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Tag: Genocide

  • Genocide: CAN needs doctrinal rethink

    Genocide: CAN needs doctrinal rethink

    On November 19, United States lawmaker, Congressman Riley M. Moore, issued a statement after his meeting with a Nigerian delegation led by National Security Adviser (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu over President Donald Trump’s controversial redesignation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern. A day later the US congressional hearing on Nigeria took place. Chaired by Chris Smith, Mr Moore was also present. After his meeting with Mr Ribadu, Mr Moore declared: “Today, I had a frank, honest, and productive discussion with senior members of the Nigerian government regarding the horrific violence and persecution Christians face and the ongoing threat terrorism poses across Nigeria. I made it crystal clear that the United States must see tangible steps to ensure that Christians are not subject to violence, persecution, displacement, and death simply for believing in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

    Sounding a little conciliatory, weeks after shouting himself hoarse over the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, he added: “We stand ready to work cooperatively with Nigerians to help their nation combat the terrorism perpetrated by Boko Haram, ISWAP, and Fulani militants against their population, specifically Christians in the Northeast and Middle Belt regions of Nigeria. The Nigerian government has the chance to strengthen and deepen its relationship with the United States. President Trump and Congress are united and serious in our resolve to end the violence against Christians and disrupt and destroy terrorist groups within Nigeria. I urge the Nigerians to work with us in cooperation and coordination on this critical issue.”

    From all indications, except something goes wrong, the Americans might strike a tentative deal with Nigeria to stave off the ‘guns-a-blazing’ attack President Trump promised if there was no let up on the ‘genocide’ against Christians in Nigeria. Included in the delegation were Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, NSA and Leader of the Delegation; Her Excellency, Bianca Ojukwu, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun, Inspector General of Police; Chief Lateef Olasunkami Fagbemi, SAN – Attorney General of the Federation; General Olufemi Olatunbosun Oluyede , Chief of Defence Staff; Lt. Gen. EAP Undiendeye, Chief of Defence Intelligence; Ms. Idayat Hassan, Special Adviser to ONSA; Ambassador Ibrahim Babani , Director of Foreign Relations, ONSA; Ambassador Nuru Biu, Acting CDA, Embassy of Nigeria; Paul Alabi, Political and Economic Section, Embassy of Nigeria in the US. Did the delegation persuade the Americans to exercise restraint? It is unlikely. They probably only managed to sow seeds of doubt in the heart of Mr Moore regarding the efficacy of any attack by the US.

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    Central to the discourse at the US congressional hearing were the depositions of the US Christian community and their Nigerian allies who continued to harp on their conviction that the killings in particularly the Middle Belt of Nigeria were genocidal in intent. But here, precisely is where the problem lies. Because of years of campaigning for the US to intervene in the matter, the Nigerian Christian community may have inadvertently precipitated an American cause of action they can’t influence one way or the other. A few weeks ago, Mr Trump gave what amounted to an ultimatum to Nigerian leaders to rein in the ‘genocidal’ attacks or face military action of undetermined severity. The American threat has predictably caused uproar. While some Nigerians wondered how American bombs would discriminate between Christian innocents and non-terrorist Muslims, the Christian community in both the US and Nigeria have appeared to be relieved that at last, help was on the way.

    However, the relieved in the Christian communities are divided into two categories. While some hope that the American threat would not proceed beyond mere threat but would ginger Nigeria into discernible action against the terrorists, and have spoken gingerly about their expectations, a second group, but probably fewer in number, appears indifferent to a shooting war between the superior American arms and the archaic arms of terror masterminds. Given the massive haemorrhaging they have endured from those who have murdered Christians and taken their lands, especially in the Middle Belt, both Christian groups are dead set against sustaining the status quo of flimsy action. The problem, however, is that gradually and perhaps imperceptibly, the doctrinal foundations regarding violence in the defence of their faith may be changing due to the frustrations Christians experience in getting their government to act decisively against rampaging killers. The early church, who were more persecuted than the modern church, reposed no faith whatsoever in violence of any kind, either from within their ranks or from outsiders, against their enemies. Is their methodology still relevant in the modern era where dividing lines have been blunted by globalisation, culture wars, and the sweeping and often anarchic generalisations of the social media?

    The modern church is, therefore, in a quandary over whether to support the retaliatory and deterrent killing of their persecutors or to face the unfathomable existential dilemma of waiting to be wiped out and dispossessed. If they vote for the former, they face the harrowing task of providing new and probably unscriptural doctrinal justifications for their choice. That task, given their history, will not be easy. In fact that task has been made doubly onerous by seeking a champion in Mr Trump who has neither the history nor the grace for moderation. Indeed, seeking American intervention might in some ways be interpreted as an indirect admission of losing faith in the power of Christ to save His church. But perhaps, the Middle Belt knows that the battles in the Middle Belt between the natives who are predominantly Christians and Fulani militias who are predominantly Muslims is all about land wars for which the cry of Christian genocide has become a resonating global mobilisation tool.

  • Arewa Think Tank backs SGF, rejects ‘genocide’ label, calls for unified action

    Arewa Think Tank backs SGF, rejects ‘genocide’ label, calls for unified action

    The Arewa Think Tank (ATT) has declared full support for the clarifications issued by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, on the country’s security situation, dismissing claims of a “genocide against Christians” as unfounded and dangerous.

    In a statement, ATT convener Muhammad Alhaji Yakubu commended the SGF for what he described as a “clear, factual and responsible” explanation of Nigeria’s current security realities.

    “Senator Akume has provided a comprehensive and fact-based clarification of Nigeria’s security landscape,” Yakubu said. “We stand firmly with the federal government in rejecting the baseless and inflammatory claim of a so-called ‘genocide against Christians.’ No credible international evidence supports such an allegation.”

    Yakubu stressed that the religious-genocide narrative is not only false but capable of deepening tensions.

