Challenging Nigeria university bans against Christian fellowship on campus

KATSINA STATE, NIGERIA (18 MARCH 2024) Challenges have been filed against two separate universities in Katsina State, Nigeria, for violating the right to religious freedom by “indefinitely prohibiting” Christian groups from holding fellowship meetings and worship on campus.   

In 2017 and 2022, the two public universities, one state and one federal, placed bans on the use of university facilities for Christian religious activities—including worship and fellowship—and have since refused to lift the bans.* One of the universities enforced the ban by locking all worship and fellowship centers on university grounds, preventing Christian students and groups from accessing the facilities, and banning them from meeting for worship and fellowship elsewhere on campus. Meanwhile, Muslim student groups at both universities have been permitted to hold worship and fellowship meetings in university-constructed worship and meeting spaces. Both universities have relatively high percentages of Christian students and faculty despite Katsina being a Muslim-majority state.  

One Christian university student in Katsina said, “We only want to be able to freely gather and worship as Christians on equal terms with other religious faiths. It is wrong that our universities are preventing us from exercising our most basic, fundamental rights.” 

“No person should be discriminated against for their faith, and the actions of these state and federal universities are plainly unjust,” stated Sean Nelson, ADF International’s lead attorney on the case. “The world continues to watch as Nigerian authorities regularly violate the religious freedom rights of their citizens. This kind of discrimination against Christian students cannot be allowed to spread. These two universities should immediately revoke these discriminatory policies and allow Christians on their campuses to gather and worship freely.”   

Lawsuits on behalf of the students have been instituted under provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that protect Nigerian citizens’ right to freedom of religion or belief. ADF International is supporting the case.  

Nigeria’s religious freedom track record 

Together with other religious minorities in Nigeria, the persecution of Christians in Nigeria is especially severe. Worldwide, over 5,500 Christians were killed for their faith in 2022. Of those, 90% were Nigerian. At least 200 Christians were murdered by militants in Plateau State, Nigeria, this past Christmas.        

The criminalisation of blasphemy in Nigeria carries with it dangerous implications for the country as a whole. In a country of more than 200 million, split nearly evenly between Christians and Muslims, blasphemy laws are a significant driver of societal tensions. These laws punish the innocent for expressing their beliefs, silence people from sharing their faith, and perpetuate societal violence. Blasphemy laws throughout Nigeria encourage brutal mob violence and inflict severe harm on minority Muslims, Christian converts, and others.