The United States (U.S.) House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa will hold an open hearing on Thursday, November 20, 2025, to examine President Donald Trump’s recent redesignation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC).
The CPC designation, if ratified by the Senate, would allow the US to impose sanctions on Nigerian officials found complicit in religious persecution and limit certain forms of bilateral assistance.
It also signals to the international community that religious freedom in Nigeria remains under serious threat.
The hearing, scheduled for 11:00 am in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building and available via live webcast, will be chaired by Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ).
It will feature two panels of witnesses, including senior US State Department officials and Nigerian religious leaders.
The invite to the members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, sighted by The PUNCH, read, “You are respectfully requested to attend an open hearing of the Committee on Foreign Affairs to be held by the Subcommittee on Africa at 11:00 a.m.in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building.”
According to the invite, panelists will include Senior Bureau Official of the Bureau of African Affairs, Jonathan Pratt, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Jacob McGee.
The second panel will feature the Director of the Centre for Religious Freedom, Ms Nina Shea; Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of Makurdi Catholic Diocese in Nigeria; and Ms Oge Onubogu of the Centre for Strategic & International Studies.
The congressional hearing is expected to review not only the scope of religious persecution in Nigeria, but also potential policy responses, including targeted sanctions, humanitarian assistance, and collaboration with Nigerian authorities to prevent further violence.
On October 31, 2025, President Trump designated Nigeria a ‘’Country of Particular Concern’’ for religious freedom violations. The move has sparked debate over rising attacks on Christians in Nigeria and the possibility of US intervention.
In designating Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, Trump cited alleged severe violations of religious freedom, particularly the persecution of Christians.
He claimed that Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria, with thousands of Christians being killed by radical Islamists.
Trump warned that the US would take action, including potential military intervention, if Nigeria did not address the issue.
The US President also threatened to halt all aid and assistance to Nigeria should President Bola Tinubu’s administration fail to end the alleged persecution and killing of Christians.
“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the USA will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now-disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.
“I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our cherished Christians,” he said on November 1, 2025.
President Tinubu, however, described the claim as a misrepresentation of Nigeria’s religious reality.
Reacting through a statement on his official X handle, Tinubu said the claim failed to reflect the country’s constitutional commitment to religious liberty.
‘’Nigeria stands firmly as a democracy governed by constitutional guarantees of religious liberty. The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality.
“Religious freedom and tolerance have been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so. Nigeria opposes religious persecution and does not encourage it,” the President said.
Trump’s designation comes amid repeated attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria, including killings by Islamic extremist groups, kidnappings, and the destruction of churches.
The bill is also before the Senate of the United States, sponsored by Senator Ted Cruz.
Nigeria was first designated CPC by Trump in 2020, before his successor, President Joe Biden, removed the country from the list after defeating Trump.
Bishop Anagbe, who will testify at the House Committee hearing, had recently voiced his concerns over Christian killings in the country.
Speaking at an event in the United Kingdom Parliament on March 25, 2025, Bishop Anagbe denounced the mass killing of Christians by Islamist extremists and militant Fulani herdsmen.
Visiting the UK as a guest of Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, he told parliamentarians how his flock had seen their homes torched and were forced to flee to internally displaced persons’ camps.
The bishop said that Benue State had been attacked by Islamist extremists and Fulani herdsmen targeting Christian communities, and had seen farmers driven from their land, churches burned, and priests, religious, and lay members killed.
“The militant Fulani herdsmen bear down on defenseless villagers without consequence.
“They follow orders to conquer, kill, and occupy. They attack even those who have managed to escape into our IDP camps,” he told the UK parliamentarians.
Congressman tackles Tinubu
Riley Moore (R-WV), in an interview with Fox News on Sunday, said, “We’ve already started that investigation, and it’s the House Appropriations Committee; we’re working with the other relevant stakeholders in Congress, including the Foreign Affairs Committee.
“Also working with the leadership… to present findings to the President as soon as we can, and once we have some real ground truth from our perspective.
“Obviously, we’ve been working with the State Department and (others) in the White House, and we’re in constant coordination and communication on this issue. We’re going to get to the bottom of this.”
According to him, what is going on in the country “is horrific – these killings of brothers and sisters in Christ, but we, and as President Trump has said it, we’re going to stop this.”
On Tinubu’s push back that Trump claims do not represent Nigeria’s reality, Moore countered, saying, “Unfortunately, that is completely false. I mean, there are states in Nigeria that have blasphemy laws, people who are facing the death penalty right now for blasphemy against Islam.
“There’s a person right now who is held in prison for defending himself from an attack by a Muslim militant from the Fulani tribe.
“He defended himself, and he’s facing the death penalty. So, there is a serious persecution happening in Nigeria, and President Tinubu, who is in a difficult position and trying to protect his interest there in that country, but they are complicit in this to one degree or the other with statements like this.”
On the Christian-Muslim killing ratio, Moore said, “There are Muslims that are being killed there, but the deaths that we have been able to garner from the facts on the ground are five to one, five to one Christians versus other minority, other religious affiliations in that country.”
He insisted, “It is five (Christians) to one Muslim who is being killed in Nigeria.”
When asked if the US should have a role in what seems to be an internal issue in another sovereign country, Moore said, “I think we absolutely do. We are a Christian nation and a nation that believes in the values and virtues of standing up for people who are being persecuted.
“That destination that the President just did to name the country a Country of Particular Concern unlocks … different levels the President can use against that country, sanctions being one of them, withholding development dollars, and restricting financing from financial institutions.
“So there’s a lot that can be done there, but the President has put all options on the table, including military kinetic action.”
US congressman’s defence
Last week, US Congressman Bill Huizenga, during an interview with Arise TV, said Trump was unlikely to launch a military action in Nigeria.
According to the lawmaker, Trump probably wanted the killings allegedly targeted at Christians and other Nigerians to end.
“I too was surprised by the comments that they came out; that the President (Trump) came out that forcefully. I suspect that that is not a high priority of having actual military intervention, specifically in Nigeria.
“But I think he does want to make sure that, from his view, the genocide that is happening specifically against Christians, but also others in Nigeria, needs to stop.
“While I don’t envision a surprise attack, I don’t envision that there’s going to be a military response,” he said.
He added, “Frankly, this President has been someone who has pursued peace rather than just expanding war. So I think he would be very selective before he did anything militarily.” (PUNCH)
