- Bill Maher’s claim that Boko Haram is committing a Christian genocide in Nigeria drew backlash from Nigerian officials and researchers who called it misinformation.
- A Netherlands-based observatory reported nearly 56,000 Nigerians killed by terror groups since 2020, with Christians 2.7 times more likely to be targeted than Muslims.
- While Nigerian leaders deny religion is the root of the violence, local rights groups argue the government is dismissing real attacks on Christians and failing to seek lasting solutions.
In late September, Political talk show host Bill Maher said the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram is “systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria.”
“They’ve killed over 100,000 since 2009. They’ve burned 18,000 churches. ... This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country,” Maher said.
Earlier in September, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz sponsored a bill that would impose penalties on the country for violence against Christians, including designating Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern.
International organization reports 56,000 killings by terror groups in Nigeria
The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa, a Netherlands-based organization, recorded and tracked killings in Nigeria over four years, beginning in 2020. They found that 55,910 Nigerians had been killed by terror groups across 11,000 incidents of extreme violence.
The North Central zone, which is known for its ethnic diversity, has seen over 3,000 incidents of extreme violence in four years, about 2,000 of which involved killings, 700 abduction incidents and 297 that were a combination of abductions and killings.
However, the observatory reported that only a small percentage of these killings were done by the Islamic State group or al-Qaeda affiliates, as Maher and many others in the U.S. have suggested.
The Fulani Ethnic Militia, an “ethno-religious terror group,” has reportedly been responsible for many mass killings of both Christians and Muslims.
Christians are 2.7 times more likely to be targeted and killed in attacks than Muslims, their research found.
Nigerian researcher Gima Kakanda says the reports are ‘misinformation’
Gima Kakanda, senior special assistant to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on research and analytics, said Maher’s comments on Nigerian religious violence were “misinformation” with the intent of “maligning Nigeria” and “undermining the gravity of the situation in Gaza.”
Believing in a Muslim-backed, Christian genocide in Nigeria is “simplistic” and “ignorant” of the country’s internal dynamics, Kakanda wrote in Al Jazeera.
“Nowhere is there an official policy or plan to eradicate Christians,” he said. “Nigeria’s conflicts are grim and complex, but they centre on terrorism, crime and communal disputes, not religion.”
Kakanda added he believes terror groups in Nigeria “kill opportunistically,” attacking both religious spaces and public spaces.
In an interview with Semafor, Nigeria’s foreign minister since 2023, Yusuf Tuggar, said Nigeria has no official religion and does not allow attacks against Christians.
“We’re going to be 400 million people in the next 25 years, so there will be more contests for farm land and grazing land, mineral resources and water,” he told Semafor. This competition for livelihood “sometimes produced conflicts between neighboring groups who may be religiously diverse,” Semafor reported.
Nigeria’s Intersociety nonprofit gives sharp response to leadership
Following Cruz’s bill proposal, Nigerian Special Adviser Bayo Onanuga responded in an X post, “Senator, stop these malicious, contrived lies against my country.”
“We do not have a religious war in my country. The degraded Boko Haram terrorists operating on the fringes of Nigeria’s North east target everyone. They attack farmers, our soldiers. The bandits in the North west kill worshippers in their mosques. Christians are not targeted. We have religious harmony in our country. Stop these malicious lies,” he wrote.
Nigerian President Tinubu has also said Nigeria is “duly committed to all religions in the country,” adding that he has “never forced (his Christian wife, Remi Tinubu) to change her religion.”
But the Nigerian-based nonprofit, Intersociety, challenged Tinubu and Onanuga.
“It is shocking and saddening to note that instead of the Nigerian Government genuinely looking for lasting solution or best ways to tackle the issue including welcoming the international voices ... the Ahmed Bola Tinubu-led Government of Nigeria and the country’s federal bicameral legislature chose to resort to blanket denials, attacks, threats and name callings against those raising the concerns,” Intersociety said.
The nonprofit also spoke of the 850 Christian captives currently being held for ransom in the Rijana Jihadist Forest, referencing reporting from ACI Africa.