The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Nigeria’s democracy and the civil-military fault line

    Nigeria’s democracy and the civil-military fault line

    • By Pratt Elias

    Sir: On November 11, a brief confrontation between Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and a young naval officer swept across the country with the velocity of a nation primed for spectacle. A minister bristling with fury. A uniformed officer unmoved. Mobile phones capturing every second. The videos spread, commentary erupted, and the nation quickly split into camps.

    For some, the minister’s abrasive tone was the scandal. For others, the young officer’s composure transformed him into a folk hero, a symbol of resistance against elite impunity. But beneath the frenzy lies a far more consequential question: What does it mean for a democracy when a uniformed serviceman obstructs a constitutionally empowered civilian authority and a significant portion of the public applauds?

    This was not a clash of personalities. It was a warning, subtle but unmistakable, that something fundamental in Nigeria’s civil-military relations is beginning to shift.

    At first glance, the encounter appeared straightforward: a minister attempting to access a site he described as an illegal development and a naval officer refusing to yield. Voices rose, tempers flared, videos circulated. Yet the true significance lies elsewhere. A serving officer blocked a minister performing a statutory duty. In any stable democracy, such a moment would trigger immediate concern, not because ministers are flawless, but because the Armed Forces cannot decide which civilians they will obey.

    Every democracy rests on a core doctrine: the military must remain subordinate to civilian authority. This is not symbolic; it is structural. Carl von Clausewitz, in On War, described military force as a continuation of political intercourse carried on with other means. The military is therefore never an autonomous power. It is an instrument of the state, deriving its legitimacy from obedience to civilian direction. Clausewitz warned that once military power drifts outside political control, it becomes a threat, not a safeguard.

    For Nigeria, a country scarred by coups and military rule, this doctrine is not an abstraction but a condition for national survival. The constitution vests operational command in the president because the military must never become a self-directing force answerable to sentiment or personal loyalties. That is why the incident cannot be dismissed. The moment a junior officer feels entitled to obstruct a minister performing lawful duties, military discipline begins to drift away from constitutional restraint toward personal discretion and emotion, exposing the system to disorder.

    A democratic society must be careful about the heroes it elevates. Applauding a soldier who confronts a minister may feel satisfying in a country frustrated by governance failures, but such applause is dangerous. It normalises the belief that a uniformed officer may assess, judge, and reject the authority of an elected or appointed official based on personal views or popular sympathy.

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    One detail makes the situation even more troubling: the supposed superior who allegedly deployed the naval officer is a retired officer. A retired officer has no operational authority, no place in the chain of command, and no right to redeploy or direct serving personnel to another duty location without the consent of the proper deployment authority. Once serving officers begin to act on the informal directives of retired figures, the military re-enters the grey zone Nigeria has struggled for decades to escape, a space where shadow chains of command thrive and discipline fractures into private loyalties. This is not professionalism. It is institutional deterioration.

    The confrontation of November 11 was not merely embarrassing. It was a quiet alarm, a sign that the boundaries sustaining Nigeria’s democracy are fraying. A soldier defied a minister. A retired officer was implicated. And a substantial portion of the public approved.

    Nigeria cannot afford to forget what Clausewitz taught. Democracy survives only when the military remains firmly under civilian authority.

    The response must therefore be firm and immediate. The military high command should reaffirm civilian supremacy through clear directives and, where necessary, disciplinary action. Political leaders must exercise authority with the legitimacy that commands respect rather than provoke defiance. And the public must recognise that cheering a man in uniform today may empower the very force that could one day dismantle their democracy. The remedy lies in institutional accountability, not viral defiance.

    There is an additional danger. Members of staff of the Federal Capital Territory Administration carrying out lawful assignments may now be exposed to physical threats if citizens begin to imitate the episode by resorting to force to defend their interests, whether legal or illegal. The outcome is predictable: a breakdown of law and order.

    •Pratt Elias,

    Yola, Adamawa State.

