Habeeb Okikiola better known to millions as Portable, the “Zazu” crooner — has unleashed a blistering verbal assault on Nigeria’s Christian clergy, accusing them of cowering behind bulletproof SUVs while their congregants are slaughtered in the streets.
The outburst, delivered in a raw, viral video laced with Yoruba and Pidgin English, comes barely 48 hours after gunmen stormed Angwan Rukuba, a bustling suburb of Jos North on Palm Sunday evening, March 29, 2026.
Residents returning from church services were cut down in a hail of gunfire as they gathered at a popular roadside spot. Police put the death toll at a minimum of 12; local sources and Christian advocacy groups insist the figure is closer to 30, with bodies still being recovered as mass burials began.
The attack — carried out by unidentified gunmen widely described by survivors as jihadist militants or Fulani herdsmen — has once again thrust Nigeria’s long-running Middle Belt crisis into the global spotlight.
For years, rights organizations have documented a pattern of targeted killings, church burnings, and village razings that many Christians insist amounts to a slow-motion genocide.
The Federal Government in Abuja has repeatedly rejected that label, insisting the violence is rooted in farmer-herder resource clashes, criminal banditry, and not religious ideology.
But Portable, never one to mince words, is having none of it.
In the circulating clip, the singer stares straight into the camera and demands answers:
“Why are Nigerian pastors not fighting for Christians? They use bulletproof cars yet their followers are dying. Why can’t pastors lead protest to the Aso Rock? You can’t harm a Muslim and there won’t be chaos. If you kill a traditionalist, there will be crisis. But if you kill a Christian, the pastor will look away and enjoying in his car.”
He went further, contrasting the perceived passivity of Christian leaders with the fiery response he believes Muslim clerics would mount if the roles were reversed. “Islamic clerics won’t be as mum as Nigerian pastors if Muslims were being attacked in the same manner,” he declared.
The remarks have exploded across social media, splitting public opinion along familiar fault lines. Supporters hail Portable — himself a Muslim — for speaking uncomfortable truths that many Christians feel their own leaders have avoided. Critics, including some clergy, accuse the entertainer of grandstanding and inflaming already dangerous religious tensions.
Portable’s broadside is not without precedent. In 2022, after Apostle Johnson Suleman of Omega Fire Ministries survived an ambush in Auchi thanks to his armored vehicle while members of his entourage were killed, the singer mocked the pastor in song, questioning the optics of spiritual leaders shielding themselves while ordinary worshippers remained vulnerable. The theme has clearly lingered.
Yet the timing this week feels especially raw. Palm Sunday, the joyous commemoration of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, ended in horror for families in Plateau State. As one survivor told reporters, “We had just finished blessing the palms… then the shooting started.”
Plateau Governor Caleb Mutfwang has imposed a curfew and vowed to hunt down the perpetrators. President Bola Tinubu’s administration, meanwhile, has reiterated that no religious group is being singled out for extermination — a stance that has done little to quell the fury of those who bury loved ones while waiting, once again, for pastors they say should be leading marches on Aso Rock rather than retreating behind tinted glass and high walls.
Whether Portable’s provocation will jolt the pulpit into louder public advocacy or simply deepen the country’s already toxic divides remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: in a nation where faith and firearms have become tragically intertwined, the Zazu singer has forced a conversation many would rather keep behind closed church doors.
For now, the bodies are in the ground, the bullet casings are still being counted, and the question Portable posed hangs heavy in the Harmattan air: When will the shepherds finally roar?
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Nigerian singer Portable has fiercely criticized Christian pastors for their silence and perceived hypocrisy amid the ongoing killings of Christians in Nigeria, exemplified by the recent Palm Sunday attack in Jos, Plateau State.
While pastors shield themselves in bulletproof vehicles, they have failed to lead protests or speak out boldly against the relentless violence, even as other religious groups would not remain passive if similarly targeted.
