A prominent Nigerian Catholic researcher and criminologist has issued a stark warning: Christianity could disappear from Nigeria within the next 50 years if the persecution of Christians continues and an agenda of Islamization succeeds.
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Director of the Catholic-inspired International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety), made these remarks following a recent attack on the Immaculate Conception Minor Seminary in Ivhianokpodi village, within the Auchi Diocese in Edo State.
Deadly attack, kidnapping at seminary
Armed assailants had stormed the seminary on July 10, shortly after 9:00 PM, killing a security guard and kidnapping three seminarians, according to a diocesan statement signed by communications director Father Peter Egielewa.
The remaining seminarians were relocated to “a safe area” while security around the seminary was enhanced, Father Egielewa stated. He added that, unfortunately, “no communication has been had with the abductors yet.”
Police investigating the kidnapping condemned the incident as a “senseless act of violence against a religious institution and innocent young students,” describing it as “not only barbaric, but also a direct attack on public peace and security.”
Bishop Gabriel Ghiakhomo Dunia, speaking from the United States, where he learned of the abduction, urged parents of the kidnapped seminarians to remain calm and not be “crushed by fear, threats, or intimidation.”
He emphasized the broader threat, noting, “These things are not happening only at the Seminary. Some seminarians have even been kidnapped from their homes while on holiday. We must remain vigilant and do all we can to protect them.”
Bishop Dunia extended his “deepest condolences to the family of the gallant officer who was killed.” He expressed surprise that the attack occurred despite enhanced security measures put in place after a previous kidnapping at the same seminary on October 27, 2023. On that occasion, the seminary rector, Father Thomas Oyode, offered himself as a hostage in place of two young seminarians and was released after 11 days.
Bishop Dunia placed the blame for the latest kidnapping squarely on the security forces, stating their failure in duty led to the incident.
The latest attack is just one of several recent deadly incidents. Residents of the largely Christian Bindi village in Plateau state woke up at 3:00 in the morning on July 15 to the deafening sound of gunfire as Jihadist Fulani herdsmen struck their village. 27 villagers were killed, many of them burnt alive in their beds.
The killing of Christians has become a daily routine in a country nearly evenly divided between Christians and Muslims.
“What is happening to Christianity in Nigeria is incomprehensible. It’s very, very shocking. And there seems to be no solution,” said Umeagbalasi.
Pinpointing exact figures for Christians killed and kidnapped in Nigeria is challenging due to a lack of centralized data, the complexity of the violence, and widespread underreporting. However, reports from reputable organizations paint a grim picture: since 2009, at least 60,000 Christians are estimated to have been killed.
Open Doors’ World Watch List reports over 13,000 Christians killed for their faith in Nigeria between 2015 and 2023, alongside 12,000 kidnappings. ACLED data suggests an even higher toll, placing the number killed within the same period (2015-2023) at over 50,000.
Intersociety, in a February 2024 report, stated that Nigeria has become “the second deadliest Genocide-Country in the world,” accounting for over 150,000 religiously motivated civilian deaths since 2009. This toll is surpassed only by Syria’s civil war casualties (306,000).
Beyond fatalities, the violence has had a devastating impact: Intersociety’s report also details 18,500 church attacks, 1,100 Christian communities sacked, and over 15 million Christians displaced from their homes since 2009. Additionally, 2,200 Christian schools were destroyed, and approximately 34,000 moderate Muslims also died in Islamist attacks during this period.
A BBC investigation highlights that Nigeria is the epicenter of anti-Christian violence globally, accounting for an estimated 90% of the 9,000 Christians killed for their faith worldwide each year.
A plan to Islamize Nigeria
Umeagbalasi told CWR that, contrary to the generally held narrative that attacks on Christian communities are driven by economic factors, particularly the struggle over land, there is a sinister intent by authorities in Nigeria to Islamize the country.
It started with Boko Haram in 2009, but when Buhari came to power, he elevated the Islamization agenda to state policy, according to the Nigerian criminologist.
“It’s pure religious persecution,” Umeagbalasi said. “If it isn’t the persecution of Christians, tell me how many Emiratis have been killed, how many mosques have been destroyed, how many farmlands belonging to Muslims have been destroyed.”
He accused Nigeria’s former leader, Mohamadu Buhari (who died last week, on July 13th) of recruiting and arming foreign jihadists to unleash the violence Christians are facing today. He said Fulani herdsmen and Fulani bandits are also operating with the complicity of the government of Nigeria.
“Retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari, upon becoming President, did not govern Nigeria with a multicultural, pluralistic, or multireligious vision. Instead, his goal was to Islamize the nation “by hook or crook.” He established agents, brought in external enemies, and recruited ineffective leaders specifically tasked with Islamizing eastern Nigeria, particularly the southeast,” said Umeagbalasi.
He stated that the Buhari administration facilitated the entry of various militias, including the Nasarawa Dokubo Islamist Conquest Volunteer Force, the Mujahideen, jihadist Fulani herdsmen, and other jihadists whose presence was enabled by open Nigerian borders starting in 2017.
“Furthermore, in 2016, the administration was accused of radicalizing the Nigerian security forces, including the police and the State Security Service (SSS), along Islamic lines.”
He pointed out that the Islamization agenda hasn’t changed under Bola Tinubu and noted that the “persecution of Christians is getting worse because it has become an integral project of the federal government.”
Lozano added that in the northern part of the country, where states are governed under Islamic law (Sharia), “Christians face structural discrimination: difficulties building churches, accessing certain rights, or obtaining public positions.
“While this doesn’t always translate into direct violence, it creates a permanent atmosphere of hostility,” she told CWR.
“What is most worrying is that, in many cases, the perpetrators act with total impunity. The violence is reaching levels that border on barbarity: villages razed, entire families murdered, seminarians targeted and kidnapped,” she said.
A chilling effect on evangelism
Umeagbalasi told CWR that the continued attacks on Christians have a chilling effect on evangelism, despite the resilience of Nigeria’s Christians.
“No one—be they a bishop, seminarian, priest, or pastor—wants to be killed,” he said.
“Yet those perpetrating these senseless killings believe that by eliminating the messenger, they can destroy the message. This belief underpins their actions, and it is a threat that should alarm us all. We did not train priests for martyrdom in this way. We did not ordain seminarians for this fate. We did not consecrate bishops for this end. And we did not call our laypeople to be victims of such violence,” he told CWR.
“Losing an innocent soul is a serious threat to the security and safety of others elsewhere. So it is already psychologically affecting the evangelism and gospel,” he added, and explained that in Northern Nigeria, particularly in the hinterlands, “you dare not profess Christianity. The intent of these murderers is to inflict fear on members of the Christian Faith.”
“If care is not taken in the next 50 years, by 2075, there will be no Christianity in Nigeria,” Umeagbalasi warned.
But Maria Lozano of Aid to the Church in Need notes that despite the persecution, ‘faith has not disappeared” from Nigeria, but “it is a faith that cries out.”
“Like in the Psalms, it is a faith made of lament, of unanswered questions, of a soul that does not understand, but still clings to God. It is a wounded faith, yes, but also a living one. People hold on to the Rosary, to the Eucharist, to the community — because they know that in God lies their only hope,” Lozano told CWR.
She underscored the need for Nigeria’s Christians to receive needed help in their time of need.
“Even a faith that cries out needs to be supported,” she said. “At Aid to the Church in Need, we believe our mission is not only material but profoundly spiritual: to remind them that they are not alone, that their cry is heard, and that the universal Church is with them — even in their darkest hour.”
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“The violence is reaching levels that border on barbarity . . .”
Border?
And Sharia law in the country’s north “only” reduces Christians to second-class citizens.
Lord help us.
While every death is grievous and all persecution lamentable, I do wonder why the three deaths in the Gaza church bombing were utter tragedies and the thousands of deaths of Nigerians mere statistics. There are many of us who pray for Nigeria every day, remembering her kidnapped by name and and begging for divine consolation for their families, but I can imagine that the battered Christian community there senses a level of abandonment that is unworthy of the Mystical Body of Christ.
Such horror, such tragedy, but what can we do? Are there relief organizations to which we can contribute? Stating the problem is important and necessary, but without suggestions about some ways that one might help, it is informative but somewhat frustrating. Of course, prayer, but are there other things that could be done?
Publicity about what is happening is the first order of business. Write a letter to the editor of a local and/ or national newspaper. Pressure needs to be brought to bear on their economy with tariff penalties by the US and other nations. Out the Islamist who runs the country and thus far has done NOTHING to stop these barbaric attacks on Christians. One could say that the lack of penalty for these kidnappings and murders amounts to tacit approval of these brutalities on their leader’s part.
