The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, has told the United States not to re-designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern over religious freedom, noting that doing so will undermine the current efforts by the President Bola Tinubu’s administration to promote dialogue, national healing, and inter-religious understanding among the citizenry.
Kukah, who expressed his position on the U.S moves while speaking at the launch of the Aid to the Church in Need (ACIN) 2025 World Report on Religious Freedom in the World at the Augustinianum Hall in Vatican City, noted that though Nigeria remained deeply troubled by violence, discrimination, and insecurity, there were encouraging signs of progress being made by the country that should be strengthened and not disparaged.
The cleric said: “Re-designating Nigeria a Country of Concern will only make our work in the area of dialogue among religious leaders even harder.
“It will increase tensions, sow doubt, open windows of suspicion and fear, and simply allow the criminals and perpetrators of violence to exploit. What Nigeria needs now is vigilance and partnership, not punishment”, Kukah added.
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While acknowledging that the Nigeria has failed in many respects to protect citizens’ rights to worship freely, the outspoken cleric recalled that under former President Muhammadu Buhari, religious persecution, particularly against Christians was quite noticeable and marked by exclusionary policies and the capture of federal power by northern Muslims.
He rated the Buhari administration as the worst phase in the history of interfaith relations in Nigeria, alleging that that government gave oxygen to jihadists through policies that overtly favoured Islam and northern Nigeria.
Kukah, however, described the Tinubu administration as so far showing a willingness to listen and to act inclusively, citing the appointment of Christians to strategic national positions, including the Chief of Defence Staff, the Director of the State Security Service, the INEC Chairman, and the National Chairman of the ruling party as confidence-building measures that inspire a sense of belonging.
The cleric also commended President Tinubu for visiting Benue State after the recent Yelwata killings, describing the visit and his empathy for victims as a departure from Buhari’s silence and indifference.
It would be recalled that in recent months, U.S Senator Ted Cruz and a group of Republican lawmakers had renewed pressure on the US State Department to re-designate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act.
The lawmakers argued that Nigerian authorities had condoned or failed to stop widespread persecution of Christians by extremist groups and that officials who enable such violence should face sanctions.
Specifically, Senator Cruz’s proposed Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 seeks to make the CPC status mandatory and impose penalties on officials complicit in religiously motivated killings or the enforcement of blasphemy and Sharia laws.
Nigeria was first placed on the CPC list in 2020 under the Trump administration but removed in 2021 by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The new congressional campaign follows inaccurate information of ongoing attacks on churches and faith-based communities, with Mr Cruz claiming, without evidence, that more than 50,000 Christians have been killed since 2009.
The proponents of the idea believed that the re-designation of Nigeria as a CPC would compel the Nigerian government to uphold religious freedoms just as critics, including rights monitors, noted that much of the country’s violence stemmed from terrorism, banditry, and communal conflict rather than state-sponsored persecution.
As expected, the Nigerian government has strongly rejected the accusations, maintaining that it does not persecute any religious group and that the crisis is rooted in insecurity and governance failures, not faith-based repression.
Commenting on the accusations, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Muhammed Idris, and lawmakers in House of Representatives have described the American lawmakers’ proposal as an “unfair and misleading” depiction of Nigeria’s situation.
They cautioned that such erroneous re-designation of the country undermined national sovereignty and ongoing efforts by the Nigerian government, spiritual leaders and peace loving Nigerians to commit to interfaith dialogue.