    “The reality on the ground is that terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and ISWAP attack both Christians and Muslims indiscriminately. Bandit groups are driven primarily by economic motives, not religious ideology. To suggest otherwise is to undermine national unity,” he said.

    The Convener also reaffirmed confidence in the capacity of Nigeria’s security agencies to confront terrorism and banditry.

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    “The ATT has full confidence in the professionalism and capability of the Nigerian Armed Forces. Nigeria does not require foreign troops on its soil. What is needed is a recalibrated partnership with allies like the United States, especially in areas of intelligence sharing and technological support,” he added.

    Yakubu warned that recent international statements have emboldened violent groups by providing propaganda fodder.

    He urged for more discreet, coordinated diplomatic engagement that prioritises civilian safety and strengthens Nigeria’s security response.

    Calling for national solidarity, he appealed to citizens to shun divisive rhetoric and embrace unity.

    “Nigeria is a secular nation, and our strength lies in our diversity. We join the SGF in urging a strengthened and respectful partnership with the United States, built on shared democratic values and a mutual commitment to peace,” he said.

  • Genocide: NSCIA misses the point

    Genocide: NSCIA misses the point

    The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) did not receive sound advice on how to respond to the Christian genocide charge raised by United States president Donald Trump against Nigeria. As many commentators have noted, and as condescending as the US president’s warnings and language were, in no part of his cryptic messages thundered a little over two weeks ago on social media and press conferences did he give the impression he would fight Muslims, let alone Nigerian Muslims. The Council, however, assumed that judging from Mr Trump’s bellicosity and his decidedly pro-Christian stance, the message could in fact signal a subterranean war against Muslims. The Council’s fear is exaggerated and sadly revelatory. Paragraphs after paragraph unintentionally peeled away layers of obfuscations and hidden affiliations in the NSCIA statement. In one breath, the Council debunked the Islamic identity of the jihadist groups laying Nigeria waste, and in another breath, the statement virtually but inadvertently owned the militants. Yet, as demeaning as Mr Trump’s message was, his warning was about coming to Nigeria to deal with Islamic terrorists, a group the Council correctly admitted had killed nearly as many Muslims as it had murdered Christians.

    In their very first paragraph, the Council unfeelingly tries to controvert Nigerian Christians’ belief that they are victims of genocide. Couched disingenuously, the statement insists there is no religious war, insisting that Muslims have on their own been silent over the killings of their brothers. There are, however, better and non-combative ways of scripting their conviction without seeming to lack empathy for Christians in the North and Middle Belt who are being displaced from their ancestral lands by groups of insurgents deceptively or conveniently fighting under the banner of Islam. The statement appeals to the emotions of patriots in paragraph two and attempts a definition of genocide in paragraph three, both striving to debunk the claims of genocide. Paragraph four is even more justificatory of the NSCIA position, while paragraph five seals the tonal deafness of the Council’s argument. Both paragraphs unfortunately show that the Council’s premises undergirding its responses to Mr Trump’s provocation are irredeemably defective.

    Paragraphs six and seven, which reference the background of the terrorists wreaking havoc on Nigeria, are nugatory. The NSCIA says the terrorists are deviants who do not represent Muslims, adding that they are also the ‘mortal enemies’ of Muslims. If someone promises to help get rid of the vermin, why be up in arms against the helper then? And in paragraphs eight and nine, the Council attempts a dispassionate analysis of what it terms the ‘drivers’ of terrorism in Nigeria, to wit, the economy, climate change, and alienation caused by poverty, mining corruption and all kinds of criminality. The Council is right; but why go the extra length of arguing over a threat Mr Trump has directed not at Muslims generally, but at terrorists?

    The next 10 paragraphs or so are devoted to exploring the arguments regarding the domestic and international dimensions and beneficiaries of the Trumpian view of terrorism in Nigeria and the best approach to dealing with the crisis. Apart from being tedious in absolving mainstream Islam and putting all the blame on deviant Islam, the NSCIA also embarks on selective laudation of Christians who have taken the pains to debunk the regnant opinion in the US about Christian genocide in Nigeria. It is completely unnecessary. It is also not clear why the Council should delve into the geopolitics of Mr Trump’s campaign or his domestic political agenda, not to talk of trying to make sense of the international economic dimension, particularly what kind of economic alliances and arrangements Nigeria is deemed free to enter into.

    But when in paragraph 23 the Council casually and carelessly declares that there is no religious intolerance in Nigeria, it takes dishonest analysis to its acme. The facts on the ground in many northern states is that there is palpable religious intolerance, and it is probably this intolerance, not to say the initial apathy to the depredations wrought by Boko Haram against Christians in the North, that formed the basis for the Christian genocide conclusion. Many Nigerians have observed that some states in the North, probably as a result of the myopia or populism of their political elite, have become a vast tapestry of religious intolerance. Why the NSCIA fails to at least acknowledge the fact of religious intolerance in parts of the North is hard to explain. Whether the Council likes it or not, years of intolerance and denying Christians their constitutional rights in some states in the North probably or partially encouraged terrorists and jihadists to pretend to fight under the banner of Islam, believing that the elite in the region would be less inclined to stand in their way.

    Read Also: Yoruba Islamic clerics, leaders warn against using religion to divide Nigeria

    In addition, decades of the northern elite shirking their responsibility to ensure justice for Christians murdered for their faith, sometimes in the name of blasphemy, may also have contributed to strengthening the allegations of official genocide. In Kano, Sokoto, Abuja, and elsewhere, some Christians had been lynched for blasphemy, and their attackers were identified. In Kano, prosecution of the lynchers was dropped and the federal government declined to take the matter up; and in Sokoto, no prosecution was even attempted as leading legal minds and academicians stood up as one man to defend the lynchers. Why would Christians not think the state connived at the killings? In some northern states, as some public officials appear to embrace militant Islam, indigenes deserving of promotion into sensitive positions in the civil service and the judiciary were overlooked until a Muslim replacement could be found. Why would Christians not fear they were being persecuted, despite being indigenes of those states? The NSCIA statement tells itself a lie when it argues that religious intolerance does not exist in Nigeria. Yes, it does not exist in many states; but it exists in some northern states. The Council should at least have acknowledged this fact. What the Trump explosion indicates is that if a country promotes fissures in its polity, outsiders will be tempted to do something about it, and they will always find local collaborators.

