BLOOD ON THE ALTAR: How Many More Must Die Before We Call This Genocide?

By Destiny Tamunoala Emmanuel

November 20, 2025

My heart is not just heavy; it is shattered. It lies in pieces on the floor of a sanctuary in Kwara State, mingled with the dust and the blood of the innocent.

On Tuesday evening, the 18th of November, the sacred silence of the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) in Eruku, Kwara State, was broken not by the sound of worship, but by the deafening crack of gunfire. A place meant for peace, for prayer, and for refuge became a hunting ground.

We are told to look away. We are told these are "clashes." But tell me, what "clash" involves armed men storming a church service to slaughter worshippers? I close my eyes and I still see the image that haunts me: an elderly woman, a mother of our nation, struggling to run for her life, her frail legs carrying her away from the altar where she sought God’s face. Look at the families fleeing into the forests of Ekiti and Oke-Ero, hunted like animals in their own country.

What did they do to deserve this? They prayed. That was their crime.

 A November of Horror

This attack in Kwara is not an isolated tragedy; it is a bleeding wound in a body already riddled with scars. Just days ago, on Monday, November 17, the darkness visited Kebbi State. At the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, innocent students were ripped from their dormitories. The Vice-Principal, a guardian of knowledge, was gunned down in cold blood.

From the North to the Middle Belt, the soil of Nigeria is drinking the blood of its citizens. We are witnessing a systematic extermination of peace, and yet, the silence from some quarters is deafening.

 The World Screams While We Whisper

It is a national shame that it takes voices from across the ocean to speak the truth that our own leaders whisper.

Just this week, in the halls of the United Nations, the reality of our suffering was laid bare. Nicki Minaj, a global icon, stood before the world and spoke the uncomfortable truth. She did not mince words. She told the United Nations that Christians in Nigeria are being targeted, driven from their homes, and killed simply for how they pray. She asked the world to look at us.

Why must an American rapper be the one to champion the cause of our rural mothers in Kwara?

U.S. President  Donald Trump , never one to shy away from bluntness, has now labeled this violence what many of us have feared to name: "Genocide wearing the mask of chaos." His statement this November, warning that Nigeria is on the brink of being designated a "Country of Particular Concern," should be a wake-up call. When the international community threatens to cut aid and labeled our crisis an "existential threat," we can no longer pretend this is merely "banditry."

 Enough of the "Alerts"

We hear that President Tinubu has delayed his trip to the G20 summit in South Africa. We hear the Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, claiming that the security machinery is on "highest alert."

But we are tired of alerts. We are tired of "condemnations" and "sympathies." Sympathy does not bring back the dead worshippers of Eruku. High-level alerts did not save the schoolgirls in Kebbi.

We cannot continue like this.

How many more attacks?

How many more mass burials?

How many more elderly women must die running from the house of God?

 A Demand for Real Action

To the Government of Nigeria: The time for political correctness is over. We demand a total overhaul of the security architecture that fails us daily. We do not want speeches; we want our forests cleared of terrorists. We want our schools secured. We want our churches and mosques to be safe havens, not death traps.

To the Apologists: Stop downplaying this evil. Stop telling us it is "complicated" when the pattern is clear. Every time you dilute the truth of these massacres, you embolden the killers.

My heart is in deep pain, but my spirit is resolute. We must refuse to die in silence. We must demand justice for the victims in Kwara, for the students in Kebbi, and for every Nigerian soul lost to this senseless violence.

Enough is enough.