The House Foreign Affairs Committee has advanced a resolution to increase sanctions and pressure on the Nigerian government over the rampant persecution of Christians and other minorities in the country.
Sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, the resolution would call on the Biden administration to designate Nigeria a “country of particular concern” (CPC), a designation that comes with additional sanctions.
The resolution would also urge the administration to appoint a special U.S. envoy to Nigeria to monitor and report on incidents of persecution.
Smith and other proponents of the bill, including Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADF), maintain that adding Nigeria to the State Department’s CPC blacklist would be an effective means to pressure the Nigerian government to address the persecution.
Sean Nelson, a legal counsel for ADF, has previously told CNA that the CPC list is “the most powerful tool the U.S. government has to influence the religious freedom situation in other countries.”
For years now Nigeria has been recognized by religious rights groups as one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a Christian. According to Open Doors International 4,998 Christians were killed in Nigeria in 2023, meaning that 82% of all Christians killed for their faith last year were in Nigeria.
In late January, Nigerian Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurdi told CNA that the persecution amounts to a Christian “genocide” in which radical Islamic groups’ goal is to “systematically” eliminate the Christian population from Nigeria.
Despite this, the Biden administration has left Nigeria off the CPC list for the last three years. This year the administration’s decision to leave Nigeria off the list came just weeks after a series of attacks on Christmas left more than 200 Nigerian Christians dead.
Smith said in a Wednesday statement that the Nigerian government “has enabled widespread murder and violence through indifference and a gross failure to protect victims and prosecute Islamist terrorists” and that the US State Department “is not using all the tools provided to hold guilty parties accountable.”
“Following the Biden administration’s repeated failure to designate Nigeria as a country of particular concern despite widespread outcry, we are grateful to the members of Congress who are taking these vital steps to increase pressure on Nigeria for its egregious violations of religious freedom,” Nelson said in a Wednesday press release.
“No person should be persecuted for their faith, and it is imperative that the U.S. government condemn the targeted violence, unjust imprisonments, and egregious blasphemy laws that plague Christians and religious minorities in Nigeria,” he added.
Nelson told CNA that the resolution “lays out an undeniable case that Nigeria has engaged in and tolerated egregious, systematic, and ongoing violations of religious freedom, and some of the worst in the world, particularly for Christians in the north.”
If Congress passes the resolution, Nelson said he hopes the Biden administration would “listen and change course.”
“More importantly,” he said, he believes the resolution’s passage “would send an immense signal of support for the victims of persecution in Nigeria themselves, who have asked for the international community to raise their voices and would put pressure on the Nigerian government to take the persecution seriously, hold attackers accountable, and free those who have been imprisoned and charged under blasphemy-related allegations.”
“There has already been a great amount of outcry over the lack of the CPC designation for Nigeria by the USCIRF and civil society organizations that focus on international religious freedom,” he said. “Having the voice of Congress echo those concerns would also give the concerns an international amplification that is sorely needed.”
According to Nelson, the Nigerian resolution will now move forward for a vote in the House. However, no date has been set for when the vote will take place.
Thursday, February 8, 2024
House advances resolution to increase sanctions on Nigeria over persecution of Christians
Wednesday, February 7, 2024
Two priests kidnapped from parish rectory in Nigeria
A religious missionary order in Nigeria is appealing for the safe release of two of its members who were abducted from a parish rectory on Feb. 1.
In a statement issued Feb. 2, Father Dominic Ukpong, the provincial secretary of the Congregation of Missionaries Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (also known as the Claretians), announced with “sadness” the abduction of Father Kenneth Kanwa and Father Jude Nwachukwu.
Kanwa, the parish priest of St. Vincent de Paul Fier Parish in the Diocese of Pankshin, and Nwachukwu, his assistant, were abducted “at the parish rectory on the night of Thursday, Feb. 1,” according to the statement.
Ukpong appealed for spiritual solidarity, saying: “We solicit your prayers at this challenging time for their safety and quick release from captivity.”
“May the Most Blessed Virgin Mary intercede for the sons of her Immaculate Heart. Amen,” he implored.
Nigeria has been battling a surge of violence orchestrated by gangs whose members carry out indiscriminate attacks, kidnapping for ransom, and in some cases, killing.
The West African nation has also been experiencing since 2009 an insurgency by Boko Haram, a group that allegedly aims to turn Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, into an Islamic country.
By Jude Atemanke, CNA
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Authorities in Nigeria Voice Worry as Rising Cost of Living Sparks Protests
Nigerian authorities say they are worried after hundreds of people took to the streets of central Niger state and northwest Kano state Monday to protest the rising cost of food.
Finance Minister Olawale Edun, speaking in Abuja on Monday during a meeting with a visiting German delegation, said the government is concerned about the surge in prices and working to fix the problem.
He blamed the recent increase in food prices on rising demand, saying the only way to address the situation is to boost agricultural production.
"The president has intervened in that sector to provide grain, fertilizers to farmers and to bring rice, wheat, maize, and cassava under additional acreage, additional production in order to increase the output and thereby bring down prices and that will help bring down the inflation," Edun said.