    In many paragraphs, the NSCIA merely regurgitates admittedly sensible arguments about the questionable US justification for intervening in Nigeria. Mr Trump is himself amoral, for by his own admission he is not even a Christian, and his arguments are also largely self-serving and designed to advance American interests over Nigerian interests. Getting bogged down in the definition of genocide is, therefore, meaningless, a point the NSCIA misses very badly. What cannot be disputed, however, is that mass killings of Christians have taken place in some parts of the Middle Belt and their lands seized without any attempt by the state to enforce restitution. Much more than the concomitant killings of Muslims in other parts of the North by insurgents and bandits, it is the killing of Christians and the land element involved that has triggered the cry of genocide. The NSCIA should not have pretended that these jarring anomalies and paradoxes do not exist. They should have patiently, carefully and empathetically worded their statement, and acknowledged the various nuances of the insecurity ravaging the North particularly. Instead, they went at the untrustworthy Mr Trump hammer and tongs and try to portray his justifications as selfish and fallacious. But the Council should also in the same breath have provided an explanation for the adoption of Sharia as part of the criminal laws of some 12 states in the North when the constitution disowns state religion.

    Had the Council explored the Christian position and admitted that some states in Nigeria needed to review their governing paradigms, its apparently tendentious conclusions about genocide would have been less certain and provocative. It is incontrovertible that a significant percentage of northern leaders, mainly because of religion and to some extent regional exceptionalism, have refused to admit that to run a united, stable, progressive and peaceful country, they would have to live and let others live, and engage in so many give and takes. Unfortunately they do not seem prepared to sacrifice anything, a reason the Christian genocide claim has resonated with many Nigerians in the Christian Middle Belt and the South. If sooner rather than later nothing is done to coax the country to work together and for each dominant group to give up on some of their fanatical and unsustainable ideas and expectations, the country will itself soon become untenable.

  • The Christian genocide question in Nigeria: a nuanced examination

    The Christian genocide question in Nigeria: a nuanced examination

    The question of whether Christians in Nigeria are experiencing systematic genocide has become increasingly prominent in international discourse, particularly in Western media and political circles. Such characterization, while capturing the very real suffering of Christian communities in certain regions, requires careful examination to avoid oversimplifying a complex humanitarian crisis that has claimed lives across religious lines.

    Nigeria’s security challenges cannot be reduced to a single narrative of religious persecution. The violence that has plagued the country, particularly in its northern and Middle Belt regions, stems from multiple interlocking crises: the Boko Haram insurgency, banditry in the Northwest, farmer-herder conflicts, and broader governance failures. While it is undeniable that Christians have been targeted in specific incidents, particularly during religious and civil disturbances, the reality on the ground reveals a more troubling picture—one where violence has consumed communities regardless of their faith.

    Since the emergence of Boko Haram in 2009, Muslims have borne an enormous share of casualties. The terrorist group, whose name roughly translates to “Western education is forbidden,” has killed tens of thousands of people, the majority of them Muslims. Towns and villages across Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa states—predominantly Muslim areas—have been razed, with entire populations displaced. Mosques have been bombed during Friday prayers, and Islamic scholars who speak against the group’s extremist ideology have been systematically assassinated.

    Similarly, the banditry crisis that has devastated Northwest Nigeria, particularly Zamfara, Katsina, and Kaduna states, has primarily affected Muslim communities. Armed criminal gangs have attacked villages, kidnapped thousands for ransom, and disrupted agricultural activities, creating a humanitarian catastrophe. These bandits, motivated primarily by economic gain rather than religious ideology, have shown no hesitation in targeting Muslim communities, schools, and places of worship.

    A crucial aspect often overlooked in the genocide narrative is that terrorist groups operating in Nigeria have demonstrated a consistent pattern of indiscriminate violence. Boko Haram and its offshoot, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), Ansaru and Lakurawa have attacked both Christian and Muslim targets. Their ideology views any Nigerian who does not subscribe to their extreme interpretation of Islam as a legitimate target—this includes the vast majority of Nigerian Muslims.

    Read Also: Genocide claim: Clerics urge courage, justice, divine intervention

    The terrorists’ strategic objectives center on destabilizing the Nigerian state, controlling territory, and imposing their governance system. While they have certainly attacked churches, Christian communities, and used anti-Christian rhetoric, they have simultaneously waged sustained campaigns against Muslim institutions, traditional leaders, and government structures. Their violence is totalizing, aimed at anyone who resists their authority or represents the existing order.

    To characterize this as a genocide against Christians specifically is to misunderstand the nature of the threat and inadvertently minimize the suffering of Muslim victims who have died in equal or greater numbers. It also plays into the terrorists’ strategy of sowing religious division, which serves their interest in fragmenting Nigerian society along religious lines.

    The violence in states like Plateau, Benue, and Taraba presents additional complications to the genocide narrative. These states have experienced horrific bloodshed, often framed as attacks by Fulani Muslim herders against Christian farming communities. There is truth to this characterization in specific incidents—Christian villages have been attacked, churches burned, and entire communities displaced in what appears to be religiously motivated violence.

    However, a closer examination reveals that these conflicts are rooted in competition over land and resources, exacerbated by climate change, population growth, and the breakdown of traditional conflict resolution mechanisms. While the religious dimension cannot be ignored—the perpetrators are often Muslim herders and the victims Christian farmers—the underlying drivers are economic and environmental.

    Critically, these conflicts have not been one-sided. Reprisal attacks carried out by Christian communities against Muslim herders communities and settlements have also occurred, resulting in significant Muslim casualties. Villages with Muslim populations have been attacked, mosques destroyed, and innocent Muslim herders killed in revenge for earlier attacks. This cycle of violence and counter-violence demonstrates that the situation is more accurately described as communal conflict rather than systematic genocide.

