U.S. removes Nigeria from list of religious freedom violators

The United States has removed Nigeria from its list of countries that violate religious freedom.

Nigeria was removed from the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) on November 17, a day before the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, arrived in the country on a visit. He was on tour of some African countries.

Nigeria was included in the list in December 2020 during the last days of former President Donald Trump after an indictment by the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

Blinken, in a statement, said “the United States will not waiver in its commitment to advocate for freedom of religion or belief for all and in every country.”

He said in far too many places around the world, “we continue to see the government harass, arrest, threaten, jail, and kill individuals simply for seeking to live their lives in accordance with their beliefs.”

Blinken noted that the religious freedoms in the world today are “structural, systemic, and deeply entrenched. They exist in every country.”

He further said it demands sustained global commitment from everyone willing to accept hatred, intolerance, and persecution as the status quo. He said they need the urgent attention of the international community.

The Secretary listed Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Patistan, Russia, South Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as countries engaged in or tolerated “systemic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”

He also placed Algeria, Comoros, Cuba, and Nicaragua on a Special Watch List for governments that have engaged in or tolerated “severe violations of religious freedom.”

Blinken said, “Finally, I am designating al-Shabab, Boko Haram, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Houthis, ISIS, ISIS-Greater Sahara, ISIS-West Africa, Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin, and the Taliban as Entities of Particular Concern.”

Nigeria govt welcomes decision

The Nigerian government has hailed the decision of the U.S. Government, describing it as “triumph of diplomacy and sagacity over hate-driven foreign policy, itself founded on false propaganda.”

Presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, added in the statement, “President Buhari is truly satisfied with the decision by the United States to remove Nigeria from that unwanted list of countries.”

Shehu said Nigeria allows freedom of worship in Nigeria, and that no one is discriminated against on the basis of his or her faith.

He blamed the previous designation on ‘some extremist groups’ and the outlawed separatist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

“This sad and uncalled-for ban came on the heels of 12 months of lies by some extremist groups and the banned terrorist group the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB’s well-funded international media campaign.

“Nigeria should never have been on the list. It was included after paid right-wing American lobbyists were funded millions of dollars by IPOB to spread falsehoods and misinformation about Nigeria,” Shehu said.

Outrage

The decision of the U.S. Government has however attracted outrage from critics who feel Africa’s most populous country did not deserve it.

USCIRF Chair Nadine Maenza, said “it finds it unexplainable that the U.S. Department of State did not redesignate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) and treated it as a country with no severe religious freedom violations.

“While the State Department took steps forward on some designations, USCIRF is especially displeased with the removal of Nigeria from its CPC designation, where it was rightfully placed last year, as well as the omission of India, Syria, and Vietnam. We urge the State Department to reconsider its designations based on facts presented in its own reporting.”

The USCIRF, ‘an independent bipartisan U.S. federal government commission’ recommended CPC designation for all 10 countries announced by Mr Blinken in its 2021 Annual Report and also recommended that India, Nigeria, Syria, and Vietnam be designated as CPCs.

David Curry, CEO of Open Doors USA, a Christian Watchdog group, said the exclusion of Nigeria from the list of CPCs was “not only a baffling error” but “likely in direct violation of the International Religious Freedom Act, the law that requires these designations to be made in the first place.”

“Open Doors USA has documented thousands of targeted killings of Nigerian Christians every year for more than a decade.

“In no other country on earth do we see such a sustained level of outright violence directed towards a Christian community, and the situation has only deteriorated over the past 12 months.

“The Nigeria government has stubbornly refused to address this violence. The removal of Nigeria from this list will embolden bad actors and strongly deter efforts to bring peace to the region,” Curry said.

Open Doors had ranked Nigeria 9^th among about 60 nations of the world where Christians are most persecuted.

Christian Solidarity International (CSI) also rejected Nigeria’s removal from CPCs list.

“Removing this largely symbolic sign of concern is a brazen denial of reality and indicates that the U.S. intends to pursue its interest in western Africa through an alliance with Nigeria’s security elite, at the expense of Christians and other victims of widespread sectarian Middle Belt region,” CSI President, John Eibner said in a statement.

CSI asked the State Department to return Nigeria to the list and re-orient its Nigeria policy around ending the massacres of Nigerian Christians and others, preventing the degeneration of the country into further violence.