U.S. Senator Ted Cruz has openly accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of being complicit in what he described as the mass killing of Christians in northern Nigeria. He claimed that authorities “look the other way” while Christians are being targeted and killed.
Speaking on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, Cruz briefed fellow lawmakers on what he said were findings linked to alleged Christian genocide in northern Nigeria. He also argued that Nigeria’s listing as a country of particular concern has not led to any real response from the Tinubu government.
“Nigerian officials have been, unfortunately, complicit in facilitating these atrocities,” Mr Cruz said on Tuesday.
He went further, saying the problem cuts across different levels of government and that the entire system under Tinubu has been compromised in a way that allows violence against Christians to continue.
“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.
Cruz also claimed that Christians are the most targeted religious group globally, insisting that Nigeria records the highest number of killings linked to faith.
“more Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world”.
He further alleged that the violence has been ongoing for years, with large-scale destruction of places of worship and schools.
“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 senator also noted that the United States has identified and sanctioned officials linked to sponsoring violence in Nigeria.
Cruz has previously introduced the Nigerian Religious Freedom Accountability Act in 2025 and pushed for the U.S. to classify Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” over alleged targeted attacks on Christians.
The presidency has not yet responded to the latest comments, though the Nigerian government has consistently denied claims of complicity or ignoring killings in the northern region and other parts of the country.