    The framing of these incidents solely as persecution of Christians ignores the Muslim victims and obscures the need for comprehensive solutions that address land use, climate adaptation, and intercommunal reconciliation. It also risks entrenching the very religious divisions that perpetuate the violence.

    Thus recent statements from the U.S. President,  Donald Trump regarding potential military intervention to protect Christians in Nigeria have sparked controversy and concern. While the international community’s attention to Nigeria’s security crisis is welcome, and assistance in defeating terrorist groups would be beneficial, such support must respect Nigeria’s territorial sovereignty and constitutional order.

    Nigeria is a sovereign nation with its own military and security apparatus. Any form of intervention must be conducted through proper diplomatic channels, with the consent of the Nigerian government, and in accordance with international law. Unilateral military action or intervention justified solely on the basis of protecting one religious community would be both illegal and counterproductive.

    Moreover, conspiracy theories have emerged suggesting that such intervention rhetoric is connected to Nigeria’s 2027 elections, potentially aimed at influencing domestic politics or supporting particular candidates. Whether or not these theories have merit, they highlight the danger of external actors inserting themselves into Nigeria’s internal affairs in ways that could destabilize rather than help the country.

    True Nigerians—those committed to the country’s unity and progress—must resist narratives that oversimplify the nation’s security challenges or seek to divide its people along religious lines. The violence affecting the country is real and demands urgent action, but that action must be based on accurate understanding of the problem.

    What Nigeria needs is comprehensive security sector reform, investment in affected communities regardless of their religious composition, genuine reconciliation efforts, and governance that delivers justice and economic opportunity to all citizens. International support should take the form of intelligence sharing, training, equipment, and diplomatic backing—not interventions that undermine sovereignty or reinforce religious divisions.

    The suffering of Christians in Nigeria is real and deserves attention. But so too is the suffering of Muslims, and of all Nigerians caught in the crossfire of terrorism, banditry, and communal violence. Only by acknowledging the full scope of the crisis can we hope to address it effectively. The goal should not be to protect one religious community at the expense of truth, but to protect all Nigerians and build a country where security, justice, and dignity are available to everyone, regardless of their faith.

  • Alleged genocide: Olowu urges Nigerians to unite in defence of Nigeria 

    Alleged genocide: Olowu urges Nigerians to unite in defence of Nigeria 

     …urges President Trump to share actionable intelligence with Nigeria

    The Olowu of Kuta, HRM Oba Dr. Hammeed Adekunle Makama Oyelude, CON, Tegbosun III, has called on Nigerians to demonstrate patriotism and speak with one voice in order to safeguard the country’s unity and defeat terrorism.

    Speaking at the 35th edition of the Kuta Day celebration on Saturday, Oba Oyelude emphasised the importance of unity, noting that the current security challenges demand collective action and unwavering national loyalty.

    “Irrespective of political leaning or affiliation, this is the time to show our patriotic zeal. We must all bear in mind that we must have the country first before thinking of any ambition,” the monarch said.

    Read Also: Trump’s threat and misguided notion of Christian genocide

    Addressing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the royal father commended his administration for improving the welfare of the Nigerian military since assuming office on May 29, 2023. 

    However, he urged the president to do even more to further motivate the nation’s gallant officers.

    He also applauded the new Service Chiefs for promptly taking charge after their confirmation by the Senate and receiving handover notes from their predecessors. 

    The monarch urged them to intensify their efforts to rid the nation of terrorist groups and restore peace and stability.

    “Your appointment comes at a defining moment in our nation’s history. I urge the Service Chiefs to ensure that all resources—both human capital and equipment—are effectively deployed to end insurgency once and for all,” he stated.

    Oba Oyelude further appealed to former U.S. President Donald Trump to support Nigeria through actionable intelligence sharing and provision of operational platforms to help neutralize insurgent threats swiftly.

  • Genocide: Nigeria urges global community to disregard claims

    Genocide: Nigeria urges global community to disregard claims

    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has urged the international community to disregard the allegation of genocide against Christians in Nigeria.

    It said the claims were unfounded.

    The ministry’s spokesperson Kimiebi Ebienfa said the claims were a gross misrepresentation of the complex security situation and a dangerous oversimplification of the nation’s challenges.

    Speaking with The Nation, Ebienfa said: “I must state categorically that the allegations are false and baseless. The Federal Government of Nigeria unequivocally refutes these unwarranted allegations in their entirety. They represent a gross misrepresentation of the complex security situation in Nigeria and a dangerous oversimplification of the challenges we face as a nation.

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    “Such claims are not only false but are also irresponsible, as they threaten to undermine the unity, interfaith harmony, and national sovereignty of Nigeria.

    “As you are aware, Nigeria is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-religious society where over 230 million people of diverse faiths, chiefly Christianity and Islam, have co-existed and thrived together for generations. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion for every citizen. The government remains steadfast in its duty to protect this right for all Nigerians, irrespective of their creed.

    “The ministry, therefore, calls upon the international community to disregard these unfounded allegations and to instead support Nigeria’s efforts in combating terrorism and banditry…”

  • Genocide, not wordplay (2)

    Genocide, not wordplay (2)

    After the colonists are done with Palestine, their next stop would be Africa perhaps. Occupying Africa will be easy. They simply need to flaunt a scripture to validate the siege and seizure of Africa’s most fertile tracts.

    Having successfully established and integrated religion as the most crucial element of colonial expansion, the psyops (psychological operations) that render Africans acquiescent to the eventual seizure of our land and resources will be easy.

    In Gaza, it’s Israeli Zionists murdering innocent civilians; in Africa, it would be the Christian Zionist pitted against the Muslim fundamentalist, and everybody else in a free-for-all.

