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Former Nigeria President Buhari “opened doors” for Church to Denounce Rise in Christian Persecution: Catholic Official

Agnes Aineah

By Agnes Aineah

Aboard the papal plane, 15 July, 2025 / 4:00 pm (ACI Africa).

The immediate former President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, always gave members of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) a platform to air out their frustrations over heightened persecution of Christians in the West African country, the Secretary General of the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa (RECOWA) has said.

In an interview with ACI Africa on Tuesday, July 15, Fr. Vitalis Anaehobi said that the late former President Buhari, who died on Sunday, July 13, readily listened to the prophetic voice of Nigeria’s Catholic Bishops, who criticized the “evil” that stained his reign.

“During his eight years in office, the late president Muhammadu Buhari's doors were always open to the Catholic Church in Nigeria,” Fr. Anaehobi said.

He explained that the late president received the Catholic bishops in Nigeria in a number of audiences. “This afforded the Bishops the opportunity to let him hear the voice of the masses , especially on the increasing poverty of the masses, increasing insecurity, heightened kidnapping and killing of Priests and the Religious, ransacking of many Christian villages and the burning of Churches that were taking place during his regime,” he said.

“The Bishops never lacked the opportunity to make the president know about all the evils that were taking place during his reign,” Fr. Anaehobi said.

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“He is gone now,” the RECOWA official said in reference to Buhari, who passed on in London aged 82, and added, “May God be merciful unto him.”

The Nigerian Priest expressed optimism that the country's current  administration, having taken over from the Buhari government, would right the wrongs of the previous administration.

He envisioned a country where people coexist peacefully across different religions and where everyone lives in abundance.

“I really pray and sincerely wish that those who have succeeded President Buhari in power will learn something about the shortness of life and try to use the opportunity that God has given them to help our people, to stop the increasing poverty via policies that will be human enough to uplift the people, to work for security of life and property, but above all for better religious freedom for our people,” he said.

The Buhari administration was accused of failure to address attacks against Christians in Nigeria, and “aiding” most of the persecution in the West African country. At some point, he was accused of pushing the West African country to the brink of collapse.

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As Buhari stepped out of office in 2023, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), the organization behind the April 10 report that revealed the killing of over 50,000 Christians in Nigeria since 2009, prepared the president's scorecard that detailed his failure to address persecution of Christians.

Emeka Umeagbalasi, the founder and board chair of Intersociety, told ACI Africa, in reference to Buhari, “Christians have been mercilessly butchered under his watch. Nigerians have watched helplessly as the government aided persecution and abated justice in the killings, kidnappings, and all the attacks that targeted Christians.”

In the July 15 interview with ACI Africa, Fr. Anaehobi prayed for the soul of Buhari, saying, “May God grant eternal rest to him and grant the living the wisdom to learn from his life and his death.”

Agnes Aineah

Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.

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