Washington to Abuja: We Don’t Believe You. The Christians Are Being Slaughtered.

By: Akinde S. Oluwaseun

Yesterday wasn’t normal. Not in Congress.

House Appropriators and Foreign Affairs leaders—people who don’t usually share a room—sat together. Rare joint briefing. The topic? Nigeria. And the bloodshed that won’t stop.

Mario Díaz-Balart led it. Florida Republican. Vice Chair of Appropriations. He doesn’t mince words. They were there because President Trump told them to be. He wants a full report on the massacres of Nigerian Christians. And he’s not ruling out military action.

“Direct action,” he called it. Against the Islamists doing the killing.

Vicky Hartzler spoke next. Chair of the religious freedom commission. She told them straight: religious freedom is under siege. More than 300 children, abducted. Whole Christian villages wiped out. Churches burned to ash.

The violations, she said, is rampant. Violent. And they hit Christians harder—2.2 to 1 rate compared to Muslims. That’s not random. That’s targeted.

Her fix? Sanctions. On Nigerian officials who’ve shown complicity. Visa bans. Freeze their US assets. Tie every dollar of aid to measurable accountability. Make them prove they’re doing something.

And she wants villages back. The ones seized from Christian farmers. So widows and children can go home.

Then Dr. Ebenezer Obadare spoke. CFR fellow. He didn’t hold back.

The Nigerian government keeps saying it’s not religious. Obadare called that what it is: a myth. Boko Haram and the others? They act for one reason only. Religion.

Sure, more Muslims dies sometimes. But that’s geography, not intent. The military? “Too corrupt and incompetent,” he said flatly. They can’t dismantle the jihadists without someone pushing them from outside.

Push them to disband the groups enforcing Sharia. Confront the rot in their security forces. Actually show they want to stop this.

Sean Nelson from Alliance Defending Freedom International dropped the numbers. Nigeria is the deadliest country in the world for Christians. More killed there than everywhere else combined. Five times the rate of Muslims when you adjust for population.

He also said something that undercuts Abuja’s whole story: they kill Muslims too. The ones who refuse their extreme ideology. So much for “just criminality.”

Nigeria’s a big place. 230 million people. Muslims—about 120 million—dominates the north. Christians—90 million—mostly in the south. It’s a powder keg.

Nelson wants tighter oversight on US aid. Route some through faith-based groups instead. Less corruption that way. And transparency on the kidnappings and ransoms. “Without pressure,” he said, “nothing changes.”

Díaz-Balart ripped into the Biden administration. They reversed Trump’s “country of particular concern” designation in 2021. He said that had “clearly deadly consequences.”

Lawmakers on the committees signalled additional oversight actions in the months ahead as they prepares that Trump-directed report. Hartzler did note some movement from Nigeria. President Tinubu pulled about 100,000 cops off VIP protection. Redeployed them. She called it “a promising start after years of neglect.”

Nigeria’s House speaker even admitted it last week. Called it “a coordinated and deeply troubling period of escalated violence.” The majority leader pushed for more legislative oversight.

Small steps. Hartzler warned they’re not enough. The government needs to show clear intent. Act on early warnings. Be transparent.

The Nigerian Embassy? No comment. Yet.