    Consider the curious case of Nigeria, for instance; the magnitude of explicit and suppressed rage is enough to trigger the citizenry towards implosion. Here, the colonists need not actively get boots on the ground or soil their hands with the blood of innocents; Nigerians will happily slay each other in worship of imperial ‘gods.’

    Faith, as espoused by the Abrahamic faiths, teaches us to conquer our animal instincts, but caught in a fit of righteousness, we circumvent credo, that we may glorify our espoused and unarticulated sinful lusts.

    While it’s moral to rage against the bloodlust and carnage perpetrated by Boko Haram, ISWAP and other terror cells afflicting the peace and stability of Nigeria alongside her West African neighbours, shall we dare reproach the infamy and bloodlust flagrantly glamourised by the Christian Zionist across Africa and Nigeria?

    If we agree that only a mindless savage would applaud the mayhem fomented on the continent by Islamist terror cells, shall we also condemn, without equivocation, every African celebrating the occupation and daily murder of Palestinians?

    It’s horrid enough to witness – online and offline – the maniacal heckling of the Palestinians and their sympathisers by a people coming from a long history of slavery and colonist siege; it is even more alarming to see supposed ‘truth-tellers’ and leaders of thought dubiously pirouette, spinning words into apologetic shrouds for slaughter.

    We must be wary of validating the carnage we dread as just deserts for others, simply because they are of a different creed and civilisation. Brings to mind the curious case of my childhood friend, a Christian and proud son of Bokkos, who once defended Israel’s siege on Gaza. “It’s security,” he said, “self-defence.” Until his village was set ablaze and his cousin’s children were murdered and burned to ashes. “This is too much. There is no justice,” he cried. And I had no heart to say what I thought; that “Nobody savours the taste of the bitter herbs we season for others.”

    Lest we forget the reactions to the tragic fate of Apesuur Ukechia and Ward Khalil. On a Sunday morning, just after church, Ukechia watched as her husband and three children were gunned down by herdsmen in Aondona, Gwer West, Benue State. Months before, the same assailants killed her parents and all of her siblings. Ukechia’s loss is unacceptable, yet no more pitiable than Ward Khalil’s. The harrowing video of the five-year-old Palestinian girl trying to escape a burning Fahmi Al-Jarjawi School shelter in Gaza City after being incinerated by an overnight Israeli airstrike is heartrending. Although Khalil ambled through the flames to safety, her five siblings, aged two to 18, died in the flames along with their mother. “I was scared of the fire,” a teary Khalil told journalists, even as she had no words to relate her family’s massacre.

    Reacting to Ukechia’s loss, some Nigerians blamed the government for allowing the culprits roam free. They made a radical call to arms, urging every community hosting northerners to “evict them before they kill us all and take over our lands.”

    But these same anarchists, reacting to Khalil’s loss, described her as “collateral damage.” The tenor of reactions ranged from “Her people started it on October 7, now they must live with the consequences” to “Serves them right! Next time, they won’t attack God’s chosen.”

    This thought process is shamelessly propagated by many a bigoted Nigerian across the civic sphere and it catches like wildfire as you read, in Nigeria’s citadels of learning and religious faith. In an academic forum, some academics dismissed a video of  Zionist-Jews attacking Christian pilgrims in Israel, while claiming that it’s their divinely-ordained duty to kill every Christian because they are “idol worshipers.” They refused to condemn Israeli attacks on Christian brethren even as they justified the occupiers’ genocidal campaign in Palestine. “It’s a hard decision that must be taken,” said an esteemed Professor. These random reactions mirror our descent into moral atrophy.

    As of September 3, 2025, over 66,700 people (64,739 Palestinians and 1,983 Israelis) have been reported killed in the genocide according to the Gaza Health Ministry (GHM), Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, media and humanitarian workers. Scholars estimated that 80% of Palestinians killed are civilians, of which 70% were women and children (OHCHR).

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    Yet, many Nigerians, armed with half-baked theology and deeply embedded bigotry, cheer the perpetrators with messianic zeal. More worrisome is the incursion of this murderous mentality into the Nigerian newsroom. Every editorial and commentary validating the genocide resounds as a mindless brushstroke in the mural of apology, painted for Israel as it ethnically cleanses Palestine. This is more the journalism of complicity than compassion. For it does not document the truth. Rather, it thwarts it.

    Never in modern memory has a genocide claimed so many journalists – at least 250 – as it has claimed in Gaza. But the bigoted newsroom would rather whip out alibis for the perpetrators, soullessly validating their siege, as a consequence of Hamas’s October 7 attack. Such pitilessness absolves the Israeli occupiers of ethnic cleansing and genocide perpetrated against their captive Palestinian hosts since 1948.

    How did we arrive here? Some say it is faith. But faith has been mutilated into idolatry. Zionism, as advanced by the African pulpit, has replaced God with a political state. Murderous Zionists command Christian Africa just as ISIS masterminds excite ISWAP allegiance. Proof-texts are dragged from Genesis and wielded like bayonets, as if the promise to Abraham to bless all nations could be warped into a license for ethnic cleansing and genocide.

    To watch journalists excuse the bombing of hospitals in Gaza is to see the rehearsal for the rationalisation of similar massacres in Borno, Kaduna or Lagos. To watch them amplify, even after being debunked, Israeli lies about “beheaded babies” is to understand how they will amplify the propaganda of local tyrants tomorrow. The “Hannibal directive,” which sanctioned the killing of its own citizens to prevent their capture, on October 7 and beyond, was once dismissed as fantasy until its grisly reality was exposed, but the newsroom is primed to conveniently ignore such disconcerting truths.

    The newsroom that celebrates Zionist tyrants will bend to domestic despots. What is denied abroad will be denied at home; what is excused abroad will be excused at home.

    There is a rhythm to atrocity, a choreography almost banal in its repetition. Palestine may seem a distant theatre. But it is a global mirror. Do we not see ourselves in those faces pressed against rubble? Do we not hear our own children in those cries? Or have we convinced ourselves that genocide is only real when it arrives at our gates?