  • Maga school abduction: Let’s rally to save the children

    Maga school abduction: Let’s rally to save the children

    • By Ukasha Rabiu Magama

    Sir: Nigeria stands at a critical crossroads. Even in the absence of reliable infrastructure, functional healthcare, adequate food supply, and security, citizens have managed to cling to one final source of hope: education. Today, even that hope is under threat as the relentless abduction and killing of schoolchildren continues to spread across the country.

    The crisis, which began with the Chibok abduction in Borno State, has unfolded like a national tragedy. It has since spread to Dapchi in Yobe, KanKara in Katsina, Kagara in Niger, Kuriga in Kaduna, and most recently, Maga in Kebbi State. In every instance, the victims have been children, those we call the leaders of today and the ambassadors of tomorrow. Yet despite years of repeated attacks, the government’s response has been alarmingly inadequate, allowing this atrocity to grow both in scale and geography.

    From Chibok to Maga, more than 2,000 students have been kidnapped, and at least a hundred have been murdered in their pursuit of education. These children committed no crime. Their only goal was to attend school, to learn, and to secure a better future for themselves and for their country. If this wave of abductions and killings continues unchecked, the nation risks losing its last lifeline.

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    For many Nigerians, life has become an exhausting struggle. With farming activities crippled by insecurity, millions now live from hand to mouth. Families flee their homes in search of safety from marauders. Countless citizens endure illness without access to medication. Inflation continues to erode purchasing power, pushing even more people into hunger and despair. In the midst of all this hardship, education is the one pathway that still offers hope, yet it is being violently taken away.

    To deny our children education is to forfeit our collective future. Education is the only tool that empowers the child of the common man to understand Nigeria’s political realities and to nurture hope for national transformation. Without it, there can be no clarity about where the nation is headed, nor any possibility of rescuing it from the forces that thrive on public ignorance. For these reasons, those entrusted with the nation’s leadership must not destroy the last hope available to ordinary citizens. They must not deny children their fundamental right to learn. After all, the knowledge that these children gain will remain the most valuable asset Nigeria has to offer the world. Nations prosper through knowledge, not ignorance.

    •Ukasha Rabiu Magama,

    Magama, Toro, Bauchi State.

  • KWSG: Save Eruku community

    KWSG: Save Eruku community

    • By Awe Babatunde Pilgrim

    Sir: I write with deep concern and a heavy heart following the tragic attack on Tuesday, November 18 on a Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) in Eruku, Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State where armed bandits killed worshippers and abducted several others, including the pastor. While this incident has drawn widespread shock, it is sadly not an isolated occurrence.

    For the past couple of months, Ekiti-Kwara communities most especially Osi – Eruku axis have endured persistent attacks kidnappings, killings, and unchecked bandit operations without any meaningful government intervention. Residents have repeatedly raised alarm, issued warnings, and called for help, yet these cries have gone largely unanswered.

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    What happened at the CAC church is not a sudden crisis but the culmination of sustained neglect. The security situation has deteriorated steadily, and the authorities’ silence has emboldened criminals who now operate with alarming confidence. The current state of insecurity is a direct reflection of government inaction, and the people of these communities are paying the price with their lives.

    How many more tragedies must occur before security agencies respond decisively? How long will citizens be left vulnerable, forced to abandon their homes, farmlands, roads, and now even their places of worship? No community should feel this abandoned.

    I call on the Kwara government as well as federal security agencies, to immediately deploy adequate personnel, intelligence resources, and sustained operations to secure the Eruku community and Ekiti Local Government Area at large.

    The lives of Nigerians in these communities matter, and urgent action is long overdue. The people have suffered enough!

    •Awe Babatunde Pilgrim,

    awexin@gmail.com

  • Trump’s crusade, local terror

    Trump’s crusade, local terror

    As they say in a popular Nigerian street slang, it’s a classical “wuruwuru” to the answer!