Email your Congressman about your disgust about what is happening and press for US sanctions. Its easy enough. Then cut and paste your email and send to your two National Senators. Simple enough, and they DO tally those letters and emails to see how many people are aware of certain issues and where their voters stand. Get your friends at church to write as well.
Its hard to find things we can DO on our own to stop these atrocities in a nation so far away. What we CANNOT do, is to remain silent.
See: Aid to the Church in Need.
Need another Crusade.
The best way forward would be for the Christian-majority states to secede from Nigeria and organise their own armed forces. Generally, out of the 36 states about 17–19 states have Christian majority populations.
Once done, they could then go on the offensive and drive the Muslims out, emulating the conduct of Israel in Gaza.
Religious difference was a factor leading to the Biafra War in the ’60s. Anybody remember that horror? It didn’t work then and it won’t work now. See also the war that partitioned Sudan: Muslim North against Christian and animist South. But once the South got its independence, tribal factions started fighting for power and millions of people have been displaced. (Side note: hundreds of tons of food destined for those refugees, which USAID sent to the Arabian peninsula, is due to be incinerated as a consequence of Trump’s m”oney-saving” policy, there being no staff left to transport or distribute it since USAID was abolished.)
Radical Islam is on a well-funded march across sub-Saharan Africa. Western governments don’t care and mainstream media don’t usually cover this. (IF they do, the violence is ascribed to land disputes.) Christians will be forced into dhimmitude which will slowly push them in Islam, as has happened in the Middle East and North Africa since Muslim armies burst out of Arabia. But which transformation of the Dar al Harb will go faster? The violent campaigns in Africa or the internal pressures in Britain and Western Europe?
We must learn from history, not repeat it !
We read: “If care is not taken in the next 50 years, by 2075, there will be no Christianity in Nigeria.”
Three points:
FIRST, yes, surely “incomprehensible,” and especially incomprehensible to a post-Christian and radically secularist West….The fatal problem within fideistic Islam is that—for simplistic and radicalized minds—memes in the 7th-century Qur’an authorize such terror: “Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you” (Q 9:123), and “Make War on them until idolatry shall cease and Allah’s religion shall reign supreme” (Q 8:34, see also Q 2:187/191, 9:5, 47:4).
SECOND, beyond Nigeria in 2075, and probably quoting the late Italian journalist Ariana Fallaci (1929-2006)—the pre-eminent Western scholar of Islam, Bernard Lewis (1916-2018), suggested that the third and current encounter between Europe and Islam (earlier: A.D. 722 in southwestern France and A.D. 1683 in Vienna) involves the likely choice whether the Europe of the future will be a “Europeanized Islam or an Islamicized Europe”…
THIRD, Fallaci remarked: “The problem is not to establish whether in 2100 the greatest majority of the totality of Europeans will be Muslim: one way or another they will. The problem is whether (the) Islam destined to dominate Europe will be a Euro-Islam or the Islam of Shari’a.” Fallaci added that dialogue with Islam is too often “a monologue, a soliloquy nourished by our naïveté or unconfessed despair [!].”
PERSPECTIVE: Already in 1938 Hilaire Belloc wrote: “I say the suggestion that Islam may re-arise sounds fantastic—but this is only because men are always powerfully affected by the immediate past—one might say that they are blinded by it.”
Besides Oriana Fallaci and Bernard Lewis, I also recommend Bat Ye’or’s Islam and Dhimmitude and Mary Habeck’s Knowing the Enemy.
Oil had already been discovered in the Middle East by 1938. All else follows from that because oil money funds radical Islam.
I fear that partition is the only solution, with southern Nigeria establishing a tight, heavily defended border in the north. I know a few Nigerian Christians that are good, pious people and I worry for them.
Yes because Christianity without Christ is bound to fail. You see why those jihadist are succeeding in their agenda is because they follow exactly the way of life of their Muhammad. The same way Christians should see Christianity as a way of life of Jesus Christ and not a religion and follow exactly the teachings of Christ and His way of life, until then Christianity may not survive in nigeria
What is really incomprehensible is our naivete about Islam.
Instead of rallying the necessary and long-overdue crusade against Islam, our clerics are too busy talking about climate change, immigration, and synodaling
As a Nigerian living in Nigeria, the killing of Christians in Nigeria is out of the world. Bombing of churches, killing/wiping away of all Christian families,beheading of a Pastor,etc AM HAPPY THIS IS BEING RECOGNISED ON A GLOBAL LEVEL. GOD BLESS YOU
Perhaps Nigeria needs a 2nd Amendment?