    Imagine the first inhabitants of Lagos, Plateau or Benin rising to reclaim ancestral lands, citing scriptures or ancestral decrees. Would today’s cheerleaders of conquest by Holy Writ validate their siege? Would they call resistance, “terrorism” and couch dispossession in divine justification?

  • If this is not genocide then what the hell is?

    If this is not genocide then what the hell is?

    • Femi Fani-Kayode

     “We do not have evidence of Israel committing genocide in Gaza”- Gen. Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defence of the United States of America. 

    Never in the history of humanity and in the comity of nations has such an asinine, puerile and indefensible statement been made by a high-ranking Government official. 

    It reflects the dishonesty, wickedness, insensitivity, depravity, deceit, hypocrisy, double standards, moral bankruptcy, unconciable inhumanity, malodrous disposition and spiritual turpitude of the Biden administration. 

    You cannot wish away or dismiss the truth no matter how bitter and you cannot deny the facts no matter how ugly. 

    Andrew Mitrovika, a columnist with Al Jazeera, captured the events in Gaza graphically and clearly when he wrote the following. Permit me to quote him extensively. He wrote, 

    “The cataclysm that you and I are witnessing in Gaza is a genocide in the awful making.

    It is not an “onslaught”. It is not an “invasion”. It is not even a “war”. It is a genocide.

    The apocalyptic scenes and sounds in Gaza are proof that a cruel, occupying army is intent on achieving its overarching aim: the annihilation of what remains of an already shattered slice of land and the indiscriminate killing of helpless, exhausted children, women and men.

    Over decades, a succession of immune Israeli governments and their useful proxies, the rampaging settler militias, have waged incremental genocide, bit by bit, with the explicit approval, consent, and encouragement of Western governments – who, in a predictable show of performative solidarity with a ruthless ally – have bathed their tourist attractions in blue and white or the Star of David.

    Go ahead, you craven enablers, show the world your true and rank colours. We will remember.

    Make no mistake: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – along with his racist gang of brutish (by nature, temperament, and vernacular) cabinet ministers – have been aching, for a long, frustrating time, to abandon the let’s-teach-Palestinians-a-lethal-lesson spasms of violence in favour of the much more satisfying wholesale destruction of the Gaza Strip.

    The monstrous plan is as plain as Netanyahu’s wretched character: Be done with Gaza by erasing Gaza.

    Anyone, anywhere, in any forum who denies this fact is either a liar, blind – or willfully, happily, and comfortably both.

    This is not “righteous” payback or vengeance. It is – I repeat, for the legion of complicit hacks and stenographers who, remarkably, have never noticed, let alone given a damn, about the perpetual suffering and trauma of Palestinians – a genocide.

    If my blunt indictment stings, I challenge any of the historically illiterate columnists and American TV news celebrities who have rushed to Israel to burnish their credentials as “foreign correspondents” – with their hairstylists, makeup artists and writers in tow – to disabuse me, and much more importantly, the Palestinian diaspora and their allies, of our belief that a murderous genocide is unfolding in that besieged enclave.

    These insufferable hypocrites are again tarring Palestinians as “evil predators” while praising Israelis as “solicitous saints” for warning grateful Palestinians in Gaza that they’re going to kill them en masse.

    These fawning Israel loyalists have likely not once stepped inside the barbed-wired walls and fences that encircle Gaza or interviewed any of the millions of human beings who, for generations, have endured the loss, theft, deprivations, indignities, humiliations, and, of course, lethal ferocity committed by an apartheid state.

    It is a familiar, surreal minstrel show that reduces an old, complex story into a pat, easy-to-digest clash between black and white for countless equally callow, geography-allergic Americans who are convinced that carrying a passport is “woke”.

    The white hats – the Israelis – are always the innocent victims. The black hats – the Palestinians – are always the guilty perpetrators.

    Hence, the cavalier disregard for the almost incomprehensible human consequences of Israel’s blatant annulment of that, by now, silly, anachronistic term: international law.

    Stop the stuff of life – food and water – from getting into captive Gaza. Fine.

    Stop fuel and electricity from being delivered to homes and hospitals. Fine.

    Bomb United Nations schools sheltering desperate Palestinian families from the incessant carpet bombing. Fine.

    Attack ambulances to bar them from ferrying mangled children to darkened hospitals where they require urgent care. Fine.

    Unleash white phosphorous to burn Palestinians to the bone. Fine.

    Dispense with the canard of “precision strikes” to prevent “civilian casualties” and revel, instead, in turning Gaza into Fallujah, circa 2005. Fine.

    Seal the prison that is Gaza tighter to make escape and hope impossible. Fine.

    Then demand that 1.1 million people move to nowhere within hours or face, in all likelihood, a certain death. Fine.

    On appalling cue, the usual gallery of preening presidents and prime ministers has deplored the atrocities committed by the black hats – while applauding, as a necessary and welcomed rebuttal, the atrocities committed by the white hats.

    So please, would fantasists stop imploring the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague to do something, anything, to hold “both parties”, including, Israel, to account?

    It has not happened and will not happen because the ever-compliant ICC knows that it must not offend, and will not offend, the powers that be in Washington, DC who run the whole fraudulent farce.

    Meanwhile, Netanyahu – who, just a few weeks ago, was excoriated for being an indicted crook facing a corruption trial on a slew of fraud, bribery, and breach of trust charges as well as having an authoritarian’s DNA – has been rehabilitated by US President Joe Biden and obsequious company as the Middle East’s shining avatar of resolve, resilience and morality.

    Such is the diseased “moral” compass of Biden and his pedestrian confederates in London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Canberra and Ottawa.

    Still, it’s hardly surprising that feral colonial powers – given their hideous record of killing and disfiguring so many innocents, in so many scarred places – would offer their blanket endorsement to another colonial power responsible for killing and disfiguring so many innocent Palestinians in Gaza and beyond yesterday, today and tomorrow.

