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I'm David Nazar.

Is there a war on Christianity these days?

Are Christians being persecuted for their faith?

Well, ask most Nigerians and they say that is the case in their homeland of Nigeria, an African country, that for decades has witnessed violent murder and massacre as radical Islamists continue targeting Christians and Catholics.

There.

on Christmas Day 2025, President Donald Trump launched deadly strikes against ISIS terrorists in Northwest Nigeria for killing innocent Christians.

And President Trump has vowed there going to be more strikes if the killings continue.

For some context, these massacres reached alarming levels in 2025 and now in 2026.

According to many Nigerian Christians who have tracked the violence, they document entire villages burned to the ground.

Worshipers massacred during Sunday services and thousands displaced from Islamist attacks in the country's northern and central regions.

In June of 2020, five radical Islamic militants attacked the village of a bishop just days after he testified before Congress about Christian persecution, where more than 20 people were brutally murdered.

And Nigerian Christians say similar assaults in other Nigerian regions have killed hundreds of people in the past year alone, with survivors describing how gunmen shout Allah Akbar as a torched.

Churches, schools and homes.

Here in Southern California, Los Angeles has one of the largest Nigerian communities in the US, with many living in neighborhoods like Inglewood and Torrance.

Many of these Nigerian Christians living in L.A.

say they're wrought with fear and anxiety over what they claim is the deadliest place on Earth to be a Christian these days.

Nigeria.

So what exactly is going on there?

What is causing all the violence?

Can President Donald Trump save this war torn country from the onslaught of religious persecution?

To find out more, we travel to Inglewood, California, in the heart of Los Angeles, home of SoFi Stadium and the once great L.A.

Lakers.

Fabulous forum, now the Kia Forum and the iconic former Hollywood Park racetrack.

Inglewood is also home to some historic Nigerian restaurants.

Here I met with Prince Maduka and Kuku and a desi one in the area at the famous Veronica's Kitchen, the fufu land on Manchester Boulevard, home of great authentic Nigerian cuisine.

For some background, Prince Maduka, whose father, a Nigerian king, sent his son the Prince to the United States decades ago when he was just 17 years old.

Prince Maduka was accepted to the University of Houston and remained in Texas for a while before relocating to LA's San Fernando Valley, where he's lived for years.

Today, Prince Maduka is the president of the American Nigerian Public Affairs Committee, and he's also the vice president of the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council.

Prince Maduka is objective these days, in part, is to get Nigerians elected to political office here in the US in the hopes of trying to fight Christian persecution in his home country and to develop that nation.

Much of Prince Madueke, his family, his sisters, his friends still live in Nigeria today and he fears for their lives.

a daisy, one in the year.

He was born and raised in Houston, Texas as a Catholic in a Nigerian community there, Daisy says Catholicism was a vital part of her Nigerian childhood and teen years, and while she's devout in her Christian religion, she says she's sadly learned early on that religion was a form of power and control in Nigeria, where, according to her, bad things happened to good Christians, often at the hands of radical Islamists, who she says have been terrorizing the country for decades.

A Daisy is now a restaurant owner in Santa Monica, California.

She says she was never really a fan of President Trump.

However, she now admits she views Trump differently as the president is trying to save Nigeria and her people trying to stop the genocide of Muslims, persecuting and killing Christians.

And joining me now to discuss all of this is Prince Maduka.

And Cocoa and a Daisy, one in your 80s.

Prince Maduka, let's begin with you simply point.

Why are Islamists targeting Christians in your home country?

My belief is that the issue that religion in Nigeria has traditionally, from my view, had an intention of making more people combats of the religion.

And so it's a conquest.

It's for my perception.

It's it's a move to get more people to join the faith.

And so when we hear about the conquest, that should be no surprise because fundamentally the argument is ethnocentric that religion is better With that, said Prince, why then use the term conquest?

Why is religion used as a tool in Africa?

According to so many, so many people?

I've talked to, I've read several reports, you know, over the years where people in Nigeria are sort of being recruited, you know, to fight this radical Islamic war.

Is this religious?

Is it ideology?

Is it fanaticism?

Is it economic, or is it sort of a combination of all of that?

I would have to say is a combination of all of that, because generally whenever you have an environment or a situation where people are unemployed, idle, you're going to.

It becomes easier to recruit people to do whatever your bidding is.

That's what I think.

I think that, there's an element of each of those, those, reasons, ethnic reasons, religious reasons, is a people want to, make money who want to survive.

And then, I think that's a combination of everything.

And I'm going to this next question is really for the both of you.

And we should set the record straight a little bit.

Obviously, there are so many amazing Muslims in the United States and all over the world, and yet there is a small percentage that are radicalized.

They are Islamists.

