The Federal government has criticised some lawmakers of the United States for calling for the redesignation of Nigeria as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ over Christians’ persecution claims.
The Nigerian government described such calls from the US lawmakers as baseless and without facts.
The New Diplomat reports that about five of the lawmakers had in a letter addressed to the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken alleged that persecution of Christians was rife in Nigeria and called for action against the country for allowing such happenings.
The Senators in the letter called for Nigeria to be returned to the list of countries designated as sources of concern over religious intolerance.
The US lawmakers wrote: “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.”
Reacting to the content of the letter to Blinken, Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed said the allegations presented by the lawmakers are not true.
According to the minister, the lawmakers lack an understanding of what is going on in Nigeria, adding that the perpetrators of the evil highlighted by the US Senators have no consideration for religion but are pure criminals who want to cause religious war.
He claimed without evidence that some Nigerians running Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are deliberately misinforming the American government to get more funds and support.
In his words, “You will recall that only 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 freedom of religion and it is not true that Nigeria persecute anybody on account of his or her faith.”
The Minister submitted that nobody is being persecuted in Nigeria on religious basis as the country allows the free practice of religion which is guaranteed by the constitution.
He added that both Christians and Muslims as well as other people of other religions have been victims of attacks from terrorists, bandits and other criminals.
“Nobody in Nigeria is being persecuted But we have issues of criminality going on and the criminals really do not make a distinction of any religion.
“They kidnap for money, they hold people on ransome irrespective of their religion and there are some issues pf communal matters dating back to many years.
“If a statistic is to be taken, I can say confidently that as many Muslims as Christians have been victims of these criminals.”
