YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – A coalition of concerned and politically conscious Christian organizations, leaders and concerned Christians grouped under the umbrella name “Joint Christian Body against Insecurity in Nigeria” has urged the country’s Christians to stand up to their persecutors.

Anti-Christian persecution watchdogs have on different reports said Nigeria is perhaps the world’s worst country to live as a Christian.

The latest mass killings were recorded during this year’s Holy Week, Fulani jihadist herdsmen killing about 170 people in Nigeria’s Plateau and Benue States.

And this wasn’t an isolated event. International Christian Concern reports that at least 300 Christians were massacred in Nigeria in the first three months of 2025. Dozens have been abducted, and thousands displaced.

A report by the Catholic-inspired NGO, International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, Intersociety released on April 10, 2023, stated that since 2009 when Boko Haram insurgents began their campaign to annihilate Christianity in Africa’s most populous nation, over 50,000 Christians had been killed.

The same report indicated that 18,000 Christian churches and 2,200 Christian schools were set ablaze. Approximately 34,000 moderate Muslims also died in Islamist attacks.

According to Global Christian Relief, at least 4000 Christians are killed in Nigeria every year-often more than in the rest of the world combined-a statistic that further solidifies reports that of ten every Christians killed in the world, nine of them are from Nigeria.

Initially localized in the north where twelve states declared Sharia Law in 1999, the killing of Christians in Nigeria had since spread to the Middle Belt and further southwards, as other terrorist groups such as Fulani Jihadist herdsmen and Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP emerged.

“Enough is enough,” said a statement by the “Joint Christian Body against Insecurity in Nigeria.” concerned Christians.

The statement – signed by  Nwankwo Tony Nwaezeigwe, PhD, President of the International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria (ICAC-GEN) and Director, Public Affairs – urges Nigerian Christians to rise up and defend themselves, noting that the levels of Christian killings suggest that the life of a Christian is “no longer the worth of a Fulani cow.”

“We resolved that there is no better time to take the bull by the horn than this moment; a moment where it has become obvious to the Nigerian Christian that the Government of the day, both Federal and States, are shamelessly supportive of the on-going senseless and gruesome killing of innocent Christians and their kidnapping for ransoms across the nation,” it says.

They said it was time for Christians to deal with “these hordes of Muslim criminals masquerading as Fulani Herdsmen, Bandits, Boko Haram and ISWAP Islamic insurgents.”

Accusing the government and security forces of complicity in the killings, the coalition also blamed the leadership of various Christian groups –  including the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Christian Council of Nigeria (CCN), and the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) – of either being weak or apathetic, and noted that “Nigerian Christians have become sheep without shepherd as much as they are orphans without guardianship, hence our resolve to urgently take up this initiative of sacrifice.”

“Conscious of our faith and existence as a people, both of which are currently under unimaginable threat, we are by this notice strongly calling on all Nigerian Christians both home and abroad to understand that our survival as Christian citizens of the Nigerian nation is in grave danger beyond the control of our Christian leaders and Christian politicians alike,” the statement reads.

Without explicitly talking about a violent response to the killing of Christians, the release cited Biblical verses and statements by some world leaders that suggest the response could indeed be violent.

They referred to the Gospel of Luke 22:35-36 wherein Christ urges his followers to come along with their purses and wallets and those with none should sell their wares and “buy a sword.”

“We have been standing akimbo and helpless like vultures beaten by heavy downpour as our Saints and patriots are kidnapped and slaughtered without any culprit brought before the court of law for trial. The question before us is for how long we shall continue to wait and watch as our people are being slaughtered unceasingly?”

“One fact Christians should always have in mind is that from what transpired between Christ and Peter during his trial before crucifixion it is obvious that the Apostles were armed,” said Nwankwo Tony Nwaezeigwe when Crux asked if his coalition was preparing Christians to take up arms against their persecutors.

“So the question of whether Christians should defend themselves against attacks by Muslims does not arise. After all Christianity came to Africa through the sword of European colonialism,” he explained.

“My position therefore is that Nigerian Christians should rise up and defend themselves,” he told Crux.

It’s a position also held by Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of the Abuja archdiocese.

In an interview with ACI Africa on April 13 he said self-defense was a form of “natural justice” that saves one from “bloodthirsty criminals.”

“Self-defense is natural justice. How you defend yourself is important. You can’t just sit there, and somebody comes to kill your family, and you say they are not protecting you. You must rise up and protect yourself and your communities against these bloodthirsty criminals,” he said.