The United States has listed Nigeria and its government among severe violators of religious freedom.
A statement issued by the US Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo on Friday titled: “United States takes action against violators of religious freedom” said Nigeria was added to its “Special Watch List for governments that have engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom.”
Others in same category with Nigeria are Cuba, Nicaragua, Sudan, Comoros, Uzbekistan and Russia.
While stressing that “No country, entity or individual should be able to persecute people of faith without accountability,” the US warned that it had “acted and will continue to do so.”
The statement reads in full:
“The protection of religious freedom is a top Trump Administration foreign policy priority. Persecution and discrimination on the basis of religion or belief exists in every region of the world. The United States continues to work diligently to promote religious freedom and combat abuses. These recent designations continue that important work.
On December 18, 2019, the Department of State re-designated Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as Countries of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 for having engaged in or tolerated “systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations of religious freedom.”
“The Department renewed the placement of Comoros, Russia, and Uzbekistan on a Special Watch List (SWL) for governments that have engaged in or tolerated “severe violations of religious freedom,” and added Cuba, Nicaragua, Nigeria, and Sudan to this list. Sudan was moved to the SWL due to significant steps taken by the civilian-led transitional government to address the previous regime’s “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.” Finally, we designated al-Nusra Front, al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Qa’ida, al-Shabab, Boko Haram, the Houthis, ISIS, ISIS-Khorasan, and the Taliban as Entities of Particular Concern.
“These designations underscore the United States’ commitment to protect those who seek to exercise their freedom of religion or belief. We believe that everyone, everywhere, at all times, should have the right to live according to the dictates of their conscience. We will continue to challenge state and non-state entities that seek to infringe upon those fundamental rights and to ensure they are held to account for their actions.
“This month, the U.S. Government announced designations of 68 individuals and entities in nine countries for corruption and human rights abuses under the Global Magnitsky Act, among them four Burmese military leaders responsible for serious human rights abuses against the Rohingya Muslims and other religious and ethnic minorities. In October, we placed visa restrictions on Chinese government and Communist Party officials who are believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, the detention or abuse of Uighurs, Kazakhs, or other members of Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang, China.
“Our actions have been, and will continue to be, consistent with our position on religious freedom. No country, entity, or individual should be able to persecute people of faith without accountability. We have acted, and we will continue to do so.
Nigeria’s international image damaged by Sowore’s arrest —Campbell
A one-time United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr John Campbell has declared that the arrest of Mr. Omoyele Sowore in a court room has damaged the reputation of Nigeria across the world.
In two blog posts on Wednesday and Thursday, Campbell deplored the rearrest of Sowore by the State Security Service (SSS) expressing the hope that the Buhari government would release him soon.
“The SSS assault on a court room and the re-arrest of Sowore has already damaged the country’s international reputation,” Campbell wrote in a post on the blog of the US Council on Foreign relations.
A day earlier, he had expressed the hope that Buhari would act quickly to resolve the Sowore crisis.
“The Sowore re-arrest is consolidating opposition to the president by civil society, the press, international opinion and now religious leaders. It is to be hoped that the Buhari administration is looking actively for a way to defuse the Sowore issue, perhaps by allowing him to return to the United States,” he said.
A highly regarded voice in the United States on foreign issues, especially on Nigeria, Campbell is the Ralph Bunche senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC. He is the author of Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink, and also co-authored along with Matthew Page, the book: Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know, which was published in July 2018. He edits both the Nigeria Security Tracker and the Sub-Saharan Security Tracker.
From 1975 to 2007, Campbell served as a U.S. Department of State Foreign Service officer. He served twice in Nigeria, as political counselor from 1988 to 1990, and as ambassador from 2004 to 2007.
Campbell’s additional overseas postings include Lyon, Paris, Geneva, and Pretoria. He also served as deputy assistant secretary for human resources, dean of the Foreign Service Institute’s School of Language Studies, and director of the Office of UN Political Affairs.
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