Claims of Christian genocide in Nigeria are baseless, says information minister

Mohammed Idris, the minister of information, has refuted claims of a Christian genocide in Nigeria.

The minister’s reaction follows remarks by Bill Maher, United States comedian and talk show host, who alleged that Christians were being systematically exterminated in Nigeria by terror groups.

Maher claimed that over 100,000 Christians had been killed since 2009 and that more than 18,000 churches had been burnt in “a genocide attempt greater than what is going on in Gaza”.

Similarly, Ted Cruz, the US senator, accused Nigerian officials of “ignoring and even facilitating the mass killing of Christians by jihadist groups”.

Cruz said he had introduced a bill, the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act, to the US senate to sanction Nigerian officials allegedly complicit in such acts.

In a post on X, Idris described the claims as “ignorant, false and baseless”.

“We completely reject the circulating claims of Christian genocide in Nigeria,” he wrote.

“The leadership of our security agencies comprises both Christians and Muslims, all fully committed, under President Tinubu’s leadership, to protecting all Nigerians and maintaining religious freedom, in line with the multi-religious nature and traditions of the country.”

Also in an interview with Fox News, Idris said Nigeria is a multi-faith and tolerant country.

“We have Christians, we have Muslims, we even have those who don’t believe in any of these two religions. The government of Nigeria is committed to ensuring that there is religious freedom in this country, but we do have extremist organizations in this country,” he said.

“It’s unfortunate sadly, that some of these extremists have killed a number of Christians and a number of Muslims almost everywhere where this violent extremism has support. So it’s (the accusation by Sen. Cruz) not true. We find that to be very unfortunate.

“It’s despicable, it’s not right. This is absolutely false to say that there is a calculated or a deliberate attempt to kill a particular religious group, is not correct and we find that really very, very unfortunate.”