The House State Affairs Committee is advancing a resolution signaling that Florida stands with Christians being persecuted in Nigeria, and its next stop is a floor vote.
Rep. Kim Daniels’ measure (HR 761) condemns religious discrimination and supports inclusion of the African country on the state’s Countries of Concern list, along with China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela and Syria.
“The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has recommended Nigeria’s redesignation as a CPC or a country of particular concern every year since 2009. A CPC is a designation for countries whose governments have engaged in tolerated systematic, ongoing violations of religious freedom. In Nigeria, up to 19,000 Christian churches have been burned down, 22,000 Christian schools attacked, hundreds of Christian students kidnapped, thousands of Christians kidnapped, five million Christians displaced. The numbers speak for themselves,” Daniels, a Democrat from Jacksonville, said.
Though he supports the bill, Rep. Leonard Spencer said the issue is “complicated” given the collapse of rule of law in the country, which leaves Muslims at risk just like Christians.
“And you’ve got violence in the country that’s being met with impunity, because you’ve got extreme groups, like Boka Haram, Islamic State, with West Africa. They don’t ask whether you’re Christian or Muslim. They ask whether they can enact terror on the populace without consequence. You’ve got Muslims who reject extremism, who get murdered. Christians across the country are being targeted as well. But the common denominator here is not faith, it’s failure of accountability. When attacks are going uninvestigated, persecutors are not being prosecuted,” the Orlando Democrat said.
A BBC analysis of claims of violence against Christians in Nigeria found similar ambiguity, including that attacks did not appear to be intentionally targeted toward Christians, rather to any group that did not align with attackers’ extremist mentalities, including both Christians and Muslims.
President Donald Trump has designated Nigeria as a national country of particular concern, and in December 2025, air strikes were conducted against ISIS over the country’s treatment of Christians.
In her close, Daniels said media wasn’t focusing on the issue, saying “social media gaslighting” was intended to obscure what really was happening to Christians at the hands of “Muslim extremists.”
