The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom added Nigeria to its list of the world's worst violators of religious freedom in an annual report released May 1.
Citing sectarian violence, attempts to expand Sharia law and complaints by Christians in the north of discrimination at the hands of Muslim-controlled governments, the advisory panel for the first time designated Nigeria a "Country of Particular Concern."
Nigeria joins 12 other nations identified as the world's worst violators. They include Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Uzbekistan -- countries all on a separate list of CPCs managed by the U.S. State Department.
The panel, an independent government commission created by an act of Congress in 1998, urged the State Department to also add Iraq, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam to the list, along with Saudi Arabia, which the State Department lists as a CPC but has indefinitely waived any policy response to violations of religious freedom.
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This in my opinion is serious news and like most really serious news about Nigeria, it was hardly mentioned in the Nigerian media and by extension, not taken seriously by anybody, people and government alike.
The first reaction by most Nigerians to this news item would be that or resentment. The verdict was by a US Commission so it must be biased…This people do not see anything good about Nigeria…How can we be grouped alongside countries like Sudan and North Korea?...who told them our people and complaining?
I got a couple of the likes of those comments from friends when I posted the news as a note on facebook. It is only patriotic to rise to ones country’s defense in the face of international ridicule, but then it becomes idiotic to do same when the verdict in question is an obvious truth.
I was born in Abuja Nigeria which I consider Northern Nigeria no matter how “Middle Beltish” they would want us believe it is. Growing up, I have always harbored this fear for my life. Fear borne out of the persistent cases of religious violence that breakout without notice in various Northern towns at the slightest provocation and based on very flimsy occurrences.
Hardly has any town in Northern Nigeria been speared of this sectarian violence. Even the otherwise safe Federal Capital Territory had a share of it during the botched miss world pageant. An otherwise harmless pageant that should have done well for our sick tourism industry turned religious and lives were lost.
Needless to recount here the many lives that have been lost over the years and the families that have grieved. I know a whole lot and I am in a position to tell. Recently we celebrated the death of some corp members in the recent Jos crises. How do we quantify the loss their parents feel.
Christians and Muslims in Northern states live in perpetual tension. When there is peace, it’s at best cosmetic. The peace of the graveyard. After every episode of violence, we begin to hear talks of Religious tolerance. Soldiers are brought in to force the peace. A panel is hurriedly set up. Their report if ever submitted is never implemented. We just sit back and wait for where it would happen next.
The situation is made worse by the recent introduction of Sharia legal system by some of the Northern Governors in their states purely for political reasons. It is an infringement of people’s right when a law which is supposedly to affect only people of a particular religion makes life quite difficult for people of other faiths in a federation which has a secular constitution.
The US Commission report is a savage indictment of the present sorry but true state of things in the country. The report couldn’t have come at a better time and it is a call to us to wake up and tackle this issue headlong.
The Joint council for Islamic Affairs (JCIA) and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) must go beyond the rhetoric’s associated with their Joint meetings and go down to their subjects to preach the gospel of religious freedom. The people who execute this violence do not watch television. So stop preaching there. The mosques and the churches are where you get their ears.
The Government must go beyond the setting up of committee’s and begin to seek for real ways to make religious violence a rare occurrence in the nation. This task even as I sound it seems almost impossible especially for a government that has failed to tackle any issue successfully since its inception. As difficult as it may seem, the Commissions report requests that we begin to try.
The greatest responsibility however is on us citizens. Religious tolerance must leave the realms of a text book idea or what we hear on radio and television. If we appreciate the sanctity of human life at the very least (and I believe both religions teaches us to), then we should be able to live beyond our judgment of the faith of others and make religious freedom and tolerance an ethic.
It should be a challenge to us that countries like Malaysia with a population which is predominantly muslim but with a secular constitution is not on the US Commission’s list. We should begin to find out those things we are not doing properly and learn if need be from those doing it right.
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This would be a good point to start any meaningful effort at re-branding. If we remain a little longer on that list, there would be no better verdict that Dora Akunyili and her team are looking in the wrong direction.
Sylva Nze Ifedigbo
www.nzesylva.wordpress.com
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