The Federal Government on Sunday faulted the United States for including Nigeria among countries that engaged in or tolerated violations of freedom of religion.
The Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who said this in a statement in Abuja, described as misleading the US’ categorisation of Nigeria as a country engaging in violations of freedom of religion.
Mohammed stated this on Sunday just as the Christian Association of Nigeria and the umbrella body of Nigerian Muslims on Sunday, Jama’atu Nasril Islam, locked horns over the assessment of the US on religious freedom in Nigeria.
CAN, JNI lock horns over report
The CAN spokesman, Pastor Bayo Oladeji, in a statement, said the US report on violations of religious freedom confirmed the fact that Christians had become endangered in Nigeria, but the JNI said the US should learn to respect other countries’ sovereignty.
The US, in a statement by its Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo, had on Friday placed Nigeria and six other countries on the watch list of countries, which had been violating freedom of religion. Other countries on the list are Comoros, Russia, Uzbekistan, Cuba, Nicaragua and Sudan.
The US also designated terrorist groups including al-Nusra Front, al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Qa’ida, al-Shabab, Boko Haram, the Houthis, ISIS, ISIS-Khorasan, and the Taliban as “entities of particular concern.”
US misled by failed, unpatriotic politicians – FG
But on Sunday, the Federal Government said the US “fell for the antics of the discontented and the unpatriotic few, who will not hesitate to hang Nigeria out to dry on the altar of their inordinate ambition and their sheer animosity” towards the regime of the President, Major General Muhammdu Buhari (retd.).
In his statement, the Minister of Information and Culture, Mohammed, said the US had been misled by deliberate efforts to give religious coloration to the farmers/herders clashes and, in particular, the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East.
Nigerians enjoy unhindered freedom to practise their religions – FG
Mohammed said Nigerians enjoyed unfettered freedom to practise their religions.
He stated that failed politicians, including respected leaders, latched on to religion as their trump card, especially in the run-up to the last elections.
The minister said the Buhari regime was aware of how the opposition, in particular, had spared no resources in deriving political capital from the various security challenges in the country
He said, “The deliberate effort to give religious coloration to the farmers/herders clashes and the Boko Haram insurgency, in particular, has undoubtedly helped to mislead the US into concluding that the government is doing little or nothing to guarantee religious freedom in the country.
“But, as we have always said, the farmers-herders clashes have nothing to do with religion, but everything to do with environmental and socio-economic realities. The religious tag given to the clashes has no basis in fact, but is very convenient for those who will very easily give the dog a bad name just to hang it.
“The Boko Haram terrorists are extreme fanatics who do not subscribe to the tenets of any religion, in spite of their pretence to Islamic adherence.”
El-Zakzaky detention, purely a criminal matter – FG
On the detention of the leader of Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, which was referred to in the report, he described it a “purely a criminal matter, which is being handled by a court of competent jurisdiction.”
Besides the Boko Haram insurgency, the US report had cited the continued detention of the leader of the IMN; his wife, Zeenat and their followers by the Department of State Services and the police.
It had said, “Religious freedom conditions in Nigeria trended negatively in 2018. The Nigerian government at the national and state levels continued to tolerate violence and discrimination on the basis of religion or belief, and suppressed the freedom to manifest religion or belief.”
Nigerian Christians are endangered – CAN
Commenting on the report, CAN in the statement on Sunday by its spokesman said the designation of Nigeria by the US Department of State was an indication that the global community was aware of the situation in the country.
It noted that religious freedom in Nigeria remained poor, adding that the federal and state governments continued to tolerate discrimination on the basis of religion or belief, “and suppressed the freedom to manifest religion or belief.”
CAN said, “We are not happy that our country is being listed among the nations where religious intolerance is one of their hallmarks but it gladdens our hearts that, at least, the global community is not unaware of the fact that Nigerian Christians are becoming endangered species in their fatherland.”
Source: Punch Newspaper