    US President Donald Trump, bullying, scornful, condescending and unthinking as ever, declared Nigeria a country of particular concern (CPC), over a so-called “Christian genocide” — because he could, not because that blather made any logical sense.

    Indeed, and this was crystal clear: the intel, that powered the rushed decision, came from duds: lies trumpeted by IPOB and its overseas secessionist lobbies, many of them paid to help spread dangerous lies.  Those claims were fated to unravel, and blow up in the faces of the liars, with Trump himself set to have rotten diplomatic eggs, splattered on his face.

    The more his hench(wo)men doubled down on their insane lies on X, the clearer it was they were holding on to hot air.  The more they howled, the more hollow they sounded, against parallel violence and terror trackers, from credible global sources: no genocide in Nigeria, either of Christians or of Muslims.  Only blind terror, of which adherents of both faiths, and everyone else, were victims.

    Noisy Americans, in their inglorious over-simplification of grave matters, wouldn’t just clamber down, though.  They maintain their din but are under pressure to provide realtime “facts”.  So, open sesame!  Things began to happen!

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    All of a sudden, some gunmen attacked a church, during a praise-and-worship session, in Eruku, Kwara State — what had not happened in a long while.  Of course, the crazed lobby on X promptly filed it as latest proof of “Christian genocide”.

    The mask would fall off, though.  Following the terror attack on the Kebbi school girls, US Congressman Riley Moore, spewed more wicked lies, on that terror attack: “While we don’t have all the details on this horrific attack,” he blithely posted on X, “we know that the attack occurred in a Christian enclave in Northern Nigeria”.  It turned out the 24 kidnapped girls are predominantly Muslim!  Riley riles wth another wilful lie! On what you don’t know, fat lies can fill the gap, right?  Geez!

    Like any hurried intervention from the cosmetic America of Donald Trump, you now have to explain the religious colouration of terror victims!  Imagine if the heroic but ill-fated Brig. Gen. Baba Uba (Allah bless his soul!) had been a Christian? 

    His supreme sacrifice for his country, as painful as that is for his immediate family and the rest of us, could have become hearty statistics for these evil lobbies!  But their evil, supposedly on the side of Nigerian Christians, will sooner than later, catch up with them.

    The security agencies know what to do on terror.  They are doing it.  We appreciate them and pray for them.  They’ll yet succeed to weed out terrorists from our land.  It’s only a question of time.

    For now, however, it’s clear that Trump’s “crusade” only helps to boost local terror, and worsen the killings, as Senator George Akume, the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF) has correctly held. 

    It needs no special talent to figure that these foreign meddlers, aside having their own agenda, will only distract us, along faith lines, and make insecurity worse.  Patriotic and reasonable Nigerians must not let them.

  • 15 per cent tariff suspension: Thank you, Mr President

    15 per cent tariff suspension: Thank you, Mr President

    By Rotimi Matthew

    Mr President, your decision to suspend the 15 per cent tariff on petrol and diesel is more than a policy pause.

    It is a historic moment. It signals that, for the first time in 26 years of our democracy, a Nigerian President has chosen the people.

    You have shown that leadership is not about bowing to the loudest interests, but about standing with the most vulnerable. For this, Nigerians say thank you.

    Nigerians are glad to realise that, at the heart of government, is a president with a people-centred vision and not a man swayed by theatrics.

    You proved that listening to Nigerians is not a weakness. It is strength.

    But, Mr President, we are sure that the detractors are not done.

    They may come up with faulty figures and selective interpretations of the Petroleum Industry Act. They want to bring this tariff back to your table.

    They want to convince you that Nigerians must pay through their noses today so that some investors can break even tomorrow.

    What happens if prices are increased without restraint? The entire burden will fall on your administration.

    Nigerians will blame the government. Your government. Why should the destiny of a nation be placed in the hands of a few? Why should the price of fuel, the heartbeat of our entire economy, not be decentralised in deregulated market?

    That will not just be risky. It is dangerous.

    Mr President, no country secures its future this way.

