If the courts uphold his election victory, Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be sworn in as president of Nigeria on May 29. The new president will face many challenges, chief of which is insecurity.
Multiple armed conflicts, high levels of organized crime and worsening food insecurity persist around the country.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that some three million Nigerians have been internally displaced due to insecurity.
The country’s geographical regions are associated with distinct ethnicities and religions. Each has experienced different forms of insecurity:
- Farmer-herder conflicts in the country’s middle belt.
- Insurgency in the northeast.
- Banditry in the northwest.
- Separatist violence in the southeast.
Writing for The Conversation, University of Oslo political scientists Jana Krause and Imrana Buba assert that Tinubu’s choice of a fellow Muslim as vice president is likely to increase ethnic and religious tensions in the nation’s north-central zone.
Christians are often targets of violence in Nigeria. Nigeria led the world in Christians killed for their faith in 2022, with 5,014, according to Open Doors’ 2023 World Watch List report.
On April 1, at least seven Christians in Benue State were killed or injured in separate attacks.
“Christians in Apa Local Government Area need your prayers,” a local resident told Morning Star News.
In Benue State’s Logo County, one Christian was killed at an evening church service on March 31. Five others were wounded, and the pastor and four other congregation members were kidnapped, local sources reported.
In March, a pastor, his two sons and six others were killed in Nigeria’s Plateau State, Morning Star News reported.
The pastor and his family belonged to the Church of Christ in Nations. Another COCIN pastor was attacked the same day.
In the 2023 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria jumped to sixth place, its highest ranking ever, from No. 7 the previous year.
ABUJA, Nigeria – About 69 Christians were killed in various attacks within a month’s span in the Nigerian states of Benue and Plateau.
According to Morning Star News reports, the assailants were identified as Muslim Fulani herdsmen and terrorists.
In Benue state, about 60 Christians have been killed within a month. The latest of those attacks occurred April 1. At least six Christians were killed in Apa County. Also, in a raid upon a worship meeting in Logo County, another was slain, five were injured and the pastor and four others were kidnapped.
A few days prior, at least six Christians were slain and dozens wounded in a raid upon Atakpa village in Agatu County.
“What they are doing is land-grabbing for the Muslim Fulanis of the whole world,” said Mike Uba, a Benue state official. “They are especially targeting Benue state.”
In Plateau state, nine Christians were killed in attacks within a month. The lives of Musa Hyok, pastor of Church of Christ in Nations, and his sons, Emmanuel Musa and Mang Musa, were lost March 5 during an attack in Ganawuri town, states Morning Star.
Nigeria is No. 6 on Open Doors’ 2023 World Watch List of places most difficult to be a Christian.
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