‘We Deal in Lead, Friend’: Nigerian Christians Are Right to Defend Themselves – The

Christian farmers in Nigeria have a right to protect themselves, despite the Biden administration’s indifference.

Years ago, as I was finding my feet as a national security professional, I became friends with a wise and wonderful man, a retired Special Forces (SF) officer whose experiences reached back to the earliest days of SF, before Vietnam, before John F. Kennedy conferred the seal of presidential authority on the wearing of the Green Beret. (READ MORE: Religious Liberty Suffers in a World Filled With Persecution)

One evening over dinner, I asked his opinion of the ever-increasing number of SF-themed movies. He expressed irritation at how lame and unrealistic they tended to be and was similarly impatient with how they mainly focused on direct-action raids. “That’s only a part of who we were, and who we should be,” he remarked. I then asked him if there was an SF-themed movie that he did like. He pondered this for a moment and then responded, “The Magnificent Seven.” I couldn’t conceal my curiosity and asked for an explanation. “You know our motto, of course, De opresso liber, and you know it means ‘to free the oppressed.’” 

He then continued: “Our original purpose, our core mission, was to go into a denied area and help the common people to defend themselves against oppression. That’s what Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen and the others do — they go in not just to defend the farmers but to teach them how to defend themselves.”

My friend understood the wisdom in the famous line from McQueen’s character: “We deal in lead, friend.”

Current Threats to African Christians

Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, was recently interviewed by Raymond Arroyo on EWTN’s The World Over broadcast. The interview focused on vulnerable Christian communities in Sudan and Nigeria. Strikingly, she highlighted a report by the United States Commission on Religious Freedom (USCRF) that, in the guise of speaking on behalf of persecuted Fulani Muslim herdsman, in effect dismissed the monumental persecution being inflicted by Fulani militants on Christian farmers. Indeed, the report tends to suggest that, in taking measures to defend themselves, the Christians are blameworthy perpetrators of violence, all the while wrapping the conflict into the usual State Department mantra of a conflict over resources fueled by “climate change.”

The patent absurdity of blaming all the world’s ills on climate change deserves an essay all to itself. For present purposes, we should note that the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, frequently at the hands of Fulani Muslim militants, has reached an absolutely horrendous level. Over 450 Christians had been killed since May in three north-central Nigerian states, according to a Baptist Press report on June 21; this coverage was plucked almost at random from dozens of similar articles in the past year, in coverage also highlighting the brutal cruelty with which the Fulani militants inflict suffering.

The respected Christian watchdog agency Open Doors reported that 5,014 Nigerian Christians were killed for their faith last year, accounting for 90 percent of such killings worldwide. One can acknowledge, as the USCRF report insists, that many ordinary Fulani Muslim civilians also suffer at the hands of the militants. Still, one cannot, in good conscience, argue that this in some way negates the right and the necessity of Christian self-defense, particularly since the government does nothing on their behalf. Nor can Americans feel anything but shame at the apparent unwillingness of the Biden State Department to press the issue with the Nigerian authorities.

What Can the US Do?

The good news in the current situation is surpassingly hard to find, but good people in useful places are beginning to become energized. House Resolution 82, from Jan. 31, 2023, calls attention to the situation in Nigeria and details the depth and scope of the problem (it’s no accident that Shea’s analysis was used in its development). Republican House members have become increasingly engaged. One can hope that more pressure on the administration will follow. We may not be able to compel the Nigerian government to “play fair” and extend even-handed protection to all its citizens, including the Christian communities, and prosecute persecutors. It may well be beyond the government’s current capabilities and political will. But we should be using every tool at our disposal.

There are, of course, no easy answers and little promise of any official action on the part of our current administration, in spite of the fact that the terrorism perpetrated by the Fulani Muslim militants contributes directly to the broader instability currently being exploited by ISIS–West Africa. But regardless of the larger issues, those Christian farming communities deserve protection from the ravages of their oppressors. (READ MORE: Christians Warned Biden and Blinken About Nigeria)

Waiting for the resolution of “resource conflicts” due to “climate change” is a compound absurdity, a policy prescription right out of Alice in Wonderland. Absent the protection their government should provide, these poor people need the skills and the tools to protect themselves. And if they are to survive, they shouldn’t be condemned for choosing to defend themselves.

We should always respect the desire of a community to protect its women and children from torture, rape, and murder, even if this means accepting their need to “deal in lead.”

James H. McGee retired in 2018 after nearly four decades as a national security and counterterrorism professional, working primarily in the nuclear security field. Since retiring, he’s begun a second career as a thriller writer. His 2022 novel, Letter of Reprisal, tells the tale of a desperate mission to destroy a Chinese bioweapon facility hidden in the heart of the central African conflict region.