The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has accused the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and its foreign allies of spreading falsehood about alleged genocide against Christians in Nigeria.
The council described the claims as “acts that verge on treason” and “tools of foreign manipulation” meant to destabilise the country.
In a statement signed by Imam Haroun Muhammad Eze, Deputy National Legal Adviser, and dated October 10, 2025 (18th Rabi’ul Thani 1447 AH), the Council said it was alarmed by what it called “the avalanche of refutations” by government agencies and patriotic Nigerians who were forced to counter “the recent false allegation circulating on some international platforms and the social media that there is a systematic genocidal campaign against Christians in Nigeria.”
According to NSCIA, while it appreciated the patriotism shown by government institutions in rebutting the claim, it faulted the government for “failing to call a spade a spade” and identify the local instigators of the propaganda.
“It is common knowledge that the negative profiling that Nigeria currently suffers all around the world is largely the aftermath of the activities of some Nigerian citizens (now revealed as agents of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)) who have found a big business in self-flagellation,” the Council said.
The Muslim body said those individuals “have resorted to engaging in activities that verge on treason to achieve material gains” and “exploit transactions in religious antipathy as easy pathways to global recognition and fame.”
The statement also faulted the federal government for its “otiose voyage” of merely appealing to international commentators to be fair without addressing “the local originators of the false narrative.”
The Council also alleged that “some political desperadoes and religious irredentists have been trying hard to plunge Nigeria into a religious war,” recalling that “during the buildup to the 2023 presidential election, a presidential candidate had actually, in a leaked audio recording, spoken to an Islamophobic religious leader declaring the election as a ‘religious war’.”
NSCIA dismissed the allegation of “Islamist persecution of Christians” as a deliberate distortion of facts.
“Importuning that terrorist groups, whose religious identities are conflated, are carrying out attacks against Christians alone in Nigeria is plainly mendacious,” the statement said, citing reports by the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) showing that terrorists and bandits attack both Muslims and Christians.
The Council accused CAN leaders of “venting lies, projecting persecution and victimhood to the global audience while being the masquerade behind the insecurity in the land.”
It also referenced what it called “false alarms” raised by certain Christian clerics, including Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe of Makurdi Diocese and Rev. Joseph Hayab of Northern CAN, whom it accused of spreading “false and odious statements” without consequence from the federal government.
“Indeed, as if they were desirous to show that they were above the law, a popular television station allotted substantial airtime to Rev. Hayab… to restate the false narrative that Christians are being targeted and persecuted across Nigeria,” NSCIA said.
While acknowledging a previous statement from a CAN official who admitted that “the spate of killings does not take any pattern” and that “bullets don’t look for a Christian or spare a Muslim,” the Council said it was disappointed by “the false proclamation of the CAN President,” insisting that “the individuals who were propagating the falsehood were, in reality, playing the scripts of CAN.”
The Council further alleged that CAN has made it a habit to “malign Islam and the Muslims,” adding that “when the Chiefs of Defence and Army were Muslims, the complaint from CAN was that both were complicit, but now that all service chiefs, except one, are Christians, another culprit has to be created.”
According to NSCIA, “some of the terrorist groups being paraded as Islamic were creations of anti-Islamic groups,” citing the public acknowledgment by Hillary Clinton that the United States created Al-Qaeda.
The Council also accused the federal government of tolerating religious imbalance in appointments, claiming that “62% of presidential appointees are Christians in a country where Muslims are preponderant,” and lamented that President Bola Tinubu “met only with Christian leaders” during his visit to Plateau State “without any recognition for the oppressed Muslim minority in the state.”
“It is thus obvious that the propaganda around the Muslim/Muslim ticket is being successfully used to blackmail and extort the federal government, and to the detriment of the Muslims,” the Council warned.
It also expressed concern over what it described as “targeting of Muslims and Islamic beliefs” by certain government agencies, particularly citing a circular issued by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) restricting cooperation between Takaful operators and conventional insurers.
NSCIA maintained that despite the provocations, it “strongly believes in one and indivisible Nigeria, and it shall continue to work to preserve this ideal even in the face of the greatest provocation.”
“Council strongly believes in one and indivisible Nigeria, and it shall continue to work to preserve this ideal even in the face of the greatest provocation,” the statement concluded.
SaharaReporters
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