GCFRN Urges Halt to NASS Delegation Amid Nigeria CPC Crisis

GCFRN demands the National Assembly halt a planned US visit until legislative reforms fix documented religious freedom abuses in Nigeria.

Atlantic Post

November 27, 2025

5 minutes

Chibok Girls, GCFRN, Hisbah, Human Rights, Leah Sharibu, Legislation, National Assembly, Nigeria security, Religious Freedom, USCIRF

The Global Coalition for Freedom of Religion in Nigeria (GCFRN) says a planned parliamentary delegation to Washington must be paused until lawmakers confront the systemic and well documented assaults on Christian freedom across large swathes of the federation.

The GCFRN, a consortium of ten rights organisations stated this in a blunt ultimatum delivered to the National Assembly. It arrives amid the United States’ recent move to list Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern. There is also growing international scrutiny.

This legislative story should alarm any senator or member. It is important for those who care for Nigeria’s diplomatic standing. It also concerns Nigeria’s constitutional order.

USCIRF has been tracking religious freedom failings in Nigeria since 2009 and in 2025 again recommended the CPC designation citing blasphemy laws, Sharia policing, forced closures of Christian schools, abductions and killings.

The commission’s record underscores that these are not episodic complaints but long running structural defects in law and practice.

The consequences are already tangible. Washington’s move will impact our foreign policy. Public signals from the US administration show that sanctions and stepped-up engagement are on the table. These actions will affect our investment and security partnerships.

Reports show that senior US officials are considering a package of measures. These measures aim to press the Nigerian state to protect religious minorities. They also seek to guarantee accountability where violations occur.

A delegation that goes to Washington without credible domestic action risks international ridicule. It also undermine Nigeria’s credibility in pleading a complex security landscape.

Facts do not allow complacency. Conflict monitoring by ACLED and other trackers shows that the scale of violence across Nigeria is enormous. In 2024 thousands of civilians were killed as violence concentrated in the north.

The pattern shows Islamist extremist operations in the northeast. There is also an expanding catalogue of banditry, kidnappings, and communal attacks across the middle belt and northwest.

For Christians, the impact has been particular and severe. This is especially true in areas where blasphemy statutes or informal religious policing become instruments of exclusion and impunity. ACLED’s conflict index underscores the depth of the crisis and the extent to which insecurity is now a national emergency.

GCFRN’s demands are explicit and legislative in scope. They call on the National Assembly to open hearings into religious freedom abuses. They urge the repeal of unconstitutional blasphemy laws. They advocate for a ban on rights-violating religious policing bodies, like Hisbah. They seek to equalise land access for churches and create parity between Christian and Islamic religious studies boards.

These are practical, testable reforms that squarely fall within the Assembly’s remit. If pursued with legislative seriousness they would repair legal lacunae that have fostered discrimination and fostered impunity.

Historical precedent matters. The coalition rightly traces part of the problem to colonial era administrative arrangements. These arrangements constrained Christian missionary work in northern territories. They also bequeathed legal pluralism that today permits the proliferation of Sharia institutions in some states.

Since the return to democratic rule, many northern states have layered religious regulation onto civil structures. These regulations disadvantage non-Muslim communities. That is not simply a grievance; it is a pattern that breeds institutionalised inequality.

There is also a human ledger that refuses to be anonymised. Leah Sharibu remains in captivity. Dozens of Chibok schoolgirls are still unaccounted for. These hard facts symbolise the government’s failure to secure its citizens. They also highlight its inability to deliver justice.

These cases are more than headline tokens. They are evidence points. The GCFRN says it will show these at hearings. They matter to public confidence in state institutions.

What should the National Assembly do now? If the purpose of a Washington visit is to defend Nigeria’s record, the Assembly must first show domestic accountability.

Draft and pass enabling motions to investigate religious freedom abuses. Demand immediate prosecutorial reviews in high profile killings and abductions.

Amend the Human Rights Commission Act so religious freedom is a specific mandate. Repeal laws that authorise rights infringing policing.

And crucially offer a statutory pathway for restitution and resettlement for communities displaced by insurgents. Legislative rhetoric without statutory teeth will not protect Nigeria from further diplomatic cost.

This is not about foreign humiliation. It is about domestic reform. The legislature exists to correct the very abuses the GCFRN has catalogued.

A delegation that flies to Washington to explain away systemic violations will not persuade sceptical foreign partners. It will expose the hollow centre of an implausible defence.

If the National Assembly chooses legislative courage now, it can reclaim Nigeria’s moral authority. It can also reclaim its agency in managing a national security crisis. This crisis threatens liberty of conscience for millions.

Reporters note The GCFRN has pledged to supply evidence and witnesses to any hearings the National Assembly chooses to hold. The onus is now on lawmakers. They must translate that offer into a parliamentary process that is prompt and rigorous. This process should be rooted in statute, not spin.

The choice is stark. You can ignore the evidence and risk escalating international sanctions. Alternatively, act decisively and start to repair the legal and institutional fractures now visible to the world.

Additional reporting by Peter Jene and Osaigbovo Okungbowa.