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On Saturday’s Big Weekend Show, Rep. Chris Smith ripped the silence off a global scandal too many in Washington would rather ignore, calling the slaughter of Christians in Nigeria “horrific” and warning that whole communities are being wiped out. His blunt assessment on Fox News made clear this is not distant tribal violence — it is organized, relentless persecution that demands American attention and moral clarity.
Smith’s remarks came days after President Donald Trump moved to redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, a step that has forced Congress to open a full-scale probe into the bloodletting and the administration’s response. The House Subcommittee on Africa, chaired by Rep. Smith, convened hearings to examine the redesignation and whether American pressure and targeted penalties are being applied where they will hurt the perpetrators.
This is not mere rhetoric; testimony to Congress and multiple briefings show Nigeria is now a focal point for the worst abuses of religious freedom on the continent, with bishops and survivors describing mass killings and kidnappings that the Nigerian state has failed to stop. Conservatives who actually believe in liberty and human dignity should be furious — our foreign policy must be guided by principle, not by the fashionable impulses of those who treat religious persecution as a sidebar.
Washington’s instinct to downplay persecution of Christians because it’s inconvenient or ugly is a moral failure, and the Trump administration’s CPC move is the right kind of provocation: targeted sanctions, visa restrictions, and accountability for officials who tolerate or abet violence. If we mean what we say about freedom, Congress and the president must back the designation with concrete consequences and aid that protects victims rather than subsidizes the same corrupt systems that allow slaughter to flourish.
Smith also tied the conversation about Nigeria into broader realities on the global stage, including the Russia-Ukraine war, reminding viewers that the world’s tyrants watch how the West responds to cruelty and power politics. Whether in Abuja or Kyiv, weakness begets aggression, and the United States should stop sending mixed signals that reward savagery and empower revanchists.
Patriotism demands action — not sanctimony. Conservatives should lead here with a clear-eyed, unapologetic defense of religious liberty and human life: finish the investigations, pass meaningful penalties, funnel support to survivors, and stop pretending that appeasement or equivocation will ever bring justice. The time for righteous indignation is past; the time for forceful, principled American policy is now.
