A Nigerian think tank aims to document the ongoing violence of persecution against Christians
Continued from LAST WEEK
Christian leaders as ‘targets of kidnapping’
According to the Kukah Centre’s report, Christian religious leaders have become targets of kidnapping with 80% happening in the Northeast where, Fr. Stephen Ojapah MSP, the Regional Coordinator of the project in the region was kidnapped alongside his associate, Fr. Oliver Okpara at the parish house of St Patrick’s Church, Gidan Maikambo in Katsina on the 25th of May 2022 by unknown gunmen who demanded a ransom of about 241, 000 dollars. Eighteen Catholic priests in northwest Nigeria were kidnapped in different incidences during the period of documentation, while 4 were killed. Providing two evidence-based reasons for targeting religious leaders, the think tank stated that first, “it is an attempt to extort money from the church by holding religious leaders hostages until their ransom is paid… because perpetrators have the perception that the Church has the financial capacity to pay the ransom on behalf of its priests” and second, because “it is outright persecution against Christians. Thus, they have adopted this strategy to instill fear in religious leaders to hinder them from continuing their religious functions in the region.” ‘An utter deprivation of basic amenities’ “Nigerian Atrocities Documentation Project.” Credit: The Kukah Centre.
‘Slow’ governmental response
The research noted that: “The responses of the government to these frequent attacks and other related issues on Christian persecution have been slow, unsustainable, and unyielding.” “A major reason why these attacks continue to take place is a result of the poor responses of the government. Some of the short-term unyielding responses have been setting up military checkpoints that are usually operational during the day. This strategy was deployed especially in southern Kaduna when Fulani Muslims invaded some communities in Giwa and Kaura local government areas and killing about 32 persons and destroying over 300 households. This ‘Scores of Christians killed, others displaced’ – Nigerian think tank builds ‘atrocities database’ A Nigerian think tank aims to document the ongoing violence of persecution against Christians has not solved the problem as armed Fulani continue to attack Christian communities in the absence of the military” the report stated. It stressed that, “Another unyielding short-term response to these attacks is site visits after attacks. In January 2022 for example, a delegation from the Kaduna state government with the joint team of Heads of Security headed by the Commissioner for Internal Security of the state, Samuel Arwan visited Kaura and Giwa LGAs to commensurate with victims and survivors of attacks. There, he assured the victims and survivors of the state government’s efforts in addressing security issues. Despite this, Christian communities in the state are being attacked continuously. “Most worrisome is the fact that the government has deliberately refused to recognize that these attacks targeted at Christians are religiously motivated. There is more attention to providing analysis of these attacks from the viewpoint of climate change, cultural clash, and economic contestation.”
The challenge of documenting atrocities
On some of the challenges they encountered within, the Abuja-based NGO lamented that its regional coordinators could not “travel to the field and organize formal interviews with groups and key informants” because of “the increasing insecurity in Northern Nigeria (herdsmen attacks, banditry, Boko Haram, ISWAP attacks, etc.)” which “was aggravated by the abduction of the Northwest Regional Coordinators. This made “the regional coordinators [to devise] informal interviews to collect data in order not to raise religious suspicion and be exposed to security risks” they stated. During the project’s data collection phase, there was also “difficulty in field travels for data collection” occasioned by “traveling across the huge land expanse in Northern Nigeria” which made the “regional coordinators [to rely] on the networks they have established with local individuals and communities to collect and verify data.”

Policy recommendations
The center organized a webinar on the persecution of Christians and minority groups in Northern Nigeria on Aug. 15, 2022 “to converse on the causes and effects of the ideological and structural persecution of Christians and minority groups in Northern Nigeria, and to come up with policy recommendations that will address existing challenges.” The NGO urged to the Nigerian government to “constitute an inter-religious commission to hand issues on religious conflicts and persecutions, establish more IDP camps to accommodate persons stranded in conflict-torn areas and to deploy heavy military presence in rural areas and border communities exposed to external invasion.” It further recommended that, “The government should adopt community-led policing where indigenes and residents of communities are employed, trained, and equipped to secure their environment and communities against non-state actors like Boko Haram. “The existence of indigeneity in Nigeria has advanced the course of religious persecution. Lawmakers should come up with legislation that will promote inclusivity, free access to land, place of worship etc. and equality in the country.” It challenged Churches and Christian organizations/institutions to “organize public lectures or programs (like the popular crusades organized by religious leaders) on the current realities of Christian persecution to amply the voices of victims and provide counter-narratives to the existing secular narratives of climate change and economic competitions as the causes of these violent conflict.” To further curb the menace of Christian persecution in the region, the NGO encouraged religious bodies like the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) to “continue to confront the government on the need to solve the current security challenge while it seeks collaboration with Christian INGOs to offer humanitarian assistance to victims whom the government has not adequately provided relief services.” By the same token, the thinktank urged CAN, to establish an organization saddled with the responsibility of conducting evidence-based research on the persecution of Christians to create narratives contrary to popular opinions suggesting the attacks on Christians are not religiously motivated. It emphasized that “this will drive” the apex Christian body and “other religious leaders to confront the government on the issue of Christian persecution.” The center disclosed that the NADP implementation team will “continue with the collection of data across the regions” as well as organizing “a webinar on issues of persecution against Christians in Northern Nigeria.” In terms of sustainability, the Kukah Centre surmised that the two-fold approach adopted to make the project more impactful include “continuous data collection for advocacy and policy formulation to amplify the voices of victims and influence legislation” as well as “humanitarian intervention that will take care of the basic needs of victims.”
