The BBC has cast doubt on the credibility of data used to arrive at the conclusion that Christians are being persecuted in Nigeria.
The religious persecution narrative gained traction after the address of Vice President Kashim Shettima at the last United Nations General Assembly.
Shettima had said the situation in Gaza was “heart-wrenching” and demanded an immediate ceasefire that would birth Palestinians independence and a home of their own on territories already recognised by the UN and international law.
He said a two-state solution remains the most viable path to peace and warned that continued neglect of international law only fuels propaganda and undermines global stability.
Shortly after the speech, popular US television host and comedian, Bill Maher, described what was happening in Nigeria as a “genocide” .
Ted Cruz, a United States senator, also jumped on the train, declaring that Nigeria’s government was enabling a “massacre” of Christians, the world took notice. His claim, shared on social media and repeated in Congress, accused Nigerian authorities of ignoring what he called a “Christian genocide.”
“50,000 Christians have been killed since 2009, 2000 schools and 18,000 churches destroyed,” Cruz wrote on X.
“The Nigerian government has looked the other way.”
After Cruz’s post, U.S. President Donald Trump redesignated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, a label reserved for governments accused of tolerating religious persecution.
In a Truth Social post last Friday, Trump cited a figure of 3,100 Christians killed. He was referring to a report by Open Doors for deaths for the 12 months from October 2023, a White House official said.
Open Doors is a charity which researches the persecution of Christians worldwide.
In its reporting it says that while 3,100 Christians died, 2,320 Muslims were also killed in that 12-month period.
Open Doors also includes what it called “Fulani Terror Groups” in its list of perpetrators and said they were responsible for almost a third of Christians killed during those 12 months.
Contacted by the BBC, Frans Veerman, senior research fellow at Open Doors, had said, “what we see now is that Christians are still targeted, but increasingly some Muslims are targeted by Fulani militants”.
In its report, the British broadcaster said figures repeatedly referenced by Cruz, and other campaigners — including claims that over 100,000 Christians have been killed and 18,000 churches destroyed since 2009 — were difficult to verify.
The BBC traced most of these statistics to reports by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (InterSociety), a Nigerian non-governmental organisation that monitors human rights violations.
However, the report said InterSociety’s data collection methods were “opaque” and lacked independently verifiable sources.
InterSociety acknowledged that it compiles figures by combining “summary statistics” from earlier publications with new estimates — a process the BBC said makes verification nearly impossible.
The report also found that most victims of jihadist attacks in Nigeria have been Muslims, contradicting the narrative of a targeted Christian genocide promoted by some Western politicians.
The federal government has repeatedly dismissed allegations of religious persecution, describing them as “a gross misrepresentation of reality.” Officials maintain that extremist violence in the country affects citizens of all faiths.
Security analysts quoted by the BBC said that while Christians have suffered attacks, there is no clear evidence of deliberate religious targeting, noting that the country faces multiple security challenges beyond jihadist insurgency.
Trump recently threatened unspecified action against Nigeria over what he called “the killing of Christians,” but the BBC’s findings suggest the data underpinning his claim may be unreliable.
