A United States (US) lawmaker, Riley Moore, has publicly challenged President Bola Tinubu’s assertion that Nigeria does not encourage religious persecution, arguing that conditions on the ground contradict the President’s assurances.
In a post on X on Sunday, Moore responded to Tinubu’s earlier statement on religious liberty, saying the Nigerian leader’s position failed to reflect the lived experience of many citizens.
Sharing a clip from a Fox News Sunday interview, the US congressman wrote: "@officialABAT claims his government opposes religious persecution.
"But 12 states have Sharia law, and a Christian faces the death penalty for defending his farm from a Muslim Fulani militant who stabbed him repeatedly."
During the broadcast, anchor Shannon Bream read out Tinubu’s November declaration on religious freedom, in which the President said Nigeria "stands firmly as a democracy governed by constitutional guarantees of religious liberty" and maintains active engagement with both Christian and Muslim leaders.
Tinubu insisted that characterising Nigeria as intolerant "does not reflect our national reality."
But Moore dismissed that narrative, telling Fox News:
"Unfortunately, that is completely false. There are states in Nigeria that have blasphemy laws.
"People are facing the death penalty for blasphemy against Islam. Another person is imprisoned for defending himself from an attack. So no, there is serious persecution happening in Nigeria."
He added that while Tinubu faced political pressures, comments downplaying the problem "complicitly" fed a misleading picture.
Moore’s reaction come amid escalating debate in the US, following former President Donald Trump’s 31 October decision to classify Nigeria as a "Country of Particular Concern" over alleged genocide against Christians.
Trump warned that Washington could deploy troops if the Nigerian government failed to end the killings.
Abuja has repeatedly rejected such claims, describing allegations of a "Christian genocide" as inaccurate and a misrepresentation of the country’s wider security crises.
Moore, however, reiterated his support for Trump’s stance in a 5 November statement, praising the former US President for "defending our brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering horrific persecution."
The renewed scrutiny has widened divisions among religious groups in Nigeria. On 13 November, Bishop Wale Oke, President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, insisted that Christians were victims of genocide, describing the situation as "evil" and "mass murder."
The Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN) countered that position in a statement last Thursday, rejecting the genocide claim and warning the US against framing local conflicts along religious lines.
MUSWEN argued that many clashes were driven by ethnic, economic, or territorial factors, not faith.
Diplomatic tensions sharpened further last week after a disagreement between Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, and British broadcaster Piers Morgan.
Tuggar demanded that Morgan’s channel air his recent interview in full, cautioning that selective editing risked distorting Nigeria’s image and reinforcing "misleading narratives" about religious persecution.
READ ALSO: Alleged Genocide: PFN Rejects Calls for American Invasion
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