On US Government’s Classification of Nigeria, By Ahmed Yahaya Joe

On US Government’s Classification of Nigeria, By Ahmed Yahaya Joe

POLITICS DIGEST – There is need to look more closely at the recent US government classification on a Special Watch List (SWL) of countries “that have engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom” and its varied reaction from different quarters particularly by the Sultan of Sokoto. The fall-out and implications of the US official categorization needs to be properly contextualized and its background well analyzed beyond screaming headlines. My intervention is to present the facts available for the simple reason that the current Yuletide period not be marred by religious shadow boxing.

Anybody that has carefully understudied the Sultan’s reaction to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s recent classification of Nigeria will notice that His Eminence was more pissed off with CAN’s position than with the Americans, authors of the report in the first place. The retired armored corps general is not only a distinguished alumnus of NIPSS but had served as Nigeria’s Defence Attache to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Both of those countries are major strategic partners to the US.

Meanwhile the presenter of the report Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo is also a retired military officer that was to top of his class at West Point and the immediate past Director of the CIA that is why the report is so comprehensive that it included an entire section detailing how Nigeria is a huge recipient of financial assistance for Conflict Resolution, Violence Prevention, Anti-Corruption and electoral management support including various forms of humanitarian assistance. The Americans were also concerned in the report about a total of $435 million they had given to Nigeria in 2018 to cover the foregoing initiatives. Little wonder the varied official responses of the Nigerian government was not only so peripheral but lacked cohesion.

First, the Minister for Information Lai Mohammed stated that the US had based its report on the narratives of “failed politicians and disgruntled elements” Second, Garba Shehu speaking on behalf of the Presidency stated the American report “had no immediate implication for Nigeria” Third, Femi Adesina still on behalf of Aso Rock Villa affirmed “nobody has appointed the US as a global policeman” None of these responses addressed any of the fundamental issues raised by the American report which was prefaced with Key Finding and concluded with US Policy. The moral here is simply: If any nation doesn’t want the US not to interfere with its “internal affairs” don’t collect their money under any guise!

The same could be said of the British which on July 8, 2019 their Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt stated on a similar note stated on religious persecution allegations put together by an independent body “the report highlights different views of the causes of conflict between largely Muslim herders and Christian farmers in the central belt of Nigeria”.

Then came the preliminary report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Killings, Summary or Arbitrary Executions,  Agnes Callamand who visited Nigeria for a 12-day working visit in which she openly accused the Federal Government of “presiding an injustice pressure cooker that could burst at any moment” She noted Nigeria was characterized by “high levels of resentment and grievances within and between communities, related to toxic ethno-religious narratives and extremist ideologies characterized by dehumanizing of others and denial of the legitimacy of the claims of others”

If CAN is guilty as charged for being bombastic, what complicates the matter is the doublespeak of Bala Muhammad, the widely read Saturday Columnist of Daily Trust who stated in own response “Luckily for Nigerian Muslims, we have an Answerer-in-Chief – Prof Ishaq Akintola who is permanently provoked and agitated until injustice against Muslims is ended” Malam Muhammad had earlier in his column that features in the flagship of Northern print journalism put it that “Speaking as enlightened Muslims, we always say it loud and clear that most of our Nigerian Christian fellow citizens and compatriots are quite nice people, gentle folk, unassuming humans, hospitable persons, and generally easy to deal with. We understand each other well – at work, in the neighborhood, on travel because we suffer the same insecurities, the same economic deprivations, the same social iniquities, and the same political shenanigans by political adventurers of both faiths, and of no faith at all” Where Muhammad nailed it was when he put it that “That the leaders of CAN are deliberately always trying to put intractable wedges between adherents of these two faiths who, left alone would always find ways to weather their storms in the turbulent waters of a vexatious nation such as we have” I completely stand with the columnist on that point.

However, Prof Akintola’s response to the Americans and CAN ironically asserted “Muslims of Southern Nigeria have been complaining of persecution for decades but America turned its deaf ears” The amir of MURIC went on “America pretends as if nothing is happening to Nigerian Muslims even when the Muslim girl-child is locked out over an ordinary headscarf which is even allowed in US schools” The Muric chieftain unwittingly validated the US report though it was not his intention. He has also reminded us that the issue between his good self and CAN is a North-South divide. The implication being when the present CAN leader and Akintola meet in a conclave of the sons of Oduduwa the rest of us will not be invited. The fact that the most contentious CAN leaders are always from the South is what Northerners across the religious divide should never over look in the Nigerian political space.

One cannot conclude any topic under inter-religious matters in Nigeria without mentioning the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto who curiously has not added his opinion to the Babel of discordant voices – yet. Perhaps for good reason he concurrently addressed what can best be regarded as the root cause of the current spate of inter-religious distrust and mutual suspicion in Nigeria by in the open accusing President Buhari of “nepotism”. Matthew Hassan Kukah further explained that the present attitudes of the president were causing tension and anxiety in the country. The cleric clarified “I am not speaking as a Christian but because I am a Nigerian” His Lordship concluded “even Northern elites are not happy” Is the Bishop being brazenly partisan or unfair to President Buhari? I have my doubts because as far back as October 1, 2015 the Bishop affirmed “I have listened to Nigerians sing praises of General Buhari as a morally ramrod Muslim, God fearing, a disciplined officer, a patriot and an incorruptible man. I do not disagree with these sentiments. Some like me have known the man for the better part of 20 years and can even claim some level of friendship and greater familiarity than most”.

On a final note no insight on the complex inter-religious relationship between Christians and Muslims has been proffered beyond the thought provoking intervention courtesy of the Zaria native Nigerian- Arab, Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed the Chief of Staff of Senate President of Bukola Saraki during the 8th Assembly, who so eloquently put it that in the North “Being Christian or Muslim is a valuable currency, or a virtual death sentence” The one-time Political Science lecturer at UDUS and now a major stakeholder at Baze University went on “In the last 25 years, thousands of Northerners have died in the hands of fellow Northerners in the name of religion. The two communities have drifted apart, but they have nowhere to go” Dr. Baba Ahmed was reacting to the face-off between Bishop Kukah and Prof. Ango Abdullahi that took place on Saturday, October 29, 2011 at the Arewa Hall in Kaduna venue of the book launch of the memoirs of Prof David Adamu Baikie CON. The guest lecturer was Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, then CBN governor who addressed a crème of both Christian and Muslim Northerners at a banquet hall associated with the life and times of Sir Ahmadu Bello. Malam Hakeem, the former INEC Secretary when the electoral body was NEC under IBB added “The North is only as strong as the unity of its people, and its weaknesses which are being exploited both by Northerners who ride to power and wealth through exploitation of faith, as well as other regions which exploit its heterogeneous nature will be paid for by all Northerners”

The Secretary of the Kaduna State Government under Colonel Hammed Ali concluded “There should be no terms and conditions for being a Northerner, but unity has to be a product of hard work, sacrifice and justice. What the North needs is to produce a leadership which can provide this: because without it, its Christians and Muslims will all be victims”.

Ahmed Yahaya Joe,  Rock road, Wusasa, Zaria [email protected]