And it's interesting that for some reason, the media seems to shy away.

They do not want to talk about it.

They do not want to even use the term radical Islamist terrorism.

I'm not sure why that is.

It's not to say that we get there are isolated incidents, yet the media seems to be so afraid and so politically correct that if, gosh forbid, you say radical Islam, then all of a sudden you're anti-Muslim or you're a racist, or you're labeled something.

And I'm wondering where this all sort of was born out of.

With the media and.

The political correctness, because it seems what's going on in Nigeria is so conflated and so confusing, and the media is not reporting on this.

think, that the media likes to kind of focus on the sensationalism aspect to make it feel more grandiose or more, bigger than what it is, as opposed to just focusing on the real as opposed to just focusing on the real situation or the real matter.

I think that, people need to do more research as opposed to just actually watching mainstream media to understand that there's more to this story than meets the eye and really, really dig down and dig.

Dig through the layers to get to the the nucleus of the issue.

I agree with what you're saying.

The mainstream media is not showing the whole picture.

Are people afraid in the media today of saying there is radical Islamic terrorism?

There are millions upon millions of amazing Muslims.

We know that.

But even if a small percentage is radicalized, that is causing harm in the United States, it's causing harm throughout the world.

And I'm just curious, Prince, why this is not being addressed?

In Nigeria, for example?

I mean, you know, media freedom of press is a function is an integral part of a proper democracy.

And as you know, democracy is still a, a growing form of government where we come from and people.

I don't believe that the press is as free as we would like to think that they are.

And, when, you have, not.

So, Good an economic situation, there's also financial inducement not to do what I want to do.

People can be dissuaded from being who they want to be and saying what I want to say, and I think that's a factor.

It's also interesting that in the media we've heard of Boko Haram.

It's it's been mentioned for decades.

It I mean, Uganda, this Islamic, sort of ideology are there that's the name we're familiar with.

But are there, are there sort of terrorists, Islamic organizations, tribes, groups that are causing terror to Christians in your homeland that we do not know about, that is not being reported on?

there are those that we also know.

Iswap, for example, is is is present in Nigeria from what we now know.

And of course, there are groups that would like to mimic the Boko Haram, for whatever that is may be to make money.

It's always there's always that incentive for, terror groups.

Kidnapings is has turned out to be a source of, funding for these groups.

So, yes, So there are more groups.

And a Daisy when we talk about, warfare or the religious warfare, all this fanaticism going on doesn't seem no matter what part of the world.

But in this case, in Nigeria, it's always the women, it's always the children that are caught in the crossfire.

But I hate to use this term, but there's sort of the collateral damage in these insane war infractions that go on all over the place.

So certainly in this case in Nigeria, where the Christians are just being terrorized and targeted, absolutely.

It's nothing new to me.

Like, I am Nigerian American, but in my in my home in Houston, Texas, where I was brought up, the women and women are looked down upon.

The male is the dominant, factor, and children are used as collateral damage, as you said, because I believe we were viewed as as the weakest links.

So of course I'm going to use that to get what they want.

And similar to what print said, it all comes down to funding money.

Where are you economically if you're not where you want to be economically?

Anything looks good as an opportunity, as a stepping stone.

Even if it means taking lives of women, of children by any means necessary, then that's what's going to be done to to fill that void of of what's going on.

And you were telling me skin color, skin color sort of plays into all of this in some of the persecution and the killings, etc., in Nigeria.

What exactly did you mean?

I wasn't sure what you meant.

Well, I believe while growing up, first of all, in Houston, as a Nigerian, there's different variations and hues and tones and people do judge you based on your skin color.

It's it's something that has been going on for decades.

So, I do believe, as a Nigerian, if you are of a lighter complexion, you do get a pass.

If you're a male as opposed to having darker complexion and a female, that's two negatives as opposed to one.

So you do get a pass if you're lighter.

Because it represents a little bit more of, superiority as opposed to a darker complexion, you have more consequences.

So again, if you're a female or a child and darker complected, that is, like a recipe for disaster.

Prince Maduka, how concerned are you about your family back home in Nigeria?

You were telling me earlier that you've got your sisters.

Are there family friends?

It's got to just be nerve wracking for you.

My family is as vulnerable as anybody else.

20 years ago, 30 years ago, it wasn't as bad as it is today.

We have kidnaping has become a major means of, funding for a lot of all these fringe groups.

So I am concerned and as a Nigerian, I believe that more should be done.

Could be done.

Needs to be done, to ensure the safety of my family and that, you know, whatever relatives that, someone like a daisy might have back there.

We all have that concern.

It's not something.

I agree with.

Parents, pertaining to the concern.

That's natural.

It's human instinct to be concerned about your family members.

Are you going to hear from them again?

