Nigerian lawmakers move to counter US Senate bill targeting Nigeria over religious freedom
The House of Representatives has expressed serious concern over a bill recently introduced in the United States Senate seeking to classify Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) for alleged violations of religious freedom.
The motion, brought under Matters of Urgent Public Importance by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu on Wednesday called for a coordinated diplomatic and domestic response to what he described as “a mischaracterisation of Nigeria’s complex security and religious freedom landscape.”
The motion
The motion is titled “Urgent Need for a Coordinated Diplomatic and Domestic Response to the Proposed Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 (US Senate Bill S.2747) and to Mischaracterisations of Nigeria’s Security and Religious-Freedom Landscape.”
In his presentation on the floor, Mr Kalu informed lawmakers that on 9 September, a bill titled Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act, 2025 (S. 2747) was introduced in the United States Senate.
According to him, the proposed legislation sponsored by Ted Cruz and co-sponsored by other U.S. lawmakers directs the US Secretary of State to designate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).
If passed, the designation would subject Nigeria and certain officials to potential sanctions under Executive Order 13818 and related frameworks of the Global Magnitsky Act, a US law that targets individuals accused of human rights abuses or corruption worldwide.
Reading from the motion, he reminded the House that the Nigerian Constitution guarantees freedom of thought, conscience, and religion and prohibits the adoption of any state religion.
He said both successive administrations and security agencies, working with faith leaders and civil society have taken deliberate steps to protect worshippers of all faiths and to prosecute offenders, a fact reflected even in the US Department of State’s 2023 Country Report on Human Rights Practices for Nigeria.
Mr Kalu said the move was “unjustified” and “potentially damaging,” warning that such unilateral legislative action could undermine Nigeria’s sovereignty and misrepresent the country’s internal security challenges before the international community.
“This proposed US legislation is based on incomplete and de-contextualised assessments,” Mr Kalu said.
“Nigeria’s insecurity is complex, multi-casual, driven by insurgency, criminal banditry, farmer–herder conflicts, separatist agitations, and communal disputes that affect citizens of all faiths.”
The US bill
The Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 S. 2747 was introduced before the US Senate on 9 September. The bill seeks to mandate the US government to identify Nigerian officials responsible for maintaining or enforcing blasphemy laws and to sanction them.
The measure was inspired by recommendations from the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which has for several years urged the US State Department to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern.
The USCIRF reports allege that Nigerian authorities have failed to adequately protect religious minorities or punish perpetrators of violence.
However, Nigerian officials insist that such reports are misleading, arguing that most of the violence in the country is driven by terrorism and criminality rather than religious persecution.
Lawmakers push back
During the debate that followed Mr Kalu’s motion, several lawmakers backed the deputy speaker’s position, insisting that the bill in the US Senate was based on “faulty assumptions” and “one-sided narratives.”
The Chairperson, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Oluwole Oke, said the bill had long been under consideration in the US Congress, and that a public hearing on the subject had been held without the participation of Nigeria’s diplomatic mission in Washington.
“They denied our Nigerian mission and other Nigerians’ audience and participation,” Mr Oke said.
“I cited a case of an islamic scholar in Katsina who was honoured and on his way home was murdered by bandits. I cited several issues to show that we do not have religious crisis in Nigeria.
“It is a deliberate attempt to damage the Nigerian image,” he added.
He urged the House to fully support the investigation proposed in Mr Kalu’s motion and to ensure the Senate is on the same page.
In his contribution, Sada Soli (APC, Katsina) called on the National Assembly to adopt a more robust form of parliamentary diplomacy to engage the U.S. legislative system directly.
“This is the moment this Parliament must re-engineer its parliamentary diplomacy,” Mr Soli said.
“Nigeria has always been of strategic interest to the U.S. politically and economically. What we are facing now is global politics, and we must address it with facts through proper diplomatic channels.”
He recalled that in 2015, when the US National Security Council predicted Nigeria would become a failed state, the Nigerian Parliament sent delegations to Washington to engage key institutions until the report was disowned.
Billy Osawaru (APC, Edo) lamented that Nigeria currently lacks a substantive ambassador to the United States and a permanent representative to the United Nations, warning that this vacuum weakens Nigeria’s ability to respond to sensitive international issues.
“Nigeria cannot afford to avoid global politics,” Mr Osawaru said.
“If we don’t have proper diplomatic channels and recognised envoys in Washington and New York, our voices will not be heard. We must strengthen our missions and also use our Nigeria–U.S Parliamentary Friendship Group to engage the American Congress,” he said.
He added that the current issue transcends Nigeria, stressing that the move by the US could set a dangerous precedent for other African countries.
“If this bill sails through, Nigeria will be the first, but not the last, African country to be so designated. We must not fail Nigeria, and we must not fail Africa,” he warned.
House resolutions
Following extensive debate, the House resolved to condemn all forms of violence and persecution on religious grounds
It also resolved to reject external narratives portraying Nigeria’s security crisis as a purely religious conflict.
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The House further mandated the Committees on Foreign Affairs, National Security and Intelligence, Police Affairs, Interior, Civil Societies and Human Rights and National Orientation Values to within 21 days coordinate with the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Nigeria’s Embassy in Washington, D.C. to transmit Nigeria’s official position to the sponsors of S. 2747 and relevant US authorities as well as the US mission in Nigeria and interested US legislators to propose a Nigeria-US Joint Fact-Finding and Dialogue.
The resolution is also to be transmitted to the Presidency, the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the US Congress Leadership, the US Department of State, the African Union, and the ECOWAS Commission.