Brad Brandon, CEO of Across Nigeria, is pushing back on the media narrative surrounding Christian persecution in Nigeria, explaining the intricacies of the issue and clarifying key points.
“It is a persecution issue,” Brandon said. “I mean, you’ve got over 50,000 Christians that have been killed since 2009; 18,000 churches have been destroyed.”
Additionally, he said there are “internally displaced persons camps” with millions of people being housed there. The majority of these individuals are reportedly Christian.
“Their communities and their villages are being destroyed, and they have nowhere else to go,” Brandon said. “So there is an issue of Christian persecution going on, no doubt. Christians are being targeted. They are second-class citizens all throughout northern Nigeria.”
Brandon said there are a lot of complexities to the issue, though, and proceeded to explain some of the confounding and difficult elements.
“Some people cite, ‘Well, there’s a lot of Muslim on Muslim violence. And that’s absolutely true. Boko Haram will target Muslims just as fast … as anybody else,” he said. “We are very familiar with several schools, Islamic schools, who’ve had Muslim children kidnapped by Boko Haram. They end up holding them for ransom. These are Muslim children and holding them for ransom, and that’s a lot of times how Boko Haram will fund their operations.”
He said this targeting of non-radical Muslims is a reality, with extremists angry that these individuals refuse to embrace their version of Islam.
Still, Brandon said the overall numbers paint a very clear picture of what’s happening inside Nigeria.
“If you look at the overall numbers, clearly Christians are being targeted, and … the killing, and the persecution, and the displacement are all disproportionate by far against Christians,” he said.
Brandon decried media outlets that are doubting this reality as coming from specific ideologies or even leaning too far into the Nigerian government’s narrative.
“They were out outright denying that there was any persecution against Christians going on,” he said. “So I look at that as just a bias against Christianity, really, in the media — secular media.”
President Donald Trump recently redesignated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern, a designation that will put further scrutiny on Nigeria’s handling of persecution. Then, last week, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu issued a state of emergency following mass abductions.
Watch Brandon above to see him explain the intricate nature of these issues.
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