Nigeria is one of four countries in West Africa defying the judgment of the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, which has ruled that blasphemy laws violate the right to freedom of expression protected by various regional and international human rights instruments, according to the Accra-based regional freedom of expression organization, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA). The other countries are Cape Verde, The Gambia and Mauritania.
In a report issued in September 2025, the MFWA said although the four countries are “notionally democratic”, in an “attempt to be God’s avenging angels,” authorities in these countries have used counter-democratic laws to censor or convict citizens, activists and religious moderates; including, in the case of blasphemy, sentencing them to death.
It noted that statistically, nearly one in three countries in West Africa criminalize blasphemy, with four out of the Africa’s 24 countries which have laws that criminalize blasphemy being located in the region.
MFWA said Nigeria and the other countries have retained the laws in their statute books despite the fact that in April 2025, all ECOWAS countries came under the legal obligation to rid their statutes of blasphemy laws following a landmark judgment by the ECOWAS Court, which declared blasphemy laws a violation of human rights. The four West African countries have continued to maintain blasphemy in their statutes as a criminal offence.
It argued that “The continued sustentation of these laws means that the four countries are in defiance of the ECOWAS Court and its landmark judgment on blasphemy.”
MFWA stressed that regardless of the severity of penalties that are provided for under blasphemy laws in Nigeria, Mauritania, The Gambia and Cape Verde, the very essence of the laws are contradictory to the judgment of the ECOWAS Court, which applies to all countries in West Africa.
This direct defiance of the ECOWAS Court, it said, “makes mockery of the ratifications that form the bases of the mandate of the Court.”
The MFWA therefore called on authorities in the four countries to rid their statutes of blasphemy laws as a mark of respect to the ECOWAS Court and its judgments, and “in keeping with every society’s duty to uphold human rights.”