Are you not going to hear from them again?

What are they going through?

Are they able to sleep at night or are they.

Are they getting sleep?

I haven't heard from them a couple of days.

What's going on?

So it's hard because they're far away and we I feel I don't know if I'm speaking for you, but you feel like you want to jump in and do something, and there's nothing you can do.

President Trump did jump in, and of, I believe it was Christmas, 20, 25.

Or he sent a warning to ISIS and sent strikes on there, and he said, look, you keep killing innocent Christians.

There's going to be more of this on the way.

And I think President Trump has tried, whether it's with Israel in Gaza, Jews, Palestinians, whether with Iran in the protests and in early 2026, whether it's been Pakistan and India, it has tried fervently to bring peace to the world.

And I know there's a lot of people don't like President Trump.

And I think he can often get a bad rap, sometimes unfairly.

There's enough to criticize him, but there's not enough to praise him for as well.

In this instance, I believe maybe some phrases in order because he is trying to save Nigerian Christians for no other reason than he wants to send peace in this world.

What is your opinion about that?

As someone who is not a President Trump fan.

I first of all, I believe I don't know what his reasoning is for doing it, but he's doing it.

I don't know what the motives are behind it, but the bottom line is he is taking action, and I'm happy that he's taking action as opposed to not taking any action at all.

Peace.

Peace is always good and it's always a stepping stone, so I'm all for it.

I have family members in Nigeria that are all for it.

They just want someone to jump in and save them, be their savior, anyone.

It doesn't matter who it is.

So Trump is the is the man to do it.

I'm all for it.

What is your opinion, Prince?

Yeah, just like I said, when governments or presidents do things, oftentimes the reasons are not really what they appear to be.

But the bottom line in the case of Nigeria, for example, is if the government back home had done what they're supposed to do, you wouldn't need a president Trump.

So the masses are the people who are victims of these, terror groups.

They will come anybody who's coming to save them.

So to that end, President Trump's action on that day was very welcome by most of the people who feel like the government wasn't doing enough.

I want to get back to something you said earlier.

We were talking about, how Islam is used in a radical sort of terroristic way in Nigeria to kill Christians.

I'm wondering how, out of curiosity, are they able to recruit some of these young men in Nigeria?

Because to me, it seems they're sort of brainwashed and they now believe they must kill Christians and that, you know, there's sort of a post, any dynamic of a Judeo Christian background, and they are recruiting these young men or committing warfare all over this, African nation.

I will use an example.

There's some there's a group called Ipob, I'm Igbo, and Ipob was, it's a group that, advocating the, the separation of Igbo tribe from the rest of the country because of perceived tribal persecution.

So that group has also always been able to recruit people within the same ethnic, making.

So whenever you have economic, economic challenges, financial inducement, always a reason to be able to get to recruit people for whatever reason you want to.

That's I think a lot has to do with the fact that the economy of Nigeria for the past 20, 30 years has not gone in the right direction.

And I think that's created a lot of opportunities for people who have ulterior motive to recruit youths.

When people are jobless out of 100, you're probably going to get 4050 who will buy into whatever it is that they can use to feed.

So I think that's what it is.

Same thing with like what Prince is saying.

I think it's I think it's beautifully well put.

When your back is up against the wall, what do you do?

Everything looks good, any opportunity looks good.

So I agree I know what you're doing.

You're trying to affect change.

You're trying to affect change.

For Nigerian Christians back home in your country, you're also trying to get Nigerians elected to political office here in the U.S.

to help Christians back home.

Talk about your efforts there, Prince.

Mediocre.

Well, I mean, I happen to Christians is one of it.

And but because the one one thing that we have to understand is that it's important to identify the various factors.

That way the solution can be holistic.

And yes, we are doing trying to make sure that for our community here, we get people elected into office who can advocate better for us.

And if we have that group of people, they can influence policies that affects, situation back in Nigeria and then that will improve this vision of what Christians and, and so for the youth who are unemployed, who are being recruited, the factors that make them available to participate in these, crimes can be mitigated.

And when we have the right people, bring in the right resources.

So that's what we are doing, trying to make sure that we have representation of people who can speak and make sure that people are not persecuted for their beliefs.

to have that a desire.

I think, we have to have clarity.

We have to have already on this issue.

I can remember as a kid living in Los Angeles and watching the TV news, and my family, this religious warfare was going on 40 years ago when I was a kid watching this on TV, and it was so misconstrued to me, the way the media presents it, it's a complicated issue.

It's a complex issue.

If you listen to the media back then, it was black on black crime or a racial warfare or some madness going on.

That wasn't the case at all.

This is radical, this on trying to take over Africa.

Correct me if I'm wrong because I hope I didn't mistake this.

you stated incorrectly.

