The U.S. Designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern
On October 31, 2025, the United States reclassified Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), citing “years of Christian persecution.” This designation, which requires the U.S. Congress to investigate and report with recommendations, has created significant diplomatic and economic challenges for Nigeria. The country, still working to rebuild its global reputation after years of instability, corruption, and reputational damage, now faces a powerful label that could define it as a nation hostile to faith.
President Bola Tinubu’s administration, focused on economic reform, debt restructuring, and attracting foreign investment, is now confronted with an uphill battle against this label. However, designations are not final. With clear strategy and courage, Nigeria can transform this crisis into an opportunity to reclaim its narrative, restore trust, and reaffirm its leadership as Africa’s moral and democratic compass.
Under IRFA, the U.S. designates countries as CPCs if they are found to have engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. The implications of such a designation include potential sanctions, visa bans, aid restrictions, and reputational damage. As of the 2023 U.S. State Department list, other CPC countries included China, Iran, Russia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Pakistan, and Nicaragua. These nations face persecution as state policy, enforced by laws, police, and courts.
Nigeria, however, does not fit this profile. It has no state religion, and its Constitution explicitly guarantees freedom of worship. The violence in Nigeria stems from terrorism, banditry, and governance failures, not from state-sanctioned persecution. This makes the latest CPC designation legally questionable and politically suspicious — more a reflection of external pressure and internal mismanagement than genuine evidence of religious oppression.
Understanding Nigeria’s Security Challenges
Nigeria’s security crises are well-documented but often poorly interpreted. Insurgent groups like Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorize the North-East, targeting both Christians and Muslims who oppose their extremist views. Bandit groups in the North-West conduct mass kidnappings and ransom-driven killings, attacking schools, mosques, and markets. Farmer–herder conflicts in the Middle Belt are rooted in resource competition and climate stress, not theology. Urban criminal networks exploit ethnic and religious divides for political or financial gain.
In each case, victims span both faiths. Muslims have died in church bombings just as Christians have died in mosque raids. Nigeria’s challenge is lawlessness, not sectarianism. The international narrative that singles out Christian suffering while ignoring Muslim and other victims distorts the full picture and unfairly brands Nigeria as a faith-oppressive state.
The Role of Domestic and International Actors
Nigeria’s predicament was not solely created by Washington. It was worsened by Nigerians themselves — politicians, activists, and diaspora influencers who shaped a one-sided narrative abroad. Over the past three years, some individuals, often aligned with opposition movements or personal grievances, cultivated relationships with U.S. evangelical groups, human-rights lobbyists, and congressional offices. They presented selective data, sometimes unverifiable, to portray Nigeria as a failed religious state.
Several diaspora campaigns, operating under “Christian advocacy” banners, directly lobbied members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and faith-based caucuses in Congress. Their reports exaggerated Christian deaths, ignored Muslim casualties, and framed Nigeria’s violence as state complicity. This echo chamber found fertile ground in the American right-wing ecosystem, where religious freedom narratives often intersect with political ideology.
The Need for Strong Diplomatic Engagement
While this campaign gathered momentum, Nigeria had no ambassador in Washington. Several key embassies and consulates were either vacant or led by acting officials with limited access to senior policymakers. Without professional diplomacy and real-time lobbying, Nigeria’s rebuttal to USCIRF reports and advocacy briefings never reached Congress. The result: a vacuum filled by others.
In diplomacy, silence is never neutral — it’s surrender. Nigeria’s international communications infrastructure has been practically non-existent. Neither the Ministry of Information nor the foreign affairs press corps launched a coordinated campaign to shape global perception. Consequently, international outlets published stories centered solely on persecution claims, without context from Nigeria’s own data or security briefings.
To correct this, Nigeria must mount a global media offensive — not of denial, but of balanced storytelling. Local media can collaborate with international agencies to publish investigative features, interviews, and human-interest reports highlighting multi-faith victimization and the government’s security initiatives.
A Path Forward for Nigeria
Vietnam (2004–2006), Sudan (1999–2020), and Uzbekistan (2006–2018) all achieved removal from the CPC list through engagement, reform, and communication. Those that resisted — Eritrea, Iran, North Korea — remain trapped under sanctions. Nigeria’s best path forward is to prove progress with evidence, not emotion.
Trump’s new declaration carries strategic undertones. Nigeria’s rising geopolitical independence — ties with China, India, and BRICS partners, talk of new military cooperation outside traditional Western channels — has drawn attention. CPC designation becomes a pressure tool, a soft-power signal to force compliance or weaken non-aligned tendencies.
