7/16/2025 Nigeria (International Christian Concern) — Whenever we travel and pass through Jos to wherever we’re going, we get excited to stop at Riyom and buy vegetables and root crops.  

Now, the smile you get as you eat that salad, fried rice, the chips, the strawberries, and all of those goodies actually came from these farmers who are murdered almost daily.  

Whenever you go to the Northeast and bring back onions, dried fish, rice, and beans, you get happy and smile that you got them cheaper than you would have bought in your state of residence. The same goes for the dates and wheat from the Northwest. How about the yams and fruits you see and buy from Benue? 

Some of us love beef and dairy products, especially when they come fresh from the farm. We get proud by saying things like, “I slaughtered two cows for my grandmother’s burial, birthday, etc.  

Just remember that as we enjoy all these vegetables, grains, and meat, the people responsible for bringing them out for us to buy have gradually become endangered citizens in their own country.  

So, you can see that everybody has their importance in this country, regardless of class. 

Their lives are terminated almost on a daily basis.  

Remember how 52 or so farmers got their throats slit by Boko Haram insurgents? They were farming rice; a fraction of them were fishermen.  

If this keeps going on, we will have nothing to buy on the roads. The prices of food will skyrocket again and again because nobody will want to farm. The meat you love to eat will be no more. Maybe we will just settle for awara (tofu) as a substitute. But even the awara will be farmed by another person whose life is also in danger.  

In less than 48 hours, Riyom has been attacked twice, and I didn’t see any outrage, except for a few people.  

These people don’t need our prayers. They have prayed, fasted, and are still praying. They have cried blood, they have squealed for the government’s support and intervention. Instead, their churches and mosques have been turned into slaughterhouses. So, they don’t need prayers!  

They need our voices. They don’t need relief materials. They are not lazy people! They just want a lasting solution to this nonsense.  

It’s left for us who enjoy the chips, salad, milk, etc., to use our voices until peace is restored in their lands. 

If you would like to help Christian farmers in Nigeria who are under attack, you can give to International Christian Concern’s Emergency Relief Fund.  

To read more news stories, visit the ICC Newsroom. For interviews, please email press@persecution.org.