Cleric says Western outrage over alleged persecution exaggerated, be driven by geopolitical interests
By Didimoko A. Didimoko, Lagos
Pastor Wale Adefarasin, the Senior Pastor of Guiding Light Assembly, has questioned what he described as the United States’ “sudden love” for Nigerian Christians, following comments by former US president Donald Trump about alleged religious persecution in the country.
In a video that circulated widely on social media on Monday, Adefarasin challenged the growing Western narrative that Christians in Nigeria were facing genocide, saying such portrayals were exaggerated and misleading.
“For 40 years that I have been a Christian, there have been killings in southern Kaduna, killings on the Plateau, there have been riots,” he said. “Sometimes, I think it was in France, an image of Prophet Muhammad was defaced — who remembers that? And as a result, there were killings of Christians in Nigeria.”
While condemning the recurring violence against Christians in parts of the country, the Lagos-based cleric argued that such incidents were neither new nor evidence of a systematic campaign to wipe out believers.
“It’s nothing new. It doesn’t amount to genocide,” he said. “The way the West are talking about it, it’s as if a Christian steps on the street, his head will be blown off.”
Adefarasin went on to suggest that renewed Western concern over Nigeria’s internal affairs might be influenced by geopolitical and economic interests rather than purely humanitarian motives.
“I’m trying to understand this sudden love for Christians,” he said. “Is it because we now have one of the largest refineries in the world and no longer have to ship raw materials abroad? Or is it because of the 21st-century minerals we now have in our earth, which are used to generate nuclear power for electric vehicles?”
His remarks come amid heightened diplomatic tension after Trump, who is seeking a return to the White House, warned of potential military action in Nigeria over what he described as a “mass killing of Christians.”
