from 21st Century Wire:

When American talk show host Bill Maher declared on air that “a Christian genocide is happening in Nigeria,” his audience gasped. Days later, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz took to social media to accuse the Nigerian government of “mass murder against Christians,” calling for Washington to classify Africa’s most populous nation as a “country of particular concern.”

To many in Nigeria, the rhetoric felt like déjà vu, a familiar blend of selective outrage and oversimplification. But beneath the slogans and hashtags lies a sophisticated web of political, religious, and diaspora interests that have turned a complex national crisis into a one-dimensional story of Christian persecution. Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has strongly criticized those who assert that there is a “Christian genocide” occurring in Nigeria. He stated that this claim is not only untrue but also a desperate political tactic aimed at tarnishing the reputation of the Tinubu administration.