Police authorities in the Niger state capital, Minna, said they dispersed the protesters using "minimum force," but the demonstrators threatened to reconvene.
For months, Nigerians have complained over the state of the economy, which has remained sluggish amid the government's reform policies.
President Bola Tinubu announced bold economic reforms last May, including the scrapping of subsidies on fuel and the floating of the national currency, the naira.
Authorities say the policies will help restore Nigeria's economy in the long term, but acknowledged that there will be challenges.
Economic analyst Isaac Botti agreed.
"I feel that it will take some time, policies don't yield results immediately," he said. "When we look at some of the programs and policies that the government is rolling out, within the next six months, if they're truthful with their plans, Nigeria should see some changes. Within the next six months, if government is able to achieve its benchmark on local fuel production, it will bring down the cost of goods and services, transportation."
In December, inflation reached a 27-year high, triggered by the rising cost of food items, a side effect of the increase in fuel prices.
Nigeria's economy is heavily dependent on proceeds from oil sales. But for years, the country has struggled with massive crude oil theft. The country's four refineries are moribund, and so it also relies on imports of fuel and other petroleum products.
On Tuesday, Tinubu's ruling All Progressives Congress party said in a statement that the administration was "solidly committed to doing everything in its power to mitigate the transient pains of reforms that are crucial to economic recovery."
Felix Morka, the national publicity secretary of the APC, said: "This is a mono product economy for a population of over 200 million people. We can't simply put all of our eggs in the basket of crude oil sales, especially when we're not able to sustain the kind of productive levels that can support our economy and our naira. To come out of the situation we're in for a more sustainable future requires also some level of endurance. At the end of the day, the benefits of reforms will far outweigh the transient difficulties."
Nigeria is working to resume local refining of fuel. In December, authorities announced that all four refineries will undergo rehabilitation to restart operations by the end of 2024.
Experts say if that happens, it will address Nigeria's problems significantly.
By Timothy Obiezu, VOA
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Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Man charged in Nigeria over death of B.C. teenager in case of financial sextortion, RCMP say
A man is facing charges in Nigeria after a months-long investigation by RCMP into the death of a 14-year-old Surrey, B.C., boy who police say sent intimate images in a case of financial sextortion.
Mounties say the crime is a growing threat online that can have severe consequences for victims, who are tricked into sending images and then told to pay or send more pictures to avoid the images being distributed more widely.
"That threat to share these images ... can have devastating impacts such as self-harm and even suicide," said Sgt. Tammy Lobb at a media event in Surrey, a city in Metro Vancouver, on Tuesday.
"We need the public and parents to know and understand. We as police cannot fight this battle alone."
RCMP confirmed the teenager died by suicide. Police did not name the boy and the family has requested his name not be publicized.
On Tuesday, Surrey RCMP provided details of a sophisticated investigation into the death involving multiple international agencies, including the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, that led to the arrest of two suspects in Nigeria, with one being charged in August 2023.
RCMP said Adedayo Olukeye, 26, remains in custody in Nigeria and faces charges there including possession and distribution of child pornography, attempts at extortion by threats, money laundering and retention of proceeds of an unlawful act.
'He was an innocent child'
In February 2023, police were called to a residence in Surrey for reports of a sudden death involving a male youth.
Police said they quickly determined the 14-year-old had been a target of sextortion, in which he had been fooled into thinking a person asking for intimate images over Instagram and Snapchat was a teenage girl.
The perpetrator then told the boy to buy them gift cards to prevent the images from being distributed online, police said. The interactions were only minutes long, investigators added.
A statement from the family was read by Lobb at the news conference.
"He loved hockey and he loved life," it said. "Not a day goes by that we don't miss him. He was an innocent child who was taken advantage of due to his innocence."
Surrey RCMP said they want to use the case to show that law enforcement is willing to put significant resources into solving such crimes.
The force said it received 220 reports of sexual extortion in in 2022 and 302 in 2023, an increase of 44 per cent.
"Online child sexual extortion is a borderless crime and these offenders have direct access to our children by targeting them through their phones, mobile devices, computers and gaming consoles," said Sgt. Dave Knight with Surrey RCMP's Special Victims Unit.
"As police, we cannot fight these predators alone. We need everyone who works with children and youth as well as parents and guardians to get educated about how to spot the signs, have these conversations with youth in our community, and how to help our youth if they become a victim of sextortion."
Governments across the globe are scrambling to come up with ways to keep people safe from the crime and for images that are shared to be removed quickly.
At the end of January, a civil process was enacted in British Columbia that is meant to empower anyone to apply through the B.C. Civil Resolution Tribunal to have photos, videos or deep fakes expeditiously removed, and even to be compensated for the sexualized violence.
"As we grieve the loss of our son we want other parents to know this could happen to anyone," the family statement said.
"Talk to your kids about internet safety and keep the door to communication open so they can come to you for help."
By Chad Pawson, CBC
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