Peril of Christians in Nigeria Likely Stemmed From Migration of Islamic Fundamentalists

Born in Benin City in southern Nigeria’s Edo state, Patrick Osagie Eholor grew up as a Christian in a tight-knit local community. Similar to many Nigerians born in the 1960s, he never remembered having troubles with others who were Muslims.

"My friends are Muslims. We go to school together. We drink together and we’re happy to party together. They're not bad people. Muslims are not bad people. They’re good people", Eholor, 58, told Sputnik.

Unfortunately, for many Christians like Eholor in Nigeria, the situation has become increasingly dangerous in recent years.

With the rise of Islamic extremists' groups such as Boko Haram, more and more Christians in the country began to face threats, insults or even violent attacks.

Catholic faithful attend a Good Friday service at the Church of Assumption Lagos, Nigeria, Friday, April 15, 2022.

A group of assailants armed with explosives and AK-47 assault rifles stormed into the St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in the city of Owo in Ondo state on 5 June, when the congregants gathered to commemorate the Solemnity. The attack left about 40 people dead and over 80 others injured, according to the local government in Ondo state.

About three weeks before the deadly church attack, a 22-year-old university student named Deborah Samuel Yakubu, a Christian, was lynched and killed by a mob of young Muslim fanatics on 12 May. The victim was accused of committing blasphemy against Prophet Mohammad in a WhatsApp group chat.

Foreign Influence

Eholor, who became an activist advocating basic rights for Christians in Nigeria, explained that the rise of violent assaults only began to become more prevalent after the government failed to contain the insurgency of Islamic extremists known as Boko Haram.

"These fragments have always existed. But they have not been so serious, so popular or so legitimate as right now. For example, we have been fighting the Boko Haram insurgency for a number of years. They’re a bunch of uneducated people who hated the Western education. They were naive and myopic. But the military budget supposed to be used for fighting Boko Haram went into foreign bank accounts in Switzerland or America. So they couldn’t root out the Boko Haram", he said.

In this Tuesday, April 24, 2012 file photo, fighters from Islamist group Ansar Dine stand guard during a hostage handover, in the desert outside Timbuktu, Mali.

As the Boko Haram group grew stronger, they invited more Islamic fundamentalists into Nigeria.

“After the Boko Haram gained ground, they invited more Fulani herdsmen [to Nigeria]. These people start to destroy crops of farmers. They were raping women and they were killing people. And from there, they moved to kidnapping people for ransom. Kidnapping becomes a legitimate business for the Fulani herdsmen", Eholor said.

According to the activist, the situation with the Fulani herdsmen only started to emerge about five years ago when they wanted to reach a deal with the current president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, by assisting him in winning elections.

“The Fulani herdsmen did not exist until this president became a leader of this country. The Fulani herdsmen started about 3-4 years ago. They were testing their ground. They were supposed to be people who were breeding cows, right? But they were not really doing that. They were getting to know the nook and cranny of the villages, because they were foreigners who wanted to succeed in the elections. Our border became very porous. We’re wide open for those foreign elements to assist him winning the election. But the agreement they reached, he [the president] could not fulfill it because they started destroying, raping and kidnapping. I can tell you categorially that this started about five years ago,” he said.

After ruling the country for two years in the 1980s through a military coup, Buhari took office as president in 2015 after winning the general election and was reelected in 2019.

Eholor argued that president Buhari should take more decisive actions to rein in the Islamic extremists and protective Christians in the country.

"This issue has a political undertone, because the Christians and Muslims have lived very peacefully together over the years in Nigeria. So I am not going to say that religion is our problem. No, I think leadership has failed us. Leadership is our problem not religion. This is purely a leadership failure. President Muhammadu Buhari has failed us and is a religious bigot. Let’s not forget that our president is from the North. He’s a very hardcore Muslim. He knows who are the terrorists and he refused to name them as terrorists. When people are named terrorists, we can have support from the Western world and it becomes a global fight", he said.

Education Crisis

The Fulani people, who are primarily Muslims, are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa.

Eholor pointed out that most of the Islamic fundamentalists in Nigeria were actually foreigners who came into the country from the northern neighbours.

"They are mostly Muslim Fulani. Most of these Fulani are not from Nigeria. They’re from Mali and Niger. They are migrants who were not accommodated in wherever they call their country. Because from the history of what I learned as an adult, they don't really have a destination and they don't know where they are going. They’re like zombies that can overthrow the king of the country and become the king there. So that is the problem we are facing", he said.

Abubakar Shekau

The young Muslim migrants were the ones who brought fundamental ideologies into Nigeria, Eholor suggested.

"When the issue of blasphemy came and when they killed an innocent Christian girl and burned her body, the police told us that the guy who used the matches was from Mali and he was no longer in Nigeria. That’s why the guy hasn’t been found until today. So that clearly tells you that they are bringing their fundamentalist idea and their crazy idea to brainwash the some of the Nigerians. We call them Almajiri, who are mostly illiterate children. They don't go to school. All they do is go to the street and beg for food. So they’re being targeted by the fundamentalists. They were told that Christians are bad and Christians are the problem. But we’re not their problems as Christians. The problem is they don’t educate their citizens", he said.

As Islamic fundamentalist ideas took roots among more and more younger people in Nigeria, Christians in the country also began to face more troubles on a daily basis.

In addition to the deadly church attack and the tragic death of the Christian university student that received news coverage, many other acts of violence against Christians in Nigeria were largely not reported, Eholor pointed out.

"Even during that incident [church attack] on Sunday, another attack happened in a neighboring village where people were also killed. But they don’t report it. They don't report it because they don’t want to scare foreigners who are committed to investing in Nigeria. Nobody wants to invest in a country that is not peaceful, right? The media clearly did not report it. It’s not that it’s underreported. It’s like you don’t hear anything, but it happens daily", he said.

As a result, many Christians in Nigeria were forced to try to hide their identities when they were in public.

"When they see you with a Bible or a cross, they’ll kill you. If you wear a cross, you have to conceal it. If they see you’re walking alone, they'll take you out", Eholor said.

The activist believed the only solution to the ongoing crisis in Nigeria is through political reforms. That is why he tried to mobilise more young Nigerians to vote.