Nigerian Catholics address reasons behind ongoing violence

Year after year, Islamic extremists in Nigeria have been perpetrating massacres. And, year after year, major media outlets in the West tend to frame these incidents as general banditry or climate change-related land struggles between largely Muslim herders and largely Christian farmers.

However, a series of murderous attacks on Nigerian Christians over the Christmas 2023 holiday left virtually no doubt as to the presence of religious motivation.

Violence between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria extends back to the early 1950s, but became more prevalent in the 1980s.

Much of northern Nigeria has scant government presence and is basically lawless. Those with enough firepower are largely free to indulge themselves as they wish. They might commit banditry or kidnappings for ransom. Or they might attack people in the name of jihad.

Between 2009 and 2023, more than 50,000 Christians were murdered by Muslim extremists in Nigeria, which also saw the murders of many thousands of moderate Muslims.

The ongoing violence has displaced about 5 million Nigerian Christians.

Arguably, even more striking is that almost 90 percent of Christians killed for their faith worldwide are Nigerian.

Owing to the violence in Nigeria, “Martyrs are more numerous in our time than in the first centuries,” as stated by Pope Francis in 2023.

Yet in 2021, the U.S. State Department removed Nigeria from a list of “countries of particular concern” for violating religious freedom. Nigeria is also missing from the most recent list.

It seems there’s a disconnect here unless, of course, the current U.S. administration wishes to make a statement that the ongoing attacks in Nigeria have nothing to do with religion.

“I agree that climate change and population explosion are part of the causes of crises, but these realities are not only affecting Nigeria,” says The Most Rev. Dr. John B. Bakeni, Auxiliary Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri, which is located in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno State, a setting of frequent attacks.

Fr. Bakeni points to other countries in the Lake Chad and Sahel regions that are also affected by climate change and population growth. But, in terms of violence, these other countries “are not experiencing what Nigeria is experiencing,” he says.

In Fr. Bakeni’s estimation, about 30% of the violence is motivated by farmer-herder clashes, and about 70% is religiously motivated.

There have been thousands of Muslim victims as well. “This is an ideological warfare, so those who do not key into or buy [extremist] ideology necessarily become subjects of attacks too,” explains Fr. Bakeni.

Some, if not many, believe there are members of the Nigerian government who are actually complicit in the attacks. Part of the reason for this alleged complicity is that jihadist elements have reportedly infiltrated the nation’s security forces and other positions of authority.

Even though about half of Nigeria is Christian, Christians don’t really have much political power on a national level–and this is a huge part of the ongoing problem for them.

Western media outlets continually report violent incidents in Nigeria, but most of these outlets avoid mentioning the religious aspects of the violence.

“It’s not only the religious aspects of the attacks in Nigeria that major Western media outlets are not reporting. Africa is under-reported in Western media outlets. And even when Africa is reported, she is not accurately reported,” says Fr. Anthony A. Akinwale, who is also a theology professor at both Augustine University in Lagos State and Dominican University in Oyo State.

“Besides, interest in Christianity in the West has significantly diminished. So, why show interest in religious aspects of attacks in Nigeria?” asks Fr. Akinwale. He readily acknowledges that there are individuals and organizations from the West that do very good work in Nigeria and in other parts of Africa, but they too tend to go under-reported.

“I don’t think the major Western media outlets are afraid to address the religious aspects of the attacks in Nigeria,” says Fr. Bakeni. “Rather, they have chosen to be silent about it even in the face of glaring facts and evidence.”

Meanwhile, Fr. Akinwale believes that Nigeria’s ongoing violence is fundamentally connected to corruption among the ruling class and a “pact of the elite” intent on maintaining control of the country’s hugely rich natural resources, most notably oil.

Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer. And Fr. Akinwale believes that, since the first military coup in 1966, “every conflict in the political history of Nigeria … has been a conflict over oil.”

Amid (or maybe because of) the endless potential for oil profits, Nigeria has “a dangerously defective constitution operated by a political class that is ever willing to manipulate ethnic, regional and religious cleavages,” says Fr. Akinwale. He contends that this constitution is defective by design and largely “written as a recipe for the elite” to exploit Nigeria’s oil wealth.

If people are busy suffering attacks, fleeing their homes, eking out life as displaced persons, or enmeshed in ethno-religious conflicts, then there is less time and resources to start organizing resistance against their government, no matter the extent of its venality.

Fr. Akinwale says that election fraud is an issue, but another unfortunate aspect is how Nigerians are “generally voting along ethnic and religious lines without asking questions about the competence of the candidates.”

In theory, Nigeria should be able to crack down on groups who perpetrate violent attacks. The country has quite an assortment of security agencies. But Fr. Akinwale maintains that these agencies “were designed and are operated not to protect the citizen but to protect state functionaries and their families.”

Though the Nigerian government has conducted airstrikes against suspected attackers, few attackers are ever apprehended and “hardly any” face prosecution, says Fr. Bakeni.

“Is the failure to prosecute pointing at political sponsorship of terrorist acts?” asks Fr. Akinwale.

Fr. Bakeni says these attacks are part of a “deliberate attempt to expand the frontiers of Islam in Nigeria.”

Whether you wish to apply the “genocide” label, there are radical Muslims continually attacking Christians and less-radical Muslims, killing many thousands and displacing millions. Meanwhile, Western media outlets seek to obfuscate the religious component, and Nigeria’s ruling class is content with their oil profits.

“There are some Christian organizations, agencies, individuals and even governments who are doing something about the plight of Christians in Nigeria.” says Fr. Bakeni, adding, “The rest of the world, especially the Western world, can do a lot more to stop these sad realities and assist Christians to build up their lives again.”

Meanwhile, Fr. Akinwale believes that, “The solution to Nigeria’s problem is to be found in Nigeria … If Nigerians would set a standard for their leaders, Nigeria will become a better place to live.”

Whether this takes place, most would agree that the violent attacks in Nigeria have occurred with appalling frequency for many years now. And, as Fr. Bakeni says, “Christians need to live in freedom in their own country.”