David.

It's it's exactly that.

It's a misconception.

And it's not just.

It shouldn't be generalized.

This black on black crime.

There's more to the story.

It's Nigerians being persecuted, going through a genocide.

And with Nigerians there's different tribes associated with it.

We have hundreds of tribes.

I'm Igbo prince is evil.

There's your bad, there's Benin, so there's different tribes.

So it should be, addressed correctly.

talk about this great cultural history of the Nigerian community here in Inglewood, California.

I know this community going to later dates back as a kid, Kareem and Magic and Michael Cooper and Byron Scott and all my great Lakers back in the day playing just down the road on the fabulous forum.

But what was not known so much at the time, which is very widely known now, what a tremendous history of Nigerians and Nigerian Christians in this community, friends.

Well, I mean, you know, America is a Christian country and America also is also a place where Muslims are free to practice, faith.

So we are here the Christians are more in large in numbers here on the streets.

And that, in the United States, there are 900 parishes of one particular denomination alone, 900.

And, Los Angeles has a share of that, that population.

And so we have been free to practice our faith here.

And God has given us the, value base that we've used to raise our children and do.

Well.

So it's, it's it's it's a place that we have come to love for that, for that and more.

Rich history here.

Absolutely rich history here.

You know, again, multiple tribes in Inglewood, mom and pop businesses thriving.

They're being supported by Nigerians.

Everyone knows each other.

Everyone knows everyone's business, but in a good way.

It's a community type of feel.

People are cooking for each other, trying to assist each other.

How can I be of help?

And the beautiful thing is that it starts off at when they're children, and then you see them in their teens and you see them in college, and then you see them married, and then you see them with their new family.

So it's a generational thing that that's still going on today.

If you ask questions and then we'll wrap the interview, talk about what your name means of Daisy and some of the colors you're wearing that what that all represents.

A daisy means, like first daughter, daughter of a king.

I am the first daughter.

I'm the oldest of four other siblings, so there is a lot of pressure and weight to carry that name.

But again, it's the first daughter.

And, the colors that I'm wearing is orange, red.

Very fierce, bold, proud of who I am, proud of my culture, proud of my identity.

Making a stance without saying a word.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Prince.

You went to university with the great Akeem Olajuwon.

A great NBA star, along with Shaq and Kareem and Anakin.

And so, that's quite, quite a quite a history unto itself.

Yes.

I, I'm fortunate to have been, at your base during the Five Slama Jama days, if, you know, By Drexler.

All the great guys back.

To dunking days.

That's right.

And I can never forget our last game with, Xavier McDaniel from NC state.

It was, it was something else.

So it was.

It's been real.

Living in Houston and living in Los Angeles, I'm able to to, compare the two.

And, there's there's some major similarities in how we have managed ourselves.

Finally, last question to both of you, speaking of Los Angeles and Houston or anywhere else in the U.S., why is this a vital issue?

Why is what is going on halfway around the world in Nigeria vital for us to know about?

Why should we care about what's going on in your home country?

I think we should care about what's going on in my home country, because it can happen anywhere.

We we see how it has played out in different countries in the, in the history books, and it's deeper than, again, just all blacks killing blacks.

It's people being killed because their backs are up against the wall.

They may not have the appropriate skin tone, they may be female, they may have a child and most importantly, also freedom of choice.

Everybody has a right to be free and decide on what they want to do and what they want to praise, and what their religion should be and not die for it.

But again, it's a bigger issue and if it's happening in Nigeria, it can happen.

It can happen here.

We love our we love our heritage.

We love the values that has made us successful here.

And so if something is happening back there that is not good, it is important for us to make sure it does not get worse, that we stop it because we go there and we want our children to connect, to keep that connection generations to come.

So therefore, it's important for us that we, we, we make sure that things improve and not get worse.

the idea that there are people who would argue that there's no persecution, there's no genocide, right?

So, Debra Samuel made 20, 22 years in the university and belongs to a WhatsApp group and does a voice note recording.

Makes some comments as, oh, I don't know why people are posting religious things on this platform.

Her classmates kill her, their mom, her today, and then nothing is done constructively by the government at a time.

So when somebody says to you there is no religious persecution, well, what does this mean?

You know what I'm saying?

So and over my own lifetime, I have not seen a case where Christians get up and attack a mosque.

It's not done.

We can't even.

You can't joke about the Quran.

I don't think you can joke about the Bible either.

But you don't get killed for.

But I know friends who play with the Bible.

Well, don't kill them.

So when you say there's no persecution, that the presents a challenge comes.

Out of Adaisy oneineire, Prince maduke.

It was an honor to have you here for this half hour.

Thank you so much.

Baby.

It's my pleasure.

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Thanks so much for joining us.