The Federal Government has frowned at the call by five US Republican Senators demanding the redesignation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern due to alleged persecution of Christians
Making the demand in a letter to the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, the American lawmakers also alleged violation of freedom of Christians’ rights to practice their religion in the country.
However, responding to the allegation while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in London on Monday, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said unfortunately the call is based on false premise and misunderstanding of events and happenings in the country.
The Minister is currently in London for engagements with international media as well as some relevant Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).
According to him; “You will recall that only few months ago Nigeria was taken out of the list of countries of particular concern because it was proven that there is no iota of truth in the allegation that Christians or any religion was being persecuted or people were not allowed to practice religion of their choice,
‘We want to say once again that Nigeria does not have a policy that denies people the freedom to practice their religion
“The country also does not have a policy of violation freedom of religion and it is not true that Nigeria persecutes anybody on account of his or her faith.”
The Minister said the Constitution of Nigeria guarantees the right of anybody to practice his or her own faith without molestation and the government has always safeguarded the constitutional provision jealously.
He said most commentators who were not well versed in the politics and happenings in Nigeria took criminalities and communal clashes as issues of religious persecution.
“Nobody in Nigeria is being persecuted But we have issues of criminality going on and the criminals really do not make distinction of any religion.
“They kidnap for money, they hold people for ransom irrespective of their religion and there are some issues of communal matters dating back to many years.”
To further back his submission, the Minister said; “If statistic is to be taken, I can say confidently that as many Muslims as Christians have been victims of these criminals. “
Explaining that the only known group targeting Christians is the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (SWAP), Alhaji Mohammed said the Federal Government has continued to mount large-scale military operations aimed at wiping out the criminals and it is yielding results.
He said; “What ISWAP is doing is that because of their dwindling influence, they are now attacking Churches and Christians in order to create crisis between various religious groups. But as a government, we are after them.”
Accusing some NGOs of feeding the international community with wrong information to get funds from donors, the Minister maintained that the two major religions in Nigeria, Islam and Christianity are also collaborating to find solution to the crisis and bring peace and calm to the country.
He applauded the work being done by Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) to foster unity and better understanding between the Christian and Islamic faiths.
For him, Nigeria currently needs support from multilateral organisations and foreign countries to effectively tackle the challenges of insecurity.
