Christian Persecution in Nigeria Divides Pastors

Last October, the Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo, regional chairman of the Church of Christ in Nations denomination in Nigeria’s Plateau State, stood in front of a mass grave in Rachas, Nigeria, and begged those close to President Donald Trump to “please, tell Trump to save our lives in Nigeria!” Rev. Dachomo was burying his own congregants who, he claimed, had been murdered by members of the Fulani ethnic group, a majority Muslim group whose militant factions have menaced Nigeria’s Middle Belt for years. U.S. Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV) highlighted Rev. Dachomo’s case in a November 2025 Congressional hearing. Rev. Dachomo later warned the Nigerian military that these same Fulani terrorists had threatened his life. The army denounced this claim as “propaganda” and local reporting alleges Abuja pressured Meta to take his social media pages down, which it did. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, facing a fundamental stability crisis caused by jihadist and Fulani terror groups, has a vested interest in downplaying the level of Christian persecution in his country, particularly the Middle Belt. Abuja’s inability to protect its own citizens makes his administration look weak as it attempts to court America for security and economic assistance. President Tinubu’s inability to stop Fulani-linked terror groups would again be apparent on July 12, when Fulani gunmen slaughtered nine of Rev. Dachomo’s relatives, including a two-month-old infant, reportedly demanding they produce the “father” of the family before opening fire. Days later, Rev. Dachomo received another message threatening to kill him and the rest of his congregants. Rev. Dachomo responded by saying, “They may kill the messenger, but they cannot kill the message.” Somewhat surprisingly, Nigeria’s clergy are divided over the pervasiveness of Christian persecution. While pastors in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, where Fulani groups are most active, are more likely to use the language of persecution and genocide, those in northern and southern Nigeria are more likely to attribute the strife to interethnic conflict or economic instability. The reason? Put simply, there are three Nigerias: the North, the Middle Belt, and the South. Christians comprise a substantial majority in the South, a minority in the North, and about half of the Middle Belt. Stark differences in political structure, stability, and demographics across the three areas can largely explain the pastoral divide. Christians in the 19 northern states, 12 of which are governed by Islamic law, face persecution that is more bureaucratic and systemic than violent. There are attacks, but fewer than in the Middle Belt. Instead, northern Christian leaders have described discrimination, destroyed churches, draconian blasphemy laws, along with a pervasive feeling of vulnerability. Perhaps no religious leader in the enormous country better exemplifies this divide than Catholic Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah in Nigeria’s northern Sokoto State. Bishop Kukah spent years criticizing Nigerian governments and supportedWashington designating his nation a Country of Particular Concern for religious freedom in 2020 under its former president, Muhammadu Buhari. Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic pontifical foundation, published its Religious Freedom in the World 2025 report in October of last year. At the Vatican launch for the report,Bishop Kukah argued that Nigeria’s redesignation as a Country of Particular Concern would damage initiatives pursued by the current government, led by President Bola Tinubu. Bishop Kukah also denied that genocide was occurring in the country. Raising the ire of Christians in Nigeria and elsewhere, he also said that “If we were dealing with outright persecution of Christians on grounds of identity, both myself and my small flock would not exist.” A short time later, he clarified that he believed the Tinubu government seemed willing to listen, that American sanctions against Nigeria would undermine dialogue, and that Nigerian Christians indeed faced persecution. In the southern city of Lagos, Pastor Wale Adefarasin offers a similar view. In November of 2025, he argued: “What is happening in Nigeria does not amount to genocide against Christians… there have been killings in southern Kaduna, killings on the Plateau, there have been riots… It’s nothing new. It doesn’t amount to genocide. The way the West are talking about it, it’s as if a Christian steps on the street, his head will be blown off.” In Lagos, urban pastors can be easily insulated from the woes of their rural coreligionists. Pastor Adefarasin’s church, the Guiding Light Assembly, often leaves crises in the Middle Belt and north unmentioned. While some Middle Belt pastors charge those who share Adefarasin’s views with abandoning the persecuted out of financial and political self-interest, this accusation misses the core of the divide: the pastors of the north and south live in a different Nigeria from Dachomo. Even though different Christian leaders offer conflicting interpretations of the challenges Nigerian Christians face, none of them is entirely wrong. Adefarasin and Kukah are not being deceptive when they downplay persecution in Nigeria: their congregations just experience less of it. Their mistake lies in speaking for the whole of Nigeria instead of their own spheres. For Washington to efficiently and accurately address the central node of Christian persecution in Nigeria, it should listen to those in closest proximity to the violence. The epicenter of anti-Christian violence in Nigeria is the Middle Belt and the primary perpetrators are Fulani terrorists. Pastors who have had to bury dozens of members of their own flocks offer a more accurate on-the-ground account than those in other parts of Nigeria. In the United States, the mayor of New York City and the governor of Iowa would not be expected to proffer guidance on the problems facing each other’s constituents, and the same logic applies to pastors from different parts of Nigeria. Washington should encourage these pastors to turn their eyes towards the Middle Belt. Nigerian pastors who repeat the Tinubu administration’s talking points muddy a fundamental truth: there is widespread Christian persecution in Nigeria. Detractors of the excellent work the Trump administration is doing to foster the free exercise of religion often cite pastors like Kukah and Adefarasin to explain away the fundamental religious element in Nigeria’s nonstate violence. The Trump administration can begin diplomatically by holding a summit for church leaders in Nigeria where they can share their differing experiences, helping to bridge regional divides. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has conducted excellent research on religious persecution across Nigeria. Briefing certain religious leaders on this research could help them to contextualize their thinking. When Nigeria’s clergy are united, the U.S. will be far more effective at working with Nigerians to combat Christian persecution. Samuel Ben-Ur is a research analyst focusing on Christian persecution at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy. Prior to joining FDD, he interned at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), an Israeli cybersecurity startup, and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He graduated from Tufts University with a B.A. in history and political science, where he founded the Tufts Tribune, a campus newspaper focused on free speech and politically balanced reporting.