In a development signalling a widening diplomatic flashpoint, the United States Congress is moving forward with legislation that would impose sweeping sanctions on a group of prominent Nigerian officials, including twelve governors from the country’s northern region, senior judges and traditional rulers.
American lawmakers allege that these individuals are complicit in what they call a systematic assault on religious minorities, particularly Christians, within Nigeria’s sharia-governed states.
The proposed measure, known as the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025, crafted and sponsored by Republican Senator Ted Cruz, designates Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” for religious persecution. It calls for the U.S. Secretary of State to compile, within 90 days of the bill’s passage, a list of Nigerian officials who have “promoted, enacted or maintained blasphemy laws” or allowed violence by non-state actors under religious pretext. Those listed would become subject to visa bans, asset freezes and other sanctions under the U.S. Global Magnitsky human-rights framework (Executive Order 13818).
The backdrop to the bill is an earlier decision by then-President Donald Trump to categorise Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern for the first time, citing “systematic, ongoing and egregious” religious-freedom violations — including attacks by the extremist group Boko Haram — and a judiciary allegedly complicit in ethno-religious conflict.
On a post to the Truth social-media platform, President Trump decried the “thousands of Christians being killed in Nigeria” and pressed for immediate investigation via U.S. Representative Riley Moore and House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole. The bill affirms that since 2000, when the northern state of Zamfara led by Governor Ahmad Sani Yerima expanded Sharia to include criminal law, about a dozen states in Nigeria’s north adopted similar religious-legal frameworks.
These states — which include Zamfara, Kano, Sokoto, Katsina, Bauchi, Borno, Jigawa, Kebbi, Yobe, Kaduna, Niger and Gombe — introduced parallel Sharia courts and penal codes. In contrast, other states such as Kwara, Kogi, Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba and Adamawa restricted Sharia to family-law matters rather than criminal or public law.
More recently the Sharia Council signalled an intention to expand its arbitration panels in southern states like Oyo and Ogun, a move that alarmed leaders of Christian communities and sparked public debate before the body clarified it would not establish binding courts but serve only as mediation panels.
Senator Cruz, defending the legislation, accused Nigeria’s leadership of having “institutionalised sharia law and enabled jihadist violence”, stating that “since 2009, over 52,000 Christians have been murdered, 20,000 churches and faith institutions destroyed, and dozens of villages wiped out. The federal and state governments have failed to act, and in many cases, they are complicit.”
By spotlighting the link between regional legal frameworks and religious-freedom abuses, the bill seeks to hold individual Nigerian officials directly accountable under U.S. sanctions law — marking a significant escalation in U.S.–Nigeria diplomatic and human-rights relations.
