UK acknowledges religious persecution in Nigeria on which it has spent £425m in 5 years
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
London has acknowledged the existence of religious persecution in Nigeria which Washington denies despite multiple evidence the maltreatment of people of faith long before Muhammadu Buhari came to power continues on his watch.
The United Kingdom government acknowledged the veracity and gravity of the persecution in a House of Lords session days after a religious persecution report by the United States omitted Nigeria after 20 years.
The counter presentation was made by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Minister of State, according to report sent to TheNiche by international human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe.
“The noble Baroness is right to highlight the problems in north-east Nigeria, where extremist groups and the ongoing conflict are having a massive impact on communities.
“These terrorist organisations are set on undermining the right to freedom of religion or belief by attacking those of all faiths who do not subscribe to their limited, extremist views,” Goldsmith said.
“We are taking a co-ordinated approach to supporting Nigeria and its neighbours to address both the causes and impacts of that conflict.
“That involves political and defence engagement, humanitarian development and counterterrorism support, and stabilisation and mediation assistance.
“I do not have figures solely from the time of DfID, but I have some which overlap; over the last five years, the UK has provided £425 million in humanitarian aid to north-east Nigeria.
“We believe that has reached around 1.5 million vulnerable people.”
Goldsmith was responding to questions from members of the House of Lords, including Humanitarian and Advocate Caroline Cox whose charity assists victims in Nigeria.
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Impact of persecution can’t be quantified
A high level UK source argued that “I would caution Goldsmith’s outputs data with the lessons from the Afghanistan Compact. You cannot measure outcome and impact with quantitative data based on KPIs which is what the FCDO demands.
“The security situation in the Sahel, W and C Africa is deteriorating so how can he quote figures of kids in school as a measure of success when people are being killed? Again their messaging is incoherent.”
US out of step with reality in Nigeria
Ogebe says the US is clearly out of step with reality in Nigeria and with its key global ally and Nigeria and America’s former colonial ruler – the United Kingdom.
In his view, “this does nothing more than elongate the crisis and undermine America’s credibility.
“It is an unspeakable tragedy of history that the US, which was formed by Protestant Christian’s fleeing persecution in the UK, is today betraying persecuted Christians in Nigeria which even the UK itself recognizes.
“The former persecutor recognizes the persecution of the current victim but the former victim refuses to recognize the persecution of the current victim.”
