Anambra State Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo has firmly rejected claims that Christians in Nigeria’s South-East are victims of a religious genocide, describing such allegations as false, misleading, and politically distorted.
Speaking during a live interview on Channels Television, Soludo clarified that the unrest in the South-East is driven by socio-political and economic grievances, not by religious persecution. His response followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent statement accusing the Nigerian government of allowing “mass killings of Christians” and threatening military action to “protect” them.
Soludo said the reality on the ground is more complex than the narrative being pushed internationally. “There is a deeper conversation about what goes on in the country,” he explained. “In eastern Nigeria, it is not religious. People are killing themselves — Christians killing Christians. Those in the bushes are Emmanuel, Peter, and John — all Christian names — and they have maimed and killed thousands of our youths. It has nothing to do with religion.”
The former Central Bank governor emphasized that the South-East is about 95 percent Christian, and that both the perpetrators and victims share the same faith. He argued that the region’s violence stems from issues such as youth unemployment, political agitation, and long-standing neglect, not religious conflict.
He added that while the United States is free to express its opinions, its interventions must respect international law and Nigeria’s sovereignty. “It is wider than the categorisation of Christians and Muslims,” Soludo noted. “Nigeria will overcome, and it will end in conversation.”
Soludo’s comments aim to correct what he described as a dangerous oversimplification of Nigeria’s internal security challenges — one that risks inflaming religious tension where none exists.
