Five American senators have asked that country’s government to redesignate Nigeria as Country of Particular Concern (CPC) due to the declining state of religious freedom in the country.

They made the demand in a memo to the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.

The senators, all Republican, are Josh Hawley (Missouri), Marco Rubio (Florida), Mike Brawn (Indiana), Tom Cotton (Arkansas), and James Inhofe (Oklahoma).

Their demand came about three weeks after a Catholic church in Owo, Ondo State, South West Nigeria, was attacked by suspected terrorists leading to the death of over 40 worshippers.

In May, a student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, North West Nigeria, Deborah Samuel, was lynched by a Muslim mob for alleged blasphemy.

Besides, scores of Christian clerics have been kidnapped by terrorists and bandits with some of them killed by their abductors and others freed after paying ransom.

Nigeria was removed from the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) on November 17, 2021 a day before the Secretary of State, Antony 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.”

But the senators, in the letter dated June 29, 2022, said their request was informed by the increasing religious violence and intolerance particularly targeted against Christian in recent years.

“As you are well aware, horrific acts of deadly violence have been committed against Nigerian Christians in recent weeks, including the massacre of churchgoers on Pentecost Sunday and the stoning of a Christian college student. Sadly, such violence has become all too familiar for Christians in Africa’s most populous country.

“Last year, however, you inexplicably removed Nigeria’s designation as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) despite no demonstrable improvement in the country’s religious freedom conditions.

“On the contrary, the situation in Nigeria has grown worse. We previously urged you to immediately reverse your misguided decision, and we write today to renew our call.

“Recent high-profile acts of violence underscore the intense religious persecution that is regularly experienced by Nigerian Christians.

“On Pentecost Sunday, gunmen attacked St. Francis Catholic Church in Nigeria’s Ondo state, reportedly killing at least 50 churchgoers.

“Last month, a violent mob brutally stoned to death Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu, a student at Shehu Shagari College of Education in northwest Nigeria.

“According to reports, some Islamist students were enraged by a “blasphemous” message Deborah had posted in a WhatsApp group, in which she said that “Jesus Christ is the greatest. He helped me pass my exams.

“Merely expressing one’s Christian faith has apparently become tantamount to a death sentence in many parts of Nigeria. Religious violence and intolerance directed toward Nigerian Christians has worsened in recent years.

“One report documented more than 4,650 cases of Nigerian Christians who were killed for their faith in 2021. Accordingly, Nigeria earns the dubious honor — for the second consecutive year — of being the deadliest country on earth for Christians.

“Make no mistake: continued enforcement of state-sanctioned blasphemy laws enables the type of deadly violence that killed Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu and so many others.

They urged the American government to reverse the decision to remove Nigerian from the list of CPC.

“Given the abysmal state of religious freedom in Nigeria, it is incumbent upon you to reverse last year’s decision and redesignate the country as a CPC. The moment demands that you do so without delay,” the said in the memo dated June 29.

“When we previously wrote you, we were met with a response which failed to answer our questions about why the State Department views Nigeria as not having engaged in or tolerated “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom” or even “severe violations of religious freedom.”

They added that “not only has the government of Nigeria failed to take meaningful steps to mitigate such violence, Nigerian authorities restrict and crack down on religious minorities and detain individuals indefinitely on blasphemy-related charges.”

 

The senators also expressed concerns that the Nigerian government is failing to protect the religious freedom and basic safety of its Christian citizens.

Muslims, others too

The Republican senators stated that the U.S. USCIRF found that Nigerian authorities directly participate in the persecution of Christians, Muslims, and even non-theists, most notoriously through arrests and convictions under blasphemy laws.

Nigerian govt reacts

In its response to the senators’ demand, the Nigerian government said it was based on false premises and misunderstanding of what is going on in the country.

“You will recall that only a few months ago Nigeria was taken out of the list of Countries of Particular Concern because it was proven that there is no iota of truth in the allegation that Christians or any religion was being persecuted or people were not allowed to practice the religion of their choice.

“We want to say once again that Nigeria does not have a policy that denies people the freedom to practice their religion.

“The country also does not have a policy of violation of freedom of religion and it is not true that Nigeria persecutes anybody on account of his or her religion,” Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said in London where he was attending an event.

He noted that Nigeria’s constitution guarantees the right of anybody to practice their faith without molestation and that the authorities have always safeguard the provisions of the constitution.

Mohammed argued that some commentators not versed in the politics and events in Nigeria regard criminalities and communal clashes as issues of religious persecution.

He said, “Nobody in Nigeria is being persecuted but we have issues of criminality going on and the criminals really do not make distinctions of any religion.

“They kidnap for money; they hold people on ransom irrespective of their religion and there are issues of communal matters dating back to many years. If statistics are to be taken, I can say confidently that as many Muslims as Christians have been victims of these criminals.

The minister however admitted that the only known group that targets Christians is the Islamic State’s West African Province (ISWAP) but that a large-scale operation is on to wipe the group out.

ISWAP is a breakaway faction of the Boko Haram sect.

“What ISWAP is doing is that because of their dwindling influence they are now attacking churches and Christians in order to create a crisis between various religious groups. But as a government, we are after them.

Mohammed accused some NGOs of feeding the international community with wrong information to get funds from donor.