Nigeria’s Asymmetry of Outrage – Dr. Umar Ardo

On November 20th, 2025, while sentencing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu after being convicted of 7-count charges of terrorism, Justice James Omotosho quoted a verse from the Bible on the basis of which he commuted Nnamdi Kanu’s 4 death sentences to life imprisonment.

This was even after being reminded by the Prosecuting Counsel that four of the seven charges were capital offenses that carried the death sentence. Yet, the judge said he was moved by the words of the Bible to tamper justice with mercy and thence commuted the sentences.

2. The act, however, not surprisingly, has drawn no single word of protest from any Nigerian Muslim. And this is a familiar pattern; Nigerian Muslims have always routinely absorbed public Christian hostile acts, expressions, speeches, symbols and even courtroom references without branding them as threats to their religion or to their being, or even the “Christianization of Nigeria”!
3. But imagine a Muslim judge, quoting a verse from the Holy Qur’an, and on the basis of it commutes a single death sentence for a Muslim terrorist to life imprisonment.

To the Nigerian Christians, that would have been the worst thing that could have happened to humanity! It would have been a conclusive proof of the “Islamization of Nigeria” or “state support for Islamic terrorism” or some other form of “conspiracy theory against Christians in Nigeria”! But in this celebratory Kanu trial, the Book of Mathew was quoted by a Christian judge on the basis of which he commuted 4 death sentences against a ‘Christian terrorist’, yet not a word from any Muslim across the country! Such is the level of tolerance of the Muslim community to Christians in Nigeria!

4. But if it were the other way round, the reaction would certainly have been very different. Sections of the Christian public would read it as proof of bias of an “Islamization agenda”, thereby sparking a storm of political controversy, further deepening the divide between Muslims and Christians in the country.
5. Such imbalance reactions to certain aspects of our public life, reflect a deeper narrative problem in Nigeria. For years, some Christian groups, often prompted or backed by foreign networks, have framed narratives of “Islamic agendas” or, as lately amplified, claims of a “Christian genocide,” shaping public perception in ways facts don’t support. Meanwhile, Muslims remain the quieter party in national debates about identity and power.
6. Nigeria cannot build cohesion on selective outrage. Equal standards, not fear-driven narratives, are the foundation of genuine tolerance. And until we accept the fact that nobody is trying to forcibly proselytize anybody in our country we will never be able to build a cohesive and peaceful society for our people.

© Umar Ardo, Ph.D