A leading Catholic criminologist accused Church leaders in Nigeria of failing to speak out against the persecution of Christians.
Emeka Umeagbalasi, director of the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety), said Church leaders, including Catholic bishops, have been compromised while government-backed jihadist movements continue to attack Christians across the country.
“The problem is that the people who are supposed to lead the struggle [against persecution], the so-called defenders of faith, the Christian leaders, the bishops, keep quiet,” Emeka told The Tablet.
“Even when you approach any of them for a comment, they will warn you not to try that line again. In fact, they will block you,” he said.
His intervention followed the latest series of attacks on Christians in Benue State, where at least 70 Christians were killed and around 20 Catholic medical students kidnapped.
Intersociety reported that at least 52,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since 2009, when the Islamist group Boko Haram began its campaign to create a caliphate in the region.
According to the charity Open Doors, which supports persecuted Christians, Nigeria has the worst record for attacks on Christians in the world. In 2021, more Christians were murdered for their faith in Nigeria than in any other country on earth, the group said.
“Christians are bearing the brunt of insecurity and violence, as bandits attack homes, villages and churches, killing Christians and kidnapping others for ransom,” the Archbishop of Abuja Ignatius Kaigama told The Tablet.
Emeka said Church leaders treated the killings as “unfortunate” and accused them of failing in their duty to stand for the truth.
“You have fake Christians all over the place, pretending to be defenders of faith. You have people who watch by and collect blood money from jihadist leaders and allow their parishioners, their congregants to be massacred,” he alleged.
He cited the case of Hyacinth Alia, a Nigerian priest suspended from ministry in 2022 after he chose to go into politics, as an example of a cleric more interested in making money than in serving God. Alia joined the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) and was appointed governor of Benue State last year.
“No reasonable priest will join the ruling APC in Nigeria, not to talk of vying to be governor,” Emeka said. “There is no difference between that priest and the others that have turned the house of Jesus Christ into a money-making event.”
He continued: “It is sheer desperation for power that brought about the emergence of that suspended reverend father.”
Although he did not name other individuals, Emeka accused the wider Church leadership of often abandoning their flock in moments of need.
“The Christian leaders no longer care about good life, societal decency, and faith decency,” he said, alleging that politicians had hijacked regional bishops’ conferences, with bishops’ expenses sometimes paid by the same politicians who worsen Christian persecution.
“Their flight tickets, their hotel accommodations, their feeding,” Emeka said. “Those bishops are far from being independent. Whatever they do is influenced.”
In response, Archbishop Kaigama insisted that bishops have always spoken out against evil “no matter the perpetrator”.
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