actual substance of the accusation (ongoing massacres, impunity, systemic bias)

Is there a Christian genocide in Nigeria?

This is where we have to be careful and precise.

What “genocide” means legally

Under the UN Genocide Convention, genocide is not just mass killing. It is:

acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such.

So two questions matter:

1. Are Christians being killed in large numbers because they are Christians?
2. Is there an organised intent to destroy Christians as a group?

What the evidence shows

From multiple sources:

• Open Doors says more Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than in the rest of the world combined, and ranks Nigeria among the most dangerous countries for Christians. Open Doors
• Intersociety and others estimate tens of thousands of Christians have been killed since 2009, and thousands of churches destroyed, often by Islamist groups like Boko Haram, ISWAP, and Fulani militias. The Washington Post
• USCIRF repeatedly documents systematic, egregious violations of religious freedom, especially in the north and Middle Belt, including targeted killings of Christians, use of blasphemy laws, and attacks on churches. USCIRF
• Recent massacres in Benue and Plateau have clearly targeted Christian farming communities, including IDPs in camps and people sheltering in churches, with hundreds killed in single incidents. The Guardian

At the same time:

• Some of the violence is multi-directional (banditry, ransom kidnapping, farmer–herder conflict, ethnic clashes).
• Muslims are also victims in other zones (e.g. bandits in the North-West).
• The Nigerian state officially denies any religious agenda and labels most attacks as “farmer–herder conflict,” “banditry,” or “communal clashes”.

How different actors label it

• Many Christian NGOs, Middle Belt leaders and some international commentators openly call it “genocide” or “silent genocide.” Leadership News
• USCIRF and similar bodies tend to use language like “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom”, and recommend listing Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, which is one step below formally saying “genocide” but still extremely serious. USCIRF
• The US State Department (depending on administration) has flip-flopped on whether to list Nigeria as a CPC but has not officially declared a legal genocide. Church in Need.