    But know this: Biden et al do not speak for millions of citizens who they purport to represent, but who will continue to stand steadfast with unbowed Palestinians and their just and humane cause.

    Despite all the nonsense and posturing by the “international community” about “resolving the crisis through diplomacy”, this dystopian-like horror has been the “end game” all along: pulverise every square inch of Gaza and its people into dust and memory.

    The risible “two-state” solution is a sick illusion promoted by slick, Ivy-league-educated diplomats like US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the other Israeli war-crime apologists who preceded him – fused, as they were and are, to their “partners” in Tel Aviv like conjoined twins.

    Blinken has travelled to Israel at the behest of his boss to “greenlight” genocide. We will remember that, too.

    A malignant regime, motivated by a poisonous combination of ultra-nationalism and fanaticism, knows that its sinister goal is in tantalizing sight.

    Read Also: British-Nigerian minister Osamor suspended for calling Israel’s actions genocide

    There will be more horrors to come. But Palestinians will not be broken. They will persevere and prevail. It will be hard and take time, but they will rebuild” (CONCLUDED). 

    Andrew Mitrovika, the author of these powerful words,  has hit the nail on the head. 

    His views and indeed his conclusion that genocide is indeed being committed in Gaza represents the thinking of millions of people all over the world. 

    Western leaders and all those that are still lost in their vain and self-inflicted fantasy of “no evidence of genocide in Gaza” should read his powerful and insightful words carefully and come to the conclusion that what is happening in Gaza is downright evil, ought to be described for what it is and roundly condemned.

    Claiming that there is no evidence of genocide in Gaza is like saying that there is no evidence of the holocaust in Nazi Germany and that there is no evidence of the trans-Atlantic slave trade or slavery in America, Europe and the Caribbean in the 18th and 19th century. 

    It is like saying that there is no evidence of the hideous atrocities, horrific barbarity, daylight robbery, psychological torture, emotionel abuse, wholesale deprivation, unalloyed humiliation, shameless graft and mind-boggling pillaging that the western colonial powers of Great Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Spain and Germany unleashed and foisted on their former colonies in Africa, Asia, South America and the Middle East. 

    It is like saying that King Louis 11 of Belgium did not kill 10 million Congolese Africans, that Vladimer Lenin and Josef Stalin did not kill 25 million Russians, that Pol Pot did not kill 2 million Cambodians, that the Hutus of Rwanda did not kill 1 million Tutsis, that the Turks did not kill 1 million Armenians and that the Americans did not literally exterminate the Red Indian population in their country. 

    It is like saying that there was no terror attack in New York on 9/11 and that there was no terror attack in Moscow a few weeks ago. 

    It is like saying that the Spanish did not eliminate a quarter of the native and indigenous population of South America, that the British did not wipe out millions of the Irish and 3 million Bengali Indians, that the Serbs did not murder 20,000 thousand Bosnians and that Argentina did not exterminate its entire black population. 

    It is like saying that 20 million people were not killed in WW 1, that 50 million people were not killed in WW11 and that America did not drop a nuclear bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing hundreds of thousands. 

    It is like saying that the ethnic cleansing of 80,000 of the Herero and Nama people of Namibia by the Germans never took place and it is like saying that the mass murder of 3 million Igbos by Nigeria never took place.

    It is like saying that the war that is being waged in Gaza by Israel is against Hamas and not against the Palestinian people.

    It is like saying that the war started on October 7th after the attack on Israel by Hamas and not 75 years ago after the unleashing of the horrific Nakba on the Palestinians and the illegal occupation of their land by the Jews.  

    It is like saying that the Israelis have always owned all the land in Gaza and that the Palestinians never lived in or had a historical stake in it.

    It is like saying that the Zionists did not murder hundreds of innocent and defenceless Palestinians in the village of Deir Yassin. 

    It is like saying that the Christian Falange Lebanese militia, with the full support of the Israelis, did not butcher thousands of Palestinian Muslims in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla. 

    It is like saying that the 1948 “Nakba” in which 750,000 Palestinians were butchered and ethnically cleansed, forced from their homes and scattered and displaced by the Zionists never took place. 

    It is like saying that the terror attack by Hamas in Israel on October 7th in which 1000 Jews were killed never took place. 

    Finally it is like saying that the air strike by the Israeli Airforce on Eid in which three sons and three grandchildren of the leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, were targetted and murdered never took place.

    Those that insist on perpetuating the monstrous mendacity that there is no genocide in Gaza and that indulge in such egregious falsehood, self-serving perfidy and outrageous lies are not only malicious, mischevous, malevolent, ignorant and sociopathic but also totally and completely insensitive, misinformed and possibly insane. 

    They look but they refuse to see and they listen but refuse to hear. 

    They have no truth in them and they are nothing but ferral psychopaths and intellectual barbarians. 

    They are a coven of dark, dangerous and deviant manipulators and an unholy gathering of shameless and sinister cultists, charlatans and gangsters who are in the grip, power and service of satan. 

    That is precisely why many refer to them as agents of the dark forces and acolytes of the principalities and powers that rule our world and refer to the Zionists whose interests they seek to further and protect as founding fathers of the Synagogue of Satan and devil worshippers. 

    For the record there has never been a war in history like the one in Gaza in which 80% of the country has been decimated, 100% of the population displaced and 50% of those that have been killed are children. 

    In his contribution, Christian Hedges, an American jourmalist, whilst on his assignment and coverage of the war in Gaza said “children have been shot in other conflicts I have covered but never have I watched as soldiers enticed children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport”. 

    All this and yet the American Secretary of Defence, General Lloyd Austin, has the effontry and nerve to proclaim that there is no evidence of genocide in Gaza!

    Someone needs to ask this misguided and facetious man just how many Palestinians need to be slaughtered before it fits into his definition of genocide! 

    It is painfully obvious that he has a low intelligence quotient, he has a myopic and shallow mind and that his reasoning and logic is little better than that of a village idiot.