    Not when we do not even have confirmed local refining capacity of sixty per cent, let alone eighty per cent.

    Not when the only reliable alternative is importation. Not when policy mistakes can create nationwide scarcity overnight.

    No investment should break even on the backs of the poor within one year. Let competition thrive. Let poor Nigerians breathe.

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    This is why your suspension of the tariff means so much.

    It is the first time a President has acknowledged the overwhelming political and economic influence of Africa’s richest man and recognised where the real power lies.

    The real bulk stops on your table, not his. For the first time, the people have a President who is willing to say: No, not at the expense of Nigerians.

    Sir, the people are counting on you. The economy is depending on you. Millions of households who have endured years of hardship are hoping you hold the line.

    Nigeria cannot afford to be reduced to a company town. Not in our democracy. Not in this century. Not under your watch.

    We are rooting for you, Mr President. We are praying for you. And we thank you for choosing Nigerians over monopoly.

    God bless you. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Climate change and cancer: Two crises, one fight for our future

    Climate change and cancer: Two crises, one fight for our future

    Sir: Cancer has emerged as one of the leading causes of death worldwide surpassing HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined, according to the World Health Organization. In Nigeria, the burden grows each year, claiming tens of thousands of lives, many from cancers that could have been prevented. In 2022, Nigeria recorded 127,763 new cancer cases and 79,542 deaths, as reported by the Global Cancer Observatory (GLOBOCAN). The five most common types of cancers in Nigeria are breast, prostate, colorectal, cervical, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. These cancers are all influenced by environmental and lifestyle factors, many of which are worsening under climate stress.

    The signs of climate change are all around us. From the choking soot that settles over Port Harcourt to the heat waves turning classrooms in Sokoto into furnaces, from the floods that sweep through Lagos and Makurdi to the trees that fall silently in deforested communities and in the rising cases of cancers with no clear cause, the impacts of climate change are evident. Despite these signs our climate and health policies continue to evolve in separate silos. What remains missing is the policy bridge that links environmental protection to health protection.

    Nigeria has made significant progress in climate governance, the Climate Change Act (2021) established a National Council on Climate Change (NCCC), and the National Climate Change Policy (2021–2030) sets a strong direction for mitigation and adaptation. The recently developed Climate Change and Health National Adaptation Plan (HNAP 2025–2030), under the Ministry of Health, further underscores the growing recognition of the health–climate connection.

    However, the overall picture remains concerning. Nigeria ranks 154th out of 181 countries on the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN) Index, reflecting acute vulnerability and low readiness to withstand climate shocks. The HNAP Vulnerability and assessment predicts that the country will experience a 21% additional disease burden due to climate change. Given Nigeria’s already strained health system, it is unlikely to withstand intensified climate impacts without major reform.

    Climate change also acts as a risk multiplier, intensifying both infectious and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The WHO identifies nine critical health outcomes at risk from climate change including respiratory illness and NCDs such as cancer. Yet, Nigeria’s national policies still prioritize infectious disease response, leaving the broader climate–cancer nexus largely unaddressed.

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    While Nigeria now has a HNAP, the coordination between sectors and agencies remains weak and mostly confined to the federal level. Consequently, promising policies often fail to translate into real resilience.

    To address this, health indicators must be integrated into climate projects. This includes clean energy for hospitals, safe waste disposal, sustainable procurement of medical equipment, and integration of Health Impact Assessments (HIA) into environmental decision-making. This approach would ensure that climate investments protect both ecosystems and human lives. Strengthening collaboration between the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Environment, and the NCCC is equally crucial. Each holds a piece of the solution, but no single institution can address this alone. Cancer prevention must become part of our climate resilience agenda not an afterthought.

    Despite growing evidence, public awareness of the climate–health link remains low. However policies alone will not bring change, it begins with each and every one of us. Every action from how we manage waste to how we demand cleaner air and greener cities shapes the health of our communities.

    •Zainab Mohammed Nasir, National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment, Abuja.

