Nigerian Christians Putting on a Holiday Face Despite Continuing Terrorist Assaults

Happiness Aloho, smiles at Christmas musical in Miango, Nigeria. Courtesy of Lawrence Zongo

As Christmas arrived in Nigeria’s troubled northern states, believers counted their losses and their blessings in 2022.

Christians in Makurdi, the capital of Benue state, are celebrating Christmas despite recent financial reversals, according to Rev. Michael Burton, an American missionary in the city.

“People are excited about Christmas, partly because nearly all employees get a full week of paid vacation,” Burton told The Epoch Times.

Farmers in the northern county of Guma have suffered nearly incessant attacks since 2018 according to media reports.

In October and early November, scores of rural dwellers were slaughtered during night-time raids by Muslim mercenaries striking from across the border in neighboring Nasarawa and Taraba states.

Women in Christmas costumes attend Christmas choral fest in Yola, Adamawa state, on Dec. 11. Courtesy of Tom Garba

“People aren’t putting up house ornaments unless they have purchased them in previous years, but almost every night groups of carolers are going from door to door singing songs of the season,” Burton said.

The spike in prices of goods has made it hard for many residents to buy gifts, he added.

“The Federal Government recently devalued the naira, the national currency, and issued a new note, and all holders of the old currency have only a two-week window to exchange them for the new notes. The exchange rate linked to the U.S. dollar has gone up 25 percent on the black market exchanges, which most people use,” Burton said.

Loud carol singing bounced from the rafters at the Evangelical Church Winning All Celebration in Miango, a Christian town of 15,000 people 25 miles west of Jos in Plateau state.

“The congregation of more than 500 adults, children, and senior citizens of the community gathered to sing songs to celebrate Christmas despite the recent losses of loved ones by raids of Fulani militants,” according to community leader and Epoch Times reporter Lawrence Zongo.

“No fewer than 32 communities were displaced by terrorists in 2022,” Zongo said.

“Some residents have returned but most communities in the village network surrounding Miango area have not returned to their homes,” he added.

“Between January and September of 2022 alone, 69 women became widows as a result of the Fulani herdsmen attacks.”

Faith McDonnell, an Anglican, protests in front of the U.S. Institute of Peace on Dec. 16, 2022. Courtesy of Hulda Fahmy

Yet the church service delighted Happiness Aloho, 24, who sells fruits in the Miango market. “Many were killed by Fulani over the years, but I will praise God for keeping me alive, and I am here to celebrate the birth of Christ,” Happiness said to The Epoch Times.

In southern Kaduna state, approximately 35 miles south of Jos, the Christians of Mallagum village are still weeping after a bloody massacre Dec. 18 that took the lives of 40 unarmed men, women and children.

“The people are too traumatized to celebrate Christmas this year,” according to Dr. Michael Duwai, a resident of Zunuruk, near to the site of the killings.

The Christian faithful in the infamous war zones around Lake Chad are giving thanks for a lull in violent attacks, according to conflict blogger Tom Garba in Yola.

“Christians in northeastern Nigeria are celebrating a peaceful Christmas,” Garba told The Epoch Times.

“Christians in Adamawa state have once again sung songs of resounding victory in the last weeks of the 2022, dispelling despair and regaining  their faith solid strong on Christ as the rock of their salvation after Boko Haram attacks,” Garba wrote, recalling that the ISIS linked insurgency called Boko Haram (Western learning is forbidden) had controlled vast swaths of three northeastern states between 2014 and 2016.

“The 2022 Christmas celebration like other years was well celebrated in a group carol-singing ceremony organized by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Adamawa State Chapter under the chairmanship of Most Rev. Dr. Stephen Dami Mamza and the Diocesan Bishop of Yola Diocese of Catholic Church.

Goodwill Messages

Thousands of Christmas-garbed participants heard goodwill messages and special presentations made by Protestant and Roman Catholic Church groups and government officials,” Garba said.

As the carolers in Yola were singing, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari joined a five day African leaders conference in Washington and made his case that he has done his best to end Nigeria’s civil war with Boko Haram insurgents and its recent spate of massacres by radicalized bandit gangs.

Buhari’s swan song visit to the U.S. Institute of Peace on Dec. 16 drew protesters on the street who blamed him for enabling years of massacres in Nigeria’s middle belt.

Nina Shea, a scholar at the Hudson Institute specializing in religious freedom called out the Buhari regime for genocide and the U.S. State Department for poor judgement.

“It’s hard to nail down specific incidents in the fog of war—and this is a war, albeit one sided. But patterns of Buhari‘s granting impunity to Islamists and jihadis and their criminal accomplices and accessories who attack Christians and non Islamists and his utter indifference to the extreme suffering of their victims is revealing,” Shea wrote to The Epoch Times.

“It clearly demonstrates the Buhari government’s complicity in what is by any fair measure ethno-religious genocide.”

Shea went on to say: “Given the evidence and accusations over many years that the Nigerian government is acting criminally, is corrupt and helping, inadvertently or deliberately, the Islamist terrorist cause, we should not be assisting it.

“The United States should conduct an independent investigation and identify any units and commanders who might qualify for military training, equipment and assistance, and cut off those engaged in gross human rights violations.

“Boko Haram, ISIS, and the other jihadis and Islamist militants must be effectively fought and defeated.”