U.S. Senator Ted Cruz has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of complicity in the mass murder of Christians in northern Nigeria, alleging that the authorities “look the other way” as followers of Jesus Christ are targeted and killed.
Speaking at the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, Mr Cruz briefed his colleagues on findings into allegations of Christian genocide in northern Nigeria. He said Nigeria’s designation as a country of particular concern had produced no meaningful action from Mr Tinubu’s government.
“Nigerian officials have been, unfortunately, complicit in facilitating these atrocities,” Mr Cruz said on Tuesday.
According to Mr Cruz, the rot runs across every tier of government, asserting all levels of Mr Tinubu’s administration have been compromised to enable violence against Christians.
“At the state level, a dozen Nigerian states implement Islamist blasphemy and Sharia laws. At the federal level, the government looks the other way at Islamist violence. The result is unsurprisingly more Islamic jihadists violence,” said the U.S. legislator.
Mr Cruz believes that “more Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world”.
“Since 2009, Islamic jihadists have murdered more than 50,000 Christians in Nigeria and more than 20,000 churches, schools, and religious institutions have been destroyed, most burned to the ground,” he said.
The American lawmaker said the U.S. had identified and sanctioned the government officials sponsoring violence in the country.
Mr Cruz introduced the Nigerian Religious Freedom Accountability Act in 2025 and facilitated the U.S. designation of Nigeria as a ‘country of particular concern’ over alleged targeted killings of Christians.
The presidency did not immediately reply to request for comment on the matter. But the Nigerian government has always denied being complicit and turning a blind eye to the killings in the North and other regions.