  • PDP: A comedy of errors

    PDP: A comedy of errors

    Sir: What unfolded in Ibadan over the weekend was not the usual party ritual. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in a sweeping declaration, expelled several influential figures including the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, former Ekiti governor Ayo Fayose, and Senator Samuel Anyanwu over alleged anti-party activities. The announcement landed with the force of a political earthquake: celebrated in some quarters, rejected in others, and immediately questioned by senior party leaders who fear the move may open more wounds than it heals.

    A political party has both the right and responsibility to enforce discipline. Parties survive on order, not on free-ranging defiance. But discipline is not merely punishment; it is also process, consensus and timing. When sanctions emerge from a factional climate, they risk looking less like internal order and more like internal cleansing. This is the tight corner in which the PDP now finds itself.

    The reactions speak volumes. Although the convention passed the resolution openly, several governors quickly dissociated themselves from the expulsions. Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, who played a central role at the gathering, explicitly called for reconciliation rather than banishment. Others warned that the decision could worsen the party’s fractures, not mend them. Their concerns are neither sentimental nor partisan; they reflect a long-standing fear that the PDP has not fully recovered from years of internal bitterness and competing centres of power.

    Beyond the drama, the stakes are serious. First is electoral strategy. Whether loved or disliked, Wike remains a formidable mobiliser. Alienating him risks shrinking the PDP’s base in states where margins decide outcomes. Second is institutional credibility. Nigerians have watched the party struggle with internal cohesion since 2015; selective punishment only reinforces the view that discipline is invoked when convenient, not when consistent. Third is public confidence. A party seeking to rebuild its national relevance cannot afford decisions that deepen doubts about its internal democracy.

    Then there is the issue of procedure. Party constitutions typically require investigation, notice and fair hearing before expulsion. From the publicly available information, the Ibadan decision appeared more declaratory than procedural. If due process was not followed in both letter and spirit, the expulsions may not withstand internal arbitration or judicial review. That uncertainty alone sets the stage for further conflict.

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    Why then did the party choose such a dramatic route? The answer likely lies in a mixture of frustration and political calculation. After years of unresolved disputes from the fallout of the 2023 presidential primaries to state-level divisions, party leaders may feel compelled to draw a line. Some see a firm hand as necessary to reassert authority. Yet firmness without political wisdom risks worsening instability. Already, warnings from governors suggest that the move is seen as hasty rather than strategic.

    It must also be said plainly: Wike is no passive victim. His confrontational style, open defiance of party signals, and alliance-building outside established structures have been major sources of tension. The leadership’s desire for discipline is understandable. But politics is not a courtroom; it is a negotiation of interests. Parties succeed when they enforce rules and maintain channels for accommodation. When reconciliation is abandoned for raw sanction, discipline loses its effectiveness and becomes a catalyst for schism.

    What should the PDP do now? The answer lies not in doubling down but in stepping back. First, the party should immediately activate its reconciliation machinery genuine, inclusive and transparent. Second, sanctions of this magnitude should be revisited, reviewed or converted into temporary measures pending mediated dialogue. Third, the dispute-resolution organs must be strengthened to prevent future escalations. Finally, the party must speak to Nigerians with humility, not triumphalism. A national opposition party cannot present itself as a house unable to manage its own disagreements.

    Nigeria’s democracy needs strong parties, not weakened ones. Internal dissent will always exist; what matters is how it is managed. Discipline without dialogue is brittle; dialogue without standards is chaotic. The PDP is again caught between the two. If it mistakes a political crisis for a disciplinary triumph, it risks deepening the fractures it seeks to cure.

    •Abdulhamid Abdullahi Aliyu, Abuja.

  • Nigeria and Africa’s strategic advantage in AI and clean energy

    Nigeria and Africa’s strategic advantage in AI and clean energy

    Sir: Artificial Intelligence (AI) has transformed the way modern societies operate, from healthcare delivery and engineering innovation to architectural design, military intelligence, creative writing, finance, communication, and countless other sectors. It is rapidly becoming the foundation of global competitiveness and national development.

