US lawmakers convened in Washington DC on Tuesday for a joint briefing to examine Nigeria’s worsening insecurity, mass abductions, and allegations of systemic religious persecution.
The session followed a directive from US President Donald Trump, who on October 31 asked Congress to investigate claims of large-scale killings of Christians in Nigeria and deliver recommendations to the White House.
The briefing united two congressional panels, the House Appropriations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, with the hearing anchored by Vice Chair Mario Díaz-Balart.
Religious-freedom experts and civil-rights advocates provided testimonies documenting kidnappings, forced conversions, and deadly attacks, particularly across the Middle Belt and northern communities.
Aderholt condemned the violence in unequivocal terms.
“Our brothers and sisters in Christ are being persecuted and slaughtered in Nigeria simply for professing their faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” he said. “The world will no longer turn a blind eye to the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.”
Committee leaders called the crisis “a catalyst for concern on American interests,” linking the issue to Nigeria’s recent re-designation as a Country of Particular Concern for alleged religious-freedom abuses. That move is being reviewed by the U.S. House Subcommittee on Africa ahead of a potential Senate affirmation that could open the door to sanctions on Nigerian officials, if endorsed.
Despite Obadare’s strong criticism of Nigeria’s blasphemy laws and impunity concerns, Obadare focused more broadly on jihadist terror.
“The deadliest and most serious threat confronting the Nigerian state today is jihadist terror,” he told the committee, identifying terrorism not sectarian labels alone as the core destabiliser.
Lawmaker Mast urged Nigeria’s leadership to confront the militias directly, though he acknowledged the risk of escalation.
“They are human beings. They know the right thing to be done,” he said, asking Nigerian officials to “disarm these militias, return displaced families to their homes, and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Hours after the briefing in Washington, President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday held a security meeting at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa with senior defence chiefs as part of an earlier declared national security emergency.
The meeting occurred shortly after Tinubu’s nomination of retired military chief Gen. Christopher Musa as Minister of Defence, following the resignation of former defence minister Badaru on Monday night. Top security commanders present included the chief defence staff, army, air and naval chiefs.
The evolving crisis has also triggered a major legislative push in Abuja. On Wednesday, Nigeria’s federal parliament is expected to open debate on the security situation while lawmakers advance constitutional amendments on decentralised policing, state police, and fiscal reforms.
Henry called state police a critical step to restoring order and improving wild-field responses.
“The question is no longer whether we should establish state police, but how quickly we can put the right structures in place to make it work,” he said, stressing that “Nigerians deserve a policing system that is close to the people, responsive, adequately funded, and effective.”
