Christian leaders have joined in marking 50 years of Nigerian independence, but have also expressed concern for the state of the nation.

The avowedly Christian governor of Nigeria's Plateau state, Jonah David Jang, says that “religion is used to cover up all conflicts, although other factors also exist”.

Katharine Jefferts Schori, the sometimes embattled Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church in the United States, which is facing attacks by hard-liners in its ranks and through a breakaway Anglican network supported by the Church of Nigeria, has issued a Christmas message which contrasts the vulnerability of God's ways with earthly power-mongering.