    However, the true backbone of AI lies in two strategic pillars: data centres and energy. Data centres provide the computational power needed for AI training, storage, and deployment, while stable and affordable energy sustains these massive systems. Without these two elements, AI cannot function at scale. They are the vital lubricants that keep the entire ecosystem running.

    At the heart of these technologies are critical minerals. Without key minerals used to manufacture semi-conductors, microchips, batteries, smartphones, electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels, and display systems, modern technology simply cannot exist. These minerals, such as copper, cobalt, lithium, rare earth elements (REEs), tantalum, tin, nickel, graphite, gold, and platinum group metals, are indispensable in building everything from semi-conductors’ chips to the batteries that power data centres and renewable energy systems.

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    Africa is one of the richest sources of these minerals globally, and Nigeria hosts many of them in commercially viable quantities. As the world races toward AI-driven economies, electric mobility, and renewable energy transitions, these minerals are becoming more valuable than oil.

    Today, AI, EVs, and advanced batteries are among the world’s hottest and most sought-after technological commodities. But the global supply chain depends entirely on two things:

    1. Data centres and energy, without which AI cannot operate.

    2. Critical minerals, without which data centres, energy systems, and AI hardware cannot be built.

    This is where Nigeria and Africa hold a strategic advantage. The continent possesses what the world desperately needs for the next industrial revolution.

    The challenge and opportunity, now lies with African leadership: to recognize, harness, and strategically leverage these critical minerals to drive economic transformation, negotiate better global partnerships, and position Africa as an indispensable player in the AI and clean-energy future.

    •Zayyad I. Muhammad, Abuja.

  • Self-damning report

    Self-damning report

    Alarmingly, the Nigeria Health Statistics Report released by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare revealed the sheer magnitude of brain drain in the country’s health sector.

    According to the document, which described the situation as “a significant challenge,” 43,221 health professionals—including doctors, nurses, pharmacists and medical laboratory scientists—migrated out of the country between 2023 and 2024, relocating to countries offering better remuneration and working conditions.

    “External migration surged by 200 percent across all cadres between 2023 and 2024,” the report said. It further revealed that “In 2024 alone, a total of 4,193 doctors and dentists left Nigeria, with approximately 66 percent migrating to the United Kingdom.”

     The report listed the top 10 destinations for Nigerian doctors and dentists in the 2023–2024 period: the United Kingdom (4,627), Canada (934), the United States (561), Australia (188), the United Arab Emirates (140), Ireland (113), the Maldives (77), Botswana (67), India (57) and Saudi Arabia (43).

    Nurses and midwives “are the most affected groups,” the report said, with more than 23,000 migrating abroad as of 2024. Pharmacists and medical laboratory scientists also joined the flight to foreign lands, deepening the loss. 

    Predictably, this exodus means fewer personnel are left to cope with the increasing demand for healthcare, posing a severe threat to the country’s system. Consequently, the report underlined the urgent need for policies aimed at retaining health workers and strengthening domestic capacity.

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     The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Salako, also acknowledged the workforce crisis during the Joint Annual Report meeting of the health sector in Abuja.

    He said: “Our doctor-to-population ratio is 1:5,000 (against the WHO recommendation of 1:600), while the nurse-to-population ratio is as low as 1:2,000 (against the WHO recommendation of 1:300). This is further compounded by inequities in the distribution of health workers, where 75 percent are concentrated in urban areas, serving 45 percent of the population.”

    He stated that the government remains committed to strengthening primary healthcare systems, expanding the Health Workforce Registry, increasing training quotas for health professionals, and implementing retention policies to curb migration.

    The escalating exodus of healthcare professionals from the country is detrimental to its health sector.  The situation calls for urgent intervention by the authorities; the nation cannot afford to continue losing its healthcare experts by failing to provide an enabling environment for their work.

    The latest government report on the workforce crisis in the health sector should be embarrassing to the authorities. 

