By Gift Habib The United States of America has accused Nigeria of severe violations of religious freedom. This was contained in th...
By Gift Habib
The United States of America has accused Nigeria of severe
violations of religious freedom.
This was contained in the Annual Report of the US Commission
on International Religious Freedom published in April 2023 and obtained by our
correspondent on Monday.
The commission stated that criminal activity and violent
armed group incidents impacting religious freedom worsened.
The commission cited instances, such as “A Shari’a court
sentencing Sheikh Kabara to death for blasphemy. Judicial authorities sentenced
humanist leader Mubarak Bala to 24 years in prison for blasphemy and other
charges,” among others.
According to America
“in 2022, religious freedom conditions in Nigeria remained poor, with
both state and non-state actors committing particularly severe violations of
religious freedom.
“While some officials worked to address drivers of religious
freedom violations, others actively infringed on the religious freedom rights
of Nigerians, including by enforcing blasphemy laws. Criminal activity and
violent armed group incidents impacting religious freedom worsened.”
It added that “rampant violence and atrocities across
Nigeria continued to impact freedom of religion or belief, including militant
Islamist violence; some forms of identity-based violence; mob violence; and
criminal, political, and vigilante violence impacting worship.”
The US said it noted that the federal authorities
accelerated efforts to address violence impacting religious freedom, including
by institutionalising harsher punishments against perpetrators, improving
military efforts to neutralise Islamist fighters in the North, and
strengthening efforts to investigate and arrest perpetrators of the most
egregious attacks.
It, however, said, “The effectiveness of these efforts
remained in question, while in some regions state and local officials failed to
fully prosecute individuals who incited mob violence against alleged blasphemers.
“Security and judicial sector reform aimed at deterring and
providing redress for religious violence remained stagnant, with such efforts
largely absent from or peripheral to leading politicians’ policy priorities.”
It added that despite continued religious freedom challenges
in the country, “In November, the U.S. Department of State failed to designate
Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern for engaging in particularly severe
violations of religious freedom.”
The Commission advised the U.S. government to “Designate
Nigeria as a CPC, for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations
of religious freedom, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act,
and redesignate Boko Haram and ISWAP as ‘entities of particular concern,’ or
EPCs, for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of
religious freedom, as defined by IRFA.”
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