Nigeria has dismissed allegations by United States Senator Ted Cruz that its officials are complicit in the killing of Christians, describing the claims as false and provocative.
Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, branded Cruz’s remarks as “malicious, contrived lies,” stressing that the country is not facing a religious war.
“Senator, stop these malicious, contrived lies against my country. We do not have a religious war in my country,” Onanuga wrote on X. “Boko Haram terrorists attack everyone—farmers, soldiers, and villagers—while bandits in the North-West even kill Muslims in mosques. Christians are not targeted. Nigeria enjoys religious harmony.”
Cruz had introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025, which proposes sanctions against Nigerian officials accused of facilitating attacks on Christians. It also calls on the US Secretary of State to designate Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” and maintain Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa on terror watch lists.
The senator defended his proposal after reports that more than 5,000 people fled Kirawa, a Borno border town, into Cameroon following a Boko Haram raid. “Officials in Nigeria are ignoring and even facilitating the mass murder of Christians by Islamist jihadists,” Cruz said.
President Tinubu, speaking in Owerri, Imo State, also dismissed the allegations as baseless, insisting that no religion is under threat in Nigeria, which he described as thriving on its cultural and religious diversity.
For now, the bill remains stalled in Washington amid a legislative impasse triggered by the US government shutdown.
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