We, concerned Nigerians, make this urgent appeal to the Federal Government of Nigeria for the immediate review and removal of American missionaries and humanitarian workers Mike Arnold and Alex Bieber from any blacklist or persona non grata list.
Both men have invested millions of dollars of personal funds, without government support, into rebuilding lives in Northern and Middle Belt Nigeria.
Mike Arnold, through Africa Arise International, has worked on the frontline since 2019:
In Ngoshe and Gwoza LGA, Borno State, he visited in late 2024 a once-thriving Christian farming community now in ruins. He described it as post-apocalyptic, with churches and schools destroyed. He adopted More Than Conquerors Christian Assembly in Ngoshe as a sister church. He is the voice for over 100,000 Christians driven out of Gwoza, now scattered in at least 27 camps across 7 states, plus 33,000 refugees in Cameroon.
In Abuja IDP Camps, where Ngoshe victims live, he runs free schools in three {3} of the eighteen {18} IDP camps including New Kuchingoro, with over 550 students, both Christians and Muslims. He provides free high-quality education, feeding and support for widows and orphans who have lived in trauma for over a decade. He first found these camps in 2019. The camps hold about 30,000 people, mostly from Gwoza, whom government officials have called criminals and vagrants.
In other Northern and Middle Belt states including Plateau State, he visited Bokkos after the Christmas 2023 attacks, interviewed survivors across multiple states, filmed camps that the UN and Nigerian government deny exist, and documented the pattern of destruction.
Alex Bieber has similarly spent millions rebuilding lives, educating, feeding and empowering IDPs and building homes for the severely affected victims of Yelwata, Benue State.
Their only offence is that they expressed concerns over the ongoing Christian genocide and the killing of non-radical Muslims by terrorists in Nigeria. They spoke as missionaries and humanitarian workers who witnessed the suffering firsthand. Speaking for voiceless victims is not a crime.
As global citizens, their rights are protected under several national, regional and international legal frameworks:
1. Under Nigerian Law:
Section 38, 39 and 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended guarantees freedom of thought, conscience, religion, expression and association.
Section 41 guarantees freedom of movement for all persons lawfully in Nigeria.
Section 34 guarantees respect for human dignity. Their work upholds this dignity.
Blacklisting humanitarian workers for speaking about suffering contradicts these constitutional guarantees.
2. Under International Law binding on Nigeria:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Articles 13, 18 and 19: Right to movement, freedom of religion and freedom of expression.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Articles 12, 19 and 22, ratified by Nigeria in 1993: Protects movement, expression and association. Article 19 protects the right to seek and impart information about human rights conditions.
African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Articles 8, 9, 11 and 12: Protects conscience, expression, assembly and movement. This Charter is part of Nigerian law.
UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders 1998: Protects persons who raise concerns about killings and provide humanitarian aid.
ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement.
Under international law, raising concerns about genocide and terrorism and providing aid to victims is protected humanitarian advocacy.
We therefore demand that:
1. The blacklist and persona non grata order against Mike Arnold and Alex Bieber be immediately lifted.
2. Their right to lawfully enter, reside and continue humanitarian and missionary work in Nigeria, in Ngoshe, Gwoza, Yelwata, Benue State and other Northern and Middle Belt states, be fully restored.
3. Nigeria reaffirms its commitment to protecting humanitarian workers and freedom of expression in line with its Constitution and international obligations.
Nigeria has nothing to gain by pushing away friends who build schools, build homes, feed our displaced, and speak for voiceless victims of terrorism when help was not coming.
Nigeria is stronger when it protects, not punishes, compassion and truth.