If It’s Genocide You’re Protesting, Look at Nigeria

Over the past several months, a wave of protests across college campuses, media outlets, and international forums have coalesced around one emotionally charged accusation: that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza in its war against Hamas. The term has become a rallying cry—repeated by United Nations officials, Western media personalities, and student movements alike. Yet, while the label is used with increasing looseness in reference to Israel’s military response to the October 7 massacre, it’s time to ask: what about the places where genocide is actually happening?

If we’re going to have an honest conversation about ethnic cleansing and mass atrocities, then let’s take a hard look at Nigeria—a country in which thousands of civilians, largely Black Christians, have been systematically slaughtered in recent years in what many advocacy groups and observers have described as ongoing ethnic cleansing, if not outright genocide.

Nigeria is not trending on TikTok. There are no marches in London or New York demanding intervention. Why? Perhaps it’s because Nigeria lacks geopolitical leverage, oil dominance, or social media-friendly imagery. But the death toll is real, and rising.

The Roots of the Conflict

The Nigerian conflict traces back decades, rooted in religious, ethnic, and resource-based tensions, particularly between Fulani Muslim herders and Christian farming communities in the Middle Belt of the country. Overlay that with Islamist insurgencies like Boko Haram and ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province) in the northeast, and what you have is a deadly convergence of terrorism, sectarian violence, and government inaction.

These aren’t isolated incidents. This is systematic violence, often targeting specific ethnic and religious groups—especially Christians—in their homes, villages, and places of worship.

Recent Atrocities That Barely Made Headlines

Consider just a few examples from the past three years:

• April 2023 (Plateau State): Over 130 people were killed in coordinated attacks on Christian farming villages in Mangu Local Government Area. Homes and churches were burned; entire communities displaced.

• January 2024 (Bokkos and Barkin Ladi, Plateau State): More than 150 civilians were massacred by suspected Fulani militias over the course of several days.

• February 2022 (Benue State): Armed groups raided Guma and Logo areas, leaving over 100 dead in attacks widely described as ethnically targeted.

• Ongoing (Kaduna State): Dozens of Christian villages have been attacked year after year, often with government silence or complicity.

Where are the global protests? Where are the emergency UN sessions? Where are the chants of “Black lives matter” for Black Africans being wiped out in their own homeland?

A Double Standard of Outrage

Let me be clear: civilian casualties anywhere are a tragedy. But weaponizing the term “genocide” against Israel—a nation responding to the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, carried out by a terrorist organization that intentionally embeds itself among civilians—is not just misleading; it is a dangerous erasure of actual genocides happening in real time.

The truth is, Hamas is the one holding the people of Gaza hostage. And Arab nations that could help evacuate civilians refuse to open their borders. This war, like all wars, is heartbreaking. But it is not genocide—not by any legal definition or historical precedent.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria, families are being slaughtered while harvesting crops. Children are burned in their homes. Entire ethnic groups are being pushed off their ancestral land. That’s genocide. But the world shrugs.

A Call for Real Moral Clarity

If we’re going to raise our voices in the name of justice, let’s be consistent. Let’s be honest. If Black lives truly matter, then Nigerian lives matter. If genocide is truly what you oppose, then call it out where it is actually happening.

And to the protestors, pundits, and global institutions so quick to condemn Israel: your silence on Nigeria is deafening.