Femi Fani-Kayode’s recent essay dismissing claims of a “Christian genocide” as a Western conspiracy marks a stark reversal from his previous years of vehemently accusing Fulani militias of targeting Christians in a campaign comparable to the Holocaust, raising critical questions about the consistency of his convictions versus the demands of his political alignment.
By Daniel Lade
In Nigerian political discourse, few figures are as polarizing or as protean as Chief Femi Fani-Kayode.
A lawyer, former minister, and prolific writer, he has built a career on fiery rhetoric. Yet, a critical examination of his commentary on the nation’s sectarian violence reveals a troubling pattern: a narrative that shifts dramatically with the political winds, leaving consistency and conviction as its primary casualties.
His latest essay, “Christian Genocide and the Conspiracy against Nigeria,” presents a Fani-Kayode that would be unrecognizable to anyone who followed him just a few years ago. Here, he frames international concerns about the killing of Christians as a malicious Western plot. He argues that the “Americans, their allies, and their local collaborators are carefully and craftily preparing the ground for a religious war in Nigeria.” This, he claims, is a punishment for Nigeria’s stand on Gaza and a diversion from the conflict there.
He concludes, “What we must never do is swallow the West’s perfidious narrative that only Christians are being killed in Nigeria.”
This statesmanlike plea for national unity and skepticism of foreign motives stands in jarring contrast to the Fani-Kayode of the recent past.
In 2018, he was one of the loudest voices alleging a targeted campaign. Reacting to a statement by General T.Y. Danjuma, Fani-Kayode tweeted on March 24, 2018: “What Christians are suffering at the hands of the Fulani in Nigeria today is similar to what the Jews suffered in Hitler’s Nazi Germany.” The analogy to the Holocaust is one of the most serious charges one can level, implying a systematic, state-sanctioned effort to exterminate a people.
“The Armed Forces are not neutral. They collude with the armed bandits that kill Nigerians!”- Gen. TY Danjuma.
Can anyone dispute this? What Christians are suffering at the hands of the Fulani in Nigeria today is similar to what the Jews suffered in Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) March 24, 2018
This narrative continued unabated. In a January 2018 article, he lambasted then-Vice President Yemi Osinbajo for his “loud silence,” accusing him of doing “absolutely nothing to help and protect his own from the ‘sneaky dirty rats’.” He explicitly framed the violence as a one-sided affair, driven by “Fulani militias.”
As recently as February 4, 2020, he directly contested official figures, tweeting: “‘90% of Boko Haram victims are Muslim’- Buhari. This is a lie.The overwhelming majority of communities that BH targets are Christian. The same with the Fulani militias. The killing of Christians in Nigeria is a common blood sport which shall continue as long as Buhari is President.”
"90% of Boko Haram victims are Muslim"- Buhari
This is a lie.The overwhelming majority of communities that BH targets are Christian.The same with the Fulani militias.The killing of Christians in Nigeria is a common blood sport which shall continue as long as Buhari is President
— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) February 4, 2020
So, what explains this profound metamorphosis? The most compelling variable is political affiliation.
The Fani-Kayode of 2018-2020 was an opposition figure, a critic of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
The Fani-Kayode of 2025 is a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
His new stance, which downplays the sectarian nature of the violence and shifts blame to external forces, aligns perfectly with the defensive posture often adopted by a government facing international criticism over its handling of internal security.
His attempt to reconcile this contradiction within his latest essay is revealing. He attributes his change of heart to a 2020 tour of the North-West and North-East, where he claims he “saw Muslim communities wiped out just like Christian ones.”
While personal growth and new evidence should always be welcomed, the timeline is problematic.
His 2020 tweet contesting the 90% Muslim victim statistic came after he claims this enlightening tour occurred. This suggests that his public stance was not immediately updated by this newfound perspective, but rather evolved later, coinciding with his deeper integration into the APC power structure.
The danger of such a stark U-turn is not merely in the hypocrisy of a single politician; it is in the erosion of public trust and the cynical manipulation of deeply painful issues.
For the families of victims on all sides, violence is not an abstract political football. When a prominent voice can one day declare a Holocaust-like genocide and several years later dismiss similar claims as a foreign conspiracy, it cheapens the gravity of the situation and deepens societal cynicism.
Femi Fani-Kayode’s journey on this issue serves as a case study in the flexibility of political principle. It begs the question: which Fani-Kayode are we to believe? The one who saw a targeted Christian genocide under a Buhari-led government, or the one who now sees a unified national tragedy and a Western plot under an APC government that he is part of?
The evidence suggests that his core conviction is not a fixed moral compass, but a narrative tailored to suit his political home of the day, leaving observers to wonder if his words are written in ink or in sand.