    Only the cruel can deny the horror of Gaza and claim that what we are witnessing there today is anything other than mass murder, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, war crimes, collective punishment, starvation and genocide all of which constitute specific and clear violations of both international law and the law of war and all of which have made Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Ministers, his Intelligence Chiefs and his Military Commanders candidates for prosecution at the International Criminal Court at the Hague. 

    Those that claim that this is not the case are devious-minded specious liars and blood-lusting warmongers  who are feeding fat on the blood of the women and children of Gaza and who deserve to burn in hell. 

    Not only have Joe Biden and his entire Government become enablers of the crime of genocide but, given the fact that they are providing vast sums of money and deadly arms to the Zionist state to achieve their bloody enterprise, they are also complicit in it. 

    The blood of 35,000 innocent and defenceless Palestinians, including 15,000 children, are on their collective hands. 

    This blood will cry to God in heaven for vengeance and speak against them into eternity. 

    Joe Biden and his administration will ultimately regret the blind, irrational, inexplicable, indefensible, unjustifiable, unrestrained, unconditional and relentless support that they continue to offer the Jewish state which, given the events of the last six months, has transformed itself into a murderous, totalitarian fascist apartheid settler- colonial state and a hideous enclave of bloodthirsty genocidal maniacs, child killers, mass murderers, land grabbers and vicious, cold-blooded Nazis. 

    It is fair to say that all the demons have left hell and now reside in Israel. 

    (FFK)

  • MOSOP to world leaders: avert genocide in Ogoni

    The Movement for Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has called on world leaders and people of conscience to avert an impending genocide in Ogoniland.

    It urged them to pressure Nigeria and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to implement recommendations of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report on  the environmental assessment of Ogoniland, submitted to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011.

    MOSOP, yesterday, through its Publicity Secretary, Fegalo Nsuke, noted that between March 2 and 17, Bodo-Ogoni in Gokana Local Government Area buried 33 persons; 29 died in K-Dere, also in Gokana council, with similar reports from other Ogoni villages.

    It said: “MOSOP wants to use this opportunity to alert the world of what is clearly a Shell/state-sponsored genocide in Ogoniland. We are concerned that Shell and the Federal Government of Nigeria are doing little or nothing about the restoration of Ogoni environment and the immediate provision of water for the people,  even as communities record increasing death rate.

    “MOSOP flays the inhuman attitude of the Nigerian government and Shell. We urge the world not to allow this happen in the 21st century.

    “We take exception to the fact that just in December 2017, the Nigerian government approved $1 billion to purchase arms to fight insurgents in the Northeast, but the same government has failed to provide an agreed sum of $200 million annually for five years to save the lives of over one million people in Ogoniland.

    “In the midst of these terrible conditions, the Federal Government has remained silent on the threats posed by Belema Oil Producing Limited and Robo-Michael Limited, both Nigerian oil firms, which are currently sponsoring rival groups in the hope to force a resumption of oil production in Ogoniland, despite our repeated notification and firm position expressing our disapproval to oil production, without the implementation of the UNEP report and other conditions.

    “It is disturbing that while Ogoni people and their environment are increasingly threatened by the effects of years of pollution from Shell’s reckless business practices, the Nigerian government is doing nothing as Belema Oil and Robo-Michael continue to sponsor divisions and rivalry, thereby increasing the potential for conflicts that can worsen the condition of people who are already faced with death from environmental pollution.”

    MOSOP admonished the world leaders to stand up for humanity and save the Ogoni from extinction, stressing that the world must not be silent on the danger faced by the Ogoni.

    SPDC was sent packing in 1993 from Ogoniland’s four councils of Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme.

    Renowned environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa, and eight Ogoni activists were hanged in Port Harcourt on November 10, 1995, by the late Gen. Sani Abacha.

     

  • Preventing genocide, a shared responsibility – UN Secretary-General

    Preventing genocide, a shared responsibility – UN Secretary-General

    As the world marked the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda at the weekend, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has noted that preventing genocide and other monstrous crimes is a shared responsibility of all and a core duty of the United Nations.

    “The only way to truly honour the memory of those who were killed in Rwanda is to ensure that such events never occur again.” He said in a video message watched by 300 students and parents who had gathered in Abuja to mark the Day.

    [quote font_size=”18″ color=”#000000″ bgcolor=”#ddaf6a” bcolor=”#dd3333″ arrow=”yes”]The world must always be alert to the warning signs of genocide, and act quickly and early against the threat. History is filled with tragic chapters of hatred, inaction and indifference – a cycle that has led to violence, incarceration and death camps – Mr Guterres.[/quote]

    The Secretary-General, therefore, urged everyone to learn the lessons of Rwanda and work together to build a future of dignity, tolerance and human rights for all.

    Welcoming the audience to the educational briefing event organised by the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Lagos in collaboration with the Rwanda High Commission and Start-Rite School, Apo Legislative Quarters, Abuja, the National Information Officer of UNIC, Mr Oluseyi Soremekun, explained that “We are observing the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda to educate on the lessons of the genocide in Rwanda in order to help prevent similar acts happening anywhere in the future.”

    The Drama by students of Start-Rite School Abuja.
    The Drama by students of Start-Rite School Abuja.

    He enjoined the students and other participants to see all tribes and religions as equal and complimentary of one another with none inferior to the other. ‘Tribes and tongues may differ’ Mr Soremekun continued, ‘but you must stand together in peace and unity.”

    The Second Counsellor, Rwanda High Commission, Mr Protogene Nsengumuremyi, in his keynote address drew attention to the UN Security Council Resolution 2150 which condemns without reservation, any denial of the genocide and calls upon States that have not yet ratified or acceded to the Convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide to consider doing so as a matter of high priority.

    The programme featured film screening, reading of survivors’ testimonies and a drama sketch performed by students of Start-Rite School, Abuja. The programme was attended by students from seven schools including the host school, Start-Rite.

    April 7 every year is the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda.