Nigerian political commentator and author Reno Omokri has fired back at U.S. Senator Ted Cruz over claims that the Nigerian government is supporting terrorism and enabling a so-called “Christian genocide.”
Speaking during an interview on ARISE News on Monday, October 13, Omokri described Cruz’s accusations as “ridiculous, baseless, and fueled by misinformation.” The former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan said the senator’s claims—and his push for the “Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025”—are rooted in distorted Western narratives about Nigeria’s security crisis.
Omokri revealed that after hearing such allegations, he invited a two-man delegation from the U.S., including Mike Arnold, the Republican Mayor of Blanco, Texas, and filmmaker Jeff Gibbs, to visit Nigeria. The delegation met with both Christian and Muslim leaders, including the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), and also visited IDP camps to see the reality for themselves.
According to Omokri, their findings confirmed that while Christians have indeed suffered attacks, so have Muslims, proving there’s no religious genocide in Nigeria. “When terrorists attack Benue, the victims are mostly Christians because it’s Christian-dominated. When they attack Zamfara, most victims are Muslims. Terrorism in Nigeria has no religion,” he emphasized.
Omokri traced the roots of Nigeria’s insecurity back to the Obama administration’s intervention in Libya in 2011, which, he said, destabilized the Sahel and led to the rise of armed militias across West Africa. He accused the U.S. of moral complicity, saying, “The Obama administration’s actions opened the floodgates of chaos in Africa, and now Nigeria is paying the price.”
He warned that falsely labeling Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” could worsen tensions and embolden terrorists. “If the U.S. misclassifies Nigeria, it will not help—it will only punish ordinary citizens, both Christians and Muslims,” Omokri cautioned.
