The Senate, in a proactive step, has set the machinery in motion to outrightly reject a move by the United States of America (USA) to re-classify Nigeria as ‘Country of Particular Concern’ over alleged killings of Christians.
The US had last week received report from some of its senators for re-classification of Nigeria as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ as done in December 2020 before lifting the tag in October 2021.
Specifically, five United States Republican senators, Ted Budd, Josh Hawley, Pete Ricketts, Ted Cruz, and James Lankford, have written to the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, last week, urging him to consider a re-classification of Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), over continued acts of “violence and terrorism against religious minorities in the Northern part of the country.”
Irked by the development, the Senate through co – sponsored motion by four senators, Monday, listed the issue for deliberation in plenary on Tuesday.
The motion as contained in its draft copy sighted by the Blueprint Monday, seeks to urgently correct the dangerous misrepresentation of Nigeria’s security situation as “Christian genocide.”
The motion being sponsored by Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume (Borno South) and co-sponsored by Senators Sani Musa (Niger East), Magatakarda Wamako (Sokoto North) and Ibrahim Bomai (Yobe South), affirms that violence has affected Nigerians of all faiths and not just the Christian faith.
The senators said mischaracterising the crisis, according to sponsors of the motion in purely religious terms, risks inflaming sectarian divisions, misguiding international policy, and undermining national unity.
They accordingly urged the Senate to adopt the following as resolutions: Reject the blanket characterisation of Nigeria’s security crises as a “Christian genocide,” and affirm that the ongoing conflicts are rooted in complex socio-economic, ethnic, criminal, and terrorist dynamics, which cut across religious lines.”
