US Cites Boko Haram As Reason For Blacklisting Nigeria |The Source

By Tosin Olatokunbo

The United States has disclosed that the reason it designated Nigeria as a religious intolerant country was due to federal government’s failure to rein in the deadly activities of Boko Haram.

The US, on December 7 blacklisted Nigeria and nine other countries which have “engaged in or tolerated ‘systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations of religious freedom.’”

The development came, few days after Boko Haram killed over 47 farmers in Koshobe, Maiduguri, Borno state on November 27.

Apart from Nigeria other countries listed are Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

The federal government later protested the action through the minister of Foreign Affairs, Godfrey Onyema, who said he will engage the US State Department on the issue.

Speaking on the sanction, Samuel Brownback, US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, said religious conflicts are ongoing in the country without being checked by the authority.

Brownback said “The secretary and really the world has great concern about what’s taking place in Nigeria at this time, and a number of terrorist groups are organizing and pushing into the country,” he said during the briefing of which statement was obtained by TheCable on Thursday.

“We’re seeing a lot of religious-tinged violence taking place in that country and indeed in West Africa.  It’s an area of growing concern about what’s happening, in particular the tension that’s taking place there between religious groups. And it’s often the religious affiliation is used to try to recruit and inspire violent acts.

“You’ve got expanded terrorist activities, you’ve got a lot of it associated around religious affiliations, and the government’s response has been minimal to not happening at all,” he said.

“A number of cases – there have not been criminal cases brought forward by the government. The terrorism continues to happen and grow, in some places unabated.”