Friday, December 5, 2025 - Nigerians in diaspora under the aegis of Save Nigeria Group USA, have rallied against the alleged killing of Christians in the country, calling on the US President, Donald Trump, to take immediate action against perpetrators of the religious freedom violations.
The protesters, who thronged the US Capitol, yesterday, in
solidarity to millions of Nigerians displaced from their ancestral homes and
those killed as a result of their faith, said that Nigeria has abandoned the
foundation that once held its diverse people together.
The call for action against perpetrators of religious
violence in Nigeria came a day after the US Department of State took a decisive
step on visa restriction against those deemed to be enabling Christian genocide
in the country.
According to the US, the perpetrators and their immediate
family members would be targeted in the planned visa ban.
The latest decision by the US followed series of hearings on
alleged Christian killings in Nigeria by the US Congress ordered by Trump after
he redesignated Nigerian as a Country of Particular Concern.
Speaking during the protest, the leader of the group, Mr.
Stephen Osemwegie, decried the seeming intractable ethnic-inspired religious
killings and recurrent kidnapping of citizens which have ravaged many parts of
Nigeria, wondering why the government which should have the primary duty of
protecting lives and property has failed to do so in Nigeria.
He urged the U.S Senate Majority leader John Thune to bring
Senator Ted Cruz’s bill, S.2747, to the floor for an immediate vote, to
target terror sponsors, sanctions corrupt officials, and cut off money fueling
the killings.
He urged the United States House of Representatives through
its Speaker, Mike Johnson to urgently pass the House Resolutions H.Res. 860,
Rep. Chris Smith, H.Res. 866, Rep. Riley Moore both of which recognise the
ongoig killings as Christian Genocide, seek to document atrocities, support
President Trump’s intervention, demand accountability and call for action to
protect the displaced.
He said: “We gather today not because of the buildings
behind us, but because of the truth we are speaking, the justice we are
demanding, and the lives we refuse to forget.
“I stand before you not only as President of Save Nigeria
Group USA, but as a son of Nigeria, a witness to the suffering, and a believer
in the power of faith, truth, and righteous action.
“Today, as we raise our voices here in Washington, millions
of Christians across Nigeria are living in terror. In Plateau, Benue, Kaduna,
Taraba, Southern Kaduna, Borno and the South East, the attacks are relentless,
churches burned, pastors beheaded, villages wiped out, women and children
abducted, entire communities erased, over 11 million displaced Christians
struggling to survive.
“Only days ago, over 300 Christian school children were
kidnapped at Saint Mary’s Catholic School. This is not random violence. This is
not farmer-herder conflict, this is a systematic campaign of religious and
ethnic cleansing, carried out by jihadist militias and protected by political
actors. Call it what it is: A Christian Genocide.
“On November 1, President Donald Trump with courage, moral
clarity, and a heart for the persecuted redesignated Nigeria as a Country of
Particular Concern, CPC. This was not symbolic, this was the first true step
toward stopping the killings. President Trump saw what many refused to see. He
said what many feared to say and he acted when others sat in silence. We thank
him. We honour him. And we stand with him.”
He lamented that though the 1960 Constitution respected
Nigeria’s unique religious, and cultural diversity, the new centralised system
established through several military coups, had created a weaponised federal
structure that empowers extremists, suppresses regions, and fuels oppression.
Echoing the recent position held by former President
Olusegun Obasanjo, he said: “Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo
recently said: ‘When a government fails to protect its citizens, the people
have the right to call for international intervention.’ That moment is now.
Nigeria’s government has failed. And we as Nigerians in the diaspora have the
right, the duty, and the calling to demand global action.”
The group called for what it termed full CPC enforcement.
“We demand sanctions, visa bans, asset freezes, criminal referrals against any
Nigerian political figure, military officer, security official, or financier
involved in terror sponsorship, covering up massacres, protecting killers,
profiting from stolen crude oil, profiting from blood minerals, benefiting from
mass displacement. Blood money must not continue flowing through American banks
or global markets.”
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