Former presidential aide Reno Omokri challenged United States Senator Ted Cruz, former US Mayor Mike Arnold, and others to publicly name any government official known to be facilitating terrorism or Christian genocide in Nigeria.
Simultaneously, the Secretary-General of the Jama’at Nasril Islam (JNI), Professor Khalid Aliyu, dismissed Senator Cruz’s allegations that the security issues in Nigeria constitute a deliberate genocide against Christians.
These reactions emerge as the Nigerian government’s response to extremist violence faces renewed international and domestic scrutiny, with various parties offering different interpretations of the ongoing crisis.
Omokri made this challenge during a media discussion in Abuja, where he also blamed the Obama administration for implementing policies that he claims fueled the Boko Haram insurgency.
He accused Senator Cruz of only mentioning facts that supported his goal to label Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” regarding religious freedom, saying Cruz “picked only reports that favoured his agenda.”
While stating he does not believe genocide is occurring, Omokri argued that claims suggesting state officials might be supporting terrorism must be backed up with specific names and concrete evidence.
He was partly responding to remarks made by Mike Arnold, an independent investigator in Nigeria, who had maintained that targeted violent killings were indeed happening in the country.
However, when pressed to definitively name the perpetrators based on his findings, Arnold clarified that the alleged genocide is being carried out by terrorists against both Christian and Muslim citizens.
Omokri countered this, asserting, “Saying there is genocide in Nigeria is against common sense.
The claim is not true, but if you think it is true, don’t just come and make accusations, name them and shame them. Be specific, that’s how you’re going to help Nigeria.”
He added, “I believe Senator Cruz means well, but he doesn’t have the right information. If he knows the names of the Nigerian officials who are facilitating this genocide, he should name and shame them. Because he did say that he knows and that he’s aware of them.”
Omokri acknowledged continuing security issues, stating, “We know there are still challenges, impunity hasn’t ended, but it’s a process.
We’re expanding the capacity of the Nigerian Army and Police. We can’t be everywhere at the same time.”
He pointed to Nigeria’s improved position on the Global Terrorism Index, noting that the country had dropped from the third most terrorized nation to the eighth place.
He claimed that the “deaths recorded in Nigeria, according to the Global Terror Index, reduced from 7,512 in 2015 to 565 in 2024.”
For his part, JNI Secretary Prof. Aliyu described Cruz’s claims as unfounded and bizarre, saying, “it sounds really very strange for such an unverified claim that there is Christian genocide in Nigeria.” He believes it is “really very dangerous to change the paradigm and the narrative from the act of criminality, and identify it with ethnic nationality or religious inclination.”
Aliyu concluded that he suspects this assertion is “intended to create bad blood” and potentially has a “sinister motive behind such claims, to really draw us back from going out of the quagmire we are passing through.”
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