Evangelical church in “forceful conversion” controversy in Nigeria

A major Evangelical church in Nigeria has become the center of a controversy regarding the conversion of Muslims to Christianity in a country already witnessing much anti-Christian violence.

The Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) is working to disassociate itself from allegations that it forces persons including street children, popularity known as almajiri, to convert to Christianity.

Such reports and those saying that the Department of State Security agents raided its facilities in Jos where 21 Muslims and almajiri were held hostage and being forcefully converted to Christianity is false and distorted, said ECWA President Stephen Baba Panya in a statement.

These reports are “a deliberate effort to discredit the church and cause religious crisis," he said.

Panya pointed out that the ECWA faility reported about trains the less privileged in society for capacity building, skill acquisition, Christian ethics and leadership skills with the sole purpose of making them part of mainstream society.

It has a one year training course after which participants are helped in establishing themselves. 

However, for lack of space at the ECWA Headquarters, the church acquired a private property within in a residential area in Jos to train and house participants, none below 18 years.

"Trainees are free to withdraw from the training if they are dissatisfied with either the policies or the condition of the facility,” Panya said.

They ECWA "was shocked” over the false allegations said to have emanated from an “escapee” that the trainees at the property were forcefully brought there for the purpose of forcefully converting them to Christianity, he said

According to him, ECWA does not involve itself in the infringement of the fundamental rights of any Nigerian to his freedom of religion.

The Evangelical Church Winning All, previously known as the Evangelical Church of West Africa, is one of the largest Christian denominations in Nigeria, with about ten million members in 6,000 congregations across the country. 

It runs mission stations, Bible Schools, academic schools, and medical programs.

There has been a serious confrontation between evangelical Christians standing in opposition to the expansion of Sharia in northern Nigeria by militant Muslims since 1999.

North and south Nigeria are respectively dominated by Muslims and Christians and any reports of “forced conversions” or of churches in the north growing as Muslims convert to Christianity, often leads to violence.

About 11,500 Christians in northern Nigeria were killed in five years between 2006-2014, and 13,000 churches were destroyed, forcing 1.3 million Christians to flee to safer areas of the country. 

Nigeria ranked No. 7 for the most Christians killed for their faith from October 2020 to September 2021, at 4,650, up from 3,530 the previous reporting period, according to Christian support organization Open Doors' 2022 World Watch List.

Observers say that these attacks against Christians can be viewed as a tussle for political power between Islam and Christianity with Muslims seeing Christians as an agent of the West to corrupt Islamic values, and Christians seeing Muslims as Jihadis bent on expanding the influence of Islam, especially since there have been similar incidences where Christians are rounded up and killed without them been caught or prosecuted.

"Boko Haram since 2009 has been attacking mainly Christians and collaterally extending such attacks to Muslim targets and Government facilities including its security establishments in revenge for Government successes against the terror group", says the Nigerian civil rights group, International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law or Intersociety. 

Atrocities against Christians have gone unchecked and risen to alarming numbers with the country's security forces and concerned political actors looking the other way or colluding with the Jihadists, the Intersociety group said.