US denial of religious persecution in Nigeria flies in the face of evidence, he says
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Failure by the administration of United States President Joe Biden to classify Nigeria among countries of religious persecution hides and encourages atrocities in the country which may give a boost to global terrorism, Emmanuel Ogebe has warned.
Ogebe suffered torture at the hands of Sani Abacha in the 1990s and is now a human rights activist from his base in Washington where he is Managing Partner at US Nigeria Law Group (USNLG).
He keeps a keen eye on events in his home country and regularly joins other Diasporan activists to highlight abuse in Africa’s most populous nation so the global community could help pressure Abuja to uphold democratic principles.
Ogebe’s take on the attitude of Washington to religious persecution and its victims before and under the Muhammadu Buhari administration is published below:
Biden administration turns ‘election-deniers’ on world’s deadliest country for Christians
Last week, the US State Department published the list of countries with Religious Freedom violations.
Nigeria, which research shows has been the deadliest country in the world for Christians for nine out of the last ten years, was conspicuously absent from the entire State Department rankings on which it has consistently appeared for 20 years prior to President Joe Biden’s administration.
In 2020, Nigeria attained the highest violator group of Country of Particular Concern (CPC) but since then mysteriously disappeared not because conditions improved in Nigeria but because of a change in the US government in power.
The action of the State Department is the height of deceit, deception and intellectual dishonesty. It didn’t simply move the goal post mid play but basically stole the ballots and ran off!
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Blinken’s new level of diplomatic fraud
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has introduced a new level of diplomatic fraud that is befuddling and tragically reminiscent of Holocaust-denial and more recently “election-denial.”
Unable to face the reality and overwhelming evidence of religious persecution in Nigeria, the State Department took the cowardly option of simply hiding the ball!
This situation is alarming because very recent history shows such policy fraud will be exposed and secondly it has dire consequences.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rebuffed multiple entreaties from us in the human rights and religious freedom community and even US agencies to designate top global terror group Boko Haram a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” – now recognized as one of her signal failings.
Blinken has done worse than Clinton by not merely ignoring evidence but for rigging the report.
Just last week, former President Donald Trump stirred controversy by calling for suspension of the constitution of America.
Similarly, Blinken has literally and illegally suspended the consideration of Nigeria as required by him under the IRFA (Frank Wolf’s Law.)
The travesty is that he did this barely a month after ordering the evacuation of most American diplomats and their families out of Abuja due to Islamists’ failed attempt to blow up American diplomats’ homes in Nigeria.
Injustice in Nigeria threatens American lives
As such the State Department’s State of Denial has continued to claim the lives of Nigerians needlessly and threatens the lives of Americans as well. Like Martin Luther King said, “injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere!”
The US continuously fails to acknowledge its role in the worsening of the terror situation in Nigeria and west Africa namely:
- the US invasion of Afghanistan and the freeing of Nigerian foreign fighters of Al Qaeda, allowed them return to Nigeria and foster Boko Haram
- the US/NATO invasion of Libya resulted in massive arms proliferation into terrorist elements in Nigeria and West Africa
- the US dislodgement of ISIS in Iraq led to a relocation and realignment in Nigeria as ISWA
- the US/NATO arming of Ukraine has led to the influx of more arms in terrorist hands in West Africa
- the US refusal to acknowledge and address global jihadi ties to Nigeria have led to influx of arms from Hamas and Iran
- the US failure to enforce the FTO sanctions which we successfully pushed for nine years ago last month has enabled arms smuggling into Nigeria by Turkish Airlines
Finally, this disrespects all the martyrs of religious persecution, those imprisoned, raped and otherwise, and it is especially a disservice to American victims in Nigeria as well.
For the rest of this year, we will release the identities of American victims of terror in Nigeria, who have been covered up by the State Department, every week along with Nigerian victims.
Biden said, “you can’t love your country only when you win.” We say to Blinken, “you can’t report on Nigeria only when Democrats win.”
Blinken cannot just wish away a country’s listing whimsically or capriciously. America is a nation of law and due process – not a dictatorship.
