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Posted On 9 December 2020
Blacklisting NigeriaThe United States on Monday placed Nigeria for the first time on a religious freedom blacklist, pressing an ally as Christian groups voice growing insecurity. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” for religious freedom, the rare inclusion of a fellow democracy in the US effort to shame nations into action. “These annual designations show that when religious freedom is attacked, we will act,” Pompeo, an evangelical Christian, wrote on Twitter.Nigeria maintains a delicate balance between Muslims and Christians, but church groups have expressed their rising concerns to the United States. US law requires designations for nations that either engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.”The nations on the blacklist include Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, which both have historic albeit complicated alliances with the United States, as well as China and Iran, arch-rivals for President Donald Trump’s administration. The other nations on the list are Eritrea, Myanmar, North Korea, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Pompeo notably did not target India, an increasingly close partner of the United States. India voiced outrage earlier this year when the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, hich provides recommendations to the State Department, called for India’s blacklisting over what it said was a sharp downturn under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist.Sudan, which is transforming after decades of dictatorship, exited the blacklist last year, and Pompeo on Monday lifted the country from a second-tier watchlist along with Uzbekistan. Under US law, nations on the blacklist must make improvements or face sanctions including losses of US assistance, although the administration can waive measures.Worries about Nigeria worseningThe State Department did not immediately elaborate on why it designated Nigeria but, in its annual report earlier this year, took note of concerns both at the federal and state levels. It pointed to the mass detention of members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, a Shiite Muslim group that was banned last year on terrorism allegations.The Nigerian army killed some 350 Shiites, many of them gunned down or burned alive, in a 2015 confrontation, according to rights groups. The movement has taken inspiration from Iran, ordinarily a major target for Trump. But the Catholic Church criticized the prohibition on the group, fearing it set a dangerous precedent for all religions. The State Department report also highlighted the arrests of Muslims for eating in public in Kano state during Ramadan, when Muslims are supposed to fast during daylight hours, and new regulations on preaching in Kaduna state.Nigeria is the base of Boko Haram, the Islamist extremists whose 11-year insurgency has killed more than 36,000 people and spread to neighboring countries. But the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a letter to Pompeo, said that far more Nigerians were being killed in herder-farmer conflicts, in which Christians have borne the brunt as climate change worsens desertification. Christian groups have also accused President Muhammadu Buhari of paying insufficient attention after jihadists abducted and killed a pastor, Lawan Andimi.
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Nigeria on Tuesday shrugged off accusations by the United States it was restricting religious freedom in the country. “Nigeria does not engage in religious freedom violation, neither does it have a policy of religious persecution,” Information Minister Lai Mohammed said in a statement in Abuja. The denial comes a day after the US placed Nigeria on a blacklist of nations violating religious freedom. “Victims of insecurity and terrorism in the country are adherents of Christianity, Islam and other religions,” Mohammed said.
Describing Washington’s position as “a case of honest disagreement between the two nations on the causes of violence in Nigeria,” the minister said his country would continue to protect religious freedom in line with its constitution. On Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” for religious freedom, the rare inclusion of a fellow democracy in the US effort to shame nations into action. “These annual designations show that when religious freedom is attacked, we will act,” Pompeo, an evangelical Christian, wrote on Twitter. Nigeria maintains a delicate balance between Muslims and Christians, but church groups have expressed their rising concerns to the US. US law requires designations for nations that either engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom. Other countries on the blacklist are Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China, Iran, Eritrea, Myanmar, North Korea, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Nigeria has come under fire for alleged religious intolerance, discrimination and persecution. In 2015, the country’s military was accused of killing 350 members of the pro-Iran Shiite group Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), in the northern city of Zaria. There have been arbitrary arrests and detention of Muslims as well as killings of Christian farmers and herders in north-central Nigeria. Nigeria is also fighting an Islamist jihadist uprising in the northeast that has claimed 36,000 lives and forced some two million to flee their homes since 2009.
Abuja-based human rights lawyer Frank Tietie commended the US for blacklisting Nigeria, adding that “religious minorities” have suffered helplessly for many years in the country. According to him, the hopeless situation has not been given the kind of attention it requires by the world. “So coming at this time is a bit late but better late than never,” he said.
AFP
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