Nigeria’s House of Representatives has rejected narratives, especially by the United States government, framing Nigeria’s security crisis as a singularly religious conflict or as state-sponsored persecution, reaffirming Nigeria’s constitutional protections for freedom of religion and belief.

The resolution followed a motion sponsored by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, and 358 other members, in reaction to a bill titled the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 (S.2747) introduced in the United States Senate, seeking to require the U.S. Secretary of State to designate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) and to impose sanctions on Nigerian officials under Executive Order 13818 (Global Magnitsky) and related authorities.

The motion cited the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recent Annual Reports, which recommended Nigeria for CPC designation over persistent violations and state failures to protect against non-state actors’ abuses.

But the Deputy Speaker drew the attention of U.S. authorities to the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution, which guarantees freedom of thought, conscience, and religion and bars adoption of a state religion, explaining that successive administrations, security agencies, faith leaders, and civil society continue to undertake measures to protect all worshippers and prosecute offenders — as reflected in the U.S. Department of State’s 2023 country chapter and prior reports.

Lawmakers strongly condemned the assertion, maintaining that insecurity in Nigeria is complex and multi-causal — driven by insurgency, criminal banditry, farmer-herder conflict, separatist violence, and communal disputes affecting citizens of all faiths — and called on the House leadership to take urgent steps toward setting the record straight.

The House expressed concern that external legislative actions based on incomplete assessments risk undermining Nigeria’s sovereignty, misrepresenting facts, straining strategic relations, and unintentionally emboldening violent actors.

In other resolutions, lawmakers directed the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, D.C., to lodge a formal diplomatic demarche to the sponsors of the bill and relevant U.S. committees, transmitting empirical data and Nigeria’s official position.

They also want the U.S. Mission in Nigeria and interested U.S. legislators to propose a Nigeria-U.S. Joint Fact-Finding and Dialogue.

They mandated the Committees on Foreign Affairs, National Security and Intelligence, Interior, and Information, National Orientation and Values, Police Affairs, Civil Society, and Human Rights to, within 21 days, coordinate the dialogue.

The committees are to convene a mechanism on freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), with participation from faith leaders and independent experts, and to invite USCIRF to a hearing/briefing of the House to examine sources, methodology, and remedies.

The Committee on Legislative Compliance was also mandated to ensure execution of these resolutions and report back to the House within 28 days.