Conflict and Persecution in Nigeria: The Case for a CPC Designation
2025-03-12
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Source: Congress.gov
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Subcommittee will come to order and the purpose of this hearing is to discuss the deteriorating state of religious freedom in Nigeria and the urgent need to redesignate Nigeria as a country of particular concern pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act. I would like to recognize myself for an opening comment and we yield to my friend and colleague Ms.
According to the Catholic News Agency and EWTN News, quote, Archbishop Ignatius Kagama is concerned over the seemingly endless violence against Christians that claimed at least 58 lives this past weekend and hundreds of others in recent weeks. It is our prayer, he said, that something definitive will be done to stop the situation that is inhuman. Shockingly, that was more than a dozen years ago, and part of my opening remarks at a hearing that I held on July 10th, 2012, one of several hearings in all, on religious persecution in Nigeria. Since then, things have only gotten worse. One year later, in 2013, I visited Archbishop Kegama in Djos, Nigeria. We visited churches, five of them that had been recently firebombed by Boko Haram, and spent hours listening to survivors tell their stories. Despite their numbing loss and pain, I was absolutely amazed at the survivors about their faith, very deep faith, their courage and resilience. They were not going to quit, but they were looking to the government for help, and it was not coming. I also met with an evangelical believer named Habila Adamu. Dragged from his home by Boko Haram terrorists, he was ordered to renounce his faith. With an AK-47 pressed to his face, he was asked, are you ready to die as a Christian? With extraordinary courage, Habila answered, yes, I am ready to die as a Christian. He was asked a second time, and he repeated his answer. His wife was pleading, please don't kill my husband, and yet he said, yes, I am ready to die as a Christian. This time, the terrorist pulled the trigger. A bullet ripped through Habila's face. He crumbled to the ground, bleeding profusely, left for dead. By some miracle, he survived. I met him at an IDB camp in Jost. I asked him to come to Washington to tell his story. He did, and at the congressional hearing, he said this to our subcommittee, this subcommittee, I am alive because God wants you to have this message. Knowing Christ is so much deeper than merely knowing Boko Haram's story of hate and intolerance.
He closed his testimony with this, do everything you can to end this ruthless religious persecution, but know Christ first. To the end, everything he did was to witness, to radiate his love for God, but he was also calling on us to get involved and do something. Since then, however, the wanton violence against Christians in Nigeria has grown significantly worse. A couple of days ago, the Pillared Catholic reported, and I quote, while Christians are receiving ashes last Wednesday to begin Lent, news broke out in Nigeria that a priest had been brutally murdered by kidnappers who had stormed his rectory the night before and kidnapped him. With deep sorrow and righteous indignation, I condemn in the strongest terms the relentless and tragic wave of kidnappings targeting priests, pastoral agents, and the faithful," Bishop Kukundi said in a March 7, just a couple days ago, press conference which expressed outrage over the kidnaps and the brutal murder of his priests. According to the sources in the diocese, Father Sylvester was bound by his kidnappers. He was shot in the head, and I saw the picture. It is heartbreaking to look at. Shot at close range with an assault rifle, according to the officials of his diocese. The systematic slaughter and abuse of Nigerian believers must stop. Delay is denial and a death sentence to so many. One of our distinguished witnesses today, Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurti, Nigeria, traveled a long distance to be with us today and will testify, and this is from his testimony. Militant Fulani herdsmen are terrorists. They steal and vandalize. They kill and boast about it. They kidnap and rape, and they enjoy total impunity for this from the elected officials. None of them, I repeat his quote, none of them have been arrested and brought to justice. In December of 2020, President Trump designated Nigeria as a country of particular concern, only to be reversed without justification by Secretary Blinken in November of 2021.
And I know I asked him at hearings, I asked him privately, but also asked him at open hearings, why? Never got a good answer. Religious leaders in Nigeria were outraged by the secretary's decision. One Nigerian bishop challenged the secretary and said, Christian persecution is more intense than ever. And that was Bishop Mamza. And Genocide Watch has called Nigeria a killing field of defenseless Christians, quote unquote. Yet, the government of Nigeria has failed to make progress against religiously motivated persecution of Christians, despite religious freedom being enshrined as an essential human right in their constitution.
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