  • U.S. Religious Freedom Accountability Bill 2025; a wake-up call

    U.S. Religious Freedom Accountability Bill 2025; a wake-up call

    Sir: In the corridors of Washington, a bill is moving that could redefine Nigeria’s relationship with the United States—and force the country to confront the monsters it has long denied.

    The Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 (S. 2747), introduced in the U.S. Senate on September 9, by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), may appear to be just another foreign policy measure. Yet beneath its legislative language lies a damning moral verdict on Nigeria’s failure to protect its citizens from systematic religious violence, kidnapping, and lawless bloodshed.

    If passed, the bill—now before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and mirrored by H.R. 5808 in the U.S. House of Representatives—will permanently designate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) for “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”

    This is not a symbolic gesture. It carries the weight of sanctions, visa bans, asset freezes, and restrictions on U.S. military and development aid—a potential earthquake in Nigeria’s diplomatic and economic landscape.

    According to data cited by the bill’s sponsors, over 125,000 Christians have been murdered since 2009, 52,000 churches destroyed, and 12 million people displaced. In just the first 220 days of 2025, 7,087 Christians were massacred, an average of 32 per day, while 7,800 others were abducted. These figures come from sources such as Intersociety, Open Doors World Watch List, Europarl.europa.eu, Christianity Today, and Newsweek.

    Yet, as the bill and its supporting documents reveal, the crisis transcends Christianity. Moderate Muslims, ethnic minorities, and secular communities have also been targeted. Nearly 60,000 liberal Muslims have reportedly been killed since 2009 for rejecting extremist ideologies.

    This isn’t a Christian war—it’s a Nigerian nightmare.

    If the U.S. bill passes, Nigeria could face a “public ledger of shame.” Each year, American agencies would publish lists of Nigerian officials sanctioned for complicity in religious persecution. Northern governors enforcing blasphemy laws could see their U.S. assets frozen. Security chiefs might face travel bans. U.S. arms deals and defence cooperation could be suspended under expanded Leahy Laws.

    Under the Leahy framework, any unit found responsible for such abuses becomes ineligible for U.S. assistance until the government of that country takes effective steps to hold perpetrators accountable.

    Nigeria currently receives more than $500 million annually in U.S. assistance. A CPC-driven cut-off would cripple humanitarian programs, counterterrorism efforts, and investor confidence—at a time when over 8,000 civilians have already been killed this year.

    Nigeria must act now—honestly, decisively, and transparently. This is not the time for rhetoric but for reform.

    The government must prosecute perpetrators of violence—whether jihadists, militias, or complicit officials. The National Human Rights Commission should be strengthened and funded to investigate religiously motivated crimes. Special terrorism courts and intelligence-led prosecutions must replace the 1% conviction rate that has made impunity the norm in Nigeria since 2009.

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    Nigeria must confront the root causes of radicalization—poverty, unemployment, corruption, and environmental stress—through equitable resource allocation and inclusive development. Interfaith peacebuilding, community policing, and cooperative security task forces involving both Christians and Muslims can rebuild trust in the Middle Belt and other conflict zones in the country.

    Finally, Nigeria should engage Washington constructively—inviting USCIRF and independent monitors for fact-finding, co-authoring progress benchmarks, and providing verifiable evidence of improvement. Denial has only deepened distrust; openness could restore credibility.

    To Nigerians—Christians, Muslims, and traditionalists alike—this moment demands unity, not division. Let S. 2747 (Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025) be not our punishment, but our turning point. Let it force us to see what we have refused to see—the rivers of blood that have stained our soil.

    If Nigeria acts now—with honesty, urgency, and compassion—it can avert sanctions and reclaim moral authority. But if we continue to deny the truth, the gavel of justice will fall, and we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

    This is not about America imposing values. It is about Nigeria reclaiming its humanity. The world is watching. Will we act, or will we perish in denial? The choice is ours to make.

    •Comrade James Ezema, Abuja.