Religious freedom: CAN Flays United States Criteria For Removing Nigeria From CPC List

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) on Saturday queried the rationale used by the United States government in arriving at delisting Nigeria from the list of ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ (CPC) on the issue of freedom of religion.

CAN expressed displeasure that the US government did not communicate with the religious body when they were listing Nigeria among the CPC countries on religious freedom, nor did they seek their opinion before removing Nigeria from the list.

Its leadership said in a statement that it would have been able to compare the statistics then and now on the issue of freedom of religion in Nigeria if the US government had contacted it.

CAN President, Rev. Samson Ayokunle said: “Whatever may be the data they used, our prayer is that Nigeria would be a country where no religious group is discriminated against or persecuted and that our government would see to it that all religiously biased policies are discontinued”.

Ayokunle emphasised that Christians had faced and are still facing persecution from ISWAP and the Boko Haram Islamic group.

He said: “These are the people who said their agenda was to wipe away Christianity from Nigeria and to plant Islam as the only religion from the North down to the Atlantic Ocean in the South. That agenda with the killing of Christians has not stopped till today and Nigerians are living witnesses.

“The bandits have joined other militant Islamic groups to ferociously attack churches, killing worshippers and kidnapping for ransom. The herdsmen are equally wreaking their havoc. We have lost many people and places of worship to their assault, especially in the Northcentral part of the country and the Northeast.

“Though the madness has grown now and those who are not Christians are being attacked, killed and kidnapped, this is because these criminal acts have become a lucrative business and it is whoever you can kidnap for money! If the government had responded appropriately when this criminal madness began and subdued these evil groups immediately, we wouldn’t be where we are now”.

He said CAN has been shouting at the top of its voice that government policies should be religiously neutral enough so that no religious group would be seen as being favoured or discriminated against.

Ayokunle added: “For example, for almost a year now, some of our churches have been finding it difficult with the Ministry of Interior to get new marriage certificate booklets after they had exhausted the ones they were using. Some had applied for new supply as far back as January this year without any response from the Ministry of Interior till now.

“This means that such churches’ licensed to conduct weddings were denied the right to do so for no cogent reason from the government! It is not only in Nigeria that churches are allowed to conduct weddings once they are licensed to do so. Why are the churches being denied the right to do so now in Nigeria? If there is nothing to hide by the government and it is not subtle religious discrimination, why didn’t the ministry in a written form or verbally explain to the churches that needed a new marriage certificate booklet why the supply is delayed?

“We are seizing this opportunity to appeal to the Ministry of Interior to put its acts together and allow the licensed churches to collect the marriage certificate booklets from the local government registries nearest to them without further delay and cost”.

Ayokunle argued that every “right-thinking person” would continue to ask the US government to let the world know what had changed on the issue of religious freedom and the persecution Christians were facing between the time the US placed the country on the list of CPC and now.

He said: “For example, many states in the North are yet to reverse the policy which denies Christians the Certificate of Occupancy to build churches, in their own country. Equally, some, if not many states in the North do not allow Christian students to study Christian Religious Studies in the public schools because it is not made available in their curriculum.

“In a similar vein, Christian students had and are still complaining that they are denied admission to government-owned universities in the North to study courses like Law and Medicine, among others. Christian students such as Leah Sharibu and students kidnapped from Bethel Baptist High School were left with the kidnappers without any purposeful rescue mission organised for them.

“The relatives and churches of the kidnapped people were forced and are being forced to pay a ransom worth millions of Naira to secure their people or children! Up till now, the Federal Government refused to see banditry as terrorism and has therefore refused to label them as terrorists. For whose good is this? Is it because the bandits are close to those in government or because of religious consideration?

“Similarly, ISWAP and other Islamic terrorists that surrendered or were captured were not allowed to face the wrath of the law but rather, unlike other criminals, are being slated for a programme of de-radicalization or rehabilitation! These are people who had sent many people to early graves! Is this action of the government fair to the people they killed and the rest of us whom these people traumatized and put in sadness over our property or relatives they killed? Why were the armed robbers not de-radicalized? What becomes of our criminal justice system if this kind of anomaly is allowed to stay?”

The CAN President alleged that the Nigerian government was still funding its membership in all International Islamic organisations like the OIC and its allies without being part of any international Christian organisation.

He added: “Once again, we urge the US government to help us by allowing us to know what has changed between the time our country was put in the list of ‘countries of particular concern’ and now.

“Let me conclude by saying that we are trying to bring some of the issues of religious persecution or discrimination up at our Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) meeting so as to douse religious tension and foster a harmonious relationship between religious adherents in Nigeria”.