•Pastor Ashimolowo and Tinubu
Senior Pastor of Kingsway International Christian Centre, KICC, Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo, has lamented over the rising pattern of killings, attacks and ‘targeted persecution of Christians’ in parts of Nigeria, warning that the country must confront the reality of mounting violence before it becomes normalised.
Speaking during a press conference of the Christ Compassion to the Rural World, CCRW, Ashimolowo said the definition of genocide should guide public discourse on whether Christians are victims of systematic elimination.
According to him, “The dictionary defines genocide as deliberate and systematic killing or persecution of a large number of people from a particular national or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group,” he began.
“With that definition, I want to turn my answers into questions for all of you here today.”
The cleric, who recalled growing up in Zaria and experiencing communal violence first-hand, said his views were shaped not by newspaper headlines but by life experience, reports Vanguard.
“I was born in 1952 in Zaria. I grew up in Kaduna. The first riot I ever experienced was against people from the East. They didn’t tell me; I saw it,” he said.
“People were being killed right before my eyes. Soldiers tried to prevent it, but the killings continued as attackers marched through the streets shouting ‘Tawai’, meaning ‘Our eyes are opened.’”
According to him, many violent episodes across decades bear the marks of systematic targeting. He listed historical and recent incidents from the Maitatsine crisis to Zangon-Kataf killings, beheading of Christian evangelists, the murder of Deborah Samuel, and multiple attacks in Benue and Southern Kaduna, arguing that they raise troubling questions.
“Is that genocide or not?” he repeatedly asked.
Speaking on the multiplicity of insecurity challenges, the pastor described violence in Nigeria as “a snake with many heads.”
“Banditry is a head. Terrorism is a head. Armed herdsmen invading farms is another head. Extortionists demanding money is a head.
“And then, deliberate chasing of people away from their land and replacing them with another tribe; that too is a head,” he said.
Ashimolowo questioned why the scale of attacks on Christian communities has not resulted in stronger national and legal response.
Citing the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls and other cases, he stated that the perpetrators committed multiple crimes, including rape, trafficking, forced conversion and forced marriage.
“The same people who committed these crimes, you said you forgave them. Who forgave them? Where were they forgiven? Which court of law did that?” he queried.
“How can a man who killed and raped now be brought into the military or the Air Force? How can such a person defend the Federal Republic of Nigeria?”, he cried out.
He also recounted visiting Maiduguri in 1987 and discovering that churches were restricted to one area of the city, many of which had been burnt.
“Are there two Nigerias?” he asked.
“How come that in one Nigeria, churches cannot operate and people can be hacked? Is there genocide? I didn’t say there is. You will have to answer whether there is genocide or not.”
Ashimolowo said the persistence of terror in the country suggests deeper forces at play.
“My mother used to say, if a child keeps throwing stones and the stones never finish, there is a supplier,” he said.
“Despite the civil war ending decades ago, terror continues every day. Why can’t it end? Somebody somewhere does not want us to face reality.”
The pastor insisted that Nigerians must confront the evidence before them.
“We cannot say there is no genocide. But if you say there is none, answer my questions,” he concluded.
