My Nigeria Experience: What I Learned When I Visited the World's Most Persecuted Country

In 2024, I was privileged to speak in the world’s most dangerous country for a Christian, Nigeria. The Muslim terror cell, Boko Haram, in the Northeastern region of Nigeria had been systematically beating, kidnapping, and killing Christians for well over a decade. The dire situation in Nigeria cannot be understated. Bill Maher, who is no friend to Christianity, said on his show, Real Time with Bill Maher, that radical Muslims had “killed over 100,000 since 2009” and “They’ve burned 18,000 churches...,” with some experts claiming the persecution should be labeled as a genocide.

When I was asked to speak to a group of students at Abuja International University, I was eager to teach them how to defend their faith against Islamic ideology as I had recently finished my master’s thesis on Christian apologetics against Islam. However, I was shocked to find out that the biggest issue for Nigerian Christians was not radical Islam, but Western influence on the education systems from “non-governmental organizations” or NGOs, which were spreading LGBT and abortion ideology through secular social programs. Ratio Christi’s newest chapter director, Ikechukwu, at Abuja International University, had just completed a Colson Fellows program and was very well-informed about what was happening in Nigeria.

As we planned our conference, Ikechukwu told me we needed to prepare for talks on homosexuality and pro-life issues. I was in disbelief, but Ikechukwu continued to encourage me that this was indeed the pressing apologetics issue among college students in the world’s most heavily persecuted country. Sadly, after the conference ended, I was persuaded that Ikechukwu was right. Always trust the indigenous people on the ground. They will always know better than you.

USAID, the EU, the United Nations, and other foreign entities all have agendas. Under the guise of helping people (and sometimes they really do), these globalist entities do their best to miseducate developing populations into transforming their culture via progressive ideologies. In Nigeria, while thousands of Christians are being killed every year, these Western foreign powers see the greatest human rights need as the LGBT and abortion rights issue. Instead of focusing on the blatant human rights violations committed by the Muslim terrorists in Nigeria, programs like UNAIDS found it more pressing to provide condoms and sex lubricants to the gay community in Nigeria. LGBT rights. It was as if the West had forgotten Christians were being systematically wiped out in Nigeria.

What’s worse? The Western entities hadn’t forgotten about the Muslim atrocities in Nigeria; instead, they flipped the script. In a recent interview on Allie Beth Stuckey’s podcast,  Judd Saul, a missionary to persecuted Nigerians, said he pleaded with the Biden administration to intervene, and they were more than dismissive. Biden’s Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, told Saul that the reason for the Christian deaths was not the heavily armed Islamic terrorists, but rather, climate change was to blame. Indeed, the Biden administration wasted no time in declassifying Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern,” sparking backlash in the U.S. Senate.

While Nigerian Christians were being slaughtered, USAID was keen to fund various LGBT initiatives such as plays, parades, and University education programs all over the world. If that doesn’t anger you, USAID did happen to send food to the refugee camps, only for the food trucks to conveniently break down in front of the villages where the Islamic terrorists lived. According to our missionary, Judd Saul, USAID finally delivered large trash bins to the refugee camps. These trash bins collected trash but had no pickup program or follow-up for removal. That’s right, USAID merely donated some bins, which eventually became a heaping pile of garbage.

I’ve come to call these Western programs in developing nations, “The Colonization of Ideas.” In African Universities,  the lie of Christianity being the religion of the colonizers is spreading like wildfire. But since Christianity reached Africa via the Ethiopian Eunuch (See Acts 8), before it reached Greece and Rome (after Acts 9), we know that Christianity existed in the Sub-Saharan regions well before the colonizers came nearly 1,500 years later.

Yet, the same professors who teach these lies are backed by foreign aid organizations that fund critical theory, LGBT, prochoice, and pro-Muslim education initiatives. One such professor in New York, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s father, Mahmood Mamdani (pictured above), who taught anthropology from a critical theory perspective in Tanzania and South Africa, and now at Columbia University in New York, continues to perpetuate the lie that Christianity came to Africa through colonization. The ties to Marxist critical theories go deep; Africa, and especially South Africa, has been a target for leftist political action from the West for decades. Time would fail me to include the abundance of Chinese activity in Africa now. Suffice it to say, Africa needs our help, but first, we need to revise what “help” looks like.

There is widespread hunger, a lack of opportunities, refugee camps galore, and much civil unrest, and developed nations could intervene to help address some of these issues. What Africa does not need from the West is to program its thinking on social issues in the name of education, and it certainly does not need the West to tell it what it needs. What is needed is a robust Christian worldview discipleship program like Ratio Christi International to counter the worldview programming coming from the West.

I am in communication with Africans daily. My contacts across the continent range from Nigeria to Kenya, down to South Africa, and include influential ministry leaders, activists, expats, students, and local villagers. Moreover, I have visited several African countries and heard their stories. What I have learned is that, as a Westerner, I need to listen to their needs before I speak. Many people see Africa as “the Dark Continent.” But I see Africa as a hopeful future for Christianity and future global influence.

If we really love Africa, we must vote like it. We must take seriously what is happening with these Western foreign powers. Westerners have a civic duty to elect politicians who will not continue to pour our tax dollars into LGBT theatre productions, pro-choice NGOs, and other wasteful initiatives. We must hold the EU, USAID, and the UN accountable for helping Africa and stop wasting money on social programs that no African wants.

I will leave you with one last thought. Perhaps we should rethink how we do missions. Often, when we think of African missions, we think of medical missions, clean water initiatives, homebuilding, food pantries, and other social needs. And let me be clear, I thank God for every kind of social mission I see operating in Africa. However, if you ask African pastors what their most significant needs are, they will typically say “education.” Africa is the future of the church, and Africans desperately need theological education to counter the widespread cult activity, traditional religion syncretism, prosperity gospel teachings, and the general lack of doctrinal knowledge among the laypeople in the church. Call me a radical, but every social gospel mission ought to have a teaching team that accompanies them to educate the Christians.

This is why Ratio Christi International is working diligently to slow the spread of ungodly ideas across every continent with Christian apologetics and evangelism training. By allowing indigenous apologists to teach their students about worldview and theological issues facing them in their context, we are slowing the spread of “The Colonization of Ideas.” My hope is that we can place a missionary at every major university in Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe, and South America within the next 10 years. If the Lord would allow us to accomplish this sooner, I would be ecstatic. Please help us pray that Ratio Christi International continues to flourish and that our vision to slow the spread is realized.