Washington’s moral rhetoric often masks political intent. Nigeria must recognize this, not with confrontation, but with strategic sophistication.
Strategic Steps for Nigeria
Nigeria must fill its Washington post immediately with a seasoned, non-partisan, retired diplomat respected on Capitol Hill — ideally someone with prior service in Washington or at the U.N. The ambassador must be empowered, not ornamental — armed with data, talking points, and authority.
A high-powered delegation should land in Washington within weeks, led by the Foreign Minister and including the attorney-general and director-general of NIA, a prominent Muslim cleric, Bishop Matthew Kukah, and Pastor E. A. Adeboye, to showcase interfaith unity. A retired diplomat like Prince Bolaji Akinyemi, the president of the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce, and two respected media strategists should also join.
Their objective: negotiate a 180-day Action Plan with the U.S. State Department to suspend punitive measures while reforms are verified.
Nigeria must retain reputable lobbying firms that understand Capitol Hill, faith-based caucuses, and U.S. think tanks. These professionals can organize congressional briefings, facilitate meetings with USCIRF, and align Nigeria’s facts with the policy language American legislators understand.
Rebuilding Trust and Reputation
The government should create a Presidential Task Force on Religious Freedom and Human Rights. This inter-ministerial body should include representatives from justice, interior, police affairs, information, and civil society. Its mandate would include investigating and prosecuting religious or communal killings, protecting worship centers, publishing monthly security and justice metrics, and serving as the domestic evidence engine for international diplomacy.
Nigeria should deploy security units to churches, mosques, and schools in high-risk zones, review blasphemy and discriminatory laws at the state level for constitutional compliance, establish fast-track courts for sectarian crimes, and support interfaith councils and community peace initiatives.
Nigeria should hire a premier communications consultancy — such as Fraser Consulting — to rebuild its global reputation. The firm should coordinate op-eds in major U.S. and European outlets, brief editorial boards, and synchronize messaging between Abuja and Washington.
Public diplomacy is no longer optional; it is national security.
The Power of Interfaith Unity
Nigeria remains one of the world’s few nations where major religions coexist in near parity and interdependence. From Sokoto to Port Harcourt, from Lagos to Maiduguri, Muslims and Christians live, trade, and mourn together. Every family knows both faiths. Every tragedy touches both sides.
This lived reality is Nigeria’s greatest argument before Congress and the world. The inclusion of Muslim and Christian clerics in the proposed delegation is not symbolism — it is truth in motion.
A Structured International Communications Plan
Immediate phase — issue factual press kits to U.S. and European media, clarifying that CPC narratives ignore Muslim victims and the non-state nature of violence.
Medium-term phase — coordinate exclusive features on CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera, highlighting interfaith cooperation in rebuilding attacked communities.
Long-term phase — produce documentaries, organize town-hall tours through diaspora communities, and engage influential U.S. churches and think tanks.
Every headline affects capital flows. CPC designation signals instability to lenders, investors, and rating agencies. It undermines Tinubu’s painstaking economic reforms and deters diaspora remittances.
To restore credibility, Nigeria must communicate governance, not slogans. Publishing quarterly reform scorecards — on justice, security, and human rights — will reassure global partners that this is a government willing to confront its weaknesses openly.
Silence allowed this crisis to grow; engagement can now reverse it.
Nigeria must speak with one voice — confident, factual, and humble. It must demonstrate that while insecurity persists, the state neither condones nor targets any religion.
If Abuja acts swiftly — politically, diplomatically, and communicatively — the U.S. Congress could reconsider or suspend CPC enforcement before the next IRFA review.
In diplomacy, facts matter — but presence matters more.
The CPC designation is not a final verdict on Nigeria; it is a wake-up call. It exposes the cost of silence, the price of weak diplomacy, and the danger of internal sabotage. But it also provides a rare opportunity: to rebuild trust, to demonstrate unity, and to showcase Nigeria as a democracy that learns and reforms.
If Nigeria speaks with evidence, protects with justice, and leads with integrity, Washington will have no moral basis to keep it on the CPC list.
The world respects nations that act, not argue.
International diplomacy punishes silence but rewards engagement.
Nigeria must now engage — not defensively, but decisively — to prove that it is not a Country of Particular Concern, but a Country of Particular Courage, Conviction, and Conscience.