Nigeria’s removal from the list of violators of religious freedom by the United States Department of State is “appalling” to another Washington agency, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), TheNiche says
USCIRF says it finds it “unexplainable” that the Department of State did not redesignate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) and treated it as a country with no severe religious freedom violations.
“USCIRF is disappointed that the State Department did not adopt our recommendations in designating the countries that are the worst violators of religious freedom,” said USCIRF Chair Nadine Maenza.
“While the State Department took steps forward on some designations, USCIRF is especially displeased with the removal of Nigeria from its CPC designation, where it was rightfully placed last year, as well as the omission of India, Syria, and Vietnam.
“We urge the State Department to reconsider its designations based on facts presented in its own reporting.”
US Nigeria Law Group (USNLG) Managing Partner, Emmanuel Ogebe, who is based in Washington has also criticised the decision announced by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“The U.S. decision not to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern for egregious religious freedom violations goes against the facts and the reality that most Nigerians know and is a return to the regrettable Obama era I had dubbed ‘see no evil, hear no evil and say no evil,’” said Ogebe, a human rights lawyer.
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“Sacrificing religious minorities on the altar of appeasement is a travesty of the highest order given that America itself was born in the quest for religion.
“Blinken has apparently learnt nothing from his goofed assessment of the Afghanistan implosion even as Nigeria becomes the next frontier of global jihad with the tacit omission and commission of the Nigerian regime.
“Blinken is the new Hilary (Clinton) who refused to recognise Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation. Ironically we obtained that FTO designation as I testified in the U.S. Congress eight years ago this week. What a sorry repeat of a historic blunder.”