[DATE]

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[ADDRESS]

The Honorable [REPRESENTATIVE’S FIRST NAME, LAST NAME]

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

 

Dear Representative / Senator [LAST NAME]:

DESIGNATE NIGERIA A COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN (CPC)

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My name is [YOUR NAME] and I reside at [ YOUR ADDRESS ] within your constituency. I am asking that you help take action to help intervene in the silent genocide and ethnic cleansing that have become a new normal in Nigeria.

 

I care about the well-being of the Nigerian people, and the right of all Nigerians to live out their faith freely without fear. We urgently request that the Biden administration redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) on religious freedom.

On May 29, The Methodist Church reported that eight Fulani militants abducted its head, His Eminence Samuel Kanu-Uche, along with a chaplain and Bishop Dennis Mark of Owerri. The three were taken into the bush and tortured. They were released days later after the payment of a $240,000 ransom. “We will finish you people and take over this land,” the militants warned, according to Kanu, who added, “They claimed that Nigeria belonged to Fulani. Nigeria’s Christian Association implored the government to protect the bishop. [1]

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On Monday, December 7, 2020, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Nigeria would be, for the first time, declared a CPC by the U.S. government.[2] This decision was applauded worldwide by parliamentarians, humanitarian organizations, religious ministries, secular and faith-based NGOs, and others who have been troubled for many years by the increasingly deadly human rights violations in Nigeria.

 

Less than a year after that significant designation, that Nigeria’s CPC designation has been dropped without a public explanation? The ongoing violence, killing, and displacement against Christians and others has only increased. In fact, during 2021, massacres happen almost nightly, while by day young boys are killed in the fields. Pregnant women are brutally dismembered, their babies mutilated before their eyes. And now an entire church congregation has been abducted and held captive.[3]

 

In recent months, gangs of Fulani militants, Boko Haram terrorists, and other armed radicals have become even more brazen, torching entire villages and farms, ambushing, and killing innocent people in gory, unspeakable ways. Sadly, the victims are often targeted because of their religious identity. Mass killings—the kind that used to be sporadic—are now a national emergency.

 

Catholic News Agency reported in July “an estimated 3,462 Christians have been killed in Nigeria in the first 200 days of 2021, according to a new study. This equates to 17 Christians being murdered every day in Africa’s most populous country.”[4]

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In addition to the rampant violence all too often directed toward religious communities and churches, blasphemy laws enforced by state sanctioned Shari’a courts are utilized against humanists and others. Accusations of blasphemy for insulting the Prophet Muhammad could be met with a death sentence.[5]

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For years the Nigerian government has done virtually nothing to stop this violence. In order for Nigeria to have been removed from the key list of Countries of Particular Concern, it ought to have demonstrated substantial progress in protecting religious communities from attacks and affirming the right of all people to practice their faith freely. This did not happen, and the removal of Nigeria’s CPC designation is unjustified and sends the wrong message to governments around the world who engage in or tolerate egregious violations of religious freedom.

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If America ignores what’s happening in Nigeria, it will only excuse leaders who choose to turn a blind eye to such travesties, in Nigeria and around the world. International pressure is one of the most significant weapons the world has to stop the slow-motion war unfolding in Nigeria.[6] American leaders must not turn their backs and walk away.

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We, the undersigned, are writing on behalf of the communities in Nigeria where more Christians are currently being killed than anywhere else on the face of the earth. We implore you to immediately re-designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern. Failing to do so rewards the Nigerian government for tolerating and engaging in egregious, systematic, and ongoing religious freedom violations and sends a message to extremists that their actions will go unpunished.

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If you decline to act, people of faith in Nigeria will bear the fallout of this decision. That is unacceptable.

Sincerely,

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[YOUR NAME]

[Email]

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[1]  Nigeria’s Religious-Cleansing Crisis Is Not Due to Climate Change-https://www.hudson.org/research/17908-nigeria-s-religious-cleansing-crisis-is-not-due-to-climate-change In all these none of the Muslim imams are reported abducted ”

[2] Laura Kelly, “Nigeria joins State Dept list of violators of religious freedom,” The Hill, December 7, 2020, accessed November 22, 2021, https://thehill.com/policy/international/529121-nigeria-joins-state-dept-list-of-violators-of-religious-freedom.

[3] Anugrah Kumar, “Over 60 members of Baptist church kidnapped in Nigeria,” Christian Post, November 6, 2021, accessed November 22, 2021, https://www.christianpost.com/news/over-60-members-of-baptist-church-kidnapped-in-nigeria.html.

[4] “Report: 17 Christians killed every day in Nigeria in first half of 2021,” Catholic News Agency, July 31, 2021, accessed November 22, 2021, https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/248547/report-17-christians-killed-every-day-in-nigeria-in-first-half-of-2021.

[5] U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, “Annual Report 2021 – Nigeria Chapter,” accessed November 22, 2021, https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/2021-05/Nigeria%20Chapter%20AR2021.pdf.

[6] Bernard-Henri Lévy, “The New War Against Africa’s Christians,” The Wall Street Journal, December 20, 2019, accessed November 22, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-war-against-africas-christians-11576880200.