By Godswill Udoh
Published Friday, November 21, 2025
The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Representative Chris Smith, opened a hearing on Thursday with a stark warning about what he described as rapidly escalating, religion-driven violence in Nigeria, calling President Donald J. Trump’s recent redesignation of the country as a “Country of Particular Concern” a necessary and overdue alarm bell.
Mr. Smith, a New Jersey Republican who has spent decades spotlighting abuses in Africa, framed the session as part of a long-running effort in Congress to draw attention to what he called the “most brutal and murderous anti-Christian persecution in the world today.” It was his 12th hearing focused exclusively on Nigeria.
“Nigeria is ground zero,” Mr. Smith said, arguing that extremist groups—including Boko Haram, ISIS-West Africa and radicalized Fulani militants—have waged a sustained campaign of killing, abduction and village destruction, often with religious motives. He added that moderate Muslims who refuse to align with extremist factions have also been targeted.
The hearing followed the Trump administration’s decision to restore Nigeria to a federal list of nations that tolerate or commit severe violations of religious freedom. The Biden administration had removed Nigeria from the list in 2021, a move Mr. Smith sharply criticized. He praised Mr. Trump’s reversal, calling it “a serious, well-founded wake-up call.”
Drawing on more than a decade of visits to Nigeria and testimony from advocacy groups, Mr. Smith cited figures from Open Doors and other organizations documenting widespread violence. Since 2009, he said, over 52,000 Christians and roughly 34,000 moderate Muslims have been killed by extremist groups. Some 7,000 Nigerians have reportedly died this year alone, and 19,000 churches have been attacked.
He recalled a 2013 trip to the central city of Jos, where he met survivors of bombed churches. “Despite their numbing loss and pain, I was amazed at their deep faith, courage and resilience,” he said.
Mr. Smith also invoked the experience of former Representative Mike Waltz, now the United States ambassador to the United Nations, who served as a special forces officer in Nigeria during the height of Boko Haram’s abductions. Ambassador Waltz, in remarks cited at the hearing, warned that conditions had only deteriorated. “This is not random violence,” he said. “It is deliberate persecution.”
Witnesses at the hearing argued that Nigerian authorities have failed to prosecute perpetrators, allowing attacks to continue with impunity. Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of Makurdi, who previously testified before the subcommittee, has said that killers “boast about it” and face no legal consequences.
Mr. Smith pressed the State Department to deploy the full strength of American law, including tools under the International Religious Freedom Act, initially authored by Frank Wolf, and a later expansion that Mr. Smith himself wrote. He urged the administration to condition U.S. aid on Nigeria’s progress in prosecuting extremist violence, to expand humanitarian support for faith-based groups working with displaced communities and to impose Global Magnitsky sanctions on individuals responsible for abuses.
“The Nigerian government has a constitutional obligation to protect its citizens,” he said. “Yet the brutal reality is that perpetrators operate with total impunity.”
The congressman framed the crisis as both moral and geopolitical, saying the United States must not “stand idly by.” The hearing comes amid renewed debate over Washington’s role in addressing religious violence abroad, and whether diplomatic pressure can influence Nigerian security policies.
As he closed his remarks, Mr. Smith stressed that the threats facing Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt and northern states represent “one of the greatest moral crises of our time.
This article was published on November 21, 2025 and can be found online at: https://thesouthernexaminer.com/us-lawmaker-warns-nigeria-faces-ground-zero-of-global-christian-persecu-p15327-273.htm#google_vignette
